Current day Politics

Tinubu has changed the national anthem , I haven’t used the old one in over 20 years so maybe there’s no point in learning this one .

I wonder who will win the US presidential elections this year , I fear it might still be Trump despite his conviction .

My UK people , are you tired of Rishi yet ?

Wherever you are , please register to vote ( as soon as you are eligible ) .

That’s all .

Chapter … London JJC days
The guy said I didn’t clean the toilets well, , toilet that I've been washing since boarding school. Well I guess I want a professional cleaner, but that was my first job in London. I was a cleaner in one of the office buildings in London. I had 2 floors to clean very early in the morning, I'd empty the bins, clean desks, vacuum the floors if it was dirty and of course wash the toilets (my least favourite? maybe my supervisor sensed that. I did argue with him, I needed the £5/hr job anyways. It was decent money when I converted it to Mara. My relative got me that job and one kind bros dropped me off around 4:30 sometimes , I lived in their house for free and they didn’t give me any problems. They wont even let me buy bread for the house when I started working. For those people that say Nigerians are wicked to one another abroad, I say you've been rolling with the wrong Nigerians

Chapter X - Interviews again

Interviews can be nerve wracking especially if you are desperate and out of work. Over the years I think I have been in hundreds of interviews , both as an interviewer and interviewee. I’ve gradually progressed from being super nervous to being comfortable and looking forward to interviews, unfortunately recent events have got me worrying about interviews , not so much being nervous about the interview itself , but it’s the anticipation that comes with it. I am pro interviews, in fact I think you should once in 6 months at a minimum. The more you practice, the better and more comfortable you become , of course you need to do your part of self reflecting after each one and thinking about ways to improve.

I’ve had my own fair share of ridiculous interviews , my first few interviews in the UK were all unsuccessful, I think a big part of it was because my answers were very creative , whenever asked any question I’ll just respond with a fabulous story, most British interviewers will not call you out for lying in interview , they leave that to the Americans ( those ones have no chill o ) so be careful with your creativity. The irony is a smart interviewer would always know unless you have practiced that lie so many times than even you are convinced it happened. I have had my share of bold stupid lies from interviewees as well and I never called them out. We just laughed about it once the candidate was done. My colleague used to like having me in interviews. I also learnt to challenge and confront my biases when interviewing people

I soon learnt about the STAR approach and channeled my creativity towards carving powerful responses from my actual experiences , still using my creativity, just not fabricating stories. I remember being asked about challenges of a job and I somehow mentioned challenges in new relationships , I saw a smile on my interviewers face. I got the job o , but it wasn’t only because of that . I was able to find a nice spot between what the interviewer wants to hear and being my authentic self. Not my 100% self , but a fine intersection between things I wont compromise on and what the organization wants. I am also interviewing the organization so if I see any red flags, I'm out. I'm less picky now since my bills don’t discriminate.

My most memorable experience was as an interviewer , I interviewed a fellow immigrant like myself and I could tell they were struggling and needed the job , unfortunately they didn’t do well (at al), I tried so hard to give them prompts without be too partial. The other members of the panel could see that I was visibly upset after the interview, but I don’t think they fully understood why . The interviewee would have required sponsorship to get the job and I would have needed to justify that they had exceptional talent , I couldn’t because their performance was sub par . Best I could do was escort them to the lift and encourage them to keep applying for jobs and wished them the best . I hope they are doing well wherever they are .

The interviewers I dread the most are the over ambitious immigrant , these ones are threatened by you and would do anything to trip you up , their main objective is to show that they are better than you even though you are not competing with them , I mean they already work for the company you are applying to so it doesn’t make sense . I have encountered these people a few times and have even started guessing if an interviewer falls into that category before the interview ( my method is a blanket approach which could be seen as otherwise but it isn’t harmful to anyone ) , it just gets me prepared . I had one recently and from the names on the invite I guessed this lady was going to be difficult , I mean it was like one of those tests that gets harder for each correct answer you provide . In the end I resulted to short answers for this person or just straight up say “I don’t know “ , like I said I am less creative and too old to be lying in interviews.

I have also been interviewed by women I may describe as “ the angry birds” because they were just all angry, from the receptionist to the interviewer, I didn’t stand a chance.

I think I only did 2 interviews in Nigeria and it was all about define this , define that . UK interviews are more focused on what skills you can bring to the job and how you can add value . Americans on the other hand seem to ask for anything and everything , even the things that you don’t need for the job , they’ll ask and boy do they have issues with decision making . I mean you have to do a 4 stage interview and face panel and go to lunch with the team because of a job ?

As we say - we moooove !!!

Chai , dem don dey sell dog on this thread ? Nothing spoil, did the sale go through, Mr seller can I have my commission please ?

I have missed NL a lot, hope everyone is doing alright. It's been a few years since my last post. Thankful to still be alive. This is not a chapter, just a quick post saying I don show.

It's a different season in the corporate world from the last time I posted, at least in the UK and US. A lot of job cuts and for the first time in my life I was made redundant, some people call it layoff or RIF ( reduction in workforce) and I must tell you it has been quite a humbling experience. If you asked me a few years ago I'd have said the chance of this happening to me were slim , we all like to think we are untouchable until life lifes. It is like a right of passage in the USA though, the corporate world and leaders are so focused on profit and cost reduction so RIF is a norm. I did see this one coming though, in hindsight I should have just jumped ship to another organization rather than waiting to collect severance. I say this because jobs have become very scarce now and there are 1000 applicants to each vacancy.

For anyone in this situation, I'd say just keep applying for jobs, and please do not count the rejection emails, all you need is than 1 offer, or 2 so you can negotiate

On the mentoring matter

I haven't had a mentor for a few years now, partly because I was not actively looking and partly because I did not see a pressing need for one . The later is more of an excuse to relax for a bit . Sometimes we find ourselves in this constant cycle of setting goals , working hard towards them , achieving or not achieving , repeat. It can be exhausting , everynow and then a little relaxation isn't a bad reward ( as long as it's not an excuse for something else ).

