The voice of blood
Episode 16
Ademi got to office and went straight to Mr Emeka's office only for him to see him bow his head and was tapping the table. Ademi was very scared of what will happen, because for his boss to bow his head and was using his finger to tap the top of the table while his leg was tapping the floor, means he is either worried or angry.
So Ademi wanted to sneak out of his office and in the process, Mr Emeka raised his head and saw him 'Ademi! Why did you take so long? You got me worried and i was beginning to think otherwise. So where is it?'
That question landed a blow to his heart. His heart started beating fast. He began to scratch his head and was looking like someone that wants to confess. 'Excuse me sir, there is a problem right now and it's a big one. As i was about to withdraw the money from the bank, I was told that my account had been blocked...'
While he was explaining, Mr Emeka got bitter inwardly, but changed his motive to what the solution could be. He later finalized that he would go for a loan. But then, the unfortunate thing is that, Ademi will be the one to pay the interest.
"Ademi! Enough of your explanations. I have heard you and i have been in that shoe before. But i am disappointed that you didn't get a statutory IDcard at all. Not even one even if it is a driver's license. That alone could have helped the case and I think you know how urgent the money is, but do not worry, i will just go the bank to get a loan.
Now, there is a problem. Bank will definitely get an interest on a loan and that, i cannot pay. The more days we use without paying up, the more interest we pay. So, i am getting a loan on your behalf which means that you will pay the interest. " Mr Emeka said this frankly.
Ademi accepted the offer without even counting the cost. The interest monthly will spend about eighty percent of his salary without pity and that is what Ademi said yes to. He was even happy about it. So he will continue to get twenty percent of his salary only until he was able to resolve the bank issue.
Also, he was going to spend out of the little amount to make all the runnings for a passport. People in his office adviced him to go for a driver's license or a national ID card but he insisted on a passport since he will be needing it to travel out of the country soon. He was going to use one stone to kill two birds.
He went for the passport registration and met another challenge. At first, it was a large crowd. Even when you get to the registrar's office as early as 8am, you will still meet some number of people with names already in the attendance book. Although, the names may be more than the people you can see physically. Not just that, when they begin to register, you may be shocked to hear that after three hours, they have not started registering for today's participants. That they were rounding up yesterday's backlog .
Later again, you will start seeing some people with pot bellies and car keys, jumping queues to get their registration done. And if you dare challenge them, they will shun you one way or the other.
This process got Ademi annoyed and after some days, he decided to compromise and was going to bribe his way in. He did that after all and got his registration done but that was not the end. He was going to wait for some days to come back for his copy of passport.
It was supposed to be few days until it turned to weeks before he catalyzed it by bribing someone. And finally, he got it and that was a done deal.
He couldn't take the passport to the bank that day because of time and so he took it as early as possible the next day. That is when they started their annoying way of verifying if it's original or fake. To Ademi, it was as if the bank didn't want him to withdraw the money because of the way they were behaving and he came ready for them that day.
He wasn't even behaving like a cool guy this time. He looked very upset and stressed. Even the manager couldn't stop pleading 'we are sorry for any inconvenience we might have caused you'
Ademi kept counting the cost for him to get the passport done as soon as possible especially the aspect of breaking his principle- compromise his standards and bribed his way through. That got him bitter and his conscience will not let him rest. That was when that short Manager came in with another excuse. The manager came in with photocopies of his passport and some other documents Ademi brought for the upgrading processes
The manager got Ademi very annoyed when he said that 'Mr Ademi, i am sorry to let you know that you won't be able to unblock your account now because there is another problem from your side you will need to correct. It is just that.... '
Ademi cut short the explanation of the manager when he said that 'Please go straight to the point and stop this long explanation you are giving me' he was so tensed and was ready to roar immediately he heard what the problem is this time.
Watch out for the next episode