Posers of the week: One stone, three birds. Life after University? To marry before or after postgraduate studies? Can loyalty be tired?
Introduction: ASK THE BOSS is suddenly about to turn a bend you won’t like. Just be warned. Next week, God willing, we shall share the information. Meanwhile, welcome to your socioemotional Q & A hangout of choice.
2.0 I have run this particular race with gusto and panache. Even when the column arrived this medium, The Pinnacle Times, in May, this year, I honoured the call I answered on the first day of March in the year of our Lord 2014 and kept the faith, religiously. In another week, it would be a decade and seven months. I have done well, even if I say so myself .
3.0 Keep those lines until next edition, would you? Going forward, may I remind you that I always come on every week to attempt to field publicly here and on Facebook questions you must have inboxed earlier. And, God always helps me. Today, I have all of one, two, three questions for the price of one:
4.0 Let’s get into it, one by one. First, Utitofon Akpanudo shoots: ‘The Boss, how can a young girl like me build up her financial life after graduating from the university’? Great person, great entry. Straight to the point.
5.0 My Take: Very well, Ms. Akpanudo. I begin by commending you again. It’s not everyday in this clime that one sees a young person, especially female, seeking positive independence or engagement. Someone like you, with the spirit you evince, there are many choices.
6.0 You may start off a small business (eg., recharge card retail or selling akara balls or groundnut, etc.). You may learn a trade or some talent-based occupation (eg., fashion-designing). You may take up a part time or volunteering job. Any of the these will help you to make savings as well as stay busy plus the per-second opportunity of meeting people, one of whom might sooner than later connect you to a better job or opportunity.
7.0 I wish you well, Darling! Gear two: ‘The Boss. I’m a 29 year old HND holder. I am in a serious state of confusion. I wish to pursue my PGD and Msc before going into marriage.
8.0 ‘However, I am under intense pressure from various quarters to get married. Mother wants to have her grand child; my younger siblings and cousins are getting married and all that. Please advise me. I plead to be anonymous’.
9.0 My Take: Dear Mr. Anony, I wish you were from Akwa Ibom. There’s an expression I would have retorted to your entry with. In fact, here it is: ‘Da, amekap ambiak’. Pay them to interpret it for you, if they can.
10.0 You know, I wish you had said you would only take a wife after getting a good job; which I would still have waved away. Going first for PGD, MA, even Ph.D. and Professorship is not a cogent enough reason to delay marriage. Once you are sure you can fend for a family, and that you have the mental resilience, you must take a wife: the earlier the better. More educational degrees and financial success won’t make you a better husband.
11.0 In fact, if anything, they only make it difficult to choose (and keep) a wife. How are Mother et al even sure that after Msc, you won’t postpone marriage until Professorship? As it is, start looking for another excuse. Come and be going, I beg you!
12.0 Final entry, next. ‘The Boss, compliments of the season, Sir. I write in to get clarification on a matter of concern and this is it: can loyalty ever be tired? Your Mentee, Chukwu Agwu, from Ebonyi state, Nigeria’.
13.0 Fantastic stuff. Dear Daddy 03, I cannot make this episode longer than what it already is. So, please indulge me, let this be our first-ever unfinished business. We take it from here next week!
14.0 For the road though, here’s a teaser you should munch on up until our next meeting. Loyalty is a human virtue so yes, it can tire out. Furthermore, depending on who is or are involved, yes: loyalty can get tired. Rest assured there’s quite a bit I shall say on this matter.
Conclusion: That’s ASK THE BOSS, today. I hope you find my takes useful, or at least enough for you to build on. Remember, I field ONLY QUESTIONS left in my inbox. And, never forget to plead for anonymity if it’s what you want.
God bless Nigeria!
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