LOVE TRIANGLE, VALUE OF INTEGRITY, DIARY OF A SHORT-LET APARTMENT MANAGER.

In December 2016, I’ve got reasons to resign from a formal employment, one of it was to enable me concentrate to recover from health challenge. It was a moment of fearful & audacious decision. The tradition for resignation was when you have a better offer you resign for a greener pasture. It feels laughable & pitiable that when I am asked about my next move after resignation, I answered I am moving into Entrepreneurship. Such a checkered journey. So, in this journey I had relied on a savings as a backup for the time being, then disaster happened, about 1 million naira I had got ended with the disaster of MMM in 2017. Back to square 0. I experienced “SHEGE BANZA DAN BUROUBA” pro max. Nothing to fall back on after resignation. At this point, I decided to leave Lagos back to Ogbomoso my place of origin so to explore agriculture. A schoolmate asked me “haaaa… scholar, why do you have to do Agriculture instead of other dignifying jobs?”. Maybe he isn’t well informed that Agriculture is a noble venture for humanity. I was overwhelmed by urban poverty, I wanted to explore the riches of rural places. In my University days I spent some holidays in a farm house in Badagry hinterland. I enjoy the splendor of nature in rural community better than the hullabaloo of urban center with its high rate of psychological stressors.

I could not get capital to kick start my agricultural desire in a rural area. I returned back to Lagos. At this time my landlord had given me quit notice. It was getting to the time of eviction, I had to negotiate my way with the landlord. The landlord has two sections of building. One for normal annual rent the other for short-let guest apartment. So, we agreed that I function as a short-let apartment supervisor for him to enable me offset my house rent debt. This is where my experience in being a short-let apartment manager began.

The crux of this article: So, one day, guest who had made booking for lodgment arrived immediately after another guest had just moved out. There was no enough time to put the apartment in order for the new guest. I have the responsibility of managing the situation. As the guest were inside the apartment, I had to plead with then so I can quickly tidy up the apartment, the kitchen, the toilet and the sitting room. I started the clean-up, two of the guest occupant insisted that they will do the clean-up instead of them seeing me doing it. They were younger persons, I resisted their insistence. I told them it is my responsibility to deliver customer value to them before they could accept that I will not bulge in having them do it on a first instance. A young man who accompanied them to the apartment was seated on the sitting room’s couch noticing the scenario. Lo & behold, several months later, I discovered that this young man is Pastor Emmanuel Iren of The Celebration Church. On that day inside the apartment, I noticed he was observing me silently when I was insisting & refusing to have the guest do the clean-up. I also observed that he wore a classy, simple & silky ash coloured kaftan that day in the apartment, the kaftan was not ostentatious but it is elitist classic. The guest were choristers of the Celebration Church.

After over two years of this scenario, last year, out of the blues, I received a sudden call from Pastor Emmanuel Iren, “Hello, Mr. Ben, please I need your assistance to liaise with my staffs on how to run a short-let apartment”, he linked me with his manager so as to further communication. The sudden call I received from him that day was so miraculous as it happened on a day I was so sad & overwhelmed. It shows the power of God in creating a divine restoration in the lives of those who trusted him. I felt elated that day by this sudden call.

