The Name They Called First When the Office Was on Fire

I believe that the part that one hardly talks about is that no one plans to betray anyone. It is a process that happens gradually. It is just like borrowing a man something, and he has failed to return those things until you look around and realize that you have borrowed him something that cannot be given back. Yeah, that is what I mean.

I have seen this happen to someone who is very close to me who worked at one of these big firms in Lagos. He was a very kind man who loved to fix problems without anyone noticing. The company he worked for, when their account went wrong, he was the one who stayed late to make sure everything went back to normal even though nobody wanted to touch it. His boss liked him. Or that was what he thought.

When some of the company's clients wanted to stop working with them, someone had to to fill in the shoes, and that was how that man's name appeared on the official report of the person who mismanaged timelines. The same MD who once said everyone should look up to him and also call him brother every time they meet.

This man just went quiet for days and refuses to shout. I believe that silence was him processing a lot of things he never expected from people he was loyal to. Because those people shouting his name when things were going well were the same people who pulled the string to make him fall.

There is always this particular kind of sorrow that comes with being thrown under the bus, especially from people who we trusted and put our hope in. And it is something different from when Strongers does it. That injury usually takes time to heal. And watching this man rebuild slowly and never back down taught me that I should not let someone's power define my name. And this was how this man in question survived.

Thank you for reading.

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