04/10/2023
EMBEZZLEMENT, A BIG CANKERWORM.
My mother had visited me in the cell three consecutive times and each visit she had cried profusely without saying a word to me and without looking at me straight eyeball to eyeball but today's visit was different. She looked at me, opened her mouth and called me by a name she rarely call *ENIOLORUNDASI* meaning *PRESERVED* *BY*GOD* . As she called the name tears were dripping down her eyes,though she had an hanky but not bothered to wipe the tears off. This time around I was touched for the first time of all her visits. The name she normally called me are *ENI* , the short form of the name above or *SIMEON* , my baptismal name. So calling me *ENIOLORUNDASI* jolted me to the marrow. She opened her mouth and said;
" I'm not your biological mother and you are not my biological son. I was a woman without a child and you were a baby without a mother. I needed a child and you needed a mother and divinely we were brought together. "
She continued :
"The man I introduced to you as your father is truly your daddy and he is my brother of the same father and mother. We were only two, no others."
She started crying again profusely but continued with her narration. Not that she stopped sobbing before, she only increased the sobbing into serious weeping. With a broken voice she continued;
"I was married before him. Married to a man I thought loved me. I got pregnant a year after our wedding but before that pregnancy, he had started having affairs outside, not with just one lady but several of them.16,17,18 years old girls, Ladies of my age and older ones including those that were very elderly. We started having problems, quarrelling almost everyday. An elderly woman advised me to let him be, I should allow him to do what pleases him. She told me that's what men do,the only thing is some are better. If he is your husband, he will change in future but if you continue to live together like cat and dog,he may kill you one day. I told the woman that;" I won't allow any man to infect me with diseases" And I rejected her advice.
She stopped and looked at my eyes,then said;
"I rejected that golden advice.Had I known I would have listened to that inestimable advice. I rejected it,the next fight we had after the advice, he beat me mercilessly and I developed complications. He rushed me to an hospital, the doctor did a bad job which led to more complications, at the end of everything I lost the pregnancy and my womb was removed. He abandoned me and eloped with another girl."
She paused and said;
" human beings are the same whether man or woman. I was dumbfounded that a girl, who knew what he ( my husband) did to me could runaway with him. The girl was living close to us, her parents house was by the side of our own. She used to run errands for me and I was rewarding her adequately. For such a girl to run away with my husband, I concluded no human being is good and not only men, both are bad. I knew her mother must be aware of that eloping bcos she was not bothered, only the father of the girl shown little concern. I lost hope in everything including life. "
She paused again and resumed gently with a low voice. "But your father stood by me. He was not married then but working in a good place,so he left his house and moved into place. He did everything possible for him to make me be happy. On weekends,he took me out, some who didn't we are siblings thought I brought new husband home."
"I became a Christian through one pastor your dad introduced to me. ( That aspect is another story on it own) . All intending suitors ran away the moment they knew I'm a male dog. I concluded that marriage is not everything, then resigned to fate.
Then, your father married your mother. On the day of delivery, only God knew what happened, your mother gave birth to you successfully and discharged that same day by the doctor of the hospital but in the evening, she started bleeding. We rushed her back to the hospital and she gave up the ghost. No one to look after you but me bcos our parents were dead and your mother's mum was equally *dead* . You became my son. Your father remarried five years later.
The day you and three other co-workers were arrested for a fraud of 30 million naira, I went to him to seek his support.
He told me;
" My sister, SIMEON is your son and not mine. I told you the day you picked him that everything about him depends on you. I have given him to you. His body, soul and spirit belong to you, his success or failure, whether alive or dead, he belongs to you. The problem he found himself was caused by you. I told you, you were not raising him in a good way,you over indulged him,you pampered him and made him a useless person. After all these, you now remembered he has a father. Didn't I warn you the way you were raising him? I'm not his father, I have five other children, who are not thieves like your son. I don't have any money to waste on already rotten boy. See to it yourself. If not for the love and regard I have for you as my sister I would have walked you out of this place. Were you not squandering the stolen money together before his arrest? Go and see to it yourself."
"That was what your daddy told me. He condemned me for loving you, I was blamed for taken good care of you. I did not know he could talked to me that way. I cried but he didn't look at my side, I wanted to say I didn't know anything about the money but before I could say that,he walked me out of his apartment.
I accepted every blame and I'm ready to bear the consequences. I have no other person to go back to apart from your father, no father, no mother and no friends and now that he rejected you, what do I do? You are the only one I have, without you all hope are lost. You are the reason I'm living. Anything that takes you away should take me also. I went to your chairman and I begged him and I told him the story of our lives. He insisted the money must be paid back,that once you pay your share of the money, which he said is 8 million naira, you will be removed from the case. I told him to let me replace in the cell and go to prison for you or even put my life down for you so that I can leave an heir in this world but he said he is neither a lawyer not a judge to know the position of the law regarding that.
How would I raise the money? I sold my house for 9 million naira."
When mummy finished the story I burst into tears and collapsed. I was revived by both the lawyer that followed her and the prison warders. The lawyer said the decision was the only way to stop me from going to a long term jail. The story told by my mother changed some of the inmates.
To cut the long story short I was released and we went to the chairman to thank him. He was surprised we came
I was jobless for five years but something about me changed from the day mummy told me my story; I decided to move closer to God. The church I was not going with her before became my favorite now.
I actually got 6 million naira out of the N30 million we stole but paid N8m back. I wasted the whole money on girls, carousing clubs and buying expensive clothes for them, one naira I didn't give to my mummy. The few months I spent in kirikiri prison thought me big lessons but I have decided to serve God.
Mummy told me she built the house for N20,000 then and the area was like a mini forest with houses scattered inside the forest but it has turned to city during my time. We rented a two bedroom flat. I resumed with mummy everyday in her shop. I became her accountant.One day as we finished our morning devotion, my chairman appeared around 7 am with two hefty men. I thought he was there to rearrest me. My mother was on her knees, I prostrated, he urged us to sit down otherwise he won't talk.Chairman came to offer me a fresh appointment. He told us that the other three settled out of court too by paying back the money when they heard what I did. How the chairman knew our place and traced us, I could not tell. He said our story and the day we apologized to him in his office moved him.
I'm back as a man, married with children. The company has become bigger than before. Embezzlement kills a potential company that would have given succour to thousands or millions of people in future.
That was the story of Mr Simeon Eni Adeyemi, an Ibadan based man.
Nigerians, if we are alleging the government for not developing the country and the few private companies established by Nigerians and foreigners, we embezzled the money, set offices ablaze to cover misdeeds, wasted and killed those companies, how do we grow? Nation building is a joint effort from the government to the business people and the masses. No matter how small you are ,you are a part of the system and your positive contribution is important.Only God knew the numbers of companies that have been killed in Nigeria through embezzlement including government owned establishment. Before you allege anyone, how faithful are you in the position you are today?
I, Yemi,I have vowed to do good. I will contribute my little good quotas before I depart from this world. What about you? Life is really nothing without cares for others and their things too. When you destroyed other people's things you are destroying yourself unknowingly. That is the reason the prosperity of many people didn't last because they got it from stolen money. What have you stolen from Nigeria? What have you stolen from the people? Remember, if you are stealing from the people you are part of the problems of the country.
