As I familiarized myself with the Bento Africa CEO saga online and related to the ordeals of those ex-employees, I too was drawn in between the nostophobia and a deep craving to share my own experience of working in a toxic environment under a boss that suffered from a God complex.

Late in 2018, while I was on break from school, I got a job in a security company. It was an elite company in its own right in that they only recruited personnel who were ex-servicemen. Inspite of the fact that I wasn't a retired military man, the moment I identified myself as a former army cadet I qualified as one and my training experience helped me pass the interview. The pay was good!

For the first month, I was made to stand guard at exclusive events or wherever else the company's services were needed across Lagos. I was eventually posted to my permanent beat in the second month. And of all places, it would be an hotel in Ogun state - new and exquisite. Here, my problems began.

The company's headquarters was a stone throw away from the hotel. This meant that I'll have to be interfacing with the Chief Security Officer almost on a daily basis. Judging by the looks, the CSO was an old man in his late sixties and according to himself, a retired army officer. But myself being a stakeholder once in that sphere, I could discern that his claims weren't adding up.

Whenever he came for his supervision which were usually at erratic intervals, no word was sacred as he would verbally assault any operative for committing the most negligible offence. Although he spared no one from his onslaught of insults and harassments, it wasn't long before this CSO began to pick especially on me. At first, I couldn't figure out why. With time, I discovered the raison d'être was my age. By reason of not being retired, I was the youngest personnel in the company's ranks.

In this line of work, sleeping on duty was a taboo. Moreso, he insisted I also couldn't sit, read, enjoy music, listen to the radio or do anything that could keep me awake. I was always to maintain a standing posture for the duration of my shift and each shift lasted 12 hours. What else, I earned my actual salary only in my first month. Every other month, I was surcharged for one offence or another.

As time went by, his verbal assaults - being unchecked - grew more intense. My pay was still being cut for trivial reasons. I was willing to put up with him for two reasons. First, the pay was good! And second, I knew resuming back to school was a matter of time.

One day, while I was on night duty, he came around. For reasons that I cannot recall, we got into a heated argument and at its climax, when I too had lost my cool, he was ready for a physical confrontation. With an audience of eight more operatives on duty, I simply obliged him. For about a minute, we threw jabs at each other. When we were done we were picking each other's belongings from the ground. He damaged my wristwatch and I destroyed his spectacles.

At this point, I was ready for the worst - if the worst meant losing my job. I can still remember that after a brief moment of calmness and introspection, I began to weep. Not for anything but that I had beaten up an old man my father's age. I wondered if that was all my upbringing meant to me. I was not an agbero but I had acted like one, a thought that grieved me deeply. The altercation of that night unearthed a part of me I thought was safely buried.

Somehow, I was not fired. The CEO of the security company had heard about our face off and decided to let me stay. Unbeknown to most of us, he was privy to all of the CSO's condescending inclinations even though he was seldomly around. Later revelations were that he had only given the CSO the job out of pity because he was old, unemployed and had no children and that the part about him being a retired officer was just a lie he told to maintain a stern and dominating demeanor.

I left after four months. My days subsequent to that event were spent in a peaceful and quiet atmosphere. I would like to think that since that night, he never saw me the same way again. He knew if he pushed me again, I could revolt; if I did it once, what's stopping me from doing it again. His sense of mutual respect was birthed from the ruins of his narcissistic tendencies.

We inadvertently became friends and he promised to always hand me back my job whenever I was on break, but my intentions differed. The pay was good but at the expense of my mental health. A choice had to be made and I never went back.

Interesting. You don't have to be sorry you threw jabs with him in a man to man face off, if he thinks he can handle the heat then let him have it. It like I always say I don't care if you're younger, older, bigger or stronger, if you step on my toes then I must treat your fvckup.....