Today (October 31, 2014) has been a handful for me, actually for my phone. It started sometime after 9am when I got a call from a fellow who said he was interested in the job of a 'house help' as requested by me. House help? What house help? I told him he must have called a wrong number. Soon after we ended that call, another person called from Onitsha for the same purpose, saying a certain 'madam' needed house help and they were calling the number, my number to speak with the woman.
It was obvious to me that there was a mistake, but just to be sure, I called my OMATT (oh, don't be a learner, that means 'oga madam at the top') to ask if by any chance she sent out request to hire a 'house help' and forgot to inform me. The answer was negative.
So what was this about? some joke or what? Just then a woman called and this time spoke in Igbo, which language I don't understand (hey, don't just go there because I know where your mind is heading). Many more calls came in and several buzz (flash in our Nigerian parlance) of my line. Some even sent me 'call me back' messages.
I became curious and started asking later callers where they got the message from. I was told it was on a live radio programme in Anambra. That was when I knew it would be a long day of a troubled phone line, so help my battery God.
I searched for any such radio with a name like Radio Satianta (which is what I thought I heard one of the callers say when I asked him) with a view to asking them to correct their message but to no avail. So now it's been about 12 hours and whenever my phone rings and I can't tell who the caller is, I wonder if that is one of my potential 'house helps'.
And to think that all these troubles happened because someone made one 'little' mistake with a singe digit in the telephone number given on air. So, while some poor woman in need of a 'house help' is out there in Anambra wondering why nobody has shown interest by calling her, an innocent man here in Abuja is having his phone battery drained by misinformed prospects.
That, my friends, is the power of a LITTLE mistake.
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