Changing Times

By Kayode Odumade

In this riveting international story, Banji is offered a once-in-a-lifetime job in his home country of Nigeria. After leaving his successful career in the States, he takes the job and relocates with his wife to see what adventures and growth await him in Africa. The book is packed with culture, international intrigue, Banji’s growth, family dynamics, and much more.

Changing Times is a fictional story circled around passion, betrayal, loyalty, and how one man’s changed circumstance would be of a benefit to others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796018929

Kayode Odumade

Kayode Odumade has been able to put his creative imaginations in writing. His imaginative story telling ability could be traced to a few decades ago when he started telling captivating fi ctional stories to children, like him, who were glad to be outside in the breeze under the moonlight for relieve from the tropical heat of the day. His experience in the different stages of his life plays a major role in his writings which are presented in fairy tales today.

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Copyright © 2019 by Kayode Odumade.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/17/2019

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Contents

Introduction

Tough Decision

Departure

Arrival

Work Begins

A New Twist

Suddenly

New Arrival

Confession

Real Work Begins

Supervise And Research More

The Struggle

The Visitors

No Options

The Task Ahead

The Campaign

The Bill

INTRODUCTION

Banji James was a middle management employee with one of the top banks in Atlanta Georgia. He is a first-generation immigrant in the United States. His dad came for his undergraduate program back in the late 1960s and after earning his post-graduate master’s in electrical engineering, he married his undergraduate sweetheart and remained in the United States. His dad is a Nigerian man. Banji happens to be the only child of this family and he had the best upbringing that his parents could afford. He went to a good Ivy league college and had an MBA.

During his post-graduate program, he met and fell in love with a Nigerian lady from his dad’s country. She came for her post-graduate in property law. Both of her parents are university lecturers back home. Her dad is a professor of law and runs a property law firm, while her mum had a Ph.D. in the department of law at the same university. Taiwo is a twin and her twin brother was a congressman in their parliament, but of the opposition party. He was also a lawyer by profession.

Banji excelled in areas of retail and risk management for his company. He was a risk taker and even during the financial meltdown, he made profits from businesses he navigated for the organization. He was known to respect all employees, unconcerned about one’s grade, level, or status. He was very domestic, he loves to do house chores, and being an only child, he followed his mum’s domestic and religious antics.

Taiwo James loved her husband and she was submissive to him. She worked at a law firm in Atlanta, Georgia, and they had a beautiful home was still under a mortgage. Banji loved and respected his wife and he is always willing to lay down his life for her. However, their union has not been blessed with a child.

Banji was excelling so much at his job that upper management and the board start tipping him as a future CEO of the financial institution. Banji had that Midas touch since junior high, as he shined in all he put his mind to. Once at a management retreat, he was asked what his driving force was. He said he had a philosophy or personal motto: The beginning is always the hardest, so never give up. That stuck with him all while he was growing up. He further said, Defeat gives me an opportunity for a second chance.

Banji’s fame had gone international, especially after the profit made during the financial meltdown. Both local and overseas banks began to take a special interest in the young man.

TOUGH DECISION

Banji and Taiwo were celebrating their five-year wedding anniversary when a top Nigerian bank from his dad and wife’s home country sent their human resources delegate to discuss attractive terms with him. The bank was more interested in him when they discovered that his dad was an immigrant from their home country and his wife’s parents were lecturers there also. The discussions took months, through back-and-forth emails and phone calls with other directors and bank management.

Banji was at a crossroad in life. His mum’s closeness was a major hindering factor; he was still her little baby and she didn’t want to risk him going to Nigerian country miles away from her. His dad was indifferent with the whole idea. He had mixed feelings, as his son would be going to his home country without him accompanying Banji. Banji’s father always promised his wife and son that they would one day take a family vacation to Nigeria, but that never came to pass. So, the prospect of his son going there himself to meet his siblings and cousins was encouraging it meant Banji’s father might someday finally make the Nigerian vacation with his wife to visit their son and his siblings, cousins, and their children.

