CHICHI 36, LAGOS
My mother and I are more like friends, we talk about food, life, relationships, fashion, parties, things that concern us and even those that don’t, and she advises me about everything.
Our bond was so strong that it upset my 3 elder brothers so much.
After the NYSC program, I got so depressed. I got dumped by my boyfriend. I went for job interviews but they never got back to me. My close friends were all getting married and moving abroad, my businesses got very slow to the point of me quitting. It was as if I was caused and my life was on hold.
Eventually, I got a job but the manager wanted to have sex with me first and he gave me 24 hours to think about it. I was confused on what to do then I told my mum about it and she told me not to do it.
I started doing a lot of thinking. At my age I have nothing and still depend on my poor parents for survival. All of these led me to agree to his demands because I was desperate for a job by all means possible.
Well, few weeks into the job, he started asking for more sex, which i definitely declined, then he started making life difficult for me by adding more task to my job description, making sure i work on weekends, close late and resume as early as 7am, penalize me for minor mistakes that was made either by me or the team. I attempted to take my life twice.
I just couldn’t continue so I attempted to quit.
It was on a friday afternoon, after so many meetings, long hours of standing and moving from one office to another and thousands of monetary penalties received for 15,000 wey dem dey pay me (for salary of 15,000 that i’m been paid), i just told myself this is not the life i chose for myself with my first class result and 4 long suffering years at unilag.
I walked into his office to submit my resignation letter, then he asked me to sit which i did, and he asked why i wanted to quit. I explained everything to him as it was, leaving nothing out of my frustrations.
After listening to my pains he saw how desperate I was. He said he was going to make me happy, reduce my stress at work and even promote me with an increment of my salary by 5 times my current salary if only I agreed to be his side chick. Also he told me to take the weekend off to think about it.
He also gave me N30,000 in cash which was my 2 month salary so I could take myself out to help me think well. I collected the money and went home, please don’t judge me (smiles).
I got home after the long traffic on the 3rd mainland bridge and saw my mum preparing for a night vigil at our church. We were supposed to go together, so she was waiting for me.
When I walked in, she saw the sadness and asked me to go to my room with my big black nylon and take my bath and she would bring me some food.
While I was eating my food, my mum asked me to tell her why I’m sad and to be truthful. I told her everything, from when I agreed to sleep with him to how he kept asking for more and makes my life miserable to his new offer and the cash. She asked for his information with my office address. I gave them to her and she asked me to give her the 30k he gave me .
Hmm, the money was remaining 16,000 which I gave to her.
I told my mum that I was scared to carry such an amount of money around because of pickpockets, one chance, area boys and the likes and she said I did well, but actually, I used the 14,000 to get myself new clothes and shoes.
Because while I was on the bus thinking about my life, I saw some beautiful, nice and sexy dresses around Oshodi market. So I came down to get them and I also added some shoes because it’s not everyday I get to collect such an amount of money as a gift plus all my clothes are either undersized or washed off.
My mum asked me to stay at home and pray instead of going for the night vigil with her because I was so stressed. So she went for the vigil and I prayed at home for God to intervene.
The following day was a saturday and i was in bed watching the series boys before flowers. And praying my husband should be like the main actor and crushing on the main actor while sipping hot chocolate, enjoying my long deserving break.
Then there after, I got a call from a colleague that my mum is at our office making a scene with the manager. I jumped out of bed immediately to put something on and make my way to the office. I even had to pay for all the seats in the bus because no one was going my direction at that time and I would have to wait for the bus to get full before the driver would move.
Getting to the office I saw my mum grabbing the manager’s shirt and calling him all kinds of names at the front desk, saying everything that he has done to me except the sex part and she wasn’t listening to people around trying to calm her down so the money he gave me scattered on the floor. And it was the complete 30k, my mum added her 14k to complete it.
Then I quickly rushed to her and managed to calm her down. We were about to leave when the director of the company walked into the building unannounced and asked why the office was in a mess. My mum used that opportunity to tell the director everything again even when we tried to stop her. The director asked the 3 of us, me, my mum and the manager to come to his office.
In his office, my mum explained everything to the director and how it’s affecting my life. The manager tried to deny it and said I was the one forcing myself on him to get favors. The director also asked me to speak, which I did and also left nothing untouched and how I’m supposed to be earning more with my qualifications.
The director asks us to go home and come back on Wednesday, so they can go through everything and do their findings to get to the root of the matter.
