A Woman in Need

Extract 4



CHAPTER TWO
Bello was a good boss and a nice friend, too.
Whenever I made a mistake, he never failed to invite
me into his office to give me the best advice. On one
such occasion, he told tell me to keep-in with my
subordinates at work, and not be too critical of them
whenever they made little mistakes. It made them lose
confidence in themselves and definitely inhibited their
ability to achieve their utmost potentials. He would also
advise me not to fail to let them realize the problems
their stand-offish attitude would be to the company.
I had wished that people like Bello were in highoffices
in Nigeria and the country would have been in
an enviable position in the comity of nations of the
world.
Linda had told me on several occasions that it
was necessary to take my daughter Rashidat home to
her mother so that she could receive proper care. This
argument sounded convincing and, hardly could there
have been any disagreement. While I will be away at
Rigabiu, Linda would resume duty by 7a.m and would
not be back from work until after 5 p.m. Our major
trouble was how to look after Rashidat while her mother
was away at work. To solve the problem, we took her to
Linda’s mother in Abeokuta. That was how
our only daughter came to be in the care of my motherin-
law. I was grateful for this.
Bello offered to take me home and as we drove in
his car, he asked me if I was going straight home or
would like to have some snacks with him in his house. I
knew that even if I went home, I had nothing to do
except sleep. Therefore, I agreed to go with him to his
house. There we met two of his friends, enmeshed in a
discussion about Nigeria’s laconic political economy.
Since independence, the learned Chief has been
in the fore-front of the fight against neo-colonialism in
Africa and particularly in Nigeria. He had warned us
against these economic recessions that are now
bedevilling us. In fact, most if not all the Chief’s
concepts were logically comprehensive, but were
unfortunately presented to the people who, most of the
time were logically apprehensive of his concepts’’, said
Danmeraya.
To back up his argument, he had been
gesticulating during the discussion and regretfully shook
his head clearly disapproving of the indiscipline and
lack of patriotism being brazenly displayed by the elite
of the society as well as the apathy of the generality of
the masses.
‘’Dan, so you people are still on that subject,’’
asked Bello.
All right, let’s have some fruit juice’’, said Bello as he
went in and brought out some drinks for us.
Remembering he still had some roasted chicken in the