Sometimes non-indigenes or settlers are a blessing to the community in which they live. But some of them are the direct opposite. In other words, they're a curse to the community in which they live: I know some settlers who have so blended with the community that their children have grown up speaking the language of the community like natives. And they, in turn, have taught the children of their neighbors to speak their own language like the natives of that ethnic group.
Conversely, I know a couple that is anything but good to that community. They grew up in that community, spoke the language like natives and subsequently converted to Islam. The husband was given a shop attached to one of the biggest Friday mosques in the town where he sold drugs as a chemist. Unfortunately, unknown to his benefactors, he was a drug peddler, selling drugs and cough syrups to youths in the town. Within a short period, he flourished and became prosperous. But as is always the case, nemesis caught up with him. He was arrested, tried and jailed by a court.
More interesting is how his wife paid back the community that nurtured her. She began with petty trading and soon, she too, became prosperous. Much later, it was discovered that she made her money by lending money with high interest rates. She almost doubled the amount she gave out as loan.
Here's how it works: if you need money, you go to her. The money will be given out as presumed bags of rice, which will be recorded as such. So, if you want one bag of rice which, for instance, costs fourteen thousand naira, it will be recorded that you collected a loan of one bag of rice at twenty four thousand naira, adding an interest of ten thousand naira to the actual cost.
Her victims are usually low income earners such as primary school teachers and junior workers. Not only will you have to pay the exorbitant interest, but along the line, she will find a way of doubling the actual amount of money in such a way that you perpetually continue to pay her, having fallen into a debt trap. The moment you default, she takes you to the police or even to any court in the area, using corrupt lawyers where she collaborates with willing corrupt officers and make you pay.
Her most pitiful victims are married women who take the loan and are scared if their husbands find out, they could be divorced. She grabs that kind of situation and continues to squeeze such women dry by blackmailing them, threatening to tell their husbands.
But, mercifully, nemesis is gradually catching up with her when she came up against an honest judge, who is beginning to liberate such victims.
Only time will tell how the drama ends.
Tags
Articles