Chapter 11

I told the director that I needn't go to his company at all because in the first place I was an ex-convict. From all he had said I knew MOHAMMED ALI would be the last man to employ an ex-convict.

Don't tell him you were an ex-convict. Honesty does not pay at times. l told him that the seven years I spent in jail may not easily be accounted for if I was asked. I can give you a form to fill in which it would be said that you were working in

one of our outer stations for seven and he produced the form. filled it and he signed it.

He also wrote the letter introducing me to the terrible man. 'My final warning he said

Do not make a mistake of entering his office with your present dress. He will consider you to be a drug addict or a demented man. thanked him and left his office, holding the forms I filled and the-letter tightly.

Kwaghtagher was disturbed when he heard that I did not secure the job in the Institute. What made him so worried was that he called me from Ibadan for this singular purpose. I stayed with him in his office till the closing time when both of us left together in a taxi for his house.

While having dinner I told my friend and his wife that the Director had given me a letter to MOHAMMED ALI of ALI Group of Companies. They told me that the company was located on

the way to the airport, and that its owner was infact MOHAMMED ALI

,

MOHAMMED ALI is a multi-millionaire with many private jets and planes Kwaghtagher said. I told them what the Director said I should do to get the job, and enumerated the ethics and codes of

conduct of MOHAMMED ALI. Kwaghtagher and his wife laughed intermittently. Infact, I enumerated the 'donts' because I have not so far known anything that MOHAMMED ALI allowed a person to do, except perhaps drinking water and eating.

Having told them about this, I requested Kwaghtagher to lend me his double-breasted suit and his blue Italian shoe so that could use them to MOHAMMED ALI's office. He will mistake me for a mad man if I go in this outfit I said.

Nancy burst into laughter and said that is absurd. MOHAMMED ALI should know that not everybody can afford good clothes. I told her that from the

information I gathered, MOHAMMED ALI did not care about what people wore in the streets, but he cared about what one wore to his office. Even if you are going to God's office said Nancy, you,

should be allowed to wear what you have. I had no wish to

pursue the argument so I excused myself from them and went into the town for adventure.

My purpose was to locate MOHAMMED ALI's office, or ALI Group of Companies, and know the exact spot where it was. I took a taxi and told the driver to take me to ALI Group of Companies.

'I will not take you there if you want me to drive you into the companies yard' the driver said. 'why?' I asked.

They will burn my car' I heard. 'Who will burn your car?" I asked.

'MOHAMMED ALI's people' I was told. I told the driver that nobody was crazy enough to do such a thing and that if that happened I would help him alert the police who would bring the arsonists to

book.

The taxi driver decided to take a proper look at me.

''You are a stranger here' he asserted. 'How do you know?' I asked. The driver told me that he knew this because I talked of alerting the police against MOHAMMED ALI's people, something I was told was impossible. 'MOHAMMED ALI is above the law' I heard.

I did not believe my ears. This driver was speaking about MOHAMMED ALI just like the Institute's director. Do you mean if MOHAMMED ALI's people burn my car they will go free?" I asked in an aggressive tone wrongly directed at the driver.

They will certainly go free.' he answered in a matter-of-fact manner.

At this moment I nearly cancelled my plan to work under MOHAMMED ALI. What if I get a lawyer and take MOHAMMED ALI and his

agents to court in case of such arson?' I asked. Instead of answering me the driver first of all burst into laughter at the end of which he said 'you are really a stranger. You do not know

MOHAMMED ALI.' somehow I hated the driver for thinking that MOHAMMED ALI was so powerful. I knew that MOHAMMED ALI was not the president of this country and that the president himself could not do what I was being told MOHAMMED ALI could do. 'So are you saying that I cannot take MOHAMMED ALI to court if he orders the burning.

of my car?" I asked with evident contempt for the driver.

'If you take him to court, you will end up in prison instead. And I don't think prison'is a good place for any man' he said. I did not need anybody to tell me that prison was a bad place. I saw with my eyes and felt it with my body. 'I will take him to court if he violates me' I said with finality. 'My brother,' said the driver,

'do not deceive yourself. You will lose in all directions if you make make such a mistake.'

The taxi came to a stop and the driver pointed to a building on my left. That is ALI Group of Companies.' I came down after paying him the fare and took a good look at the Company's

building. There was nothing extra-ordinary about it. I had seen a thousand and one better structures than this. The only special thing was that the entry gate to the Company premises was

guarded by a dozen hefty guards looking very dreadful. As I stood looking at the building, an armed guard detached himself from the others and approached me.

He asked me politely what I was doing around. I told him I came down to know the location of the company since I would be coming the next day to deliver a letter to the managing director. Saying this, I showed him the letter. He warned me to beware of the way I conduct myself around the Company's premises. I heard from him that he was to open fire on me, but that he was persuaded by others to query me first.

'Excuse me' I said 'If this is the way you open fire, then I bet you would soon finish the whole population of Maiduguri town, leaving no single soul behind to work in this company.' The guard told me there was no room for joking, and that it was better I left the company's premises and come the next day with the letter as I had said. I took a taxi from there back to Kwaghtager's house.