Ewaka’s story of betrayal by his family members agrees with the biblical scripture that “a man’s enemy shall be the members of his household.”
Right from his youth, Ewaka had a vision: To save his family from abject poverty. As the first child of a family of seven, Ewaka knew that he had no excuse or any reason to fail. He had no ambition to go beyond secondary school, as he considered tertiary education too expensive for his family to sponsor.
Consequently, he opted to learn a trade, which he concluded at 17. On the advice of his trainer, he opened a mechanical workshop after working for his master for five years, a period during which he raised capital and acquired essential tools to become independent.
After a few years of being self-employed, Ewaka raised enough money to travel to Germany, where a friend invited him.
No sooner had he settled down in Germany than he began to remit funds for the upbringing and training of the younger ones, who were still under the care of his parents. Aside from him, the family had three sons and three daughters. Two of the boys had grown up and were on their own.
Feeling that he owed them the responsibility to live a good life, Ewaka invested heavily in their education and businesses. Convinced that he had settled them, Ewaka decided to invest in himself and raise his own family. He found a Nigerian lady in Germany, and they started a family. They began to send money home for investment: to build three houses: one in the village, for the father-in-law and another in the city.
According to him, “for seven years in Germany, I was fixing roofs and scrubbing floors. I sent money home religiously: school fees for my siblings, capital for the family business, and cash to build not one, not two, but three houses in my village for the extended family, one for my father-in-law and the third in a chosen city in the event of finally returning home.
“My plan was simple: lift my family out of poverty, secure my future. But the letters from home painted a different picture. Money gone missing. Projects stalled. Promises broken,” he lamented.
He continued, “One day, I decided to come home. I arrived in Nigeria exhausted. The first shocker was that nobody from my family came to receive me at the airport. It was only my sister-in-law and her husband who showed up.
“When I enquired about the houses from my parents and siblings, I was taken to bare plots with weeds. The business? Collapsed. Siblings I put through school were now “too busy” to meet me. My parents became hostile.
“I was crushed. I crashed at my in-laws’ place, a building was standing with a car parked at the front. ‘Welcome, my son’, that was my father-in-law. ‘This is the house you sent us money to build. This car was sent by your wife ahead of your arrival. She was aware of what happened to you,’ my father-in-law recalls.
“I had also sent money to a friend I used to invest in any business of his choice. I went to him. I was ashamed to ask him for the money since my family had betrayed me. He smiled quietly and said, ‘Invested as you directed. The business is booming.’
“My eyes stung. Minimal remittances, different outcomes.”
“Welcome home, my friend, Iwuse cheered me up.
