LASGIDY LINKS Episode 1 by Adewrites
I resumed to the IT department, an office away from the fund management office that takes care of the finances in the ministry and it was a hell of work moving from one office to the other fixing computers but it’s what I was employed for, I had no choice. This made me more popular in the ministry as everyone tagged me with the name “engineer” and my phone won’t stop ringing from complaints from different departments.
On a sunny Friday when the sun was friendly with the breeze to appease the skin, hunger pouted my mouth and I had to take something.
“you can only get something to eat when you cross to the other side beside the road safety office and make sure you hold enough money or else, you go wash plate o” kola explained.
Kola was the head of cleaners in the ministry, He is a guy with vibes, clean and intelligent, one would hardly know his job in the ministry.
I was about leaving when a lady showed up, tall, nice shape, she was putting on a jean trouser and shirt, she held her iPhone on her hand and passed us by to the finance office.
I was lost to her view when kola tapped me.
” no even go there, na oga DFA (Director of Finance)pikin and she nor dey give face” he said.
” Forget joor she be Rihanna or Beyonce? I poured out.
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“The food sef no sweet, I just go waste my money ni, I for chop bread and beams jeje” I complained to kola, he laughed out loud.
“That’s Lagos for you o my brother” he said.
My boss called for me and I went in to meet her.
“Yemi oga DFA needs you, please go and see him in his office” she said.
” Yes ma, I will be there right away” I replied and headed to the DFA’s office.
” Good afternoon sir, i am Yemi, the new IT guy” I introduced myself to him.
“oh! Yes I am sorry I didn’t recognise you, I have been hearing about how hard working you are, I have been wanting to meet you but its always a meeting to the other, keep up the good work, it will pay one day” he said.
I thanked him for his advice and promised to do better.
“Please meet my daughter Tinuke” he said.
“Hi Tinuke” I greeted.
She raised her head, gave me a fake smile and returned back to her phone
Chai! See fipa.
“Tinuke, you can explain what happened to your laptop to him and let’s see what he can do about it, I have to go now, I will be having a meeting with the permanent Secretary in 10 minutes time” He said, picked his phone and some files and left.
Silence engulfed the room, i waited for words from her but her silent noice was killing me.
“Hello are you there?” I quizzed.
She nodded in affirmation without any word.
shey this one is deaf ni, abi wariz all diz radarada bayii?
“Please I have a lot to do for the day, I can’t plant myself here with you without doing anything, could you please show me the laptop and let me see what I can do?” I exclaimed
Reluctantly, she stood up to where the laptop was, brought it out, handed it over to me and went back to her phone. I switched on the laptop but not came up.
“what happed to it and when was the last time you used it?”I asked.
To my surprise she stood up from the chair she was sitting which was just beside the table I placed the laptop on and moved to the edge of the room before she could alter a word.
“It fell from my hand and I think the screen broke or maybe the lenses” she replied.
I looked at my self, the way I dressed, am I smelling?, I visited my armpit with my nose to see maybe I was stinking or something, what could have made her leave to the edge of the office before replying me, I felt uncomfortable with her action and I was engulfed with anger.
I returned the laptop back to the bag. “I will have to go with it so that I can see what the problem is, I will get back to you later” I explained, I left the office without saying anything further. She shut the door behind me as I walked out.
Few days later, I visited the DFA to give him the feedback of his daughter’s laptop.
” Good morning sir, I checked Tinuke’s laptop and I see that we have to change the screen and the lenses and this will cost us 30,000″ I explained.
“Oh that’s good, please write your account number in this note” he handed me a small paper with a pen, he brought out his phone, I handed it over to him immediately after writing my account number.
” please wait let me transfer it to you now so that you can help me fix it on time” he said and transfered 50k into my account, he told me to use the rest to buy something.
“At least you just saved me from buying a new laptop” he said with a smile hanging on the walls of his face.
” Thank you sir” I said and took my leave.
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“Let me help you with that, how can a lady like you be going to the third floor with two packs of maltina drink, don’t you have guys in your office?” I asked.
She smiled at me and said thank you as she handed over one of the pack to me.
” I am Yemi, the new one and only IT guy in this ministry” I said with a bright smile.
“I know” she replied.
“oh really? How did you know?” I asked as we were both panting on the stairs.
“who doesn’t know engineer unless the person did not have computer in his or her office” she replied.
“So what should I call you?” I asked, she looked at me and said, call me Bukola.
That’s a nice name, I use to have a good friend bearing that name but she is kinda stubborn, Hope you are not stubborn o”, I asked jokingly.
We both laughed out loud, we finally got to her office and I asked if I can have her number, she requested for my phone and I handed it over, she input her number and dialed it, her phone rang.
“i will save your number” she said.
I smiled at her and left for my office.