Short-let apartment is a sensitive, herculean & daunting business. It often involves crisis management skills. Amongst various experiences, we had these guests, Pius & Jennifer who had come for a long stay of Six Months. Purposely to experiment on their compatibility for a marital conjugation. Such an interesting experiment really. Pius is a Forex trader. He has a financial capacity to manage responsibilities on a moderate level. Jennifer already had 3 children. Pius was willing and was footing almost every bill for her upkeep including her children. Then came the ultimate litmus test about their compatibility. Just a little while after their stay in the apartment, some fine-fine rich boys also came to lodge in the apartment apposite theirs. The real personality of Jennifer could not resist the temptation of fraternizing with these fine boys even at the expense of the existing love affair with her lover, Pius, whom she is at the verge of getting married to. This is catastrophic. Any moment Pius steps out, Jennifer will go into the apartment of these fine boys. In some instance she cooks meal for them. At this time the relationship between Jennifer & Pius is under serious tension, they are always fighting in the apartment, resulting to physical injury. Jennifer is more physically built & stronger than Pius, Pius is petite, he relies on objects like knives, spoons, belt & mortar to counter Jenifer’s strength during their bout. This situation lingers every now & then. I was a mediator in this matter. One day I confronted Jennifer on why she is the originator of trouble in their relationship. She said it is a natural instinct for her in having strong admiration for the masculine gender, she said it is her nature to befriend the masculine gender. She said right from her cradle she doesn’t befriend her female counterpart, it has to be male. She said she needed Pius to understand and accept this reality about her nature. I rebuked Jennifer and told her that she needs deliverance because this instinct of hers is really demonic, it is not normal. I told her that MFM (Mountain of Fire & Miracles Ministry) is not far from us she can go there for a deliverance session.  Then came the day of disaster, Pius had went out for a business engagement, upon his return he met Jennifer plaiting hair for one of these fine boys in the premises of the house. After a casual greeting among them, Pius expected Jennifer to leave the plaiting of hair and come inside their apartment to welcome him properly and be remorseful & apologies. No way, Jenifer did not know if she was wrong or not. She continued plaiting the fair complexioned fine boy’s hair after her fiancé passed them by. The fine boy was enjoying the lusciousness of Jennifer’s fingers on his head. Jennifer is a succulent beautiful babe with endowments proportionately distributed in the right places. The fine boy also did not realize that what they are doing is wrong, oh, he is still a boy and not a man. At this point Pius was already boiling with hot temper in their apartment as he waited for Jennifer’s entrance to no avail. Pius could not control his temper any longer, he rushed out of the apartment to meet Jennifer where she was plaiting the fine boy’s hair and landed Jennifer a hot, dirty, shocking, confusing & dumfounding slap on the face. It was as if it was a trailer that jammed Jennifer. She couldn’t decipher if she was in planet earth and she was in Jupiter at that moment. Immediately Jennifer regained her consciousness & strength, that was the beginning of 3rd world war in the house that day. I have never witnessed such a satanic couple’s fight like that in my life. They fought through out that day with fighting sessions, resting & restarting. We the referees where tired of separating and had to allow them to be, but as the manager of the apartment I cannot allow matters to degenerate to a colossal damage. In the course of their fight, they tore each clothes, sustained injury in their bodies, spoilt the apartment doors, damaged microwave oven, broke several plates & glass materials in the apartment. All the damages were later paid by Pius. Jennifer was born and bred in the military barracks, she has made up her mind to go bring military boys from the barracks so as to deal with Pius for the injury she incurred during the fight. We had to beg Jennifer with the whole of our strength in preventing her from bringing military boys to mercilessly punish her lover and husband to be. I told her that taking such action will amount to an irreconcilable separation, she said she does not care anymore. After so much interventions, the demon of fighting eventually flee away from both of them and they become sober again and started their love birds’ affection again later in the evening. That day was a climax and a defining moment of their relationship. After that episode, Jennifer’s father was hospitalized in Port-harcourt, Rivers State, they both went to Port-harcourt by flight to see Jennifer’s father in the hospital. Upon hearing about the hospital bill, Pius pretended as if he wanted to pee, from there he fled right from the hospital, that was the last day he was with Jennifer and their relationship ended there.

Pius eventually got married to another homely, cool headed and pretty lady. He came back to our apartment for honeymoon period and an extended stay, from there the lady got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy, his mother came for “Omugwo”, Pius is an Igbo person. After the delivery of his child, Pius went for a normal annual rental accommodation. This marks the end of Pius story in our short-let apartment.

