From Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
Mrs. Omotosho Mary Olufunmilayo is in her 60s. She is a retired civil servant who had put in 35 years of her life with the Ekiti State Ministry of Health as a qualified nurse.
Recently, she did the unbelievable when she returned about N2 million wrongedly paid into her salary account by the state government.
Governor Ayodele Fayose was happy about the development and declared her as a great and faithful citizen. He promised to reward her with N100,000.
SWM recently met Omotosho in Ureje area of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital. She opened up on the philosophy of life, which made her return the money.
“I’m a retired Chief Nursing officer. I retired from Ekiti State Civil Service Commission last year after 35 years of service. I started with the old Ondo State Government and when Ekiti was created, I became part of the state and served in various government hospitals.”
She has always been a faithful person
I have never been overpaid as a staff of the civil servant but something like that had happened to me when I was in the secondary school. I was a student at the Mount Camel Secondary School at Ikare-Akoko, Ondo State. Some students had come from Saint Louis Grammar School for cultural dance. Those of us who hosted the other students were sent out of our hostels so the girls among them could stay there. The traditional bead is a very costly article then. The girl who slept on my own bed forgot a costly bead under my pillow and its disappearance caused serious problem in their school when they returned. But when I saw it while I was making my bed, I took it to our House mistress who in turn took it to our principal. The principal then sent the beads to Saint Louis School in Ondo. I was specially decorated as a mark of honour then for being faithful.
Why she dared to return the money
It all boils down to my upbringing. I have been trained not to take whatever does not belong to me. I returned the money not because of compensation or anything. I did what I did to satisfy my conscience, and for the future of my children.
Someone may just keep the money and think it would end there. But that is not the case, especially when that is not the right thing to do as it would still come back to haunt one in the future. And I didn’t inform anybody because I knew that people were going to discourage me. I know that whatever we do today, if not good, will come back to haunt us tomorrow.
I returned the money so that I could have a clear conscience. I did what I did in spite of the fact that I haven’t received my gratuity. I retired last year and I haven’t got my gratuity. The money wasn’t my gratuity and it is even smaller to it. And I know when it is the time for me to get my gratuity, I’ll surely get it.
How she returned it
Since I retired, I have only been receiving monthly pension and the money was far more than the monthly pension. When I received the alert of that money, I first waited to see if the money would be reverted. That day, it was not reverted, then the second day, instead of them to revert the money, the same alert was sent again. And there was two-day public holidays. After the holiday, I received my normal pension money alert. It was then I told my husband to follow me to the state pension commission. When we got there I told them what had happened saying it came from them. I asked for the government account so I could return the money. I said I don’t want the money to remain in my account any longer because I didn’t want what wasn’t mine. So, there they gave me the government account number. And I went to the bank and paid the money.
One of my husband’s friends is close to the state government. So he was the one who informed the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Modupe Alade what I had done. The SSG then invited me. I went to her with my husband. I showed the SSG the evidence of the refund of the money and the SSG thanked me and said she would call me soon. Three days later, she called to say that the governor wanted to see me. The governor appreciated what I had done and said it was very uncommon for anyone to have done such a thing. He then promised to compensate me. I’m pleased that I have done the right thing; that gives me more fulfillment than receiving anything as compensation, even if it is N2 million I was given.
I didn’t tell anybody apart from my husband and our first born because I didn’t want anyone to discourage me from returning the money.
I didn’t do it for monetary gain
If I had done it in other to get compensated I may share the same feeling that the N100,000 compensation the governor gave me was small. But because I returned the money to clear my conscience, I don’t feel that way. Even if the governor didn’t give me anything as compensation, I would still have been okay because I have cleared my conscience and my heart is not heavy. You know something might happen to me later and I would be wondering whether it happened because I didn’t return the money? That is conscience.If I have the opportunity to return such money a million times, I will still do it. I have told my children not to take anything that doesn’t belong to them. One of my children, my lastborn went to work with the Abuja Teaching Hospital for her NYSC. They promised to pay them N10,000 monthly. It took about three or so months before they got paid. When she got alert after three months, she was supposed to receive N30,000 but they sent her N90,000. She called me to say, ‘mummy they sent N90,000 to me instead of N30,000 and I have returned N60,000. Immediately I told her she had done very well and prayed for her for taking after me. People should not make haste to become rich. What will be will be. God knows how to reward good work. If you are not destined to be rich, even if you go for money rituals, it won’t work. Faithfulness is the best virtue to have. I advise the young ones to be patient and hard-working because what will be will be.