Gradually I am ending my relaxation period , time to set new goals and perhaps it is time to find a mentor . I think one that looks more like me this time around as I navigate corporate America, things are a bit more polarized on this side so I definitely need that support since part of the culture is still foreign to me . One needs to balance professionalism and dealing with ignorant biases. I cant explain the level of ignorance or is it deliberate disregard for the feelings of anyone other than.

It isn't something I am rushing into though , no point getting a mentor who cannot add value to my journey or me add to theirs , it'll be a waste of their time and mine. This time I am also more prepared so I'll have a list of what I want to achieve and how I may go about it .

I think mentors also benefit from the relationship , I got a call for a very interesting role , it was to head a department and I was very excited , then I asked about the size of the company and the recruiter said global . I knew my chances of securing the role was slim, even slimmer was my chance of excelling in the role , so I said I had someone in mind. Long story short , she got the role and then the company changed the terms so she turned down the offer .

Oh well maybe she didn't benefit from it in that instance , E for effort eh

Chapter Careers

My first official mentor was many years ago when I worked in a bank in Nigeria. The bank had set up a mentoring program and all graduate trainees were assigned mentors within our first year of joining. Honestly I don’t recall my interaction with my mentor, I only met him/her once and that was after fighting hard to get permission to visit them at the head office. Our first meeting was to introduce ourselves and setting expectations, I left feeling I didn’t really need a mentor, I mean I already had sponsors , the same people that got me in will always look out for me if shit hit the fan. This mentor felt like another addition to the already long list of people to say yes ma or yes sir to , I had enough of those already. I didn’t contact them again until I left the bank. In hindsight I didnt fully understand the benefit of a mentor nor did I need one at the time.


My employer in the UK encouraged mentoring, but didn’t force people to have one, learning and development was strongly emphasized but there weren't any penalties for non-subscribers. My first mentor was my old manager , I asked her to be my mentor when she told me she was leaving the team. She was super smart , confident and had mastered the art of breaking down huge problems into manageable tasks. Only 1 or 2 years older that me, she already held key positions in the company and was a rising star. She wasn’t necessarily loved my everyone, but she was respected and knew her stuff.

Expectations were set at the start, frequency of our meetings , what she had to offer and what I was looking for . One of the first tasks was for me to answer the question - "What exactly are you looking to get from this ?" . I must have written an essay with a long list of things - Confidence , effective engagement, communicate convincingly , effective leadership, promotion. We slashed the list down to the most important and started work on those. Every month we would meet, set tasks for me to work on, discuss progress of current task and sometimes just go on a rant about things that were annoying us ( well me mostly) . I found this very beneficial, it was nice to know some of my challenges resonated with her and in some instances she had already overcome those challenges so she had a solution at hand . She left the company after a while , which wasn’t surprising, I had known her moves to be calculated and deliberate, almost as if she had it all figured out ( she'd say she didn’t by the way). Biggest confidence boost for me was her advising me to apply for her job , I didn’t apply but it was nice that she thought of me.

I went without a mentor for another year and then I spoke to my manager about needing one, she recommended another lady. This time we decided to have an initial call to see if we matched each other's expectation. I left that meeting in awe of her, she had reached the peak in finance , managing portfolios of over a billion pounds , did well there and must have just gotten tired of the stress so she moved to my company for a less demanding role. Again we agreed we'd meet once a month, similar approach to my first, but Mentor 2 asked a lot of questions that forced me to be more aware of myself. It wasn’t enough to say this happened, she wanted to know why and what might have caused it . One interesting thing Mentor 2 said was, "You need to figure out if you have outgrown your role and then decide if the next role is in here or outside, either way I'll support you". I did 2 things with that advice , I left the company, but before I did, I helped my unofficial mentee leave the company to get the role he really wanted. I was offered a role just when I was leaving by the way but I already made up my mind.


Interestingly both my official mentors have been female and white, I didn’t actively seek that in my mentors but what I sought was value and in this case it just so happened that they had it . It however meant I didn’t discuss any race related challenges with my mentors or any challenges around females, I somehow felt they wouldn’t fully appreciate the complexities of those matters. These are assumptions I made and are in no way indicative of my mentors' biases.

I've found having mentors very useful, but again one must be clear about what you want and be ready to put in the work . It's not enough to just ask for help without knowing what exactly you hope to gain.

No , you cant say you don’t know, it is your responsibility to know.

Anything goes - Need to get back on here !

This period has got to be one of the most mentally exhausting, we must endure. Took so long to come back here, no excuse really , commitment and consistency can be a challenge. I wonder if that plays a major part in successes of businesses or people in general . I mean before we start anything we already have expectations and measures of success, some of them somewhat overambitious, problem comes when reality doesnt match expectations, then we get discouraged.

I'd be unrealistic and ungrateful if I said this thread didnt meet expectations, honestly I didnt have any expectations, I just thought I'd write for the fun of it and of course I am working on that book that this is supposed to be a tester for ( same content mostly , just a little more refined ). Your comments have been great and helpful, but then came the matter of feeling like I could do more , not a problem in itself until you start to feel pressure instead of enjoyment.

OK end of the rant, time for take 2 , this time no promises, just enjoyment and flow !! No pressure

Happy 2021 people !! Just when we thought we had seen it all POTUS brings out another trick . Thasallfornow

I don't know the chapter - Chapter somtin


Thank you moauk and others for the constant reminders , anything explanation I give now will sound like an excuse so can I just stick to one constant "Me sef I be human being o" , I love that song by MI by the way , one of the greatest if not the greatest Naija rappers if you ask me .

M sent me a message the other day , in case you don't remember who M is, he gave me my first graduate job in the UK and he later became my friend and is still my friend . M is British with european parents so he is a child of immigrants. I suspect he could understand some of my struggles. He had message me previously to check on me during the George Floyd tragedy ,out of all my white friends he was the only one that checked in . I think others were just not comfortable asking.

This time M sent me a message asking for a letter of recommendation, and I was more than happy to write one , in life there are events that occur that shape your life forever , I am one of those people that is community made ( more of that at an unknown date ). Anyways back to the matter - What M did !