Taiwo’s parents were excited about their daughter and her husband coming to spend years in Nigeria. They were delighted because since she married Banji five years ago, she had not stepped on Nigerian soil. The wedding took place in Dallas, Texas when her parents came, and she remained in the States. Their only means of communication had been via Skype. Her parents were so busy in Nigeria, and she was also busy in her law firm, so vacations of more than two weeks in a year were scarce to both her and Banji. Taiwo was looking forward to reuniting with her family, friends, and college colleagues that she had not seen for over five years. The last time she visited Nigeria was just before the wedding when she came to prepare and get things in place for her parents to bring when coming for her wedding. She was even more excited that she would be the person to lead her husband to his dad’s home country. She had visited Banji’s elementary school, junior high, high school, and college. She had also visited his childhood neighborhood so she was eager to take her man to all her memorable places so he could know more about her upbringing.

She wanted her friends to finally meet her man. She was happy that she would start introducing Banji to more Nigerian culture and food. This was all happening so fast she could not catch her breath.

After months of back-and-forth, the bank management sent another high-profile delegate to discuss Banji’s possible fears with him. Banji had a mortgage, student loans, car loans, insurance, and taxes and he couldn’t just liquidate them all and move. The bank promised to do something they had not done before, he would be offered a package as an expatriate employee, his wages would be in US dollars, and his paychecks will be remitted to his US account free of charge on monthly basis to meet his obligations in the US. They also promised that if he could get a Nigerian passport, he would pay local income tax as a citizen of his father’s country especially since he had their local name as his first name.

All fears were gone then, Banji looked more comfortable with the idea for the first time in months, and the next hurdle was his current organization. How would he tell them? Would it not be a betrayal for the management of his bank, colleagues, and acquaintances of the last seven years? How will I handle these new challenges he thought? He had been a loyal and faithful employee; he was even tipped as a future CEO of the bank in the near future if he improved upon his excellent work ethic. Both management and non-management staff alike enjoyed working with him because he was a real team player. He realized that change was the only thing that was constant in life.

But it was hard making up his mind until the Nigerian bank sent via FedEx his appointment offer letter. The annual package was mouth-watering with a six-figure salary in US dollars, but the taxes were in the country’s local currency while he would be paid in US dollars. The complete package came with a house, two vehicles, a driver, medicals for a family of four, an annual vacation package for a family of four, and club registration for recreation. For Banji to get to this salary level at his current job, he would have to work another eight years with an outstanding performance every year.

He studied the non-monetary aspect of the offer, he also looked at the termination of appointment aspect of the offer with his wife. After they crossed all the‘t’s and dot all the ‘i’s they decided to commit it to God in prayers and fasting.

After a week of prayer and fasting, he decided it was time to break the news to his employer, resign his job, and make plans to relocate to his father’s home country in Africa. But his employers would not just give in without a fight; this was their shining star leaving for a third world country. Banji had a positive impact on all the staff of his bank. They were not short of praising him for his accomplishments while with them. They had various departmental parties for him representing the various units and departments he excelled with. Gifts that he would not take to Nigeria were given to him. People discouraged him about Nigeria; people even said his standard would be too high for them there. People began to check news, websites, and Wikipedia to get information about the African country he was going to in order to emphasize the negatives of his destination, but that did not deter him. He had made up his mind, and he felt he had the backing of the good Lord on this relocation. He explained to management that he would be there temporarily just to have a Nigeria banking experience which would make him more competitive for big roles in international banking. Management saw that he had made up his mind; they then came to an agreement that he would still have a job with them if he so wished after his employment contract came to an end there. This memorandum of understanding was signed by both management and Banji James and a copy was held by each.

The situation at Taiwo’s place of work was less dramatic. They always knew she was a Nigerian that could decide to go back to her country of birth. She explained her situation to management, and they wished her the best of luck in her future endeavors.

DEPARTURE

Taiwo had a Nigerian international passport that had expired, and her maiden name was on it, so she renewed that. The couple also applied for the United States international passports. The process took about a week with various payment made online before they go for picture caption, biometrics and signature caption.

Banji and Taiwo also had an appointment with their gynecologist concerning the delay in childbirth. Dr. Smith informed them as usual that there was nothing wrong with either of them and they just need to be patient and the babies would start coming. They would need to use this period of spare time to spend more time with themselves before they travel so he can observe her before she goes. Dr. Smith also informed the couple that they could try In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and he is willing to give them advice on nutrition, lifestyle, and supplements. The doctor said if they should decide to receive In Vitro Fertilization, there are steps she can take to prepare herself for the procedure both physically and mentally for a higher success outcome. A healthy, nutritional diet high in protein is important to maximize her egg production as a woman, whereas mentally she may need to prepare herself for regular injections and fertility testing. They decided they would keep trying naturally before they relocate then make up their minds much later. Banji informed his wife that she does not have to put herself under pressure as a child cannot define his love relationship with her. He loves her without a child. And he loves her, even more when he sees the effort, she is making to have their baby but reminded her that the power to have a child is only given by God.