I became more scared of losing my job because I’m a desperate young lady that just started working with them for 3 months and there is the manager who has been working for them for many years, who they will definitely trust. So who will believe me over him without proof. And He was even crying in the director’s office, saying that I wanted to spoil his career and how it will affect his wife with his 6 children who are still in school if I succeeded. My mum and I prayed about it for God to be the judge.
On Wednesday, my mum and I prayed about it again before I left for work. In my mind I was just saying how I will not miss waking up early every morning to fight for the bus and go stress myself out at work for 15,000 monthly.
I got to the office to resume my duty, Then the manager came to my desk and said he will make sure that I am fired and never get another job in Nigeria, that I don’t know how powerful he is.
Me, I responded back o, me that was even ready to collect the sack letter sef.
I said to him “with all the power you mentioned, this is where it landed you abi, in a company with us that pays it workers peanuts as salary. Waste of power I must say my dear sir, focus more on yourself with that power, it will do you more good”.
He got really angry and said “shebi you get mouth now, i will show you”
Our director called us both to his office and asked us to sit. We both sat down and he said that he had gone through the whole situation with the board members and they also had a look at my documents again and came to a conclusion.
He handed me a letter and said to me standing up and looking at me also pushing his hands towards me for a hand shake “Congratulation Chichi, you are now our new manager with the salary of N100,000”
I was in shock and didn’t know what to say, so was the manager then he asked what about him and why I was taking his job.
The director responded that the manager was an evil man for taking advantage of my situation and how desperate I was for a job and they found out about all his corruption and how he has been cheating the company for not being trustworthy with anything relating to money and that they will make sure that he is locked up in jail.
The director then looked at me, i was still in shock with all that was happening, then he said to me “Chichi, your first job as the new manager is to sack the old manager” and handed me the latter, i looked at the manager who was already on his knees begging and asking the director to consider his wife and children.
I don’t know where i got the strength from, i stood up with all that energy and enthusiasm i had in me and said to the manager “Mr Kayode williams, your services are no longer needed in this establishment, you are hereby fired with immediate effect. Drop your office id card at the reception on your way out. And you will be hearing from our lawyers soon. You have 30 minutes to leave this building” I thanked the director and left the office while the manager was still begging and crying.
When the manager was dropping his id card at the front desk, I walked to him and told him to follow my advice and use his power to get a new job and also get a good lawyer to represent him or he will spend the rest of his life in jail, he didn’t say a word and walked away.
I was very happy as I got to my new office and briefed on my new duties. I started thanking God and praising Him for this, and prayed for my mum. I began to think of a way to thank my mum for helping me voice out my pains and frustration.
Went online and saw that fresh flowers along with other gifts were perfect for this occasion.
I closed early, emptied my account, went to the market and bought wrappers and a gown for my mum and also shoes. Then I booked a box of red and yellow roses with chocolate and cake.
When I got home, my mum was not at home, which was so perfect. Brought everything out from the uber I took home and arranged them nicely on the table while I waited for her to come home.
When she came in, she asked me who got me all these beautiful things. I told her that they were all for her and that I got promoted at work with a very good salary attached to it. I got them to say thank you for everything she has done. She said if I was joking I should stop because she was tired. When she saw that I was serious, she started dancing and singing in our local language and thanking God, going through the gifts one after the other, admiring them.
When she got to the flowers, she said “na live flowers be this abi, this no look like rubber flower”(are these fresh flowers?, they don’t look like artificials) and i said yes, she then replied
“no wonder he is fine like this, beautiful. I will snap with it and send it to my husband to make him jealous small. Thank you my daughter, God bless you and your new job will bring you happiness as you have made me happy”
She called her sisters to show them what I got for her and also the flowers and she made sure they knew it was fresh flowers by shouting that they are fresh flowers.
After her many phone calls, she called me and asked how much I got the flowers because they looked expensive according to one of her sisters, but i didn’t tell her the price and I told her that it was not nice asking the price of a gift received from someone.
She said I should stop spending my money lavishly and save more so that it will help me in the future. I asked her to give me back the gifts so I can return them and save the money, but she said no, that she deserves expensive gifts too and we laughed about it and went to the kitchen to make dinner.
Everyday, I remember how happy she was about the flowers and I do get her flowers on her birthdays and mother’s day every year.
This is Chichi Nwankwo’s story
MD of one of Nigerians leading oil company
August 12th 2023
Here is episode 1, you can also read our previous post on guys receiving flowers as valentine’s Day gift for the first day