The job that M gave me was a fixed term contract , must have been for 18 months but I am not a 100% sure , they couldn't offer me a permanent position because of my visa , so they offered me a role for the duration of my visa, it must have been around the time the UK government changed from labour to conservative . I blame Gordon Brown for calling that woman bigoted . Anyways the conservative government didn't like immigrants , so they did their very best to create an environment that made it difficult for immigrants to settle in the UK. I was on a PSW visa , a 2 year visa you get after you graduate from a UK university and the plan was to move to another immigrant visa , anyways the conservative came and cancelled everything , this meant I was likely going to have to return to the motherland when my visa expired.

I had a meeting with M 5 months before my visa was due to expire , I told him I wanted to resign so I could find a contracting gig for the remainder of my time in the UK . Since I only had 5 months left , I thought the best thing to do was make as much money to start something in Nigeria. M listened and asked if I had secured a contract yet and I said no , I wanted to resign so I could focus on the job search. M didn't think that was a nice idea, he advised me to stay, he said I could stay and keep looking for the contract job , he said I could leave whenever I got another offer.

M went away and spoke to his manager MM and let him know I was thinking of leaving , MM took this info to his own boss, the big boss Mr B .M came back to me to say they investigating what could be done to help me stay in the company . M and MM had meetings with HR to explore the possibility of moving me to a company sponsored visa. HR said there wasn't anything they could do , it was practically impossible and it had never been done before in our region of the company , I knew another Indian guy in another department that had already moved back to India after years in the company because his Visa expired .

M updated me and said they were still exploring the options but they couldn't make any promises because it was looking rather difficult. I continued looking for contracts but nothing came through, my wife and I decided we'd move to Australia so we started processing admission for Msc through an education agency in London.

MM wasn't satisfied with our HR managers explanation , he and M highlighted that because it hadnt been done before didn't mean it was impossible , it just meant it hadn't been done before . They decided to go to someone higher in HR. That person advised them that it'll require hiring expensive lawyers and was very tedious , yes the company had done this in other regions for very specialist role but never in my region.

Things went quiet for a bit , M and MM had different meetings with HR and the lawyers to understand the costs and requirements, it was an expense Mr B had to sign off and it wasn't small change .

M took this as his personal project and did everything in his power , actually they all did , eventually the most important document required , the sponsorship doc and number was issued. Long story short , I got issued a Tier 2 visa a few months before my visa expired and yes I returned to the motherland that year , but only for a 2 week holiday .

M would later say that is one of his greatest achievements , that part of the company hasn't sponsored anyone else since then because of how difficult it is .

I remain loyal to M, MM and Mr B ! I had written that letter as a story on my phone even before he asked

Confession , I stumbled upon my old nairaland account and go carried away using it , I know you are all tired of hearing me apologize everytime but no vex , sometimes we get carried away doing other things some of them things we have no business doing at all but oh well who's judging.

Interesting thing happened a few months ago on Nairaland when wrote a short note on investing , it was more a question than anything , one of my friends had been talking about investing in shares and I had bout 10 shares here and there ,nothing major . A few people on here too commented . Few weeks later someone sent me a message on NL , I had to follow him to receive his message which in turn meant I got notified each time he posts.

One day he posted on a thread on investments , I found the thread interesting and so I read some more , there were recommendations on a few people on twitter giving advice on what stocks to invest in , long story short , I invested some of my savings , I know some people will say it is a bad idea , but ....

My first few trades were smooth I mean I made some money and then I got excited ,there were lots of posts about people making cool money everyday , so I decided to be BOLD, I made a few more trades and viola ! I lost more money in one single trade than all my profit and in the coming days I was down 25% from my total cash injection .

Few things I learnt -

Nairaland has a lot of quality info , you just need to know where to look, a lot of good people willing to share what they know

Dont jump into something you have little knowledge of and hope to succeed without putting in the effort

The stock market is not child's play and like everything else to be successful in it ,you have to learn and be patient, your mindset is super important and sometimes it needs training too

It's easy to get carried away by someone else's story , if they are selling something they don't owe you the full picture , they just owe you enough for you to buy into what they are selling - Turns out some of the idiots on twitter were actually being paid to pump certain stocks

I decided to go back and do what I should have done before trading at all , I did some learning and watched plenty videos on YouTube and continue to refine my strategy .

I'm now 15% up from my total cash injection. Am not an expert and I can't recommend any stock but I'll say for anything you want to do take the time to research and put in the work .

Back again

OK let me apologize again for the last break and all future breaks, like everyone else, it is difficult to remain consistent and honestly my style of freestyle writing didn’t read like I wanted it to, maybe I am overthinking it ( maybe it is just me who cant be consistent and write daily) , so I am back to planning the flow in my head and letting it crystalize before grabbing paper and pencil. Anything goes remains anything goes though.

Wow a lot has happened since my last post, ENDSARS , US elections, Covid on the rise, let's continue to keep our heads up , las las we go dey OK, but of course there is plenty work to do.


I got asked about How I got to the US, I think the question was more about how did I get a visa - Chapter XI

I'll say it's luck by birth, yes I could have been luckier to be Bill Gate's son , or maybe a Dangote but anyways I was lucky that my brother and sister were born in the US , this meant that when they turned 21 they could petition for their siblings ( me and my other 3 brothers) to become US residents, so they did. I hope POTUS doesn’t change this law , perhaps this is why many of my people still see giving birth to a child in the US as a good investment. Personally, I think it a good investment for whomever can afford it.

The application itself is straight forward I think, you pay a fee, list the names of siblings and parents and some other info , then you wait , and wait , and wait , I am not exaggerating, it is like that line in Amaka "I don wait you sote, I don dey lose weight o", I think the waiting period is 10 - 15 years , it's not really something you can plan your life around, well at least I didn’t , I was excited when the application was put in but after a year or 2 you realize life must go on , so I just did that.

Anyways about 13 years later we got letters saying each person could start their application for an immigrant visa, so you fill the forms online , pay a fee and then upload the necessary documents, a lot of back and forth here, the customer service and processes of these immigration/ visa processing centers is terrible , it is like dealing with robots , they reject a document, you send an email, you get an auto response saying your email will be responded to in 14 days, on day 12 you get a response that provides a link stating all the reasons why your document was rejected and then you need to figure out which one of the 17 reasons ( I feel the need to remind us here that this visa wasn’t free !) , anyways after multiple email exchanges I decided to call , well this time around it was a 21 min wait on the phone to speak to someone and then you had to beg them for information, it was exhausting !