Banji and Taiwo left all their stuff in the care of his parents. He informed his mom she could rent the house to a very reliable family from her local church or she could use the house for a vacation home for families vacating in Atlanta. His mom was also the custodian of his vehicle while Taiwo decided she would sell hers and just keep the money. As days were drawing near their departure date, Banji’s dad was connecting with his siblings in Nigeria for the arrival of his son for a befitting reception for him. Taiwo’s parents were organizing a welcome home party for their daughter and her husband.

Banji’s mom seems not to be too excited and if she had her ways, he will not go. She has become so used to talking to him daily, the family Christmas and thanksgiving gathering will never be the same as she has spent the last 30 years of it with her one and only Banji. She has had various mood swings since the reality of the relocation hit her. However, her husband reminded her that sometimes love means letting go when you want to hold tighter, and she just had to let her little boy go and follow his dreams.

Every day became a carnival at their home, as they were the host to various groups of friends from church, work, clubs, school came visiting to catch a glimpse of their adventurous couple friend.

The days were running fast to the departure date. His mom seems to be withdrawn the closer it is toward the departure date and that got Banji thinking of calling the Nigerian bank to give him another two weeks to sort out some things but his wife was quick to say let’s not wait, the time will never be right so he dropped the idea of calling and looked forward to relocating to Nigeria.

As the days rolled by, just four days before departure, Taiwo became scared, she had sleepless nights, she was thinking about her childlessness, she had overworked herself, she was losing weight, she calls her mom every night, it began to get Banji worried also. Banji said the scariest moment is always just before you start. And he promised he would be by her all through this scary moment. He said baby I know all about you and I still love you nothing is going to change that and that lighten his wife up a little.

They spent the remaining few days alone together, going to movies, dinner, evening strolls on the sidewalk and their final night was spent with his parents. It was an emotional night for them all and his dad just made the best of trying to liven up the atmosphere with Nigeria jokes. Taiwo made her best Nigerian dish for them which Banji and his mom felt it was too spicy and hot. His dad joked that Banji was going to Nigeria, and he, Banji calls this well-prepared diner spicy and hot! Better get used to eating this as this is what you will have to eat more in Nigeria, said his dad.

ARRIVAL

His parents took them to the airport that night to catch a Delta airline’s direct flight to Lagos, Nigeria. The twelve hours flight was interesting as Banji was on a flight leaving North America for the first time in his life. He felt it was worth the wait to finally go and meet his father’s people. The pilot and the cabin crew announced that passengers should fasten their seat belts and disconnect all electronic devices as they were about to land in Lagos, Nigeria.

After collecting their baggage from baggage claim, they were met by Taiwo’s parents. It was a hot environment for Banji. He was finally in his father’s country of birth. He was just too excited but tired after the trip that kept increasing without any stop in sight. The long drive from the airport to her parent’s house was something sort of a long ride. He kept asking are we there yet? They would chorus a resounding No. After about 3 hours’ drive, they finally got to her parent’s house.

Banji found himself in a real African household with lots of maidservants with different functions, they had a cook, and also a house cleaner, and also a driver. The beauty of the African setting is that they also have distant cousins staying with her parent because their kids no longer stay in the massive house. Her parents train these distant cousins to higher institutions like colleges. That is what happens in a typical African setting that an uncle or aunty brings up their siblings’ children to help reduce the cost of parenthood for the less privileged.

After going around the house, Banji went for a quick shower then settled in for a proper spicy African dish. He was sweating even when the air conditions were on. Then he went through the family album, met some family members and settled down to listen to family histories. He eventually found time to call his parents. They spoke for about 2 hours while his mom was glad for a safe trip. She was coping fast without her baby. Later that evening he called on his father’s family and they were excited to hear his voice and they were planning to come and visit him over the weekend.

