"INDUSTRIOUS CHIDI"



I heard his name is chidi that he was an apprentice to a man from our neigbouring village. They said that in February of 1981 that he had a very serious problem with his master. Money matters I heard. I never hear anyone in my village that is of my generation mentioned his name even in passing. I am not even sure that his blood brother of my age group knew him. I never heard from their mouth a name that sound like that even for one day. The story had it that in early 1979 that his parents went to one relatively rich fellow in our neighbouring village to ask the man to take their son chidi as an apprentice. That he is not good in school work but industrious in other areas. Whatever “other areas” means, I don’t know. The man agreed, and chidi will have to stay with him for seven years before being settled. He was taking to Awka the state capital to showcase his industriousness in other areas. Please, never you forget that what I am telling you was told to me by all these palm wine drinking and snuff sniffing elders who get irritated easily when asked simple questions. So, if you noticed any loophole in what I am narrating to you, please ignore it and continue reading but if you find it too difficult to ignore, send your questions to my town development union for that is where you will see most of these elders that are still alive. So, as I was saying, chidi was taking to Awka and it took him only two years or there about to start manifesting his industriousness in other areas as his parents said. The story has it that he spent a year or less monitoring other boys, he works with and found out that they has shallow mind as he said. Shallow mind in the sense that when asked to sell a bar of soap five naira, they will stick to that order from their master and if for any reason they happened to sell that bar soap six naira; the whole six naira will enter into their masters drawal. Chidi was observing all these happenings, wondering whether he is the one with problem or the boys he is with. He finally reached conclusion with his conscience that it is the boys that has problem, not him. “If our master said five naira, then it must be five naira and not six naira or four. Five is five and six is six. They are never the same”. His parents said that he is not good in class work but they attested to his industriousness in other areas. The elders that told us this story did not elaborate on what the boy’s parents exactly means by ‘industrious in other areas’ for from the way they relayed the story to us, they themselves don’t understand too. But after I heard the story, I was wondering how someone will be bad in class work and it took him a year to grab all the business maths he found difficult to comprehend in school. Maybe it is a case of practical versus theorem, or the effect of money on dormant brain. Whichever. When chidi started selling things to customers and collecting money as the story has it, his industriousness became so pronounced that the other boys blindness started clearing. From not putting the excess money into his masters drawal to not selling the bar soap as it was produced. He started telling the boys that they will make more money if they mould the bar soaps into little balls and sell to poor customers. That a bar will generate eight naira instead of five, some of the boys were afraid, some kept quiet. He told them that they should put his idea to test to find out how it will turn out. He warned them not to let their master know of their plan. They started grinding the bars and molding them into ball and selling to their poor customers, making extra three naira on top. From soap, they entered into sugar grinding the cubes and putting them in nylon bags and selling to the poor who cannot afford the whole bar and a packet of sugar. All the extra money being shared by the boys. According to chidi, it is the dividend of their hard work. Just like most humans, greediness soon set in and complaint of putting more work into the grinding session without seeing enough returns to quantify for the effort lead them to start cutting more soaps and selling to the poor customers.

This arrangement continued like that until they find it difficult to collect money from the retailers on time. And when the retailers finally come with the money, it will not be complete. What happened? The answer is always “bad market”. The other boys wanted to put a halt to the scheme, but chidi disagreed. He told them that perseverance is the key to success. They all agreed to give it more two months and see how it will pan out. Chidi took it on himself to do market research and visit the retailers and see for himself what exactly is preventing them from selling the things they took and return full amount. That was when his problems started. Not only that the retailers now felt that he is given them unnecessary pressure, the boys also started suspecting that he has other arrangements with the retailers. Trust flew out of the window from both ends. Agitation set in. some boys withdrew and others started liaison with other retailers and supplying them goods on credit too. Some of the retailers will finish selling their goods instead of returning the money; they will start doing turnover with the money, thereby delaying the money even more. Some will pocket the money out rightly claiming that they have given chidi the money and chidi on his part will be swearing to others boys that the retailers are talking nonsense. Recovering money became difficult and some retailers started threatening chidi with getting the police involved.

That was how chidi liquidated a man that was performing relatively well in his wholesale business, his master found the situation too bitter a pill to swallow, he called police and chidi ran back to his village and when his master showed there with police, the elders prevailed on him to send the police back that they the elders will settle the matter amicably. When the settlement was difficult to reach at by the elders after about three months, his boss could not take it anymore, he threatening to kill chidi. that he will only spare him on one condition that he never leaves their village again in his life, that anytime he hears that he left that village even for ten minutes, that he will kill him. The story had it that all appeal on the man to withdraw his threat fall on deaf ears. One morning in 1982, around five a.m in the morning, chidi woke up, called his mother and told her that “he want to go somewhere; that he will be back in thirty minutes”. From that morning in 1982 till date, no one has ever seen or heard anything about him. His father died years ago, he did not show up and in past years, three of his siblings has died also. no one saw Chidi. Then three weeks ago, one elder man from our village that usually travel to Cameroon capital to buy goods returned to the village with the story that while he was in douala Cameroon capital, as he was walking on the street of poor quarters of douala one evening, as he turns a corner of the street, there was Chidi eyeing him and smiling at him. He went further to say that he (chidi) has two wives and seven issues in Cameroon.