Chapter 14

My dear friend,

Good day to you.

There is no wretch or hooligan so evil and ungodly as the man you sent to me for empl- oyment. Although he has a handsome face, his inner self is corrupt, for he has not the slightest respect for the injunctions of Allah. May Allah save his soul.

That wretch is a chain smoker. I nearly died of respiratory problems when he opened his mouth to speak. Smell of cigarette oozed out of his mouth like hydrogen sulphide.

In the same way that he has no respect for Allah's injunctions so also does he lack all sense of hygiene. That ungodly man entered my office carrying sand on his shoes and spreading it all

overmy office. In my very presence he converted my room into a pigsty. He neither had courtesy for when papers fell down from my wife's table, the evil man moped on instead of picking them

up and placing them back on the table. But for you, I could have charged him to court for forcefully breaking into my office

For reasons quite private to me, I am still going to give him this job, but on one condition: he must stop smoking cigarettes from the moment he gives you this letter. My people will keep watch over him for four months. At the end of the four months, they'll report back to me that he has stopped smoking and he will get the job. Do let that enemy of Righteousness know that

my people are watching him.

Yours

Sadiq Said Al Abdallah Ibn Tahir MOHAMMED ALI.

I gave the letter back to the Director. The letter had said I must stop smoking. That was a big headache for me. It wasn't the letter that first told me to stop smoking. I had told myself several

times before to stop smoking, but it has always been in vain. I couldn't easily see how I would be able to conform to the instruction from this terrible person.

Even if I stopped smoking now, I would still have to wait for four months before I could get the

job..

I couldn't even imagine waiting in idleness for four months in anticipation of a job from a tyrant. He could wake up one morning and decide without reason that he was no longer going

to employ me. For all I knew a tyrant like this man could do anything.

If I must be a man of my own, I had to get a job now and bebusy for these four months. I could resign from any job and join him when the time came, but the most important thing for me to

do now was to get a job, and get it fast too.

I still remember that at certain points in Ibadan I looked for job by merely walking along the road and entering any office at sight to declare that I needed a job. I was going to do the same

now.

There are two things before you now' said the Director You either choose to be a smoker and remain without a job in Mohammed Ali's Company, or choose to get a job in his company and remain without being a smoker.' There was an element of irony in the Director's tone which I didn't very much appreciate. Does Mohammed Ali tolerate your smoking?" I asked. He was quick to

answer 'Mohammed Ali does not know that I smoke. If he knew, we would have parted ever since.' 'Why is he opposed to smoking so

seriously in someone who is neither his son nor his relation'? I asked. 'He is a shiitte Muslim. He s a muslim fundamentalist of

the Persian type, someone like a christian Puritan from the New England state' said the Director. 'As far as I know, I said 'the Pope in Rome had not been pestering people about smoking neither had the Imam of Mecca been doing this. There are greater -evils.'

The Director lit a cigarette and said 'Mohammed Ali is a phenomenon. Do not compare his actions with that of others. His standard is different from everybody's!

I left the Director's office and started to trek along the road from the Institute. Just before I could reach Abba Ganaram Ward, my attention was drawn to a big building belonging to

British-American Insurance Company. I went into the company's building and ended up in their General Office. I requested the nearest person around to direct me to the office of the Com-

pany's boss. There are many bosses here' the man told me. I told him that I wanted to see the boss responsible for employing new staff. 'You are looking for a job?" the man asked. 1 nodded.

He laughed and said This Comapny is over staffed. Plans are underway to retrench at least twenty workers now.' I insisted stubbornly that I still wanted to see the boss. He told me to go

upstairs and enter the room on my left where Employment Division' was written on the door.

I did as he said and knocked on the door after climbing the stairs. 'Come in.' I entered the room and closed the door behindme, finding myself face to fa ce with a bearded man in a double-

breasted suit with deep eye sockets. He was very close to a chimpanzee in his ugliness. He asked me to sit down and I sat down.

'Can I help you?' he asked

'Yes.'

What do you want?'

'I am looking for a job'

'You are a University graduate?'

'Yes'

'You read Insurance?'

'No'

What did you read?'

'Economics'

Where were you working before?

'At Holdings Ltd. Ibadan'

Why did you leave that place?"

Here I was in a fix. I was not prepared to say that I left there to serve a prison sentence. The chimpanzee looked at me penetratingly. His eyes gave me the impression that he had already seen

the in and out of me.

You've something to hide?' He asked

'No'

Why did you leave your former working place at Ibadan?

I was silent again.

They sacked you?"

'No'

'Then why did you leave them? For a higher pay?

'Yes', I lied

'You came for a higher pay?'

'Yes.'

'No be sincere. Why did you leave the place?'