After all documents are accepted, there is another wait, maybe a few months and then you get invited for an interview , I think there is another fee here too , some document gathering required here too, immunization info birth cert, document from the petitioner etc. I had the option of interviewing in my home country or country of residence and I just chose my country of residence , no need travelling all the way to the motherland because of interview of 5 mins. Medicals was another matter, well I didn’t have my immunization info readily available so I had to take shots all over again, of course I had to pay for medicals, some shots were available on the NHS so they were free, other I had to pay for. Interview was straight forward, a few questions about the petitioner, a question about how I moved to the UK and stayed etc , I think there was another wait of 7 days before my passport and visa got delivered. Initial visa was due to expire in 6 months, imagine waiting for 15 years and then you get a visa that you must use in 6 months, yes just up and go , 6 months to wrap up and move your life. To be fair, most people started putting things in order once they get the letter to apply for the visa, I didn’t . I was already loving the UK so the whole thing was more of a back up plan in case things didn’t go as planned in the UK. A few months later I visited the US with my immigrant visa. I wanted to get a feel for the land again.


The bad customer service carries through to the immigration officers , no smile just straight face asking you 21 questions , I don’t remember most of it but they took my photo, scanned my 10 fingers and let me in. I had to go and register for my social security a few days later, it was nice to see some of my family members that I hadnt seen in a long time, some of my siblings from Nigeria had already arrived as well, I suppose they were more keen than I was.

I wanted to get a feel for their job market so I applied for about 10 jobs in my field , these were direct company applications, you know those annoying ones where they ask for your CV and then you have to answer 40 other questions , most of which are already on your CV. I got responses from 2 recruiters asking to inform them of my availability for a telephone interview, I think 1 of them didn’t like the fact that I only gave then a slim slot so I only got a call from 1 of them, the phone interview went well , it was your standard why do you want this job, what skills do you posses, a week after that they scheduled a face to face interview.

I enjoyed driving in the US, roads were bigger than our UK roads with not as many round-abouts, I found that people were not as warm as I was used to, there was this frostiness I couldn’t understand, yes I was in a predominantly white state but still … I returned to the UK 6 weeks later to continue my life, I withdrew from the job application, 1 week was too long in my opinion to get back to someone following a telephone interview. All in all I wasn’t convinced I wanted to move to the US

Caveat - I apologize to anyone who has asked me for some kind of help or another and I haven't been able to because of my anonymity, I think it helps me remain true to telling my story without worrying about myself or how people may judge me , the story is more important that my identity and honestly it is more fun that way. All I am trying to say is no vex I am not ignoring you , I just am not able to if it requires me revealing my identity

Anything goes

I am ashamed to say I was really excited when Sai Baba was elected in 2015, I had my own spreadsheet tracking the results and all of that , in my mind no one could do worse than GEJ . I think around middle of 2016 it became clear that the change we sought couldn't be delivered by Sai Baba , it just felt like the president was losing steam , the initial optimism and excitement started changing into doubt .

The last election was surprising , not surprising that he won the election , given Atiku was his main opponent I couldn't imagine anyone else winning , the suprise was that all the younger candidates had insignificant votes . Yes they would have done better if they formed a coalition but even at that the person that had the 3rd highest vote got about 110k and that was because his party was similar to PDP .

Imagine the trickery in Lagos , I got carried away with the initial steps Sanwaolu took, I actually started to like him for a minute, but of course the leaders are back to doing what they know how to do best , turn a deaf ear to the cries of the masses , hire a few trouble makers and give them crumbs out of their loot and then use force.

All my people on the streets protesting , please be careful and don't face trouble in small groups , go to only sensibly organised protest and stay safe !

Recent events and the arrogant display of ignorance by our leaders hammers home the need for major change , the kind of change that requires strategic planning and implementation, it is clear that this is not a PDP or APC matter , this is a matter of finding credible leaders . No, I don't believe everyone is the same and anyone elected will embezzle and abuse power . I however believe that for change to happen credible people have to come forward across board.

I think this is the right time to start thinking about the 2023 elections , we need to find enough credible people and get them elected so that there is a major shift in the status quo .

I remain hopeful !

Anything goes

Just wanted to hail my people on this ENDSARS matter , it's about freaking time we came together with one voice to condemn this oppression .

Everyone protesting in one way or the other , thank you !!!

kneehighbootz:


Can I ask a question? Why did you leave the UK for the US? Didn't you like it in England?

Sure you may ask , I am afraid there is no grand answer to that .

Honestly it was a combination of things , I do love the UK, Scotland more than England if you ask me but hey who's asking . I left because I could leave , go and explore and return if I didnt like it.

It was something I always wanted to do and the timing was right .

Just because anything goes

There usually isn't space at the table, stay there and keep prodding until you see a crack , push your hand into that crack and keep pushing .

Eventually the crack will expand until you get a seat and when you get a seat , irrespective of how long and how hard it was to get the seat , work harder to prove you deserve to be there.

Then remember that there isn't usually space at the table , create space for others too, you don't have to give up your seat , just move over , just a little .

First work impressions - US of A


I was more experienced and I'll like to think more mature here. I went into work with a lot of enthusiasm , I tried to get a good idea of what I was expected to come in to do so I had a rough plan in my head , as usual I thought I was going to come in and do some good work. I chose to spend the first 2 weeks at the main campus so as to connect with my stakeholders .

My manager was very friendly and nice , I sensed that during the interview so it made my decision to accept the offer easier . Onboarding was standard , a lot of meetings where I got to meet people and have them size me up . I make an effort to be more outgoing during my first few weeks ,you could say I learnt from my experience at the retailer . I spoke freely with people but paid a lot of attention to the unspoken words . A few people were friendly , others were indifferent and there were a few grumpy people but that was expected .

Based on what I've seen I'll say corporate America is very cutthroat , I find myself having to prove myself and justify my being in the room , now I don't know much about the culture to put a name to it but I am sure I do not have imposter syndrome , I cannot tell you if it is because I am black or if it is because I am in a position where my success is measured by my ability to effect change and dependent on how much buy in I am able to get . I know effecting change is exhausting , I know because I have done it before , this is a whole new level of resistance, I am actually having to break things down or should I say dumb things down for people to agree .In some instances I've actually had to let things fail as long as the impact to the customer is not severe .

