I'm suspecting your write up to be a true life story. So accurate, you have a perfect knowledge of the organisation of the Nigerian Army.

CHAPTER 23

January 2003. I was short listed amongst the candidates that applied for the direct short service commission into the Nigerian Army, having graduated with a second class upper degree in Business administration and management.

My wife had given birth to my second child whom we Christened ‘Luke’ after Oga Inside for bringing Amaka into my life, we named him Kayode after Baba Dayo because he was the Father I know, having stood faithfully by me and mama through thick and thin, we named him Chukwuemeka because everything was the Lord’s doing.

Menopause caught up with mama as she had two successive miscarriages after her third born. The Doctors had to warn her to stop trying to keep a pregnancy that would not stay, so she gave up and focused on the three with her.

I went to the Nigerian defense academy and spent another six months on training and re orientation into the Officer cadre of the Army. My performance was outstanding and I won the Chief of Army staff Sword of honour as the overall best Cadet on the P.O.P day.

I was posted to the Finance Corp headquarters in Lagos from where I was subsequently sent to the Army Pension Office Yaba. My arrival to the pension Office was greeted with resentment, the news had gone round that I was the Soldier who dismissed and jailed two serving Officers and two retired and three serving Soldiers and three retired and also demoted a Colonel in Enugu, I was given a cold shoulder in all the Offices in the department, I was treated like a leper, I was in the wrong place, everyone was avoiding me. The most painful thing was that no one mentioned the fact that I was imprisoned for over six years and denied re absorption for over five years by these men, and during all these years, these people were eating my money.

After spending six months in Lagos, I was confirmed as a full lieutenant and given the responsibility of the A.O pension office. It was at this new role that I knew that the Army was not meant for me any longer; the level of decay and corruption at the pension Office was alarming! My seat was a very hot one because it was my responsibility to send the monthly gazette of Pensioners to Finance HQ, my C.O, a Brigadier general called me to his Office and told me to simply sign and send the Gazette based on the status quo.
But on my own I took time to verify the records of all the Pensioners on the Army payroll. I had not even done that of two states when I discovered a whole lot of irregularities. First of all, thirty percent of the Pensioners from Edo and Delta states were no longer alive and their families had stopped receiving their monies, but the Pension Office still send their names to HQ for payment.

Secondly Many Soldiers that have left the Army by way of absconding or early retirement without pension are being paid pension by Army HQ.
Thirdly many Soldiers that have died in Active service either at a peace keeping mission or at home are being paid pension meanwhile their families are still waiting to hear from the Army.

My Job was to certify that all was well and instruct the Army HQ to release such funds daily! It was like sitting on a keg of Gun Powder!
No wonder many Soldiers in Finance would give their right arms to be posted to the Pension Office, I was told that many Officers that have sat on my seat are billionaires with investment all over the Country. Even a private Soldier in Pension Office goes home monthly with loot of a million naira, most of them have fleet of cars and houses in town to the envy of Soldiers in other units.
When I thought over all of these, I knew this money was blood money and I did not want it! This was exactly what was done to me that led to the incarceration of nine Soldiers.

I summoned courage and went to my C.O to explain my findings to him and the reason why I would not sign the status quo and send to HQ. What he told me baffled me. He asked if I had come to dismiss and jail him and his team too. I begged him to post me to another section or out of the department entirely but he said he does not have the authority to redeploy me to anywhere because I was an Officer like him. He said that only Finance HQ can redeploy me but warned me against going there with my findings; he said I would be shooting myself on the foot if I tried it.

Eventually I agreed to sign and send the status quo to HQ but I do not want any share of the monthly loot. My Commander refused! He said my monthly share is three million naira raw cash and I must collect it as that would guarantee that I would not sabotage them. I had no choice but to drive home with two “Ghana must go” bags containing three million naira cash at the end of my first month as a full Lieutenant.