Banji and Taiwo had it all planned; he would start work a week after arrival. So, he just wanted to catch up on traditions, culture, language, food and meet people from his wife and father’s families. They arrived in Nigeria at about noon on Friday, October 23rd, 2009. He will resume officially on Monday, November 2nd, 2009, however, he would have to go to the new headquarters and do documentation during the last week in October 2009 in order to be assigned his work tools, like a house, vehicles, and driver in preparation for resumption. The company’s headquarters was on Lagos Island and his parent-in-laws provided a car and driver for them before he gets all his assigned working tools.

They planned their days together while his parent-in-law went about their lecturing business at the university. They went about like tourist, from one theater to the other, trying out all the restaurants within their environment. They went to his company headquarter for documentation together. They had to go for a Nigerian driver’s license test so they can move about without inconveniencing her parents. They were eager to be independent again without relying on anybody for directions and movement.

Her parents had provided a driver and a car pending when he would get his official vehicles from the company when he resumes on Monday. So, they could achieve many visitations and site seeing before he resumes work. The driver was always with them all day and even already cleaning the car before they woke up. Banji was amazed at how efficient the driver was when it comes to his job.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009 started much more relaxed, they woke up lazing about then they decided to check out the nearest church close to her parent’s house. After church service, they went for a quiet eat-out lunch in a nearby restaurant. When they got back home, they decided to watch a movie before Banji retired to an early bed in anticipation of the first day at his new work tomorrow. However, Taiwo’s twin brother had also arrived from the country’s capital with his wife and kids to visit the entire family. He had married earlier than Taiwo and he has two kids of both genders. They spoke about everything from politics both local and foreign, sport, their relocation decision, Banji’s parents and everything they could think that crossed their minds. It was really a family reunion for all parties. They left late that night as they were scheduled for a return flight to the capital first thing the next day but promised to come to visit when the kids have their Christmas holidays. His in-laws could see the excitement as he spoke, and this resumption was even more exciting for Banji because this will be different from his first day at work about 8 years ago.

WORK BEGINS

Banji woke up about 6.45am to prepare for work but to his astonishment, the driver was already outside washing and getting the car ready. He said to his wife, Darling, I guess labor is cheap here, do they pay per hour here? If it was back in the state, drivers would be millionaires if we are to count the hours the driver has been with us over the weekend.

Taiwo was also going to keep herself busy with her father’s law firm to start with and whatever comes up thereafter. But she would be leaving the house much later than Banji. She joked that she could go to work anytime, as her dad can’t fire her. Although with all provided by Banji’s workplace, she didn’t need to work but just so she does not get too bored she decided to take up a job with her dad, she once joked, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

At exactly 7.15am Banji left the house and promised to fill his wife in when he has a break on his first day at work. It was a short ride to work as the house is about 45mins to his headquarters when traffic is high. He couldn’t get to pass the gate yet because his work identification wasn’t ready, so they had to call a representative of Human resources to get him to pass checkpoints at work.

He was scheduled for one-week orientation to know the mission and vision of the bank amongst other things like departments and personalizes he would be working with to make his job easy. He also went to the administration department to get his work tools. He was assigned two vehicles, a driver, a house, a laptop, a Blackberry phone, and complimentary cards. He also went to the information technology department to set the bank intranet mail account and it was set up on both the blackberry and laptop. He was then taken to the legal and risk management department to meet staffs that he would be required to work with during the various engagements.

During the lunch break, he met his official driver and they both went to collect vehicles assigned to him. It was an SUV and a sedan car. He also collected the keys to his apartment which was closer to the headquarters than his wife’s parent’s house. While on the way to locate their new home, he called his wife and updated her on his first day at work.

Visitation of various more departments after the lunch break and that was all for the day. This was all he did for the week.

Banji and Taiwo decided they would move into the apartment by that weekend, so while Banji went to work, Taiwo goes to put in one or two things in there in anticipation of their weekend movement. Taiwo was fully engaged with preparing the house so she didn’t show up at her dad’s law firm for that week.

On Saturday, November 7th, 2009 they moved into their house and work on the house started for Taiwo almost immediately to put fittings in the house to meet her taste.

