EMMAWAD

JOB FULFILLMENT It is a widely accepted belief that finding fulfillment on a job comes with the money you get - your 30 day paycheck. One cannot deny the fact that monetary rewards are essential. However, there are people whose frustration with their job has no ties with its monetary value. Some could not care less how much their monthly reward is. What they seek is the inner joy, peace and the drive that comes with knowing that you are attending your 9-5 job. Our example is not so farfetched after all. You walk into a bank on a sunny afternoon and despite the cool air from the air-conditioning system to calm heated nerves, the teller you are queued up with seems so far away and you could see the tell-tale sign of tiredness and frustration from the creased elbow of the attendant. She can’t wait to see you leave the hall as she nonchalantly takes the slip from you and offhandedly tells you to drop the control copy in a box meant for the purpose. You wonder what her problem cou...

THE ORANGE SELLER I had never seen an aboki so fair selling oranges. You could tell that his shelter for a long time had been under the sun. But the fairness was still obvious. He stood there under the bridge with his wheel barrow filled with unpeeled oranges, waiting for descending customers. I was attracted by the yellow oranges and so I walked up to him to sell me four for a hundred naira. And this was how I noticed many things about this man and in turn, learnt something from him. He had mastered the art of orange peeling after so many cuts on his fingers. He peeled them like they were his tender little babies; one in less than a minute. This was not one of those abokis you’ve seen selling fruits. When he asked me how many I wanted, his pidgin did not give him away to any tribe. He sounded like a man of no tribe and had the looks of a middle aged maybe from Chad. He still had his low dark hair with baby curls even though signs of baldness were becoming obvious. He had o...