Could this be because I am black ? I dont know o, my default assumption is not race , I tend not to assume that people react a certain way to me because of it , I think it's a slippery slope and to be honest for a black person in a predominantly white space , worrying about by fine black skin shouldn't be my problem , if their parents didn't raise them well , well that's on them .

Current day

Many thoughts and emotions running through my mind today , seeing a lot of posts , videos , messages that take me down memory lane, the mind is just bouncing back and forth so why not write what I am feeling
-

Nostalgia, I miss the Nigeria I grew up in, playing football , table tennis , table soccer , Catcher , Police and Thief , I miss riding my bike on the street with friends . Buying puffpuff , buns, suya or even stepping down with garri and vegetable.

Fear , that our leaders are so short sighted and greedy that they would continue to loot until the poor turn against them to collect what is theirs. The country has been struggling for years and the change in government hasn't helped , it's just a change of batons among clueless thieves. If there hasn't been a solution and way forward until now , would there ever be?

Thankful , that I am lucky enough to have left when I planned to and pursue what I believed was a better option , thankful that however challenging the path of that option , it has proven to be better , not without its obstacles but still better .

Hopeful, that one day soon , Nigeria will achieve the greatness that we hope for , that the citizens will live in comfort and not poverty , that healthcare will be available to all and people can go about their lives in happiness without fear of someone coming to attack them irrespective of their tribe or whatever they believe.

Total respect , for my brothers and sisters , the ones who remained in the motherland whether by choice or by force , the ones who are figuring in out , hustling everyday to make a living despite the obstacles. In spite of it all they continue to smile and remain positive . I hail !

Current day

Well yesterday's presidential debate was cringeworthy, I couldn't even bring myself to watch more than 2 minutes of it. Reminds one of the last presidential election in the motherland , choose the better to 2 evils .

The fun has commenced !

Still on my bank job in the motherland

Heirachy in the Naija bank job was an interesting one , you had seniors by grade and also by age, both commanding some kind of respect. No I didn't anyone older than me their names , it was either MR A , MRS B , their nickname or their job title . I must not also forget senior by money , so you had the old drivers and dispatch riders showing smallee like me respect . I never took them for granted though, I understand that someone's financial position is not always a direct consequence of their action or inaction , I however also believe something somewhat contradictory , while the end result sometimes isn't a direct consequence of your action or inaction , you must do your very best to improve whatever situation you find yourself in .

Everyone was useful in their own special way and as a result it's important to treat people with respect. The OND contractors taught me the art of counting money ( I don't get why these folks weren't given full time contracts ) . The security man would help collect the phone number of fine girls which in turn meant I would let some of his customers jump the queue . I didn't really need this since I already had a steady chic at the time ( bankers and women is story for another day), the cleaners would get food , the dispatch rider would do on interesting journeys that even the manager didn't send him on . When it came to raising money to put in my account to show I could pay my school fees , a few people were willing to lend me the money for a short while . I learnt the importance of building relationships , trust and loyalty, everyone has their day !

Work life cont'd

I eventually made a started talking to a few people , I noticed an Indian lady that was usually on the same train as me so I just walked up to her and struck up a conversation. In case you are wondering I didn't have any ulterior motive , I just thought well we might as well chat since we both do the 20mins walk from the station to the office. Turns out her parents were part of the Indians chased out to Uganda by Idi Amin ( some of you may remember that bloody movie ).

There was also a new lady in my team , she was a more experienced Test Analyst and yes she too was of Indian descent , I have this thing about making new starts feel welcome , I guess it's because I know how nerve racking it can be being the new man / woman. I and her had an OK relationship , she was impressed by my mannerism , apparently it reminded her or her partner .

She also complained about the money being crap , she earned more than me but it was still a major pay cut from her previous role . She had been a contractor for years and her lifestyle and spending habits matched , this meant she couldn't afford to be out of work for too long .

I learnt a few things from her , I find that people are happy to teach you things as long as you are truthful and humble , there are exceptions though , some people are just mean. We both were constantly looking for other jobs and will often leave our desks to take calls from agents. She also helped with updating my CV , I never say no to someone reviewing my CV , it's something that requires constant work.

I didn't have a problem with putting in extra hours , while I was getting paid for it , it also showed that I was hard working and willing to go the extra mile when the time came.

Perhaps the most memorable part about working there was how they fired one of my colleagues, they called everyone else into a meeting and then told us , there wasn't really a meeting , they just wanted to save the employee the embarrassment of being marched out in front of everyone . What I mean is someone stayed with her while she packed her things , we were working on live systems so they didn't want to risk the disgruntled employee wrecking the system or stealing info.


I'm trying a new style to hopefully keep the writing more consistent , I apologize for the long break , with this new style I just type my story on my phone as it comes , it's less structured but hopefully is still as engaging

Work life - Somewhere in England

The feeling was quite different for this one , my first white collar job in 'the abroad' , after over 50 applications , some of them involving filling lenghty application forms with lots of JAMB questions , psychometric tests, phone interviews all ended with rejection letters, "We are sorry". I landed a contract role. It was for 6 months as a Test Analyst in the IT department of a large retailer. The pay wasn't great but I kept telling myself this role will lead to a better one . For context this role paid £8/hr , which is £64/day compared to the £200 to £400 day rate other companies paid for the same role. I'll write about the process that led to securing the job when I jump back to the interview section .

I think I'll summarize the way I felt as positive and hopeful , I was at home at the mercy of factory agencies for about 4 months and I had a fixed deadline. I still owed my school £13,000 and if I didn't pay up they wouldn't issue my certificate, without the certificate I couldn't get the 2 year Post Study Work visa I needed to remain in the UK. I was at risk of returning to the motherland without a job , a certificate or even money, in 2 months!

I know , right , WTF ! Let's blame it all the youthful Naija mindset , you know that feeling that you can conquer the world and achieve anything you put your mind to . I'm humbler now , perhaps that comes with age and I know even superman gets weak sometimes .

