Emeka could hear the sound of his footsteps, hitting the ground “slap, slap, slap”, as he ran up the stairs to Chief’s apartment. He was late.
He knocked on the door urgently. Too urgently. And was let in by Chief’s steward, who looked visibly angry at the rudeness of the knocks. Emeka began to relax as he felt the cool, air-conditioned breeze, drift over his overheated body. He looked forward to sinking languidly into the soft, velvety brown cushions on the seat in front of him.
“Young man, what is the meaning of this tardiness?” A voice asked out of the inner recesses of the corridor. In Emeka’s mind, Chief’s voice always sounded like one of those traditional rulers in a Nollywood movie, the Eze Ndigbo, making a proclamation. Solemn, authoritative and dignified. He stopped his motion to the seat and turned towards the sound of the Nollywood voice.
“Chief” he began “If I tell you the reason I am late, you will not believe’. Emeka panted slightly as he spoke. He was still out of breath from running up the stairs “I have been in police custody since morning”
“Really? Since when did you start getting involved in criminal activities? As a legal practitioner, I take such infractions very seriously ” Chief said somewhat angrily as he walked out from the corridor and into the living room.
“No, o! Nothing like that! Emeka replied, shaking his head vigorously as he started to replay the events of the day.
“My friends and I were on our way to Victoria Island. I was driving, my colleague from work was in front….Jerry…You might have seen him before, he comes to the compound sometimes”
“The banker with the loud designer suits and the flaming, red Range Rover, right?”
“Yes, that one”. Emeka said hurriedly, trying to shift Chief’s attention from the ostentatiousness of his friend.
“Segun, another friend was at the back with a guy I had just met. He was Segun’s friend and was visiting from the States, where he lived. Segun had introduced him to me as a “high flying, software engineer”
We were going on our way until we were stopped by the Police at a checkpoint. No big deal, just a routine check. The officer that stopped us, walked up to the car and looked at us, one after the other. His eyes were searching our faces as if to see if anyone of us had the word “Criminal” written on our forehead.
He asked what we did for a living. The three Lagos based guys, used to being asked such questions by the police, all mentioned the bank we worked for. The officer turned to the last guy at the back and asked;
“I say, wia do you work?”
That is how I heard the werey in the back, reply with his American accent; “Yahoo”
The officer pointed his gun at us, screaming wildly “ALL OF YOU, COME DOWN!!”
Three of us all started talking at the same time, trying to correct the mistake.
“No, No, No, Sah! ”
“Officer, nor be Yahoo, Yahoo! Na IT company!”
“OC, what he is trying to say is internet…technology…Bill Gates…Segun stammered, moving his fingers like he was typing on an invisible keyboard”
“He is doing yahoo-yahoo fraud on internet with techonology for Bill Gates? Ah say, COME DOWN!!.”
The officer cocked his gun and pointed it at Segun at the back, then at Jerry, then back at Segun in confusion. Meanwhile, I was in the driver’s seat, trying to hide behind Jerry’s broad back as he pleaded with the police. “Shebi he is always calling himself, my ride or die. Today, we go know who dey ride and who go die”
“That is how we now found ourselves at Maroko Police Station. If not for his superior officer at the station who was more enlightened, we would still be there, looking for who will bail us out. Luckily, our yahoo guy had his business cards with him and was able to explain to the senior officer that he worked at Yahoo, the Web Services Company and not internet fraud.”
Chief’s expression looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or be concerned.
“Glad that it worked out for you boys. It could very easily have gone south. I have heard some sad tales…” Chief said thoughtfully. “Well, we don’t have much time. He continued, looking at the clock. “I’ll get right to the point”
“The fourth rule of wealth is this; Increase your capacity to earn”
“This is exactly what I have been trying to to tell my boss…he needs to increase my salary” Emeka interjected emphatically.
Chief laughed “Well, it is important to ask but you need to merit it by providing more than you are paid for. That is how you extract out all possible value from your place of work”. He continued
“Work hard and improve yourself to get paid as much as possible. The greater your skill, the greater your ability to command more money. Commanding more money gives you a greater ability to invest.”
Chief paused to pour a drink of water into a glass in front of him. He gestured to Emeka to help himself.
“Bear in mind that value is not only measured by what you earn, but also by what you learn. When I was in the active workforce, I kept my eyes open for projects that would teach me transferable skills. Skills that would be of use in different industries or even just in different companies. I was in the Legal department but I made it point of duty to learn the core business aspects of the company I worked for. I learned things like how to assess the profitability of projects, which was really useful when I started to evaluate my own personal investment opportunities”
“So, If you ever have to choose a higher salary or a job that will teach you transferable skills, always pick the one with more learning opportunities. You will make the money back with what you learn. Trust me”