I could not sleep all through the night as I kept vigil looking at the money stacked away in my toilet. I had never been so close to such enormous volume of raw Cash, even when I was compensated with my eleven years Salaries and benefits worth Seven million naira as a Soldier and twelve million naira as settlement for five years inconveniencies suffered, the whole sum of nineteen million naira was paid into my bank account, I did not see it as raw Cash. Even when I gave Baba Dayo the sum of Five million naira to help demolish the Village mud house and build me a Duplex, I wrote him a Cheque and not raw cash. The smell of raw Cash filled my room that night that I had to move it to the Toilet. I was scared.
The next morning I drove from work to the Bank to open a new account for the loot, then I went back to work as if nothing had happened, but my Boss was uneasy with me, he called me later to his Office and told me that I was being watched at HQ Finance because I was unstable and thus a potential danger to certain big red necks that benefits from the monthly booty too. He warned that I should keep my lips sealed else I might meet a mysterious end in Lagos, either diabolical or physically. He said anyone who wants to take away food from his mouth should rather die!
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I was granted my annual leave of thirty working days in August 2004, I travelled to the east to be with my family in Enugu, my Girl was five and my Boy was two years old, I spent a week with them in Enugu before we all moved to Abakaliki to spend few days with my Parents. It was at this point that Baba Dayo told me that he went home with his Path finder and the whole Village marveled at his transformation. He had told them that I was now a senior Army Officer and had sent him to the Village to build my House for me, he said he built the whole house within seven months and locked up the gates after furnishing all the rooms and Kitchen, he said the money was very sufficient due to cheap labour and cost of materials in the west that he had to build a three rooms Boys quarter behind the duplex, he dug a bore hole and erected four giant G.P tanks, two tanks supplied water into the house and two tanks are channeled to outside taps for the community.

He had used that opportunity to see mama’s kinsmen and when they heard his success story and the fact that mama was doing well with three other Children, they sent her younger brother to Abakaliki on one of Baba Dayo’s visits while building my house to ascertain mama’s real condition at Abakaliki; he went back to the Village with new clothes and shoes and goodies for other family members as evidence that all Baba Dayo had said in the Village was true, he told them that Mama owned and drives her own Car too, they had no choice but to call a family meeting and decide to welcome mama back into their fold.

I told my Parents my experience at my new Office and we all resolved that I leave the Army for good; after all I have enough money to move on.
By the end of the second week of my leave, we all drove down to Esa-odo, I drove in my Nissan Xterra fully dressed in my Army uniform, mama and Oga Luke drove her Car in turns while Baba Dayo drove in his Nissan path finder, the Kids were with us as they enter any Car of their choice whenever we stopped for refreshment or for biological reasons.

It was in 1991 that I left home when I visited mama after the depot training. That was thirteen years back, I was a private Soldier and we lived in a small mud house. Today I have come back home in my SUV to a duplex that was once a mud house!

Mama and Baba Dayo had sneaked out of the Village in rags with mama going insane and being abandoned by all to lick her wounds alone, but this day, she drove into the Village in the Comfort of her Car, with three healthy looking Kids and gorgeously dressed that our People opened their mouths in awe and reverence.

The popular but Baba Miko poor is now a force to be reckoned with as he had already told the whole Village about what God had done for him in Igbo land and an eye witness had gone to see and confirmed it to the Villagers.

We drove straight to my house and the convoy entered the Compound at exactly 4.00pm. I was impressed by the quality of the edifice that welcomed me home, the butterflies where running around inside my stomach; I took time and walked round the house as Baba Dayo and Mama coordinated the off loading of our Vehicles. There was a Plant in the generator house, there was an empty Dog house, the grasses were well mowed and the flowers well trimmed, I took a look at all of these and the big building and I wondered if they really belonged to me or I was in a dream.

There was no light in the Village so we put on the generator as we put things in place in the House. Baba Dayo had taken time to provide the best wooden furnishing in the house.

I wondered when mama went to sleep that night because we have hardly settled down than her sycophantic friends started pouring in.
I woke up late the next morning, It was the noise from outside the fence that woke me; I opened the door of my room and stepped onto the terrace upstairs to behold the crowd of Villagers that had come to fetch water from my house. They started to cheer at me immediately they saw me; I waved at them and went back inside the house.

Our case was like the proverbial Igbo saying that “Onu kwuru njo, ga ekwu mma” “the mouth that spoke evil shall later speak well”. The Yoruba’s also said that “Owo epo ni aye nba eni la, wan o kin la Owo eje” “ it is the oily palm that the world licks with you, not the bloodied one” that is to say when the going is good, many people will be your friend, but when the going gets tough, they all run away. Our People have no shame! They came in their numbers to gossip with mama, they told different versions of what each person had said against my family at different times and places. The women were busy maligning one another just to gain mama’s friendship. At the end they all left with nylon bag containing Rice, salt and match boxes.

The men were scared of me, they would rather go to Baba Dayo who had told them that I was angry with the whole Men in the village for not rising up to help me when I needed them most, especially the Kabiesi. It was made more obvious by the fact that I refused to go and pay homage to him upon arrival at the Village.
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Mama and Baba Dayo’s traditional marriage was performed at Mama’s family compound, the dowry was fully paid up and every item that needed to be purchased was bought. Prayers were made and the Spirit of my late grandfather was appeased forever. I was avoided by my mother’s family members because it had been like that while I grew up in the Village; I had no friends save for Oga Luke.

