Polaris Bank Memo On Religious Activities During Office Hours Sparks Outrage

The memo issued by Polaris Bank prohibiting members of staff of the department from leaving the office at once particularly during Jumat prayers has sparked outrage among social media users.

A supervising staff, Damilola Adebara, of Polaris YES CENTRE had said the bank does not allow any employee to go for religious activities during work hours.

In a memo, she said, “Kindly note that there is no provision made anywhere in the Bank’s policy for employees to attend any religious activities during work hours.

“Going forward, such permissions would not be granted on the YES Center platform and any infraction of this directive would be dealt with accordingly. You are all expected to acknowledge the receipt of this mail. Thank you.”

The memo was leaked by a member of staff and made its way to the social media where it caused outrage.

But the bank has reversed itself on the matter and issued a rejoinder.

The lender said, “Our attention has been drawn to a shared screenshot of an internal mail sent by one of our YES Centre team supervisors to staff in the department.

“In the said mail, which has become widely circulated in the media, we note that the issue in question was a communication to her colleagues on the implication of everyone leaving the office at the same time and disrupting service delivery to customers. This communication was issued by the said officer without understanding its implications and does not reflect the policy of the Bank.

“We wish to state that Polaris Bank recognizes the right of every individual to practise his or her faith in line with constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria and accordingly does not discriminate on the basis of religion.”

Nigerians on the platform are divided over the matter.

An agrieved individual T. I with account, @senatorti_50 tweeted, “On behalf of all Muslims we condemned the use of polaris Bank forever.”

Al’ameen with account @A__yabo tweeted, “You don’t see a problem with Christians having an entire day for their religious activities but you see a problem with Muslims going out for minutes to pray? I’m glad the northern muslims are boycotting Polaris bank, I’m going to withdraw my small change on Monday too.”

Amoda Ogunlere with user name @Dr_Braein said, “It surprises me how in the 21st century some people don’t know or choose to ignore the fact that Muslims are obligated to pray five times a day. Unless you start to respect this, you’ll always have problems with Muslims. Polaris Bank shouldn’t have sent the Memo to the whole.”

But another Muslim who works with the bank Morufyusuf tweeted via @offalomowa that , “As a Muslim staff of Polaris bank, I have never been discriminated against for been a Muslim.

“We even have branded Prayer mats that I used for prayers. We should be careful of what we say or write at all times. In Polaris bank,we are one family, I do my prayers in my office atimes.”

Also, Wale with Twitter account @Drwhales_ said, “The YES Center Platform is Polaris Bank is their online customer care center that attends to customer complaints on a real time basis.

“Now imagine how 45 minutes break for several muslim staff would affect workflow especially on a Friday when there’s a spike.”