The commute to work was about 1 hour each way , a combination of walking , a short train ride and then some more walking . This was during winter and sometimes I'll see my fellow pedestrians slipping and falling on ice, man must survive.

Oh well back to work , my new team was predominantly white , it was a team of about 20 and I was the only black person there so I didn't form an instant connection with anybody. In those days I assumed anyone that looked like me ,thought like me , therefore I gravitated towards my own kind.

The on boarding process was standard , I shadowed 2 ladies, an English and a Chinese for about a week before I started work proper. I didn't really talk much and I didn't smile often so people just left me alone in my lane. My manager had just been recently promoted into her role and she came across as either timid or just afraid of me , it was so bad that even though I sat across the desk from her , she'll rather email me instead of walking over for a quick chat. There was also another guy that worked with the databases I shadowed him as well. That stupid guy tried me ehn, he would ask me to pick things up from the printer , I didn't think much of it at the time and to be fair he was older, but this was corporate UK and I wasn't there to serve him .

My initial review wasn't impressive , this was after about 1 week, apparently because I didn't talk much they just assumed I didn't even understand what they were explaining to me . I mean anytime the database guy explained something to me I'll just say OK ,when he asked if I had questions , I said I didn't. In honesty I didn't have any questions because I didn't have any . Feedback I got was whenever someone explained something to me I should replay it to them in my own words so they knew I had a full understanding of what they just explained. I countered the argument by stating it was unfair to assume I didn't understand if they didn't give me an opportunity to demonstrate my understanding .

Gradually I started replaying what was explained to me , they started giving me more tasks and I continued to surpass their expectations , I was hungry for work and I had to impress them so they'll extend my contract .

Another Indian girl joined the team but she didn't last more than a week , she joined when there wasn't much work so she thought she had hit jackpot , free money, she was never at her desk . She was mostly downstairs chatting with her Indian brothers and sisters so they just fired her. Did I mention there are a lot of Indians in the IT world in UK ?
Anyways lesson from there was stay at your desk , if there is no work just open a document and read , you can read the same thing for a week if you like, have BBC or a sports website that you can flip to when no one is looking .

It wasnt long before they started thinking highly of me , I remember the IT director coming to introduce himself and saying he heard about the good work I was doing . People still didn't talk to me much though , I gave the wrong first impression and it just stuck , I was that guy who kept to himself.

Someone can go to Alagbon to get the form for your dad , take it to him to complete , the only part that can't be done for him is finger print on the form , once that is done , someone can submit for him too.

ladyprosper:
Please someone should answer me. My sister filed the f4 visa for me since 2013, just yesterday she got a mail from Uscis or so asking for additional information. My question is this, does it mean that my case is now active and long does this process take.
My second question is about my father, he has been asked to go to alagbon police office and I will like to know if someone can do this process for him.

Yes, prescription medicine is free in Scotland, you may want to travel with meds to last you for at least a month after you arrive so you don't add that to your settling down worrying , just get a prescription or letter from you doctor in Nigeria to back it up. Best of luck !

sjj3:
Hello my people, please, I just got offer for master in 2 UK universities, one in England and the other in Scotland. My issue is that I have just been diagonised to have High blood pressure and currently being placed on drug. Though is like border line hypertension and have started doing all possible to ensure I manage the situation and if possible be off the drug before the resumption time in January, 2021 but I have been warned that I will still have to be taking the drug even if I'm able to put the BP under control. I understand NHS payment is for health management but I'm confused if the payment will cover prescription or not since I will still have to be taking this drug even in the UK. Also, I read somewhere that I don't need to pay for prescription in Scotland while it is mandatory in England. I don't know how far this is true or not. Please, I need your advise as regard this. Thank you.

Still on work life

My new shiny suit got torn during my first 2 weeks , you can imagine how irritated I was , I just concluded my branch was cursed , I was just trying to board a bus to go home , I am struggling to find the right adjective for the bus , I think the Naija phrase 'any how ' comes to mind , it was an any how bus with any how seats , with any how metal that caught my new suit. I still don't know why we needed to wear suit to work in that heat , I mean was it really necessary . I know this is a lot of moaning but remember I detested that branch .

In hindsight this was a very immature mindset to have , this affected my enthusiasm at work and also how I related to customers , I just didn't want to be there . The customers didn't really care if I liked the branch , they just wanted their money paid or withdrawn in the shortest time possible . Oh my, they were quick to rain insults on bad network or long queue days.

One of the things I did subconsciously at the bank was study people , I'm very comfortable being quiet when I meet people and this sometimes make others so uncomfortable they try to talk throughout, in a few weeks I knew who was liked and not liked in the branch , there were tribal affiliations and a few clicks , we the younger ones didn't really have different clicks, we just vibed , who has time for work fight ?

In a few weeks I also realized I didn't need a degree to do my job , I mean yes my degree got me the job but none of the things I learnt at university was needed for the job . What was needed was common sense , computer skills , attention to detail and being able to empathize with the customer and being a good judge of character so you can spot the customers out to defraud you. Imagine the difficult entrance exam and interview I had to scale through , oh well life went on .The first salary came and it was good to have 100k in my account , not that it was my first time having that type of money but this was going to be steady , every month ! In Nigeria !

Chapter X , work life

First week at the bank

I remember day 1 at the bank , it didn't start well , I had to go to the area office to get my branch assigned , I somehow thought it would be wise to get there within the time window specified on my letter , of course my sharp colleagues had gotten there way ahead of me and had first dibs , I ended up being assigned to the worst branch in the area , about 40mins on the bus from my house and in a very tough area. The excitement of my first day quickly vanished , I tried to use my connections to get reassigned but it was a done deal , even though the area manager was friendly , his PA didn't appreciate me name dropping . I learnt a lesson from that - never name drop unless it is absolutely necessary and also only do that with the decision maker .

I got to the branch around 10 am , the younger members of staff were friendly , the older ones not so much , as if they were threatened , a few months later when the bank had to lay people off , their fears made sense , a lot of them were panicking , even though the bank hired them when they just had secondary school leaving certificate and in some other instances primary school , the bank expected they'll have miraculously found time to get a degree despite their tasking banking job , these people had an average of 15 years experience under their belt . I'll talk about the lay off on another day .

