First of all, I would like to thank God…

Hello people!!

The funniest thing happened yesterday… I just had to gist you about it.

I couldn’t buy credits online in the evening so immediately I got home, I dropped my bags, got some money and went out to get credits. There’s this malam’s shop at the end of my street where I used buy stuff from all the time… I got there last night and I was surprised to see 3 of my old abokis, guys that I hadn’t seen in a loooong time. Apparently, they had traveled up North and came back towards the end of last year.

There was a lot of excitement, lots of hugging and hailing and greeting. Then we sat in a circle around a camp fire and did some catching up over suya and warm mugs of kunu…

I’m kidding  😀

There was no hugging. They were just happy to see me and I was happy to see them thas all. Every 10 seconds, they would ask, “How de work na?” and I kept saying “We thank God o! Work dey fine”. In reality, work no dey fine, but there was no point explaining the details to them. What do they know about modern day consulting and the growing trends in Human Resources?

“So why we no dey see you again na? Na de work?”

I sighed and finally said, “Oga, the work hard o! I don taya…”

At that, they all laughed, but then my main paddy out of the three said, “At least de work don come. Dat time wey de work never come, you dey shout work! work! Now e don come so e good. Money go dey enter small small.”

I was reminded of those days of unemployment. Honestly, it doesn’t even seem like such a long time ago. I used to stop by their shop to buy a white handkerchief and some chewing gum before going for all those job interviews. The gum was supposed to be for minty fresh breath but I would never chew it because I was afraid I would get carried away and chew like a retarded prostitute in front of the interviewer.

I remember that a few times, I actually considered dropping my CV with the abokis because of their clientele. Some big men in big cars used to park outside their shop, especially at night. The shop is at the corner of another street that leads to a hidden estate so a lot of these men used to stop and get cigarettes before driving out or driving back home. I thought they might be able to speak to one of their big-men customers on my behalf, but the only big men I ever met there were not interested in my creative and analytical skills. The big question on their minds was, “Can she swallow?”

I also remember on some very low weekends, when I had no food at home, I would take an empty bag and walk down to their kiosk to get supplies till whenever I had the cash to pay. I would get pasta, eggs, drinks, drinks and more drinks, mosquito repellent, tin tomatoes, drinking water etc. Now see how times have changed!…

Those are the people I should never ever forget really. Maybe when I’m picking up my Grammy or Oscar or Nobel Piss Prize, assuming that Kanye doesn’t interrupt me, I will accept it with my aboki posse… because they were there for me when I was nobody.

As you were…