It’s really scary that someone would go through what we have gone through in Nigeria and still have the guts to insult those who insist they and their children have a right to exist like those in other countries.
I have a true story too.
In 2013, we had this friend, who owned a thriving laundromat somewhere in Surulere, he was doing relatively well.
Servicing bank, oil, and corporate workers.
Same 2013, he approached me and requested for me to guarantee a facility he was applying from a microfinance bank.
He explained he was opening another niche in his dry cleaning business, washing clothes for boarding students of private secondary schools.
He had been able to sign contracts with about 10 schools, each contract worth N500k monthly.
It requires him to provide a medium-sized generator and washing machine in each school, with a staff.
So he would be making a gross of N5M monthly.
I saw it as a good deal and agreed to guarantee the loan he was seeking.
The business commenced.
Apart from the 8 staff working for him in the Surulere-based laundromat, he employed another batch of 10 workers, trained and dispatched them to the different schools he was servicing.
Every month end, once we have paid our respective workers, we hung out at a cozy lounge along Bode Thomas Junction in Surulere, have a drink and a chat, with other entrepreneurs with similar challenges.
I remember then, there was always this argument about whether the Nigerian economy was really overtaking the South African economy or not.
Arguments for and against flowed and ebbed.
The election primaries came and APC chose Buhari as their candidate.
Many of us warned about this no leave, no transfer geriatric recluse, they have sprung, from his no reduction, no increase 150 cows farm to overseeing the fate of 200M Nigerians.
This my guy who owned a dry cleaning company became an apostle of Buharinomics.
We pointed out the red flags, this candidate didn’t pass WAEC; it does not matter, since he left office, he had not even attended a workshop nor had had any opportunity for an introspective and reflective look at his past governance, it does not matter.
This guy, as head of PTF under Abacha, had tended to extreme nepotism. It does not matter.
You can read more of such stories at Credible News
The election was held and Buhari won.
Many of us prayed for his success and yours truly even wrote an article, where I hoped that my negative reading of him would be found to be wrong, because my being wrong about him, means good tidings for the country.
By 2016, things had fallen apart, the major discussions in bars and lounges were no longer about the healthy economic rivalry between Nigeria and South Africa, but increasingly about between Nigerians and cows, which of them have
superior right to road, land, food or security access.
My dry cleaner guy turned into a troll, ambushing people’s Facebook pages to mock us as wailers.
I had to block him, he opened another account with a different name and sought my friendship, I accepted and he pounced immediately, attacking my posts.
I found out he was the one and blocked him.
Thereafter, I stopped accepting people I don’t know well as Facebook friends.
We lost touch throughout Buhari’s first tenure and much of his 2nd term.
Just last week, I saw his missed call, then he called again, I picked, that was the first time we were talking in about 6 years.
He sounded cheerful, then I asked about his business, he paused, then told me he had closed the business,
I was like, a thriving business that occupied an entire compound?
He said yes.
What happened ?
Most of his clientele relocated out of the country, others now wash their clothes at home, and the remaining customers were not paying enough to keep the place afloat.
What of the school washing business?
That closed too, parents were no longer paying for their wards’ clothes to be washed, instead, the students do their washings on Saturdays.
I had to commiserate with him.
I wondered about the 18 workers rendered jobless.
He then requested assistance from me, I assumed it would be another loan-guaranteeing request, but he said he needed some money.
I reminded him that this is school fees season, and he said it’s not that type of funds he was seeking but a small amount like 2 or 5k. Men asking for such an amount is no longer strange because the economy has so contracted, it’s like one pressing a lump of fufu into a handy ball, but for a person making more than N10M gross monthly? WTF!
I reminded him, Guy we told you guys!
He kept quiet.
2023 is another time for choosing .
Look at your children before you make that choice!
If you don’t have kids yet, think of your unborn children before you make that choice!
If your children are grown, think of your grandchildren before you make that choice!
If you are a diasporan, you may never set your foot in Nigeria or have a home country again if you do not influence those you know to make the right choice.
Those who inflicted Buhari from 2015 on us, should never be trusted with the leadership of this country for their choice led us to this Golgotha.
If because of self-interest they made such a bad bargain, for expediency, they would make a worse one!
The initial title of this write up was: ‘The trajectory of an APC Supporter’
Unknown author.
You can read more of such stories at Credible News and The Cheer News
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