In another occasion, there is this lady who came for a long stay. She is a troublesome lady I must confess. One day around 2 am in the morning or is it midnight I should say, she blasted the volume of the radio in her apartment, enjoying music. The loudness of the music she was playing was disturbing other guests in the building. There is this guy who came from California to Nigeria for a movie production project, he was really interrupted by the loudness of the music she was playing, he could not concentrate to do his work. He went to inform her to reduce the volume of the radio in her apartment. He felt insulted, she told him that who is he to tell her what to do. He called me to inform me about the scenario, because I live in the same house, I came immediately to address the situation. This Californian guy was so furious, he wanted to force his way into the apartment she was and stop the music she was playing, he was also ready to beat her up. “I’m gonna beat her up mehn” he kept saying. I had to refrain him. So, to avoid story that touch on false allegation, I went to the kitchen’s window of the apartment to talk to her, as I start to speak to her, the next thing I saw was that I was drenched by a full bucket of water. She carried a full bucket of water in the kitchen and poured on me through the window of the kitchen. This is a lady that within 2 minutes I can squeeze her into a Ghana-must-go bag and zip it up, but then I need a douse of self-control at that moment. She said why I do I have to come disturb her peace at that time of the night. She said why is that we are now disturbing her when she is enjoying her own music, she said that when other guests are using the generator and the noise disturbs her she doesn’t complain and now that she is enjoying her own music that nobody should complain. This was the excuse for her erratic behavior that morning. Immediately, I reported the matter to the landlord, the landlord called the Californian guy and pleaded for tolerance, he also called her but she refused to pick calls. We were all astonished by her erratic behavior. We all left her alone and remained silent as if nothing happened, we allowed her to her conscience.

At day break, I went to pacify the guy from California concerning what happened earlier on but he was no longer perturbed about the situation, he was already in a cheerful mood and he told me that the lady poured a full bucket of water on me because she likes me and that maybe I was not trying to comply and the annoyance in her culminated into that.

Chaaaiiii……GOD ABEG…. OooH

I do not want such a Jennifer in my life again. The Californian guy was asking me if I will fill in the blank space, I told him Mission Impossible, not in this lifetime. As we discussed, he said such aggression is a trait of loneliness exhibited by some career-oriented ladies who could not find marital companion on time. I told the Californian guy that I cannot connect with such a troublesome person, I cannot deal. Life is transient, living in perpetual sadness & unhappiness is worthwhile.

In conclusion about the episode of this lady in our apartment, there was a day she travelled to Oyo for an auditing job in a factory, she is an auditor. She forgot to switch off the Air Conditioners in her apartment and she is spending up to 1 week away from the apartment. I called her and inform her about the situation, she said alright, until she returns, I said no, electricity is wasting and it also constitute risk to the appliances in the apartment. She said that shouldn’t be an issue because it is already covered in her short-let rental payment and that what do I want her to do, I said I will get a spare key of the apartment from the landlord so that I can open the door to her apartment to enable me switch off the Air Conditioners. She said if I get into the apartment I will steal some her things. I told her that I will do a video of my entrance & exit in the apartment and also a video of what I did inside. She said I am not likely to do a video of how I will steal her things. This isn’t some pranks jokes here, it was on a serious note.

For peace to reign, I left the matter like that and decided to cut off electricity supply to the Air Conditioners right from the outdoor units. At this point I gave the landlord a comprehensive report of this lady and the risk of her continual stay in the apartment. We decided this is the end of her stay, we cannot tolerate her excesses & erratic behavior any more.

She returned from her auditing job, after a week her monthly short-let payment will elapse, 48 hours before her rental time will elapse, I informed her about our decision of not being interested in her extension renewal. She was not comfortable with the decision and was not willing to leave, she wanted to make another payment but we don’t want her payment anymore.

I already have the marching order to have her leave, I thought she can still have the effrontery to pour a full bucket of water on me again. On the day she was meant to checkout, she refused to do so. I dare not go physical with her. I simply went to the electricity meter board and take off the cut-out that supplied power to the apartment where she stays and I also disconnected the water supply to the apartment.  Within 4 hours of doing this she had to succumb to our decision and she left. That was the last interaction we ever had with her.

Love is kind, patience, peaceful, caring, sharing, compassionate, empathic, tolerable, understanding, etc

Any love that is wicked, manipulative, irritable, quarrelsome, troublesome, aggressive, domineering, etc is not love but toxicity.