I heard Tinuke was around, I headed to her dad’s office to deliver her laptop and she just pissed me of with her reaction.
LASGIDY LINKS Episode 2 by Adewrites
Tinuke collected her laptop and complained about how dusty it was, she was not being appreciative and it really pissed me off. I left without saying a word.
Few minutes later, the DFA sent for me, I got to his office and he welcomed me with a bright smile.
“I called for you to appreciate you for your effort on my daughter’s laptop and i want to apologize for her infuriating behaviour, she isn’t like that, she’s a loving girl with a good sense of humour, I don’t know what came over her these days, but I promise you she’s going to make it up with you” He apologised.
I was short of words, i felt honoured., what a humble man, I wore a smile while locking my fingers together.
“its OK sir, she’s forgiven” I replied.
“Thank you, you may go back to your office now” he said.
I turned towards the door to take my leave when I heard…
“Errmh…engineer, do you have anything doing this weekend?” He asked.
I thought for a while and said no sir.
“OK good, I will like to invite you over to my house for my family anniversary get together with few friends, hope my invitation will be honoured” he asked.
Again, my mind went into trance because of the humility that’s sucking up this man’s humanity, who am I to the calibres of the top people in the ministry.
I replied, the honour would be mine sir, I left immediately.
Bukola showed up like a morning sun ahead of me when I was on my way to my office, she was smiling like a rainbow and I could hardly recognise her because she looked radiant and beautiful, she was clad in black pant trouser and tucked in her white shirt which carved her a perfect figure 8, she wore a high heel shoe and her folded natural hair glowed from a far, I met her with a smile.
“Hello beautiful, I like what I’m seeing, I guess its gonna be a beautiful week for me because seeing you on a day like this will definitely lighten up my week” I said seductively.
She smiled.
“I need to get to the archives to get some documents, I will see you later in the day” she said, gave me a wink and left.
I turned 360 degree to have a back view of this diva. It was so angelic, she looked back and our eyes met, she smiled and walked away.
I was lost into the steps of the beauty goddess until Dotun tapped me back to life.
‘Engineer!” he exclaimed.
“On a Monday morning? Your attention is needed at the PS ( Permanent secretary) office joor” he said.
“PS Office ke? What is happening there? Her system is new now”
I asked these questions one after the other.
“You will know when you get there” he said.
Dotun was the secretary to the office of the PS. And this woman doesnt invite without any issue.. Hope I am not in trouble.
I headed to my office to inform my boss, she told me zhe was aware that I should make sure I represent my department well, I didn’t know what she meant until I got here.
But before I went, I checked my dressing, adjusted some pulled out from my tucked in shirt, readjust my tie, I reached for my lab coat, installed some tools In it, wore my gloves, I made sure I was fully kitted that anyone could notice me as an engineer at a glance, I said a little prayer before I set out to her office. She was a very tough woman and she always bully the top bosses under her so who am i?
Female bosses ehn…hmm.
I watched my steps into her office and I was led straight to the conference room right beside her office, to my surprise, I met all the directors of every department in the ministry sitting in a round table, I swallowed hard and I thought I was in the wrong room.
“Who is this?” An audible voice from nowhere queried.
“This gave me a high boiling point.
” That is Yemi, our new IT guy, we were expecting him, please have your seat, you should be part of this meeting” the DFA explained to the whole house.
My tension cooled down as if I was buried into a mountain of iceberg.
“As I was saying, we need to make sure our systems are upgraded so that we can communicate effectively through the internet, His Excellency is expecting our quotation on this project and I would like to hear your opinions on this and how we are going to make sure we stand out among other ministries in the state government.” The PS explained.
Few opinions were made and the general Secretary was penning every point.
“Can we hear from the engineer please? This is his department, so he should be able to give us more information on how to go about it” one of the directors said.
“Errhmmm…I don’t really know what this meeting is all about but with the little I’ve heard, I think the ministry needs system upgrade and a center for central Information Technology and also go ” E”….”
The PS interrupted “What do you mean by “E”?
All ears were opened to listen to my professional explanation, this erupted my confidence and I gave it to them. #winks ok,
“E” means electronic, where we have lesser paper work, a package will be developed by the programmers and this will be used for the daily running of the activities in every department of the ministry.” I explained.
Their reactions was positive, they nodded in agreement, and finally, a six man committee was set up on the project and I was made the chairman, the meeting was adjourned to the 3rd day of the following month and the new committee on the project “system upgrade and management” met for few minutes before we left for our respective offices.
On my way back to my office, I sighted Tinuke ahead of me buried in her phone as usual, I brought out my phone too and pretended as if i was making a call, we walked passed one another by some feet before she called my name, Yemi…
LASGIDY LINKS Episode 3 by Adewrites
“That was immature of you Yemi, you should have answered her, I know she really misbehaved and messed up but you supposed to give her the attention and hear what she has to say, she might end up apologizing you know.”