Interesting experience at work , someone or some people start testing you from day 1, on day 1 , I was asked to get drinking water for one of the cashier's , this wouldn't have been a problem in itself , but the older person that asked me then asked other people if they wanted water too. I gladly got the water for both of them . That didn't last though, I quickly blended in and became their friend , even though I was younger I could tell them that I was busy in a friendly way.

I don't know where I got the courage but I asked my manager for permission to take my Oracle exams , I had to miss my last month of Oracle training to attend the 4 weeks orientation for new starts . My manager allowed me leave early for my first week , the Head of Banking didn't like that , in his mind I wasn't ready for work . I didn't mention that the Oracle training cost N200k and I was really passionate about it . Well he got over it and I passed my OCA and OCP exams.

I was so scare when I started working on the bank , the fear of shortage or the fear of receiving fake money , you learn about accountability and ownership in Nigerian banks , any shortage or any fake notes you received is your liability and not the banks.

There really wasn't any need to be scared , the shortage and fake notes didn't come , well they didn't come until later .

Back to the motherland , I just have been gone for 6 or 7 weeks , I can't remember, I can't even check my passport to confirm , back in the day you could just tell the bros or sis at the immigration desk the date you wanted them to stamp . Imagine me feeling smart when I was able to get my passport stamped for £5, one sis was waiting for me in front she just stopped me and said show me today's stamp on your passport ! Yep I had to pay another £20 , welcome to Naija . The irony of it all , everyone complains about corruption but we all benefit from it one way or the other . One of the first things I tried to sort out was to get another visa , UK was an eye opener , I had to go back .

I went back to uni to finish my final year ,
Outside of school I was doing some business by the side , just standard buying and selling and helping with my parents business or should I say trying to prevent their workers from stealing what was left of the business. I sold things like mobile phones , perfumes , shirts mostly from UK , I had seen a few items on sales when I was doing my shopping to return so I bought them , of course I didnt make enough money for my next ticket but I made some money.

My visa renewal was uneventful , after the first time I easily secured a 2 year multiple visa , the problem was money for my ticket , by the time I was ready I didnt have enough , return tickets must have been about 150k at the time , my parent sponsored my first ticket so I couldn't really go back to ask them , this time around I planned to stay for longer than the last time and maybe find some under the table work , but again I didn't have money .

I started to ask around, looking for someone to lend me 100k for 6 months , I was hopeful that I would get a job this time around even though I didn't get one the first time .

Still here , sorry for the rather long break, I was supposed to plan out the next few stories and introduce Dan and Obi , then I got carried away with life. It's election time in the US. I haven't been here that long so a few things are still strange . I think the saying politics is dirty must have been gotten from the US. I mean the ads they run in the name of campaigns are just straight up mean. Name calling and major accusations , I only just noticed that some messages in small print, that's usually a clue that they are trying to mislead you. Oh well hopefully they get it right in November .

OK I'll get back to writing my story shortly.

In a few weeks it was time to return to the motherland, the trip seemed shorter than it actually was, that usually happens when you are having fun . I don’t remember having fun though , but I had a better appreciation for the abnormalities that I previously considered normal . Imagine not having to worry about NEPA and being able to plan your journeys without putting in 3 hours buffer for traffic. I did learn a few things , some of them listed below

1. Telling a lot of people that you are travelling can be expensive as there is an expectation of gifts when you return, it doesn’t matter if you worked or not . I resorted to buying items from Poundland and other cheaper stores, most things of that value are very low quality and even though the total I spent was significant , the sum of the appreciation was insignificant. Now I travel in stealth mode ; I know you think it is selfish but …

2. What makes these countries more appealing are the values, laws and regulations they live by. People of all nations will definitely misbehave if there are no consequences but introduce a non negotiable fine of 50k for anyone that drives unlawfully and you will see magic on our roads .

3. Things that appear to be loop holes/ foolish could easily get you into trouble - I heard of people got sent back because they tried to use a fake bus ticket

4. It could be really challenging if you don't have the right papers , being an immigrant without the right documents limits your chances significantly

I went back to Nigeria with a resolve to restrategize and plan my return

Olalekank:


Thanks for this post
It really resonated with me

The society rewards flamboyance regardless of how you make your money. I’m still young and making legit money but opportunities Abroad though unlimited, has some limitations as a result of being Nigerian. I’ve seen cases where friends or Nigerians online lost remote jobs simply because we are Nigerians.

I really do hope we can change the mentality of rewarding fraud, flamboyance, “smartness”.


Did you consider introducing yourself that you’re from Lagos rather than Nigeria?

I hope so too.

Lagos didnt cross my mind, Ghana and a other West African countries did though, in the end I thought I'd be doing myself and my forefathers a great disservice by disowning my motherland.

TheBlessedHero:
Mehn! your story will be good for documentary or some kind of biographical movie. Simple and engaging.

Do you think it is beneficial for someone moving to abroad "permanently" in his/her thirties for the first time for the purpose of "greener pastures?"

if not, why? if Yes, what are the challenges such immigrants will face?

Thank you for the kind words.

Caveat - This is my opinion o

It totally depends on a lot of factors, things like are you single, what stage of your career are you at, how would you rate your state of affairs , what country you plan to go and your proposed status at point of entry.

I personally think the older you get, the more challenging it is to settle into a different country. There are things you need to adjust to and older people are set in their ways because it has always worked for them.

There is the challenge of getting a job , this could be easy or not depending on whether the knowledge and skills you have acquired are transferable e.g it may be easier for a good computer programmer or excellent teacher to get a job than a good bank manager . Certain skills are globally recognized and some others are specific to the region.

There is the cultural challenge too, some of the values and beliefs could be different but one must adjust to stay sane.

Depending on how socially active you were, you may struggle with unless you have a circle of friends in that country, technology has however made that bearable at least.

Depending on where you go, there is the small matter of the weather .It can get really cold in some places.

There are certain countries and cities I would stay away from because of their human rights reputation, racism etc

I like your second question better , because I think ultimately it is for your to decide whether it will be beneficial for you or not based on information available to you The second question is asking for some of that information.

Hope this helps.

Fellow Nairalanders who have lived abroad, please chime in !

