Her apartment 
Inside the apartment 
Tohode
A female battery charger, Mrs. Janet Tohode, 43, based in Ajara area of Badagry, Lagos State, has called on well-meaning Nigerians to help in boosting her battery charging business so that she would be able to take care of her five children and get an apartment.
Tohode, who has received awards for being one of the best battery chargers in Badagry, explained that the assistance would make her stop living from hand to mouth. She said that if help could not be rendered to her in cash, then she would welcome donations of tools for her business.
She mentioned that the materials needed were battery charger engine, generator, sulphuric acid, hydrometer, battery tester, jump starter, tools and batteries. Tohode had a fall out with her husband some years ago and upkeep of the five children fell on shoulders. She lives in an abandoned single room apartment, given to her rent-free by a sympathetic Nigerian. But just this year, the owner had asked her to vacate the apartment because he needed to make use of it and the land surrounding it.
The notice to vacate will expire by February. She said: “I want Nigerians to help me with money or tools to boost my battery charging business. Battery charging is a lucrative business if one has the right tools. The business is lucrative enough for me to take care of my children. Aside from my desire to care for my children, I also have a dream. My dream is to train young girls to become battery chargers. If they can be trained, they can become self-employed and even employ other ladies.
But again, everything has to do with having the necessary tools. In this Badagry, I have been adjudged as the best battery charger.” Tohode had always wished been to be educated, but at a point in her life, she had to accept what life offered to her. According to her, at a very young age, she had often wondered why life had never been fair to her, but she had soon adapted, making the most of her situation, sometimes fighting to oust situations that had become noisome to her. Narrating her story, Tohode said that her father died when her mom was three months pregnant with her.
Following the death of her dad, her mom returned to Porto-Novo in Benin Republic to have the baby. Due to her situation of being unemployed and a widow,the government ensured it sent baby food to mother and child until Tohode was almost two years. Her mother returned to Nigeria, to marry her father’s junior brother. After that, the girl was left much to her own devices until she was eight years old. She saw children in uniform, heading to school and she hungered for education. She said: “When I was eight years old, I told mom I had liked to go to school, but she said she didn’t have money for that.
She allowed her elder sister to take me to Benin Republic, but I told my aunt that I would like to go to school and she enrolled me in a school.” Tohode was in primary six when teachers embarked on a strike, forcing all the pupils to stay back at home. When the strike was called off, her aunt told her she would have to stop schooling.
“For reasons I still couldn’t fathom, my aunt said she would no longer continue to sponsor and support my education. According to her, if I became someone important in life after my education, I wouldn’t remember her. In fact, her husband pleaded with her, even promised to take up payment of the school fees, but my aunt remained adamant,” recalled Tohode.
The aunt told her to think of a trade or vocational skill she could acquire. Tohode told her that she would like to become a hairstylist. But the woman again, refused. “She said that only prostitutes go for such a vocation. She suggested that I should go and learn sewing, but I refused. She then said I should be hawking cold water and that was how I started hawking. I didn’t like it and deliberately started returning home late. It was a form of protest.
I wanted her to get angry or frustrated and return me to my mom. And that was what she eventually did. She complained to my mom that I was stubborn.” Back home with her mom, Tohode brought up the matter of picking up her education from where she left it. Her mom tried to enroll back to primary six to at least complete it, but the new school insisted Tohode must begin from primary two. She told them she couldn’t go back to primary two and even begged to be allowed to go back to primary four, but the school refused.
Left with no options, she accepted to go and become an apprentice to master a profession. She then told her mom that she would like to learn hair-dressing, but the mom, just like her aunt, said it was not a good profession for good girls. She advised Tohode to learn sewing. A family meeting was held on the issue, with Tohode’s father’s relatives invited.
It was at the meeting that her future was decided; she was ordered to go and learn sewing. “When it was time to pay for the apprenticeship to learn sewing, every one of them said they didn’t have money.” Tohode had to start hawking pepper and palm oil for her mom. She hawks Palm Oil from 7am to 9am, goes home to rest and then hawks pepper from 12pm. She recollected: “One day, I just told my mom that I was not going anywhere; I was no longer hawking. I told her that I needed to learn a trade.
There’s a woman very close to me; she’s my confidante. She understood me. While discussing this issue with her, I told her my heart desired to learn hairdressing. She told me that since my mom had refused, insisting would only cause problems.
She asked if I had liked to learn something else. I asked what sort of job, she said it was a man’s job. At that point, I was already fed up with my life. I told her that I would learn it.” The woman took her to Mr Tola Huton, who accepted Tohode as an apprentice to learn battery charging.
But before Huton accepted her, he asked her one question; if she was really interested in learning and becoming a battery charger. She said yes. Huton, who knew Tohode’s situation, allowed her to start the apprenticeship without payment.
He also bought drinks and biscuits as was the customs for those working in the garage where she was to learn the work. They all prayed for her. She said: “On the day I was to resume work, I went to tell my mom that I was going to work, to learn how to become a battery charger.
She just looked at me and asked if I was going to a boy’s house and was pretending that I was going to work.” Tohode recalled that many people at the garage expressed doubt that a woman could learn or mastered such a job. But Huton was supportive. She met four other apprentices on the job, whom she addressed as, “senior.” She said: “I started learning it and it got to a point, I got to know it more than my seniors. My boss started taking me outside to work with him. I later had three juniors, all men. I was and remained the only female in that garage. I was in charge of training my juniors and even had to take up training one of my seniors. Initially, when I started the job, I used to feel embarrassed. I was the only female among so many men. When I noticed that people were expressing pleasant shock and praising me, I embraced the job further.
In fact, some customers, who were impressed with me, would give me tip.” She further stated: “The minus in learning the work was the way my master used to beat me whenever I got late to work or made mistakes. Sometimes, he would punish me by asking me to clear the gutters and everyone would be looking at me.
Finally, I completed the apprenticeship.” When there was no money for freedom and for tools, she decided to “marry.” She had met Robert while learning the job. Robert was into spraying and selling of cars. “Since nobody in the family was interested in my welfare or upkeep, I decided that it was better for me to get married; it was better for me to marry and allow Robert to take care of me. He didn’t pay my bride price. I just parked my things and moved into his house. We had five children.”
She said that it was after they had the third child that Robert started misbehaving and started loafing around and couldn’t seem to hold down a job. Tohode said that she got tired of feeding him and their five children, she also suddenly wanted him to make an honest woman out of her. She urged him to go and pay her dowry.
At a certain stage, both partners parted and Tohode was saddled with five children, without a roof. She said: “Right now, I live in a room apartment with my children. The owner of the building felt sorry for us and allowed us to live there. But now, we’ve been asked to leave. I don’t know what to do. I’m praying and looking up to God for a miracle.”
Phone No: 07069317998
No comments:
Post a Comment