The face of hell

It was really shocking and disheartening to Sanya Banire when he was sacked from Musrams Foods Company that particular Monday. He felt like a wall of bricks collapsing on his head while sweating and shaking in front of the Human Resources Manager who handed him the sack letter.

He was a Supervisor before being sacked unceremoniously.

“Where would I start from, with a wife and three kids?” he murmured the question to himself for the umpteenth time but got no answer as he shook his head sorrowfully. He cried slowly as he left the premises of the company he had served dutifully for 10 years, and he was given no gratuity or entitlement at all. What a frightening life! He was a man in his early 40s, tall and dark-skinned.

When Sanya got home that evening, his wife, Feyi, knew instantly that all was not well with him. There was no way he could hide his feelings and disappointment about life to her. Feyi was a short, plump and light-skinned woman.

“What’s the matter with you baba Dayo? Tell me quickly.” His wife demanded to know the development, but instead of him to talk, the tears cascaded down his brows.

“Did you lose someone very close to you?” Feyi asked again really worried and deeply agitated.

When he could summon the courage and control his surging emotions he uttered, “No, I lost my job. I was given the sack letter this evening at the close of work.”

“You don’t have to be low in spirits just because of that, you can join me at my canteen to assist me at work. There is no cause for alarm, the world would not come to an end suddenly because of this development. You can start as from tomorrow, and you’ll earn something gradually.” his wife gestured and reassured him. “Okay, my dear,” he replied while cleaning his tear-soaked face.

Pronto, the following day, Sanya cast aside his pride and differences to start work under his wife in her humble canteen tucked away in the heart of Shomolu Bariga, Lagos. He worked so hard in his wife’s canteen, cleaning the table and washing the plates and cups as clean as he could. It was already over three weeks now. Once a while, customers would dash him N50 or N100 to encourage him and put a smile on his beleaguered face. Sincerely, Sanya tried his best to satisfy the expectations of his wife’s customers.

However, it got to a most painful point and terrible crescendo when his wife insulted him severely that the plates were not clean, that he was merely wasting the soaps unnecessarily.
“
What’s the matter with you baba Dayo, don’t waste my resources. You wash plates like babies and kindergarten. I’m totally fed up with you!” Feyi said with annoyance, in the presence of everybody.

That was the very last straw, as Sanya couldn’t bear it anymore. He swore that he would leave home and his family in search of any job at all and wouldn’t come back home until he finds one.

That night, he called his wife and bared his mind, with tears dripping from his cheeks. On one of Sanya’s outings to get a job, he was arrested by some stern-faced policemen who mistook him for an armed robber who operated recently in the vicinity. He was forcefully taken to the police station and told to write a statement under duress that he was an armed robber. He was severely beaten and remanded in prison custody pending the time he would appear in court along with other hoodlums and suspected armed robbers. Only God could prove his innocence as his case of robbery was already in the Court of Law.