More questions than answers : Chapter Anything Goes


Throw back to when " Yahoo "was in its infancy ,it must have been at the start of the new millennium , a lot of us didn't even have email addresses at the time , but somehow credit card numbers had started going round, mostly card numbers of strangers , but a few names were recognizable. In the cybercafes those days , people used the cards for various things , from porn to exam registrations to buying airline tickets , it seemed like harmless fun at the time , if you didn't know the owner of the card then it didn't really feel like there was any harm done to a real person and when the conversation got heated this explanation always came up - "We are only taking back what is rightfully ours, call it reparation if you like , for all the exploitation of our forefathers , there is nothing wrong with what we are doing ". Fraud had been on going before then , each area had a bros/sis who was a 419 and a lot of us had friends who had uncles/aunties abroad that were involved in one type of runs or the other.

Gradually Yahoo became more popular and the cyber cafes got fuller , all different types of runs evolved and so did the reasons and justifications , even the police became aware of this new found area of opportunity . The justification and reason now became rooted in poverty or should I say the state of the nation. It is poverty that made an 18 year old defraud people and use the proceeds to buy a nice Honda and move out of his parents house and into a hotel , it's that same poverty that made him customize his plate number . This same poverty that the police man on the street blames when he is collecting bribe , the same poverty that the lecturer blames when he is selling handouts and when he asks girls to pay in kind when they cannot afford it. If it is poverty, is it moral poverty as opposed to financial poverty or our favorite answer of all; all of the above ?

But we were raised to be morally upright, parents would beat you silly just for telling a small lie, you were as good as dead if you were caught stealing or taking something that didn’t belong to you, it however feels like all of those teachings are forgotten the older we get or is it that our realities become different, there is no fear of punishment from parents anymore, perhaps the temptations are greater.


Talking about temptations, I remember someone was offering an American citizen $10k to travel to the US to pick up documents , after I found the American citizen the client changed his mind , apparently the job was already given to someone else but they had another job if my American friend was interested , this time it was to carry drugs for the same amount . They tried to convince me by saying they would provide insurance ,tell that to my distant relative serving a life sentence in Hong Kong , she thought she had insurance too . After my first London trip an area aunty who traveled to London frequently wanted me to notify her before my next trip. Rumour had it that she was a drug carrier, and even though there was the temptation of quick money and buying a nice car to cruise around with babes, I didn’t tell aunty when I was going on my next trip, if I wasn’t discouraged by the number of times I got stopped and questioned on my first trip , stories of people that got caught was enough deterrent. No, the deterrent had nothing to do with the lives being destroyed by drugs, I didn’t entertain the thought that long. Imagine a young me then in my Mercedes or BMW or Audi, imagine being the envy of the area with girls just falling over me and boys hailing me, oh the temptation !

In the midst of all our morals is a fundamental part of our culture, the need to be celebrated and respected ,even being envied. To have many flashy cars, acquire more wealth than one whole generation requires and for what ?

When I worked in a bank, there was a fraud that was attempted, this was carried out by a colleague in another branch but at the same grade as me, Executive Trainee or Graduate Trainee. Based on requirements the suspected colleague couldn’t have been more than 28 years old at the time. Wait for the amount ….. 4 bn. I will spell it out just to be clear Four Billion Naira , I still have goose bumps even thinking about it . That kind of money was enough to run down even a legacy bank and they almost got away with it. They had succeeded in moving the money into various account, the main challenge was getting the money out. I heard some of the money was used to buy many cars, different products and they successfully withdrew millions. I will stop here because this post isnt really about the details of the attempted fraud but questioning why we commit fraud in the first place. This guy couldn’t claim this was about poverty because he was already in what could be considered a decent job for months and he had a somewhat bright future - at least he till till he tried to f**k it up. There were frauds committed by other colleagues, even some people I respected, well most of the got caught, imagine the freaking audacity they had coming into work everyday knowing what they had done. Was I tempted to commit fraud when I worked in the bank ? Honestly the answer is No, I wouldn’t do anything that could jeopardize my freedom , I was also older at that time and knew there were many ways to make clean money . I am not claiming the moral high here but anything that could potentially harm or destroy the lives of other people is something I steer clear of.

People's lives do get impacted and in some instances the impact is severe, people have been know to lose their lives savings to fraudsters and subsequently not being able to cope with the aftermath, others have lost opportunities simply because they are Nigerian, I did consider introducing myself as anything but Nigerian at one point, this was during my early years abroad where people would make snide comments when I told them where I was from. One of my direct reports told me how he sold his Play Station 2 online and when he said he shipped it to Nigeria, I started laughing . It really wasn’t funny though because until he met me, that was the only experience he had with dealing with a Nigerian, he got defrauded and then they sent him a separate email asking him to report the crime and provide personal details , luckily he figured out that was another scam. I felt I needed to apologize as a Nigerian. In the end I decided to stick to introducing myself as Nigerian, even though some people will form opinions of me based on that, it really isnt my problem if people want to judge me without really knowing me, there are 200 million of us and well the fraudsters may be plenty but if you care to know enough Nigerians well you'll see us in our different shades of brilliance.

There always is that argument that only greedy/foolish people get defrauded but my counter argument is what is greedy or foolish about trusting other people and expecting them to be genuine , isnt that the default? Is someone supposed to distrust you the minute they meet you? Recent developments in Dubai has further highlighted a separate issue, the issue of new job adverts clearly stating "Nigerians should not apply", in my opinion this is just a manifestation of whatever stupid biases the job advertiser has, I mean some of these jobs are menial , what does being Nigerian have to do with doing the job and doing it properly, but alas it is the price we pay for the acts of a few.


It is human to point the finger and blame others for our actions or inactions, it's the same thing that makes toddlers lie when they do something wrong , it's the need to absolve ourselves of the blame , is it really poverty, greed of the victim or is there a bigger cultural issue here .The culture that celebrates flamboyance, the culture that creates the illusion that we are smarter than others, the culture that encourages being "Sharp" .It is somewhat amusing how rebranding an act or a certain life style can change how the act is perceived , is a Yahoo boy different from a Fraudster and is sharp guy the same as a thief or is it getting caught that changes the true meaning of these terms ? Does the end justify the means or is it just a means to another end ?