A NIGHT AS A STRANGER

I II Just taken by the fearsome expectation I was wondering how life could just turned upside down to somebody that was seen all successful,  someone who has acquired all luxuries of life.  Money Stashed in his both foreign and domestic account which he uses incessantly without remorse of fear for being bankrupt. As if the world wasn't even enough.

Invited for a journey,  a business trip to the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria,  the city in which the citadel of powers reside,  Nigeria’s heartbeat. I was supposed to embarked on my journey as scheduled on certain fixed day,  then my cousin offered a lift for me in his car,  as he was in my town for some business errand also,  I was confused for the offer,  not because I don't want to traveled with him,  no,  just because I wasn't prepared that day to traveled,  the fact is that,  I do not have a penny to travel with,  not to talk living behind some token for my family. I haven't seen a dime for some days,  since the last day I withdrew the left over from my salary account at Sterling Bank.  I love Sterling Bank,  they once gave me a Bank loan to buy a plot of land. Life was some how miserable for me and my family,  for quite some time,  we thanks Allah for the gift of life,  since 2007,  i dwells in financial difficulties,  hardly getting the feedings for my family,  children school fees is a difficult of it own too, the little ones cannot spot the difference between have and have not,  they keep on demanding for something that is relatively scarce.

So decided to take the lift of my cousin brother since I can't travel with my own car,  I don't have enough to fuel my journey,  I have to resort in taking the lift,  off we drove to Abuja,  an almost eight hour journey,  through the fragile State of Plateau,  Jos the resuscitating city hold us for almost two hours in traffic holdups. That slows the journey,  and thus,  my cousin's car a Peugeot 406 Prestige despite the hard engine precision it fires and carefully we smoothly made it to the city. Tired but OK,  we reach the house at Maraba Abacha Road,  an outskirts of Abuja city a suburb in Karo LGA of Nasarawa State, my head was banging full of headache my asthma is sensing to erode while a bit of catarrh was peeping in, and there was a little bit humid as the weather was blowing,  clear sky with no sign of cloud for rain,  therefore there is no expectancy for that.  We prayed and eat our dinner prepared by my cousin wife, I enjoyed the meal,  a strange soup for me. She was a good cook.

I am not a soccer fan at all,  all the European teams that plays the world I am just hearing about them either in the news or from the individual supporters. Sitting in a strange place,  a bar with different kind of people could be disturbing but the experience is overwhelming,  I can confess that I enjoyed every bit of time I spent with these different type of people doing different kind of oddities. The match was Manchester United  VS Arsenal FC,  it was a Darby that was well played that day in favour of Arsenal FC. Before the end of the match it was raining and the Abuja cold breezed down and as asthmatic patient I have to be  careful, quickly rushed to the car,  brought my sweater and put on,  the match EPL was finished as I said in favour of Arsenal.

The essence of my being in the Federal Capital was to mediate a business plan between Nexarka Energy,  an Austrian firm,  with the government of Adamawa State,  the firm are interested in investing billions of dollars in to Adamawa that will give more development to the state. The Nexarka representative did not kept his promise as scheduled to meet in time and make the presentation as possible without either of us wasted his time,  time is money you know,  besides I am a pretty phobic of the FCT I don't  like the town because of its exorbitant dwelling,  I hate spending more than the schedule days in that expensive city.  My meeting with Dada Construction company was also meaningful not fully successful though,  but we arrived somewhere.

Most people in Nigeria are hustlers,  many of us at younger and middle ages struggles to the brink that we hardly reach old ages with our full psych,  we mostly collapse halfway in to our lives.

I pray Magrib at Aso Drive,  a suburb adjacent to the Aso Rock Villa,  a house belong to a former minister in the corruption days,  a mini mosque well furnished and equipped to the satisfaction of worshippers. Am not talking about the prayers,  but the fleet of cars which I saw in that house. The man is keeping these cars that worth hundreds of millions of Naira,  which is enough to build a capacitive production company that may reduce poverty in his locality. Most of the big men in Nigeria get this habit,  pond of keeping expensive cars that will  be irrelevant after their demise.

My talk with Nexarka energy was unsuccessful,  therefore I decided to elude the day by saying farewell to the capital city,  but some few hours before I made up my mind,  a business pop in,  I am to be a mediator between Bauchi State and one Ghanian company,  a construction firm that showed interest in investing in Bauchi State,  my closeness to the Deputy governor make them believe that i can arrange a meeting for talks with government of Bauchi,  I accepted the work base on many conditions. Yes! Conditions which is not more than the share of interest which I shall be expecting in due for the effort I will be doing to secure the PPP collaboration for them.

As a family man,  I do all thing necessary and within the confines of law to keep my family on the table,  as a father I want to see my kids growing up with a promising future,  to have a satisfying life at least.
Nigerian youth is like a subsistence farmer,  that tilt his farm with all available tool to survive the grief of poverty,  not because we are enjoying the opium of failure,  but that's the greatest offer our leaders are giving to us,  poverty and lack of confidence.

I am 43 year old,  with a wife and Six children,  my monthly income is a meager that cannot sustain me,  I can't cater for daily bread,  and the little trade I learnt wasn't enough to make me glitter,  such is the case of million Nigerian youths today,  living in a dream that is unattainable,  unattainable because the leaders right from the independent did not lay out a plan that can be a sustainability to the development of our younger generation.  That must be stop,  and that must be checkmate to ensure a balance in the distribution of the nation's wealth.