On Sunday November 8th, 2009 the couple woke up to their new home and started the day with arranging their stuffs, getting familiar with the house gadgets, setting the kitchen, dining set, guestroom, sitting room, study till about noon when the officer driver came to pick them out for more shopping, visitation, lunch and they returned back at about 7pm in the evening to their new home. Later that night they called family and friends in the US to give an update on how fast they were settling down.

The first day at his assigned department was not as interesting as the orientation week. He woke up early and the driver came to pick him up early also. The drive was shorter than his in-law’s place. He meets members of the Risk Management department at 8 am and went into his office to go through files and risk management work manual. He later had various meetings with the executive director of the risk management, regional managers, branch managers that had a risk management challenge to resolve with the department. He was in various meetings that he forgot to call his wife or have a lunch break. The meetings were consuming.

Weeks after weeks, he began to settle in more. He could now call other employees by their names without looking at their staff identifications. He always had people around him because of the inspirational way he solves everything that looks like a big challenge for others. He was known to respect every category of staff. He was not bothered by your level, status, grade, and position. That brought more staffs to him for encouragement.

First Christmas outside the United States seem fun, he enjoyed himself with family members that came around to visit them. Taiwo’s brother’s children were around for two weeks to spend time with them while their parents just came around on Christmas day and came back to pick the children on the New Year’s Day. He even had colleagues from the office come around. He called his parents and friends telling them his new experience in another continent far from home.

Christmas and the New Year came and went; work was more demanding now as he was trying to introduce a simplified way to review risk profiles of clients of the bank in line with international best practice.

He had to assemble a team of staff that will anchor the wind of change in the financial institution on the various risk management criteria like the operational risk, credit risk, and enterprise risk. He was introducing the Basel Accord to the bank. They had to divide the loans into various categories to classify them. Personal loans, contract finance, mortgage, working capital financing, import and export financing, asset financing and refinancing, etc. His team was to review the credit files of 100 active clients on each of the classifications of the loans to come up with models they can depend on for scoring clients before loans were advanced. They were also interested in the reasons for defaults. ‘Was default high among men than women, was default high among the young than the old, was default high among the educated than the less educated, what role does default play amongst the ethnic and religious divide’. Exposure at default, the loss given default and the probability of default. The task was huge considering that the institution is the pioneer financial institution to embark on this.

After about 4 months of classifying all categories of loans, putting up a credit scoring model, they must now, train various loan officers for each of the bank’s 725 branches divided by regions. For the next 3 months, Banji will become a facilitator and the speaker of the team. They would be traveling all around the country to train loan officers which would keep him away from his wife for some time. His team planned their trips in about six zones to cover about 100 regions. They would start with the South-West zone which is where the headquarters is and then moves to South-Central then to South-East zone. After completing the South, they would move to North-East then to North-Central and end up at the North -West.

Taiwo, on the other hand, was also settling into the challenges of her father’s law firm. She had the easier task between the two of them. She had more spare time compared to him. She even helps him to coordinate his office materials. Their time together is shortened, now because of work pressure and his passion for imparting knowledge to his team in order to reduce him speaking at all regional training.

While he embarked on his various trips, Taiwo’s mom was worried about her childlessness. She encouraged her daughter to seek more of her husband’s together time since they were both medically fit according to her doctors. Taiwo’s old college mate (Nkechi) came by one of her lonely weekends and Taiwo informed her of her fears about her husband’s travels recently. Her friend confessed that Banji is good looking and had a swag which his female colleagues will want to take advantage of, she encouraged Taiwo to keep the communication alive. Her friend said in the United State, couples can easily adopt but in Africa, adoption was not an option. She also shocked Taiwo by telling her that in Africa, it is the woman that has the child for a man that can claim the man. She said pressure is always on a husband when his wife has only females as children to take another wife in order to have a male child. So not having a child in an African setting might not be the best thing especially once his female colleagues hear that he is married but childless. Her friend left with words of encouragement that Taiwo should trust in God that their case is simple since they were both medically fit to bring forth a baby. That was the longest weekend ever for Taiwo, as she was just depressed on the reality of their childlessness in an African setting. She wondered why she encourages Banji to take the job offer. She was hoping that it will not boomerang on her after a while.

On one of her lunch breaks at work, Taiwo ran into an ex-boyfriend from her undergraduate college days. They were both excited to see each other. He was still single, but a very attractive man and he was all any lady needs to take home to mama. Femi Johnson was that person; he was doing