Base 1ne by Chris Onaivi Ekuafeh, (Klay)
Drip…drip…drip…
Osas carefully positioned containers around his room to collect rain water dripping in from the roof. He lay in the dark quietly, pondering and insentiently counting the drops.
…31…32…33…
At 11:37pm on this Friday night, the rains poured insanely. The wind howled like wild animals bent on pulling the roof off its joints. Even the overgrown tree by the fence was busy scratching its branches eerily on his window, casting creepy shadows on the wall with every flash of lightning.
The curtain took strange forms in the dark, making him jumpy. Using the light from his phone for illumination, he slithered over to correct this but his leg clumsily hit the empty cooking pots neatly arranged by the wall and sent them crashing in a loud racket.
“Ah…” Osas hissed loudly “…see me now”!
When the din calmed, he quietly rearranged the pots, straightened the curtain, then reached for the remaining ijebu-garri he’d collected on credit days before from Mama Iyabo. Until he paid up all he owed, she told him, “no more credit”.
“Lagos, is the land of opportunities” he’d been told, but two years now and Lagos seemed to be hiding that side of her from him. Why…who did he offend…who?
He’d recently gone to his bank for business funding, but they asked him for collateral. Where was a start-up like him to get ‘collateral’? So, he suggested they use him as collateral, he didn’t mind. He would even donate his blood if they needed ink, but the annoying bank official only smirked “I am sorry Mr. Osas…” she said in conclusion, “…it’s the bank’s policy”.
“But is it your money”? He desperately wanted to scream, common sense advised otherwise. So, he was back on the streets yet again, hustling. “Who de follow me na”? He questioned.
A crack of lightning brought his mind back to the present. He stirred the ijebu-garri, ready to drink, when he heard a shuffle of quick steps end at his door. Ah, the devil himself! Osas thought. His heart climbed up …
Working mum part 1 – Susan M
Story of a working mum
A working mum, Laide has just been relieved of her job for resuming late and not being consistent at work for the last 5 months. She had been a dedicated staff of that organization for the past 8 yrs. She has been married for 9 years and just had her set of twins 6yrs after marriage.
Balancing work and home wasn’t such a problem until her mum, who was a great support system with the twins passed. She was left with her 12yr old maid who also went to school. She hadn’t been lucky with house helps so she decided to settle with Tosin her 12yr old maid. Tosin’s mum fell sick and she requested that her daughter return to take care of her. Now Laide was left with her 3yr old, her home, and her work to manage.
The schedule
She would wake up as early as 4:30am to get her children and husband’s breakfast and lunch ready. Get the children ready, drop them off at school by 6:10am and head straight to work, from Ikeja to Victoria Island to resume work at 8:30am. She sneaks out of office at 5pm to meet up with the daycare center at 6:30 to pick her children. This has been her routine for the last 6 months.
The result
Stress was beginning to take its toll on her and she started waking up late the twins were also stressed and they fell ill too. She started going in and out of hospital, calling in sick and missing out on important meetings and missing deadlines. The HR had out of concern given her concession to resume 9:30 but she still wasn’t meeting up with work deadlines and management had no other option than to let her go because they were beginning to lose out on deals due to her absence from work and inability to meet up with deadlines. Its was a tough decision but they had to let her go.
These are challenges mothers, especially new mums
Life of a project coordinator – Susan M
Project coordinator and The one man squad
“Shade, you are a hard working lady but management is not pleased with you”. This report was shocking news to Shade, considering she had just delivered on a project that everyone declined because of its complexity and worse, short delivery time line.
Shade had been tagged “A crazy deliverer” or “The Deliverer”. She earned that name for her doggedness. She didn’t know how to say NO. Shade could take up two or three projects at a time.
The task
On this particular task, she was to build an exhibition booth with a complex design and delivery date was in one week. Everyone gave an excuse that they were all busy and couldn’t take up another project. The project brief eventually landed on Shade’s table. Shade was advised by the Business Director to send the client away with cost and other means. She acted as instructed by inflating the invoice but the client wasn’t moved or scared by that, instead, they negotiated for a 10% discount, Shade told them they could only do 5% which they also agreed to. This client was not ready to back down, they want to make an appearance in this year’s exhibition and a big appearance at that.
Deal closed!
Shade closed the deal. From her estimate the company should make a very reasonable profit of about 150% for a one week project! She commenced plans for the project with her production team and partially put her ongoing projects on hold for 6 days and they commenced production.
She raised her budget and took it straight to the Business director for approval. He was shocked and asked “Shade why she took up the crazy project?” she reminded him “our company is a 460 degree company, we can’t back down else the client, who is approaching us for the first time will be disappointed with the organization”. The MD secretly admired Shade’s courage and can do spirit. “That’s why I brought the budget myself for approval and
Nigerian Childhood Days By Funmi James
Nigerian Childhood Days
4 ‘o’ clock was my favorite hour of the day while growing up, why?.. because 4 ‘o’ clock was pink ranger time!.. I would rush home after school lesson which ends by 3:30pm to play pink and yellow ranger with my cousin and kid brother, transforming into pink ranger wasn’t so hard, all I needed was the paper watch my brother and I made and a pink skirt on top of anything I was wearing.
The instrumental of ‘Ise Oluwa’ on Channels tv brings nostalgia, what usually follows after that was news or cartoons, we were more interested in the latter though.
Channels tv at that time was my favorite station, it was like my cartoon network and nickelodeon at the same time. Dazzling my young self with cartoons like Carebears, Ultraman, Voltron, My little pony, Super ted, Scooby doo, Frekazoid, Flintstone, Yogi bear, Rugrats, Simpsons and Power Rangers.
Asides cartoons I can remember using empty cans, sand and water to cook my own delicacies which I usually use my chin to taste, sometimes I add leaves and flowers to the mix just to give the impression of cooking efo riro like my mom. My bestie then was an old brown teddy bear which was usually tied to my back, it was almost as tall as I was, with its one eye and so many holes in it thanks to my kid brother’s experiments.
School time!
Going to school was fun too, I always looked forward to the goody goody, okin biscuit, frunas sweet, the chocolate and milk paste that comes in tiny plates with small spoons, Gogo (that was a common form of m&ms then).
I didn’t like the recitation of multiplication tables in class after morning assembly though, because our proprietress comes to the class to ask us one by one. We get two strokes of her cane if we are not correct. Lunch breaks were fun too, we get to buy food, play suwe and do our swinging competition, although the school serves lunch …