It was one of those long strike periods where students were forced to go home since the academic staff union of universities had embarked on an indefinite strike. Staying in school was of no use; even many who did not want to go home had to when the expenses that came with staying in school became so unbearable. Everyone had to go back home and look for something to do to help them meet ends meet. I got a draining job at a sachet water-producing company, a job that gave me little to no time for myself.
A few weeks after getting the job, my phone developed a charging port problem, but I kept postponing when to go get it fixed. It was annoying and frustrating, as sometimes I could leave my phone plugged in and come back hours later to find out it was not charging; sometimes to get it to charge, I had to wrap the cord around the phone or bend it in a way, but despite how frustrating it was, I still did not get the chance to go get it fixed, or should I say I was too lazy to go get it fixed because I had lunchtime, which was enough to do that, but I kept making excuses.
"Hey Kachi, why not get this charging port problem fixed before it brings about more problems for you?" My colleague Gideon asked.
"I have not been chanced; you know how late we close here and how early we are expected to resume work the next day, so there is no time for that." I responded.
"All these guys of ours that go out for delivery, why not give it to them to help get it fixed and then bring it back for you afterwards?" Gideon suggested it, but with the look on my face, he already knew I was going to trash his suggestion and keep being lazy about fixing the phone.
"This is really a good idea, but I would love to go get it done myself, so I will watch them do it and then test it afterwards to ensure everything is working perfectly." I responded.
"Well, if you say so, but I know you are just being lazy about getting this phone fixed; if you really wanted to do that, you would have done that already. When do you plan on going to get it fixed, then? You can also take permission from the manager, or you can go during lunch hours." Gideon said
"I will do that next Thursday; for now, I will keep managing it like this until next week." I responded.
"Don't you think next week Thursday is a bit too far? What makes you think that, with how bad it has gotten, this phone would last till Thursday? Today is still Wednesday." Gideon asked, giving me a look.
"Let's just say I have hope it would last me till then as I prepare my heart, body, and soul to get it done next week, as I have other bills and expenses that need my attention this week." I responded.
"It seems like this problem is not frustrating you enough already." Gideon said as he walked away.
We got back to work, and after work I got home, and I realized if I make or receive any phone call, the person on the other end does not hear me no matter how hard I shout on top of my voice, and at this point it dawned on me that I should have acted earlier as there was a possibility the problem I have been pampering had escalated and brought about more problems. At that moment I wished I had followed Gideon's advice and looked for a way to make the problem go away before it brought more problems. The following day during lunch break I rushed to a nearby phone technician.
"Hi, I want to fix my charging port, and also it was a charging port problem, but yesterday I found out I cannot make phone calls since the person on the other side does not get to hear what I am saying." I said to the phone technician,
"The other person not hearing you is definitely a mouthpiece problem; it happens when you harbor a charging port problem for too long." The technician said
"So how much will it cost to fix both?" I asked, feeling really sad because I know it would have definitely cost less if I had done something a lot earlier.
"If it were just a charging port, we would charge 2,000 naira, but with the charges for the mouth problem included, it will be around 5,500 naira." The phone technician said, and at this point it dawned on me that indeed a stitch in time saves nine.
