What Should I Do Now?

What should I do now?

“The fact that I risked my life as an armed robber whose achievements include robbing a bank successfully made the tears flow out the more as I looked at the only property I had left from my years as a thief go up in flames. It was a gruesome experience that actually turned my life around. The fire was caused by an electrical fault and it was fueled by the 50-liter gallon of petrol I stored in my bathroom. It was at that point that I came to realize that what the Pastor always preached in church was the truth”.

And as the man continued his testimony on the Television show, my daughter came into the sitting room to tell me that the Landlord was at the door and has demanded I came out.  I looked at her and thought of telling her to tell him to come in while I continued watching the interesting testimony of the Robber turned Pastor came to me but I didn’t ; I only managed to say Ok to make her have a response for the unwelcomed visitor who my landlord was.

As the former robber continued, I marveled at the turn around and wanted to find out how he came to turn a new leaf. That was the part I was waiting to hear when suddenly my landlord barged into the sitting room with two policemen behind him. It was then I realized that the threat of evicting me was real and indeed it seemed this was the end for me.

“Chief, but I told you to give me some more time”, I said to my Landlord who refused to look at me. He was fuming with anger. However, before I could say anything further, one of the policemen faced me and presented a paper to me which he claimed was an eviction order from the court.

“Officer, we can settle this thing between…”

“Settle kini? Officer, please do your work and stop listening to this him”, my Landlord cut me short as I tried to call for a form of truce.

“Chief, but I thought I explained the exact situation of things to you”

“That is not my business, I want you out of my house, shey na story I go chop?”

I looked at the man and he started pushing my chairs and shouting at the top of his voice for the policemen to do their jobs.

Here is the landlord who knows the exact situation of things with my property which I am developing somewhere along the Lagos Ibadan expressway. He is aware that I do not have more funds to continue as a result of having to settle the new owners of the land who got the land after a court order that granted them procession of the land. Prior to the time the court order came, I was at the lintel level of the 3 bedroom flat I targeted will be completed before I would leave the house I rented from Chief Ajalenkoko Chukwudi Usman.

Unfortunately, it was long after I bought the plot of land and was already at the lintel level that I and many other occupants of the estate discovered that it was a subject of litigation which the rival party to the ones that sold the land to us won.

And after various forms of discussions and negotiations, we were all told to pay for the plots the second time around. I paid with my life savings with some other monies I collected from friends which left me with deficit. And my plan was that I would have built the house to a tenable level before the expiration of my tenancy which I didn’t plan to renew. And to add insult to the injury, I couldn’t pay the rent and my building is at a skeletal state.

And as my properties were thrown out, I watched helplessly and wondered where I went wrong. Where did I go wrong?