‘My father frustrated him out of office years ago, today he’s my father-in-law’

It is often said that tribalism and nepotism are twin problems that have destroyed the unity of Nigeria. The country has lost great brains who could have contributed immensely to its development as a result of these two nemeses.  Many Nigerians have been denied opportunities on account of the areas they come from. And a good number of others have had to resign their appointments as a result of pressure arising from persecution by their superiors and principals in the office. Only a few people, who have lost their job or promising careers on account of this, truly forgive their tormentors.

Sadiat comes from South West and was born into a Moslem family. Today, she is married into a Christian family and in the South Eastern part of the country. Apart from marriage, she is also one of the senior managers in a company owned by a man from that part of the country. Her rise in the organisation has not stopped to amaze her.

Below is the story as told by Sadiat herself.

Some years ago my father worked in a company where he rose to become a managing director. It happened that there were other general managers in charge of various departments. As I was to learn later, one man resigned his appointment because of my father’s hatred and high-handedness. The man’s promotion was severally denied him. Whereas many of his juniors were favoured and given their promotions on a regular basis, this man was ill-treated because of his race. He was supposed to have been made a GM long before those that met him in the company, yet, my father sat on his progress. I was told he was hard-working and very good at his job, but my father didn’t just like his face and made no pretence about it. I was told that at a point, some of the staff whom my father was promoting above the man, went to meet my father as a group to speak in favour of the man considered to be a huge asset to the company, but my father would not listen. At a point when he could no longer take it, the man angrily resigned his appointment and not only that, he also relocated from Lagos back to his state. But God remembered him there as he invited by the state government to manage an agency.

Meanwhile, my father never told any of us what was happening in his office.

Four years down the line, I was posted to that part of the country for the mandatory one year service under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. After the orientation, I got my posting to a remote village in that state to teach and I badly needed a re-deployment to, at least, a town and in a health facility. I wasn’t alone; some other colleagues of mine wanted the same thing. In the course of this search, some people told us that if we could contact one ‘big man’ who was heading one critical agency of government, that he could be of help, provided our reasons were genuine. Some people also expressed doubt that the man could assist all of us, since we were about six in number.

So, I thought to myself that if we should go as a group, we could spoil our case as some people had hinted. I decided to go alone. After I had introduced myself to the secretary, who gave me a visitor’s form to fill in, in a matter of 5 minutes, the man said I should be ushered in.

I greeted him and he asked me to have a seat. The man appeared to be in his early 60s. He lowered his head for a moment. When he looked up, he asked, ‘do you by any means know Mr. so and so, who was until two years ago, so and so, in that company?’ I said to him that the man was my father. He shook his head, then asked why I wanted to see him. I narrated to him that I was posted to a place that had no bearing to my course of study, but that I needed a place that could add value to my career. I told him specifically that I studied Pharmacy and would wish to do my primary assignment with a pharmacy department in an established medical centre.

Without much ado, he pulled out a drawer and picked a paper, wrote something and pressed an intercom; the next minute his secretary appeared and he instructed her to prepare the letter. In a a matter of 15 minutes, the letter was ready and addressed to Chief medical director. He handed the enveloped contained letter to me, after he had stapled a business card of his on it, and told me to take it to the CMD the next day, and to report back to him developments the following week.

He also handed me another envelope; when I opened it later, I saw it contained N10,000 (ten thousand naira).

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was asking myself why? I began to think the man was trying to woo me with all the generosity; because I couldn’t just understand how a man I never knew from Adam could be so fatherly. Well, to cut a long story short, I went to the hospital to see the CMD, and he said there was an opening for me. I was given one week to go and get myself prepare for work. It was when I got home that I was confronted with a story that stunned me.

I had told my father how I was posted to a village school and how through a man I never knew from Adam, I was reposted to a state medical centre. When I mentioned the name of the man, my father nearly fainted and shouted on top of his voice that I was not going back to the place because he was sure some people were setting a stage to do her some mischief.

After two days, he broke his silence. He explained to us how he had ill-treated the man and that at a point the man had become hypertensive on account of his persecution. And that it was his wickedness against the man that drove him back to his state. My father, for the first time I knew him, began to cry like a baby.

Every member of the family was heart-broken on hearing his confession. Everyone wore a mournful mien. The family persuaded him to follow me to down to South East to see the man and apologise to him. My father did so. The meeting, to say the least was dramatic. My father broke down on seeing the man, and the man on the other hand was man enough. He told my father never to blame himself, that it was possible God allowed it for his own good.

After my service year, I was retained in the hospital where I had multiple promotions. To cap it all, by providence, I am today married to one of the man’s sons. Today, my father’s once most hatred colleague, whom he frustrated out of a job, has become his in-law. My father confesses that if he had died and somehow, was told in the spirit world that such a thing had happened, he would swear it was never possible. He is today, a firm believer in unity in diversity. No one, indeed, knows tomorrow.