“ What to do , I know . I will tell you ,” CEO continued , bopping his head importantly . Tosan imagined that if one restrained CEO from gesticulating and bopping his head , he wouldn ’ t be able to express himself . His meetings mostly were not a discussion forum but a classroom where he , the teacher , passed instructions to his pupils . “ We will have to increase ullage by dropping grammage for all SKUs of Mamari without reducing our price .” The Sales and Marketing Director , Duduyemi , seated next to Tosan , tapped him on the knee . The directors glanced at one another furtively from the corners of their eyes . They read shock and disapproval in one another ’ s faces . CEO cleared his throat , reclined in his seat and continued . “ Top secret , this must be kept . So that it doesn ’ t get to the authorities . We will drop 20gm sachet to 19gm , 15gm to 14gm and 10gm to 9gm . But their original labels and prices , they will all retain . Our consumers will not notice the change . With that , from my calculations ,” He crunched his calculator and squinted at the screen , “ an extra N1.23b a month , we will be making .” He spoke in a thick accent , his ‘ T ’ sounding like ‘ D ’.
Tosan couldn ’ t believe CEO was suggesting the company scam the consumers . The directors kept quite . By now they knew it was futile antagonising him . He had become blinded by desperation .
CEO ’ s mobile phone lying on the table bleeped . He said , “ Excuse me . To my wife , I need to speak .” He answered the call , his voice demure . CEO was a henpecked husband . Tosan had witnessed an occasion where the wife talked down to him at the Ikoyi club . The wife spent her entire life socializing at the Ikoyi club and the Boat club . CEO had made the company spend millions sponsoring events at both clubs not necessarily because those events were beneficial but because his wife had insisted . On the phone , his wife seemed to be doing most of the talking as CEO mainly said , OK , OK . Yes , please . Thank you . Done , he hung up . He stood and strolled across the room with one hand in his pocket and the other clutching his cigar . He seemed to feel cool with himself as he continued his conversation with the staff . “ This is an ingenious way to increase profit since we have not been able to grow our volume . Implementation must start immediately and there should be a seamless handshake across all departments . Tosan , the volume of all filling machines , adjust immediately . The production floor , tomorrow , I am coming to inspect .”
Tosan cleared his throat and said tentatively , “ CEO ,” The CEO had insisted he be addressed not by his name but by his job title . “ that would be a criminal offense . You want us to short-change the public ?”
Duduyemi whispered , “ NAFDAC will seal of the company if they find out .”
CEO laughed and said , “ This is Nigeria . Give me a break . NAFDAC won ’ t find out . And if they do , we will settle them with an honorarium .” In his warped mind , a bribe was an honorarium . He plonked on his seat and flicked off ashes from his cigar into a tray . He took a long drag and puffed out a plume of smoke . “ Guys , I did not call you for a discussion . You either implement or your resignations , you hand me .”
Tosan found his courage . “ CEO , I will neither implement nor resign .”
Duduyemi said , “ Me too .”
The other three directors were silent .
CEO sprang up and banged the table . The coffee spilt leaving dirty-brown blotches on the white papers on the table . Wagging a finger at Tosan , he said , “ If you cannot implement , your subordinates , I will get to do it and you , I will be firing .” He sucked in air loudly through clenched teeth . “ I am not liking this . Meeting dismissed !” The skin on his
26 african Voices