Say No to Drowning
With an eclipse setting over ones career, it is often time to hastily grab anything that offers the faintest ray of hope. Offers there are which some persons would never look twice at, because they are denied the Abracadabra that beautifully reshapes things… Because they are not able, as packages, to locate the answers to their god-forsaken problem.
Then, comes a dreadfully tight situation and these solution-seeking but choosey characters come stylishly running back to the rejected offers to snatch them with a touch of drama!
A Joel, brilliant, studious, focused - enormously gifted - had opted for The Sciences at the secondary and wrought a happy result. Together with his high JME scores he earned for himself a place in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos, Nigeria. Five years later, Joel was through, had his One-Year National Youth Service, passed out without any ruction and was ready for a job with a Glittering Take-Home: not ‘Any Rubbish’ with the designation of ‘A Lucrative Job’. At least, a Two-Hundred-and-Fifty-Thousand- a -Month Stuff.
But then, where are they? The Vacancies? Practically a few were for offer in the Oil Companies that his services matched with their demands…
Actually, stiffly contested and elusive vacancies!
In the end, Joel could only smell invitations to come and pick up “Unplanned Chalk” in the ever-welcoming field of private secondary schools within and outside his neighborhood. Through and through, it was disappointing that none of the post-primary outfits could dangle before Joel such pay packets as could still make a heart-beat flutter a bit after it was clinically pronounced ‘Dead.’
The one which rather seemed worthy of mention, yet far away from Joel’s Target Wage was Cosmos Academy’s.
Her school management had offered him a N120, 000.00.
“Ah! No deal,” Joel had spat out nearly as soon as the School’s Principal had with an arch smile voiced the figure.
“I….! Believe you can tell me your frank reasons for saying ‘No Deal’ Cosmos Academy’s Boss found the official tolerance to remark, though a bit astonished as well as a bit angry.
Joel Dike by way of reply was talking about having elastic-like rubber principles he would stretch but in some cases to only a point. In short, Joel, Dike did not think twice about rejecting the job offer from Cosmos Academy and afterwards the ones from sister private academies.
Neither did he betray any streak of guilt after braving a caustic remark about the remuneration of qualified and promising job seekers in their Hapless Nigeria.
Luckily, after seven months of a pain-staking search for an agreeable monthly meal ticket, Joel finally maneuvered his way into the oil company of his dream and there, within a short time, became instrumental in her discovery of two more oil-fields and drilling of hall-a-dozen more exploratory oil-wells, offshore. Just imagine it.
On the whole Joel was Dedication, unveiled proficiency and for it got recommendation, prospects of a future promotion as well as the laughing prizes being awarded to The Best Staff of The Company, Monthly.
We should be able to guess with success Joel Dike’s next line of action after his new-found self sufficiency… Of course, the picking of life-partner, cementing of their alliance in a church and raising children. No reason whatsoever to reflect on the immediate or future challenges of marrying a non-working wife and First-Year Law Student in an Expensive Private University. Joel, who was previously dating one Monica Adams, a careerist teacher, planning to do with her what he finally did with Lucy, started nursing his passions for Lucy at the time he had freshly stumbled upon the oil stuff. Before then nothing – and NOTHING – could have been more sensible than grabbing Monica for the union, as she had a job herself. Then Joel had only his University Degree and Primitive Hopes God had yet to speak to.
For thirty six months, Joel was going home with a heart-gladdening N500, 000.00 at the expiration of twenty-one working days.
With it, he could take care of his wife, her Law Studentship, their twins, their expensive private pre-nursery tutelage as well as live up to his rating as a member of the Upper Class of his society.
If it was fate singularly scheming to hit Joel below the belt he couldn’t say. Just that one hapless morning, their Board of Directors rose from a meeting that meant to call it ‘Quits’ with Oil Drilling after monstrously losing ten of their work force to sporadic militant attacks.
Up-till-now Moonstruck Joel became thunder-struck and tongue-tied. What he was going to do he had yet to sit down and figure out. His third-year Law-student wife had not been combining the programme with a part-time job and would not be gunning for any, until she was through with her programme. His twins he daren’t pull out from their school, especially now they had become accustomed to her.
“So what – So what’s to be done at the moment?” Joel asked his voice low pitched but trying to look less depressed and more in control. Thoughtfully, he had paid his landlord rents for another two years, thus closing the door to the missiles which would have been coming from that divide.
Joel clearly knows where to go and fetch what for the moment would prove to be a better bargain than idleness. Cosmos Academy! Now Cosmos International Model Secondary School. But either pride, outright folly, hope or expectation of the last-minute miracle of a most pressing moment made him delay his visit to the school for another three months, until his fast dwindling purse forced him out of procrastination.
However, at Cosmos, Joel came to grips with a fresh shock and punch. Her Management was only ready to pay him half the amount she had told him earlier with a ‘Take it’ or ‘Leave it’ clause. The Director of The School, it seemed, had not only recognized him but recalled his cynical comments of four years about their staff remuneration; and further suspecting that something really awful must have happened to his former job, came quite down in their restarted negotiation.
For more than a minute, Joel was pondering his fate and the near insulting offer. Nevertheless his answer came finally and The Director of Cosmos International wasn’t surprised in the least.
“Yes, I’ll take it.”
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