The Kabiesi came to my house like Nicodemus at night some days to my departure from the Village, he apologized for his neglect of me and mama, he said he had no body in the Army to go to with my case and his Chiefs advised him to stay off my case so that he does not incur my late grandfather’s wrath. It takes a man of honour to apologize especially a king, so I knelt down in front of him as a mark of respect and acceptance. He offered to give me a chieftaincy title to pacify me but I told him that I was not ready yet.

Very early the next morning he came to my house and we drove with my Parents to the piece of land he gave me and retrieved thirteen years ago, he doubled the portion and returned it back to me. We all thanked him and took pictures on the land with him. Immediately we dropped him off at his house, Baba Dayo called the Surveyor that handled my building project to come over to the house; he came and we instructed him to get land registered in my name immediately and get all necessary documents handy, I then told him to get me the estimate of what it would cost to plant Palm fruit seedlings on the whole of the land, it was about fifteen hectares of land.

I also drove to Ibadan in company of Baba Dayo and Oga Luke to scout for lands to establish a farm and where to build a residential apartment. I had made up my mind to leave the Army and retire home to Ibadan with my family. We finally got a thirty hectare of land along Lagos-Ibadan express way adjacent to the famous Sat guru Maharaja Village, I paid three million naira for the land and I immediately contracted the building of my farms to an Architect introduced to us by a friend of Baba Dayo. He was experienced in designing Farm houses so I told him how I want the thirty plots of land divided. I needed portions for fish pond, Pigs, grass cutter, quills, Ostrich, Chickens, turkey, goats and sheep’s and I needed building for farm house as well as Offices. Baba Dayo, Oga Luke and the Architect have been to very big farms and they assured me that together we shall get it right. I also bought two plots of land for three hundred thousand naira at Eleyele town to build a personal house and Office apartment for my Barrister! With these machineries in place, I resumed back to duty after thirty working days leave.

Chai!!! So wonderful! God really favored Ojo.
I feel good about the whole thing.
Continue

I pray things continue rosy like dis o. No more travails abeg una

Can one really be forced to accept bribe? I mean that 3million bribe.

Nawa o! The corruption in nigeria has great grand children. It is only God that can save this country. Oga Doma, more mb o.

EPILOGUE

I am writing this story from the comfort of my study in my farm house. I am just forty three years old now in 2015 but the things I have been through in life makes me feel like I am seventy years old, I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly.

I am now into full time farming. I am also a writer as well as a consultant. I have some short stories published to my credit. It was my wife that actually encouraged me to put my life experience on paper so as to serve as a source of encouragement to those in unpleasant situations in life. Today I am also a worker in the house of the Lord where I worship and I cannot but give glory to God for all that happened to me in my life, I believed it was his way of preparing me for my today.

Funmilayo is away in Accra girls academy Ghana, while Kayode is at Command secondary School Abakaliki, they are both far away from home. Ekundayo and her younger brothers are also at Command Secondary School Abakaliki, they are all Boarders. During the holidays all the Kids come to my farm or they go to Abakaliki at Baba Dayo’s work shop to work and earn some money.

Amaka is presently a special adviser to the Oyo state Governor on legal matters, she has a Chamber in Enugu and another at Eleyele Ibadan. The competency exhibited while representing her Clients in Courts in Ibadan endeared her to the state Government that she was nominated for the appointment and the fact that she was Igbo married to a Yoruba man helped cemented her credentials for the appointment.

My farms are doing great, the palm plantation in my village rolls out hundred of drums of red palm oil for Companies and northern traders yearly, the Palm Kernels are not enough to meet the demand from companies that produce soap and farmers that need them for feeds preparation including my farm here at Ibadan too.

There is much to be gained from a palm plantation; when the fruits are ripe, we set traps and catch wild Boars and Rodents that come to eat up the fruits from its bunch or the ones that have fallen to the ground due to the activities of rodents, these are roasted and my share sent to me at Ibadan, and one thing I had loved from Childhood was Bush meat! When it is time to prune the branches of the palm trees, we sell them off to Basket makers in the community.
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I had gone back to Lagos after my annual leave in 2004 and resumed duty as the A.O. Finance. The monthly booty kept coming and I kept putting it in the separate bank account I had opened for it. I continued working while I monitored activities at my farms and residence. I sneaked into Ibadan or Esa-odo on free weekends and public holidays to monitor the work in progress.

My palm seedlings survived the first scourge of dry season and rain season, they developed new roots and I was assured that they would grow well, the weak ones and the dead ones were replaced while I handed the Farm over to an Igala Man that has being in our Village for as long as I could remember, we called him Baba Agatu.

