Banker’s suicide: Netizens call for probe of Globus Bank, others for unrealistic marketing targets

The death of a young lady, Amarachi Ugochukwu, by suicide in Ikorodu, Lagos has continued to generate reactions, with some netizens calling for a probe of Globus Bank and other banks, especially in the area of the targets they give to their marketers.

It would be recalled that 32-year-old Amarachi Ugochukwu committed suicide on Monday, January 8 on the premises of the Ikorodu branch of Globus Bank.

Ugochukwu who was combining her marketing job at Globus Bank with running a shoe-making business to make ends meet, made her way into the bank’s restroom on that fateful day and ingested an insecticide that killed her.

A Facebook user, Folusho Adebisi, who commented on her death described her as a diligent young woman who supplied shoes to his son.

He wrote that the late banker ran Donetsk Footwear Limited, and personally made deliveries to customers during the just concluded Christmas/New Year festivities.

The suicide note found beside Amarachi’s body reads, “Nothing is working in my life. My figures are low. My brain is clogged up. The economy is getting harder. My decisions are wrong. My mind is messed up. The future doesn’t seem bright at all. I see extreme hardship. I can’t bear the pain anymore,” she wrote in the suicide note.

Ugochukwu apologised to her parents and other members of her family in the suicide note.

“I’m sorry mum, I’m sorry dad, I’m sorry Nene, Okwe, Toto, Nazor, Chuchu, Ifunanya,” she added.

She concluded by writing, “Dear Lord, have mercy on me!”

Netizens are now isolating Ugochukwu’s reference to ‘my figures’ and are suggesting that she might have been facing a hellish experience in the hands of her bosses.

Others suggested that she might have been given an unrealistic target that contributed to her conclusion that life was not worth living.

Contributing to the discussion on Nairaland, a lady with the moniker Dominique, wrote:

“The bank has a big hand in her death. The government needs to wake up and set up an institution that caters to staff welfare. NLC only fights for government workers’ minimum wage and their own pockets. We need a regulatory body where staff can report workplaces with bad working conditions. These banks give their marketers ridiculous targets yet no one is talking about it. Now someone has taken her life due to the pressure, things must not continue like this.”

Her comment generated 205 Likes, 28 Shares rapidly.

Conner44: “Bank marketing work no be work at all. Only heaven knows how many people she must have slept with and yet her number one reason for taking her life was that her figures weren’t adding up”

Dominique (f) found that comment offensive to the departed and wrote: “Indirectly slut-shaming the dead like we won’t notice. Did it ever occur to you that she got the low figures because she didn’t sleep with different people?”

PriceActionZ wrote:  “I wanted to blame her for not resigning before but merely looking at what people are facing in Nigeria, I have a change of thought. Pressures on her, only God knows even from her so-called family, because they believe she is now working as a banker.

Then pressures from a low grade bank, giving her unrealistic targets that they, as her bosses even can’t get, then likely scolding her and intimidating her when targets are not met. She slid into depression and determined to end even everything inside the bank. So so so unfortunate.

Things are tough, life is hard, things are not adding up, Nigeria is messed up, and to make it worse, she may be one decent girl that may not have “hook-up spirit” to get through her hardship in one way or the other.

I really feel for her parents. Hope they can survive the shock in due time.

RIP young girl.”

TheBTCinvestor: “My God…I remember when I used to work In Diamond Bank now Access Bank in 2013 as a full-staff marketer….I was bashed because of low figures, disgraced during MPR, talked down on my colleagues, my salary was poor and I felt my future was bleak. It was a long struggle till I left for Keystone Bank and the harassment to meet deposit and risk assets continued…Imagine being told to raise 400m in 6 months.

I was always responding to queries stating why i hadn’t met 60 per cent of my target..this affected me in many ways and I still have PTSD. Omo thank God….My Jehova came thru and gave me a good oil and gas offer that disgraced my enemies…They thought they had won by kicking me out..little did they know God had a better plan. Bank job is not for the weak!!!..I totally understand her frustration. Cry”