MY HORSE MEAT CLIENT

You may wonder what the above heading has to do with property? Let me explain. Sometime during the week a company rang me to help them find accommodation for an expatriate client who would be coming into Lagos from the UK during the week. I lined up a few apartments as specified, for viewing. At the appointed time I met the client at the first apartment. During the viewing he asked if I had heard about the raging controversy about horse meat being sold as beef and being used in meals in the UK? I confirmed that I had heard about it on the news. He seemed more interested in getting my views on whether Nigerians ate horse meat or not. I tried to get his mind back on the property viewing, but after a few more minutes he mentioned that he had seen horses wandering the streets on the island and wondered what happened to the horses as they always seemed to disappear into thin air. I tried to be as patriotic as possible in my reply to him. I told him that the Lagos State Emergency Patrols arranged for the horses to be taken to a horse sanctuary and kept there!  He looked at me like he thought I was the biggest liar on the face of this earth. He then asked if I considered that these horses were being killed and sold as meat in our shops and other meat outlets like Suya joints?  I must have looked horrified, because he went on to reassure me that horse meat is edible and was actually eaten in many countries as part of their meat diets. I quickly changed the subject and carried on with the viewings

My encounter with the horse meat client, got me thinking the whole week about.how safe our meat processes are? Every time I now see a sick horse wandering aimlessly on the road, I picture it being killed and ending up on my plate. I will need to seriously consider cutting meat out of my diet. Thankfully the client ended up taking one of the apartments, so my encounter with him ended on some positive note. It can be interesting meeting clients and talking to them about other issues than property, I have made a few friends and many repeat contacts through my property business. I must add that not all are so interesting and have left not too good memories behind.

Someone called up to ask if he could do business with me in Abuja? He wants me fly to Abuja to meet with him without him telling me what it is all about. All he will say is that it will be very beneficial to my company. He will not give me his full name, except to say I should call him “Joe”.  He wants to know if I will foot the air fare to Abuja and he will reimburse me when I get there. I told him I will think about it and get back to him tomorrow. He must have seen “MUGU” next to my phone number before he called. The whole phone call had 419 written all over it. I am not sure how many other Agents he will ring with that proposal or if any will take him up on it. Like I said, in this job, we come across all sorts of people and situations that require the patience of Job and the skills of a psychiatrist.