The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 59

4 years ago

The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 59

By December 2002, my elder brother in Nigeria had started going to China to import used spare parts. He was doing very well in Nigeria. He had acquired B transit visa which allowed him to venture out of the airport in Germany because he used Lufthansa, the German flag carrier to travel to China.
On one of his business trips to China, he had requested that we meet in Frankfurt where his flight would land before returning to Nigeria.
That very morning, I traveled to Frankfurt for the first time. My Ausweiss was not supposed or allowed to reach there but since we didn't buy train tickets with our IDs, I traveled to Frankfurt anyway.
I took with me, some items I had collected from my customers when they didn't have cash to pay for weeds. The items included hot drinks, many used phones, wrist watches and nice shirts.

Frankfurt was an 8 hour journey from Berlin. I got to Frankfurt that evening and went to a hotel near the airport. He had booked the hotel from China because his connecting flight would be the following morning.
I got to the hotel and waited for him. I sat at the hotel bar drinking whiskey and smoking Marlboro Menthol. The hotel was mostly patronized by travelers on transit in Frankfurt international airport. Many travelers were there; Americans, Asians, Africans etc. I mixed up and became just another traveler.
*unknown to people at the hotel was that I had no traveling papers. I was just an asylum seeker but I exhibited enough confidence amongst them*

I spent over two hours before he arrived from Ghuanzuo China with his friend. We went up to the room he had booked and I unpacked my bag. I gave him the hot drinks and watches. I told him how to distribute the watches to my friends in Nigeria. I gave him pictures and used phones. Above all, I gave him 7000 Euro to buy two plots of land for me at Awada Onitsha where we lived. That was my first investment.

He was more than happy.
I smoked Marlboro in his presence and he said nothing. I never smoked in his presence before although he knew I did smoked.
We spent almost the whole night chatting with his friend until we got tired. It was almost 5:30am when I announced that I was going back to my HEIM. I gave 200 euro to his friend who was a businessman. He laughed and took it. When I asked why he laughed, my brother said it was because he was worth over 100 million Naira. The man took my 200 and promised to give it back to me with interest when next we meet.

I left Frankfurt and traveled back to Berlin where I connected another train down to Brandenburg an der Havel, my golden city..
BY January 2003, I had become popular among weed smokers in the whole of the Brandenburg city. Many smokers had collected my phone number. They now call me just like others before they come to the HEIM. Sometimes, I would go to their houses to sell to them. It was dangerous initially but when you get to know them, you relax. Some of them were small dealers who sold to their friends. They would buy large quantities from me and sell to their friends in schools and night clubs. The supplies I made to them gave me much more money and less risk.
Due to the small competition among the dealers, our operations had started to attract the police. We believe the police knew what we were doing but since it was contained right there in our HEIM, they didn't have much reason to invade us. It was just marijuana. They were much more interested in class 'A' drugs such as Cocaine and heroine. Fortunately for us, we didn't deal on such drugs.

The German government were debating whether to legalize marijuana like Holland had done. The opposing side had been winning the debates. Our dear business was on the line.

We discussed it in the HEIM as well. We voted against legalizing it because it would mean that they can buy the stuff in every corner of every street. It was better for us the way it was. Not that our vote mattered or counted anyway.