SHOWING OFF GENE
The money was two thousand naira; a one thousand naira note and five notes of two hundred naira notes. I fixed my gaze at the money in my hand and wondered how all the money I had for the month got to this little amount on my hand now.
Abuja is a beautiful modern city but living in Abuja has got its own down sides-expenses. In order to beat the frenzy spending attitude of the city dwellers, I decided long ago to cut down on irrelevant show offs that leaves a hole in the pocket.
Showing off is in our African blood and sincerely, it is hard to tame. The showing off gene in my African blood reared its ugly head again during the past week when Joy came from Lagos for her quarterly update training as an Information Technology expert. Throughout the weeklong event, she stayed in my apartment and when weekend came, it was time to paint the town red.
With Emeka as our driver and guild, we sort out known and hidden joints. It was either pepper soup in this place, nkwobi at the other joint, snail special at another, roasted fish in another, dancing and drinking at the club.
When Joy left with the red eye Virgin Nigerian flight back to Lagos today, I heaved a sigh of relief. I was relieved not because Joy my NYSC flat mate was a bother, but because I would never have kept up with the spending spree.
In just a week, I have sent a whooping twenty-eight thousand Naira down the drain. Throughout her stay, I stopped cooking dinner. It was painful because cooking is one of my hobbies. But then why should I continue to cook when my friend will not eat it. Each night, she always returns with some colleagues who always insist we hang out so they can see Abuja at night. ‘Hanging out’ always starts with a visit to a restaurant and for two days when I did not join them to eat, I was the odd out and I felt stupid in the mist of IT experts so I joined them and abandoned my hobby. Luckily, I always pay for my own meal only but it was boring a hole.
But the frenzy of the weekend was the culprit that bore the huge hole in my purse. It all started with Emeka. He wanted to take the girls out on the Friday night to ‘spoil us a little’. I knew he wanted to show us that he has got cash when he took us to that very expensive restaurant that served us meals I hardly enjoyed. He paid the bill-thirteen thousand seven hundred naira cash for some nauseating nonsense that I couldn’t eat.
It was all a show and I understood the game.
Next, we went to the most popular park for the famous pepper snail special. It was served in a wooden plate. This time, I truly enjoyed my meal and with several glasses of wine. When the bill came, I snatched it. I wanted to show off too that I am an Abuja big girl. The bill was eleven thousand naira. I paid. On my bed that night, I consoled myself that we had enjoyed the snail and the wine and it was better than Emeka’s wasted thirteen thousand seven hundred naira.
Saturday afternoon, it was Joys turn to show off and my girl picked the bill of seventeen thousand naira for a good and heavy lunch at a restaurant owned by a man from her village that had returned from USA. She even left a generous tip for the waiter.
For my undoing, I suggested we go see a movie at Nu Metro and everyone agreed. Since I knew the average price, I quickly did a mental calculation of how much it will cost me. By my calculation, I expected the bill to be less than five thousand naira. But the story changed when we got there and I was informed it was three thousand for each person. “This is because it is a weekend and the seats are almost all booked” the lady at the desk said. I paid Nine Thousand Naira for us.
The evening and night was mostly taken care of by my two friends. I knew the rules of the game and the reason for all the show offs. We all wanted to prove something and my African ego would not let me sit back and watch my friends show off alone. I am a big girl too, an Abuja big girl and I wanted Joy to take that to Lagos and spread the good news.
She is gone now and Emeka and I will have to reverse back to our normal way of life. Reversing back for me is not going to be fun because my purse is bleeding seriously.
After getting my work cloths ready for the coming week, I sat down to reminiscence and to think of the week ahead. Now the down side of my showing off gene is here and I have to face it. Pay day will definitely be on the twenty-sixth day of this month. How do I survive the ten days ahead on two miserable thousand naira in a city like Abuja were no one watches another’s back.
I did not get to stock my fridge for the coming week because we were not eating at home. There would not have been time to do that anyway, we were busy gallivanting and showing off.