Bimbo blamed me for my action and guilt traveled down to the depth of my heart.
“Thank you Bimbo, I will handle it” I replied.
Bimbo was the secretary to my boss.
My phone rang and it was one of the committee member.
“Mr chairman, we need to have an urgent meeting by 6.0 clock this evening, please don’t go home yet, because we have feed backs from the assignment given to us and they need to be sorted out”
He explained over the phone.
” OK sir, I will make myself available” I replied.
He dropped the call and that was when I knew I have a lot of responsibilities on my shoulder.
“i think i’m loving my new title (Mr chairman)” I smiled as I was displaying like a cartoon in my office, suddenly I heard someone laughing behind the opened door to my office and it was Bukola Clapping her hands.
“I heard of your temporary title, Mr chairman” she mocked me jokingly, and we both laughed.
” Well, congratulations, I hope you’ll perform up to expectations, they made you the chairman because they believe you can do it, I think this is an opportunity for you to prove yourself to them and make me proud too” she advised.
“Make you proud? That sent a message” I said.
“What message is that, I am going home jare, I just decided to stop by when I heard about your project. Aren’t you ready to go home?” She asked.
“I can’t go home now because I have a meeting with the committee in charge of the project by 6pm” I replied.
“Waoh! I guess I should get going then, see you tomorrow” she said and picked up her back that she dropped earlier and headed for the door, I grabbed her arm from behind to stopped her, looked into her eyes and seduced her emotions.
“You look so beautiful today you know?,” I said and she gave me a nice smile, she replied with a faint thank you, she gave me a hug, pecked me on my cheek and left.
,Oh my God she just did that? But the guilt of not answering Tinuke engulfed me again, it could be the chance to know why she has been misbehaving and also to know her more. I really messed up.
It was time for the meeting and we converged at the meeting room.
“Good evening everyone and apologies for the urgent meeting, it was due to the fact that we have little time frame for this project and we cannot afford to blow the chance. Prior to our last meeting as the committee, we were given some individual assignments to carry out with time frame, but we have other important priorities to sort out as soon as possible so that the process will be going on underground while other activities follows.” Director of internal audit explained.
I made some enquiries on how we were going to install our satellites and masts at the proposed center for information technology from some Chinese experts and the equipments required, during the course of our meeting.
” I realise some of us have to be in China to see the prototype of what we are bringing into the country, if we all agree to this, we will have to chose some members of this committee to go to China for few weeks to confirm this and also make connections with other IT companies over there so that we wont be restricted to only one company”. The director of Technology and facility management explained as he took a sip from his bottled water.
“I appreciate everyone’s efforts toward this project, honestly, you have done it all, without wasting much of our time, let’s nominate the people that will be in China to represent us and we will definitely get to ministry of land bureau to allocate a portion of land for us in the ministry for the erection of the center and also ministry of works and housing to embark on the building as soon as possible because the project has been approved by the governor and we already have the site plan in place.”
I explained further.
” My last meeting with the PS made me knows that we have funds at our disposal in order not to give chances to any form of excuses.”
Director of logistics suggested three people should go to China while the other three should stay back to monitor other activities in Nigeria, He suggested the Director of Technology and Facility management (DTF), Director of Finance (DFA) and me. He explained why he suggested these three people.
“I suggested these three people because the chairman is an IT person and he can relate with the Chinese better than any of us here, the DFA is in charge of the finance so he will be there to regulate things according to our purse and DTF is the facility manager here, I think he should be there too.”
The other members agreed to this, we discussed the movement plan, the accommodation, other minor issues, challenges and the meeting was brought to an end around 7:10pm.
The meeting was adjourned till the next Monday because we needed to give report to house in the next general meeting.
It was late and i was tired already, DTA volunteered to dropped me at Agege, and I took a bike straight to Fagba where I stayed.
I got home 9:35pm, so exhausted and hungry, I was also overwhelmed with the anxiety of going to China. I grabbed a loaf of bread and 200 naira akara at agege before taking a bike.
I devoured without mercy.
I picked up my phone to called Bukola and gist her about the outcome of the meeting, I met several missed calls from my Mum, my brother and from Bukola, also a message from Bukola that says * call me when you get home* how come I didn’t know my phone was ringing, I remembered I put it on silent mode when the meeting was about to start, and mum would be worried now.
I called my mum back, nothing to say really, she only called to check up on me, I ignored my brother and called Bukola.
” Hey baby, sorry I got your message and missed calls, couldn’t pick. I apologized”
“Its fine, just want to check up on you, are you home now?” She asked.
” Yes I am, do you miss me?” I asked.
#OpraDre LASGIDY LINKS adewrites
To be continued…
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