By Abi Adeboyejo
I went out with a friend of mine last Saturday. She offered to take me to a new African store that just opened close to her house so I could buy some of groceries that I could not get in Tesco or Asda. I had just finished putting my shopping bags in my car when I got a call from her asking me to meet her at our local hospital. She assured me she wasn’t hurt but someone we knew was.
I made my way to the hospital, still apprehensive and worried that something bad had happened. As I picked my friend up, she launched into the story of how one of her friends, a lady I had met a couple of times, ended in hospital with a cracked rib and a split lip. She hadn’t fallen off a bus or down the stairs or stumbled into a wall: all the usual lies that women told when injured in embarrassing circumstances. However, she was very proud of her injuries because according to her, the ‘other person’ had worse injuries. You guessed right: the other person was her husband.
So what caused this violent demonstration of anger and frustration? In the UK, Nigerians tend to have ‘projects’ in Nigeria. This term refers to building projects or even business ventures usually started as an investment or pension fund for the future. In fact, at this time of the year, some people work long hours and save up to enable them visit Nigeria in the summer to oversee such projects and of course, show off a little. Nigerians with immigration issues who can’t go home for fear of not being able to return to the UK ask family members to oversee such projects, usually with disastrous results.
Our injured lady and her husband decided to start a project in Nigeria over three years ago. They tried to get a mortgage to buy a house in the UK but were declined because of their poor credit ratings. They decided to use the money saved for the down-payment for the house and money from credit cards to build a house in Nigeria instead.
It was fortuitous that at this time the husband, who used to work for the council, was in-between jobs. He was able to travel to Nigeria for an extended period to get the project started. He came back to the UK after four months without a pound remaining of the £30,000 he left with. He claimed that he spent the money buying land in Lagos and securing a plan and all the other paperwork they needed for the building project.
In the space of three years he went to Nigeria seven times, spending at least three months each time. His wife took on extra work, had three jobs and kept sending money to her husband every time he asked for it. She also took out a loan from her bank, just so that the project could be completed. After the first year, her husband started spending very little time in the UK because he had to oversee the project properly. He also became abrupt and moody towards his wife and kids when he was around, but his wife put his behavior down to money worries, as they had started to run up serious debts in the UK to finance the Nigeria project.
However, three weeks ago, the lady asked her cousin to locate her husband in Lagos to give him some items to bring back to the UK for her. It was while trying to locate the man that the cousin discovered that her in-law was indeed very engrossed in a project in Nigeria, just not the kind his wife would approve of.
My question to you today is this: are you the ‘project’ in Nigeria? It was discovered that this man’s ‘project’ was a beautiful twenty-something year old lady who he had installed in a flat in Yaba. She drove a nice car and had recently opened a supermarket cum pharmacy. The ‘project’ was also working on her own mini ‘project’, as she was several months pregnant. Oh, and this was baby number two!
It goes without saying that the man’s wife went crazy with rage when he arrived back in the UK last week. She actually went to pick him at the airport and didn’t say anything but drove him home. We all have different virtues, patience was one of hers. If it were me, the fight would have started in the arrival hall at the airport, after which he would have asked to be deported to Nigeria. However, this lady made it to the four walls of their house before producing her wooden turning stick (omorogun) and heavy frying pan, both which made resounding contact with several parts of the man’s body. The noise caused neighbours to call the police, by which time she pretended to be the victim and her husband was arrested by the police but released on bail the following day. He is probably already back in Nigeria as you read this, telling his ‘project’ some lies as to why he returned to Nigeria with injuries and no money.
There is no glory in being a parasite. It can’t be right to spend someone else’s money on your own selfish desires. The deceit involved was enough to make anyone go mad with a broken heart. Sadly, this woman’s story is becoming more common in the UK. While it is right to blame men for being selfish, deceitful scumbags, it also right that we caution ladies in Nigeria to be wiser. When Nigerian men return home from abroad and tell ladies they are unmarried or divorced, check that they don’t have a white wife, a black mistress and several mixed race and black children waiting for them in the UK. Men have been known to collect their children’s benefit allowance only to go to spend it on fake ‘projects’ in Nigeria.
To the ‘project’ who knows that a man has a family waiting for him in the UK, don’t be enticed by the money he claims to have and which he spends on you. It is blood money.The woman who is working to make that money will send you much deserved ill-will when she finds out. Yes, she is not in Nigeria to see what you are doing but God sees all and He will serve you your just deserts in His time. Please, don’t be the ‘project’ in Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment