It all started when Yemi came to meet me and asked,
“Sam, what am I to do with my life?” When I heard this, I was a little confused as to why an ND holder in electrical and electronics engineering would say this. So, I asked him and said,
“Yemi, what do you mean by this? Then he opened up to me and said, “Sam, it's ND and not HND and as for that ND program, I didn't even finish it as I couldn't cope with the course.”
I was shocked when he said he could not finish with the course because he couldn't cope with the tenet of the course and that he dropped out while still learning the basics in the course.
Although, Yemi was not that sound academically and that's why I decided not to ask him further questions as to why he couldn't cope but had to drop out of school. But one thing is that he would not stop asking about what I would do for him as he asked again,
“How can you help me?” “I don't know right now,” I replied. I continued and told him, “give me time to figure out what I can do about it.” “Okay, like what time can I come for an answer?” He asked. “I have told you that I don't know, but very soon you will hear from me.”
Although I was just starting up with my life, I'm the kind of person that would always put others in my plan most especially when they are in need.
So, immediately he left. I was seriously disturbed within myself and was having a deep thought on how I could offer my little assistance to my cousin who needed my help badly. It's in this process of my personal retreat with deep thought that I remembered I was on a particular project which is yet to be completed and in that project which is a poultry farming business project, I would be in need of a manager.
Immediately I thought of this, Yemi was the first person that came to my mind. Though before then, I have been thinking on how to select and employ who would be my manager, but since Yemi had come to me for help, I should leave that position for him and I just believe he would handle this well since it's just to manage and has nothing to do with academics.
However, after I had thought about it myself, I took my phone to put a call across Yemi's phone.
“Yemi, will you be available by evening?” I asked. “Yes, I will,” he responded. “Let's meet at my place at 5 pm this evening,” I told him. “Okay no problem,” he replied.
So, after dropping the call, I went to meet my dad and discussed my plans with him. When he heard about the idea of bringing Yemi into the business, he frowned at it, but I told him not to worry as I would handle him very well. He said,
“Sam, I don't want you to involve any member of our family in this your proposed business, reason being that, they may be the one to scatter it if care is not taken.” But I replied to him and said, “Dad, I would make sure there's a written agreement regarding this.” When he heard this, he said, “ if you insist, then there's no problem.” “Thank you dad,” I thanked him and left for home.
So, when it's 15 minutes to 5pm, I heard a knock on my door.
“Who's that?” I asked. “It's me, Yemi,” he replied.
I went straight to the door and opened the door after which I let him in. It's when he had settled down very well that I told him about my proposed business and my plan to employ him as my manager. When I told him this, he's happy and said,
“Sam, thank you so much, I promised I won't let you down. God bless you.” Don't mention it, what are family for?” I said. “When are we starting the business?” he asked, “all things being equal, we'll start by the middle of next month, we should start.” I replied to him. “Okay no problem,” he said.
He was so happy that he couldn't hide as I was seeing him off to his house.
So, when it's exactly the proposed time to start the business, which was the said time I told him, I called him to see me again and this time around, when he came, I told him the modalities of the business and how I would want him to manage the business for me. Also, I told him how much I would be paying him and he agreed to all the terms and conditions given to him by me.
So, on the 26th of July 2023, we kickstarted the poultry business with everything being put in place and for the first 6 months of the business, we really recorded huge amounts of returns. But crossing over to the year 2024, everything began to change and I couldn't believe what I was seeing as returns on the business. This is because the returns and capital were less than what we started with at the start of the business.
It's when I realized that instead of us making profit, we are drifting down to making loss, I called Yemi and asked him what was happening. Though, initially, he wasn't willing to tell me the truth, but later on, he said,
“The layers are not producing as they ought to again and that if we can even dispose of them and bring other sets, that would be better.” I told him, “ We just got these sets when we started the business.” He replied, "That doesn't mean.”
So, it's in the conversation that I got to know that he was not so concerned about the loss but I kept my own observation to myself without letting anyone know.
But at the same time, I was also wondering what could have led to this nonchalant attitude towards my own loss.
So, on a particular day, I went to the farm to confront him as to why he didn't feel my pain. When I asked him why he was not feeling my pain, instead of him to give me a direct answer, he flared up and shouted at the top of his voice. At first I thought I was dreaming when I saw his display, but it's later I got back to the reality. So, in his act of display, he told me he's no longer interested in doing business with me again and after saying that, he left.
I tried reaching out to him on the same day, but it was to no avail and because of this, I decided to sell off the remaining chicken and the farm which means the business has collapsed. This was so painful to me. Though, I have been forewarned by my dad but I though it would be easy for me to handle not knowing I was only joking with by thought.
A few weeks later, one of my staff who has no where to go again came to me and reveal all the secrets that led to the collapse of my business to me. I was told that all the low production of egg was an artificial one. The guy told me that Yemi was the one who used to handle the sales of eggs to customers and that instead of him to remit 20 crates to the company, he would only remit like 7 crates and takes the rest for himself.
He further told me that Yemi now has his own poultry farm and that he has been running concurrently with mine. When I heard this, I was shocked and asked the guy why he hasn't come out all these while to reveal all he's now revealing to me.
He said Yemi had warned them and not only that, he said he used to threatened them with their job. Though, I got the revelation but it's very late and I took that as my fate. Though, I still went ahead to fact checked this on my own and it's true. I tried to take a step, but I was warned again by my dad to let it go.
Thanks for reading.
Picture sourced from metaAi.