The Farm at Ibadan was also completed in due time and the House at Eleyele too, it took us a whole year to get all these in place and I was ready for our plan B.
I made up my mind and went to meet my C.O with a mini tape recorder in my breast Pocket. I once again told him of my fears and my desire to be posted to another office. He went berserk and started to threaten me.

Look lieutenant! He said; I have had enough of this your stupid talks about not liking what we are doing here and wanting to leave the pension Office! Did I bring you here in the first place? Look if you are not comfortable here you better resign and get the hell out of here!
Think I will resign sir! I said; I have a feeling that all of these will back fire some day! I do not want to go to Prison again, not now that I have a Wife and Kids that look up to me!

Anything you want to do, do! He shouted; but let me tell you, people like you that have tried what you are trying to do are six feet below the earth now! And yours will not be an exception, I promise you that! You will just disappear! Where is captain Adekunle now? Where is staff sergeant Adamu? Where are major Isiaka and Corporal Johnson? They all tried to be stubborn but they forgot that the stubborn fly follows the Corpse into the grave! My friend, go and ask questions! Do you know the caliber of People that are involved in this cartel? Do you know how many heads that will roll and the number of families that will be shattered if you sing? My friend, this is not 82nd division Enugu o! This is Lagos! He shouted; my friend, leave my Office this moment before I charge with something that you will not be able to explain.

I stood up and saluted him, and then I told him that all the monies paid to me are still intact in my account, I asked him if he wanted it paid into his account. He was furious and he lost his cool and punched me in the face. I fell down on my butt. I got up and asked him why a general could condescend as low as to physically assault a fellow Officer.

I will give you another blow! He shouted: in fact I will slap you! And with that, he slapped me in the face, I screamed and fell down again.
In fact! Ojo, you are dead meat! You are dead meat I promise you! He fumed as he left his Office and banged the door while I was still on the floor rubbing my cheek.

I went home to meet my Wife who had flown down for the execution of plan B, and we replayed the tape recorder and heard all that transpired between me and my C.O.

We did not sleep at home that night; we went to a Hotel outside the Barracks and slept. The next morning, I went and submitted my resignation letter to my C.O.

The beauty of it was I had done a total of over fifteen years in the Army and I was pensionable. I would have loved to get to the rank of a more senior Officer before retiring but I guess that was not my destiny.

I submitted the letter to him with a Copy of the tape recorder in a compact disc; I saluted him and left his office as abruptly as I came in.

He knew my wife was a Lawyer, he knew she was the one that instigated the move at Oputa panel that eventually led to the dismissal and jailing of nine men and the demotion of a Colonel to Captain. He also knew she must the brain behind the recording of my discussion with him, he knows he was doomed if anything happened to me.
He called me after two hours and asked that we met and talked at the Officers mess immediately, I told him I would be available in the evening, he was so scared of my every move that he drove straight to my house to meet me and my Wife.

We talked for sometime but I told him that my mind was made as per leaving the Army. I told him I was not going to expose the decay and corruption at the pension office but if anything happened to me or my family, then the tapes would circulate and all hell would be let lose. He agreed to protect me and my family until his dying day. He was on his knees asking me to beg my Wife for him as he does not trust Lawyers especially female lawyers! He wished he could swallow all the words he uttered in the tape. The General was begging and crying like a small Boy before a Lieutenant and his Wife! Amaka later promised to bury the hatchet and he left our house with thanks and prayers for us.

I officially resigned from the Army in the month of March 2006 as a pensioner and came to settle with my family at Ibadan. Today my Wife speaks fluent Yoruba and is working for the state government. I have over fifty permanent staff on my pay roll. We sell eggs daily in thousands of crates, we supply fresh fish and Chickens to over twenty fast foods, it is a matter of first booked first served.

Traders in the Market book our Turkey, Sheep and Goats in advance. The grass cutter and the Snail farm are Money Spinners. My major challenge is to meet the demand of Customers. Politicians book my turkey and Ostrich months before they are matured so they can use them as gifts to their Political God fathers. Ostrich lay an egg in a year so it is very expensive.

I give lectures at symposia on Agriculture and Aquaculture, I have regular inflow of students on industrial attachment; I have investments in chains of businesses and my fifty million naira booty realized from the Army pension Office is still growing in the fixed deposit account. Indeed life, they say begins at forty. I guess I was not destined to stay in the Army because whenever I wore those boots, things go sour for me; it is like there are thorns in them that I had to pull them before I get some comfort. But the Army prepared me for my today; it was a means to an end for me.

