When women cheat, it’s often considered a scandal, and never has cheating been as easy as it is now, when finding a willing partner is click or a phone tap away.
Over 4000 staff working for the on-street Park and Pay scheme on Abuja streets will soon lose their jobs following last week court judgement which nullified the activities of the scheme.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP Weekend yesterday in Abuja the president, Control Parking Association of Nigeria (CPAN), Otunba Olusegun Olarewaju explained that staff to be affected by the court judgement includes various categories of graduates, which include graduates and those with masters degrees, under the pay-rolls of the operators, mechanics and even other artisans.
“Over 4000 jobs, both directly and indirectly is to be lost in Abuja if the court judgement nullifying the activities of the park and pay scheme stands. For instance, every one of the operators in the scheme has an average of over 800 staff working in his pay-roll. Not to talk of other ancillary workers who patronise the operators every day. These include, shoes shiners, mechanics who handle our vehicles, and other artisans”, he said.
Olarewaju who is the chief executive officer, Platinum Parking management Services Ltd (PPMS) disclosed that the operators in collaboration with the Federal Capital Territory Administration have concluded plans to appeal against the FCT High Court judgement, which he described as a ‘misinterpretation of the law’.
He added that his company pays about N7 million as salary to it workers every month, after it has paid a percentage to the FCT administration, adding that the operations of the scheme was not meant to make profit.
Recall that last week, an Abuja High Court, presided by Justice Peter Affen had nullified the activities of Abuja on-street Park and pay scheme, declaring that the project was illegal.
However, Olarewaju noted that the activities of the scheme was based on a public private partnership (PPP) arrangement the operators signed with the FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, which is in compliance with the FCT Act of 2005, as passed by the Senate.
He told LEADERSHIP that his company operates at Utako, Garki, Wuse, Asokoro and Maitama areas of Abuja , adding that his the entire four parking operators have about 20,000 parking spaces, but also said that it not all the spaces that are used on a daily bases.
Leadership
When women cheat, it’s often considered a scandal, and never has cheating been as easy as it is now, when finding a willing partner is click or a phone tap away.
But what drives women to cheat? And do they stray as much and for the same reasons as men?
Katherine, whose name has been changed, said she and her husband were married for 14 years. After undergoing major weight loss and multiple plastic surgeries, she began looking for excitement outside of what she said was a stale marriage and turned to AshleyMadison.com, the notorious dating website for “casual encounters.”
“I was feeling very lonely one night,” Katherine said. “I was bored, on my phone in the parking lot, sitting in my car, pulled up AshleyMadison, and decided to open my first profile to see what would happen.”
AshleyMadison.com’s motto is “life is short, have an affair.” Noel Biderman, the author of "Adultropology: The Cyber-Anthropology Behind Infidelity," started the site more than 10 years ago. He said he makes more than $40 million a month from it.
“We’re the second-biggest dating service on the planet,” Biderman said. “This is not a kid’s game. This is an enterprise of significance.”
Biderman and his wife Amanda Biderman, who rarely gives interviews, agreed to sit down with “Nightline” to discuss his website and their marriage. She said when he first told her about the idea for the site, she was leery.
“I wanted to make sure he wasn’t having a mid-life crisis,” Amanda Biderman said. “Then I got to understand it more and thought it was interesting.”
Noel Biderman said he has built a billion dollar business betting on infidelity, and now has 25 million members in 37 countries, but doesn’t believe he is encouraging people to cheat, just providing one outlet.
“Long before I launched AshleyMadison there were affairs, and long after I’m gone there will be affairs,” Biderman said. “What I’m trying to do is help people have the more perfect affair.”
“I’m encouraging secrecy, yes,” he added, “but I’m not necessarily encouraging infidelity. I don’t think it needs all that much encouragement.”
Wendy Plump knows all about the elusive allure of an affair: keeping secrets. She said she strayed with three different men during her 18-year marriage.
“It is like a drug, a rush,” Plump said. “You know what it’s like when you fall in love with someone or your spouse? It’s like that when you have an affair, all over again.”
But it turned out that she wasn't the only one in her marriage who was cheating. The final betrayal, she said, was discovering her husband had fathered a child with his long-term mistress.
“I remember having everything crash in at the time,” Plump said. “Something incomprehensible as to how you could get around that. ... I don't want to make it seem like he was terrible and I was good because we both let the marriage down.”
Plump, a veteran reporter, turned her failed marriage into the subject of her memoir, “The Vow.” She and her husband are now divorced.
“I got many letter from women who had affairs or whose husbands had had affairs,” she said. “This is a lot more common than I would have imagined.”
Some statistics show that 21 percent of married men have had an affair, compared to 15 percent of married woman, according to the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey. But that number for women has spiked in the last two decades, up nearly 40 percent.
Plump said society still judges cheating wives much more harshly than cheating husbands.
Justice Peter Affen of the Federal Capital Territory High Court Apo, made the declaration on Thursday morning.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court Apo in Abuja has declared the park and pay policy of the Abuja administration as illegal.
Justice Peter Affen of the High Court, Apo, made the declaration on Thursday morning in a suit brought by a private savings and loan firm in the Nigerian capital.
The judge ordered the immediate stoppage of the park and pay policy in the city centre.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the Abuja administration hired four companies to collect parking fees from motorists around the city centre.
Motorists in Abuja had complained of extortion and fraud by the officials of these companies who clamp vehicle tyres, several times on dubious reasons, forcing motorists to pay thousands of naira to them.
Culled PREMIUM TIMES