3 MUFFINS AND A CUP OF JUICE

A comical and satirical reflection of Nigeria Air Transport.

It was a bright and sunny day as most Sundays are. I had barely managed to secure my booking online for the “Best” airline in the country to fly from Lagos to Abuja. I had gone for a weekend meeting in Lagos with a team from my office and I was trying my damnest best to return to Abuja early so I can prepare to resume work on Monday. 

It was to be a 9am flight and i had my friends leave the house at 6:30am so they can beat any of the incessant traffic associated with a typical day in Lagos. They dropped me off at the airport at 8:15am and I gave myself a generous pat on the shoulder convinced that I would be airborne in an hour. 

I did the necessary check-in ritual and practically jogged into the plane. I sent a message to my friends to arrange for pick up and settled in to wait for when the pilot will announce readiness to take off. Before long, 30minutes had passed. Just then the passenger sitting beside me noticed the air was hazy and somewhat smoky inside the airplane. He called an air hostess and complained and she escaped into the pilot cockpit to report the matter. 30 minutes later, the pilot informed us that there seems to be a slight problem and they were expecting some expert engineers to come check the plane out to assure us of its air worthiness. We sat put for another hour while they tinkered. 

At that time my dear Yoruba brothers and sisters began to panic and you could hear the “ngbati” talks as they alighted from the plane. After a while the rather brusque sounding pilot came out to inform us that someone had contacted his superiors about the issue. However, he assures us that the haziness was not a threat to the flight so those willing to travel should please remain put and all those who felt their lives weren’t safe should please alight and take their luggage. Before long he came to inform us again that he had been ordered to return the plane to the hangar and he had put in a request for another plane.

Those of us remaining in the plane alighted and proceeded to the departure lounge to wait while they prepped the new plane. At the departure lounge I sat beside a well adorned woman with gold jewelry all over her body. She was bragging to those of us sitting close to her how she had called an Oga at the top to report the incidence, so it was obvious it was her intervention that got us special consideration.

The second plane was prepped and we proceeded to board. After a couple of minutes again the same pilot returned to inform us that the new plane was not air worthy at all and in his opinion we should have taken the first plane as it was. See me see wahala oo, as though our lives weren’t important to us? Please, I’ve got a momma who would shit bricks if anything bad happened to me so I led a heavy tongue lashing at the pilot for his gruffness and insensitivity. We disembarked and returned again to the departure lounge.

At that time half of the passengers had ditched the flight, picked their luggage and left the airport. I couldn’t afford to forfeit the flight money because I had spent heavily to book a last minute flight and yes, it would dent my account if I had to repay. 

By this time it was 3pm and just then we were called upon to board a third airplane. The plane was scheduled to fly the Lagos-Port Harcourt route, but had been set on a rescue mission and had been re-routed to take us (the remaining passengers) to Abuja. 

It was past lunch time (I don’t joke with my food, mind you), and most of us had begun to get cranky.  Just then a jaded hostess and an air host arrived with a stiff conciliatory smile, giving out some refreshment to a knackered crop of passengers while we gobbled up the minute offerings. At the end of it all, as compensations went, we were handed three muffins and a cup of juice. How demeaning! But as Nigerians, we were quick to forgive them and just thank God that we had arrived safely. After all as they say, ‘when there is life there is hope’ abi?

Jemimah-Nikky Jates' Blog: YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG

Jemimah-Nikky Jates' Blog: YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG: With barely 24 hours to a much anticipated birthday, and the nagging anxiety of growing older, I got to thinking and asking my...

YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG

With barely 24 hours to a much anticipated birthday, and the nagging anxiety of growing older, I got to thinking and asking myself some pertinent questions. Where am I right now in my life? Where do I see myself in a couple of years? And my mind went to the words my boss always says… Youth is Wasted On The Young.

You see, my boss (Papi) has been an integral part of my career development since I began working with the company. This favorite saying of his is a famous quote of the renowned Irish playwright/dramatist and essayist -George Bernard Shaw who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

Papi would constantly tease me and call me an old woman. (Please note, he is atleast 27 years older than I am) but he is by far the youngest man (at heart) that I have ever met. He is so open to new ideas and things which is so unlike many people of the older generation. What always baffled him was why many young people who are graduates when asked what they wanted to become still had no idea what course they wanted their lives to take. In his opinion, people do not have an idea of how much they can achieve while they are still young, and in the future will only think back wistfully at what they could have been.

I remember He would grill every friend of mine who came into the office to visit about their present jobs, future aspirations, goals, etc. In fact, some of my lazier friends began dodging to visit as they didn’t quite enjoy the psychological gingering Papi made them go through. 

The thing is, Papi expects nothing short of excellence from his staff (and consequently from people close to them) so he used to chide me also for being quite lax in my aspirations back then. He would ask me every month or at most once in a quarter to write a one pager memo dictating my accomplishment in the past month –both professionally and personally. Then together we will evaluate them. He will advise where necessary, chide, where necessary and sometimes rebuke, where necessary.

Mid way into these evaluations I realized I didn’t quite like these rituals, because I found out that they usually put me in a melancholic mood after every session when I realize I hadn’t quite achieved as much as I would have wanted. You see, the problem was by the time I was 15years old I was convinced I wanted to be a criminal lawyer. My family and family friends had more or less conferred that career path on me. They thought I was sharp and could put up a good argument any day, so I would do well as a lawyer. And after having ploughed through a dozen or so of John Grisham and James Patterson’s Novels, I kind of just eased into that status.

But as divine providence would have it, I got offered admission to study Mass Communication. And for 4 years, the one thing that got me through school was the thought that I would return for a second degree in Law. I got through four years of school still trying to figure out if Mass Comm was a worthwhile course. I read and passed all necessary courses, but I was still unsure about whether or not I wanted to practice Journalism. I am sure this scenario is not unique to me alone.
However, after graduation, I found myself reluctant to return to become an undergraduate again so I began dragging my feet. It was at that time I began working with my boss.

Anyway, One month I refused to turn in my assessment memo and he questioned me about it. I explained to him my misgivings about the evaluation and he assured me I need not be too hard on myself. I should be willing to take baby (though firm) steps, and then I would see improvements myself.

So I learnt to fly with this positive attitude, and today I can say I am charting the right course for myself. In fact, I always try to impart it to anyone I meet, especially people who are yet to find their bearing career-wise. I tell them if at first you are unsure of what you want to do, keep trying your head and hands in different things until you find what you love to do.

I met the CEO of a top firm a couple of months back who is a client of our firm and we got talking about career opportunities. He couldn’t hide his disappointment with how many young people are easily tossed by the wind today. And how some only want the fast route to making money without wanting to develop themselves first. He expressed his bitterness that despite the fact that many young people are becoming inventors and thus millionaires in their fields, many of us still have no idea of where and what we want to be in as little as a year. Talk more of having a 5 year vision/plan for their lives.

He told me that most people will stereotype this to applying to women alone, but that’s not correct. In his words many men just plan to “hustle” now and have no future sustainable plans”. 

It is true that employment is hard to come by in the country, and of course we need to take what we can get. However it is important that we never lose sight of what it is we really want to make of our lives. Do not get too comfortable with where you are that you limit your capabilities to improve. 

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

Take a smart chance every now and then. That’s why we are young. We have the mental capacity to think wide and the energy to do the work. We should expose ourselves to new things, enjoy life so much that in retrospect we wouldn’t wish we had time to do this and that but realizing it is too late to do them.

Remember that hindsight always gives a 20/20 vision, so best to plant now and reap rewards later.