THE END.

What a happy ending! Oga Doma weldone. Is it a true life story?

Peacefulness:
What a happy ending! Oga Doma weldone. Is it a true life story?

The Story is based on a true life experience the names of Characters are not real though.

Dear Peeps, I want to say a big thank you to every nairalander that took time to read this piece. my respect and appreciation goes to every one that wrote down something to encourage or criticize me. it was wonderful. without your comments I would not have finished this Story in March, your hunger for more spurred me into critical thinking as to what next to write and how to write it so as to worth your time. you Guys are too much. if you enjoyed this piece then I would enjoy you to read up "Restless" at https://www.nairaland.com/1789365/restless...story-survivor. I will sure complete it now that I have your backs. I was scared of Pirates before.

much Respect to the Under listed in no particular Order

Peacefulness
Stonecoldcafe.....you stuck with me from page 1.
Rocksteady1
jesuzboi
AlphaBravoIndia..........(Charly Delta.......Oscar)
Okwilliams
apholaryn
Stez
Skinnydude
53cur3m0d3
Charijee
missmossy
Ifyude
prettyjoy
wasak
Olaitan3784
demmy66
heemah
jollyjoy
Abbamizzy
Barbieniece
ezystar
agileson
Donpoker9
Slimjoe
rondo235
Anaso9
Costlybabe
prettyjoy
Crislyn
bibie01
Olanipekuntomi
sebak
onosj
Timothy313.

I also thank you for all your votes for me as the best new comer in the month of March. I hope I win. Much thanks for Cuddlemi for nominating me. you are blessed.
domawoleye@yahoo.com.

DOMAWOLEYE:

The Story is based on a true life experience the names of Characters are not real though.

Well done to you. I enjoyed the story. BravoOoooo!

Pheew!!

School works no let me follow well...
Anyways, Nice one Man
I learnt tons of lessons from thiz

wow wow wow wow wo wow wow wow, nyc story followed from d begin nd tanks for sharin this wit us

well done sir. i really learnt a lot. You have done a really great work.

a really inspirational story

Nice story domawoleye!! Plenty e-hugs for u..
thank God for the life of Ojo...After hardship comes relief! Hoping to read from u again...Do remember to tag me

It is a real lesson. Eni to ma gan, ese a tiri i.e someone who will be tall, his leg will be thin. I'm happy for Olu.

To Domawoleye, A big thumb up to u sir. Well done.

By the way, I doubt if u are not Olu. Olu now write short stories and his wife encourages him to write his life story which Domawoleye writes on naira land.

nice one.really interesting. I have a relatable story too based on true life experience, I hope to write someday

wow love this story

wasak:
nice one.really interesting. I have a relatable story too based on true life experience, I hope to write someday

start writing it on Paper now.. Procrastination, the thief of time.

charijee:
What a happy ending .....nice working with you Domawoleye

Thanks for the push Charijee!

fam24:
It is a real lesson. Eni to ma gan, ese a tiri i.e someone who will be tall, his leg will be thin. I'm happy for Olu.

To Domawoleye, A big thumb up to u sir. Well done.

By the way, I doubt if u are not Olu. Olu now write short stories and his wife encourages him to write his life story which Domawoleye writes on naira land.

well you are not far from the fact...but not entirely. Cheers!

folake25:
well done sir. i really learnt a lot. You have done a really great work.

Thanks Flaky! Ose gan.

DOMAWOLEYE:

start writing it on Paper now.. Procrastination, the thief of time.

I'll try. thanks

heemah:
Nice story domawoleye!! Plenty e-hugs for u..
thank God for the life of Ojo...After hardship comes relief! Hoping to read from u again...Do remember to tag me

No wahala heema, pls try n read "Restless" you will enjoy it too

Aww such an awesome conclusion, more wisdom to you Dom. Kudos on the completion of this enthralling piece.

jezuzboi:
So wonderful at the end. Everything turned out well. Thank you for ending the story.
I'm following Restless....story of A Survivor already. I'll hint you when I catch up.
A very big well done to you sir! My regards to your family.

Thanks Boss! I appreciate your time and encouragement.

heemah:
Nice story domawoleye!! Plenty e-hugs for u..
thank God for the life of Ojo...After hardship comes relief! Hoping to read from u again...Do remember to tag me

so he shud tag only u abi? i no u wudnt wanna leave me out....

gosh...I love dis story no be small..@ DOMAWOLEYE u did perfectly well...kudos to u...ride on bro..more ink to ur pen....d sky is d limit dey say..I assure u its gon b ur starting point....thanks fr d great story.