IF NA YOU NKO?

Today was a day I was praying for no traffic; alas my prayer wasn't answered but I got to learn.

 

There was this woman sitting beside me in the bus who was lost in thought. Her purse fell and the contents were all on the floor including some 1000 Naira notes and she didn’t even notice. 

I picked them all up and zipped the purse and noticed she still wasn’t saying anything so I tapped her three times before she came around.

“Madam” I said “here’s your purse, it fell down”.

She immediately snatched the purse and checked if the contents were intact; after which she thanked me. “Thank you my sister” she said.

In my mind I said “who’s your sister” with a quizzical eyebrow. I decided to ask her what made her lost in thought and she took a deep sigh and told me her story.

Her name is Monica and she’s married with three kids. Her husband was a nice and loving man who strived to make his wife and three children happy. He was a graduate but couldn’t get a job so he took up menial jobs to help his family.

He loved her and she knew it but life is always difficult for men when there’s no money. This was eating away the love and life in their marriage. 

She had to pay most of the bills since she was working as a civil servant and that was difficult. It wasn’t that Chuks her man wasn’t doing anything; he was striving but it wasn’t enough just as good intentions don’t always produce good results.

 He kept trying different business and she had to borrow money to finance the business and most times his ego got in the way of thinking right so he made wrong decisions that jeopardized the business. She warned him from the start that he wasn’t a business man but he was just too headstrong.

Two months ago, she got a job in a private firm with a better pay.  She put in her best in hope for a promotion.

This week was just a bad week as everything seemed to conspire against her

On her way to work yesterday, her landlord reminded her that this was December since their rent expired at the end of November. She told him she would see him before the end of the week.   

Now she knew there was trouble as she had already exhausted her salary of the previous month. She wondered if she could get a loan in the office.

When she got to work, her boss told her that they did an appraisal and she was due for promotion. The salary and benefits was mouth watering but she would have to spend a night at the hotel with him for it and she had to make up her mind in three days or leave the job.

I was overwhelmed. This woman was well dressed with modest make-up yet you couldn’t have imagined this was what she was going through. Many people go through this as well yet no one knows.

Try to be nice to people around you, it might save a life.

Lastly, she asked me what I would ask you now: If na you, wetin you go do?

Photo Credit: huffingtonpost.com