In his 21 years as an aluminium window, doors and fittings fabricator and installer, Lukmon Adio has never been so disappointed like on April 28,2024. That day, a rich client of his, who fixed his housewarming to coincide with his wife’s birthday, fell from the new house’s balcony whose aluminium holding was loosely tightened and with wrong screws by one of his apprentices. The furious Isolo, Lagos-based 43-year-old Adio would have skinned alive Ganiyu (19 years), his apprentice, who is popularly called Gani B, if he was anywhere closer to him that day.
Sadly, Gani B has never returned to finish his three-year apprenticeship, rather he has joined some of his secondary school mates on the street for ‘soft-money’ or wealth without sweat. “Dis na suffer suffer work, I no wan suffer,” Gani B was said to always tell his fellow apprentices, whenever his master scolds him for laziness or poor output. As regrettable as Gani B’s case is, Uche Okenye’s case is worse.
The qualified mechanic had things going for him in all positive fronts because of his good skills for car repairs; three skilled technicians, five apprentices, a barrage of customers, including some medium-sized companies and a steady genuine spare parts supply by an auto parts dealer. Sadly again, the master mechanic succumbed to peer pressure, abandoned his thriving workshop and travelled to Malaysia for ‘greener pasture’, following two other colleagues, who did same earlier and were said to have buil.