By Maryam Ogunremi
On Thursday, while doing laundry, I removed my bedspread for a change and to clean it. I do this frequently to ensure my skin does not come in contact with residual germs on a dirty bedspread. I mean, the economy is hard enough for one to survive and adding medical bills or skin care extra expenses to it, would be an overkill. So, I detached it from the mattress, took some time to do the laundry since I can’t afford a washing machine yet. Like I said earlier, the current economic situation of Nigeria has its perks.
Back to the bedspread story, kindly walk with me. I picked out a clean bedspread immediately after the laundry and placed it on the bed with its pillow cases, but I couldn’t go through the rigours of spreading it for my time was far spent and I had to get to the office for the 12pm news. So, I told myself, “This will be my very first call as soon as I get home. I will get it done before I do some other things around the house.” A fantastic plan you would say. I rushed out of the house and straight to work I went because I had to walk down to the office. Cutting down on costs because the economy is not friendly and I just coughed up a lot of money that week to sort out my house rent. In the scorching sun, I walked very briskly to the office. Thank goodness, I made it down to the office in about 2minutes to the news panting like an athlete, who just wrapped up a hundred metre race.
I was at work till 3pm, like I did in the morning, put my legs into it and walked back home. On my way home, while contemplating what to do immediately I get home, my mind started dishing out reasons why I should not waste my energy on laying the bedspread. I called them reasons and not excuses because they are quite genuine. Now, since the beginning of 2026, the heatwaves we are experiencing in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital in Nigeria, are definitely not the plans of God for His creations. I mean, the heat is out of this planet. A sign that we all must be climate-conscious. We should think of our actions before we do them, especially for individuals engaging in refuse and bush burning.
Okay, back to my mind’s cogent points. It started by saying, “Why lay your bed when we both know that you will not sleep on it. I mean, there has not been a power supply in days and you have been sleeping on the floor to ease the heat. The last wash was a waste of energy since you did not sleep on the bed for more than two times and those times were just an hour or less. So, don’t lay this and keep the mattress bare. By the way, nobody is coming to visit you at home. It’s just you and you alone, why bother?”
“Hmmmmmmm”, I thought, “you have a point, to be honest. I can’t even stay on the bed for 30minutes with the heat we have at the moment.” On the second thought, I said, “But the apartment will not be ‘giving’ if I take pictures in the room or if I am on a video call with someone. Maybe I should just go ahead and lay it for that.”
My mind countered that immediately, “Come on! You barely take pictures and when was the last time you had a video call with someone? Madam, stop stressing yourself and leave the bed be.” I went through this back and forth with my mind for the whole of the 20-minute walk back home and decided to stick with my mind at the end of the day. Today is Monday and the bed is as bare as I left it on Thursday with the clean bedspread neatly folded and seated magnificently on one side of the bed.
But yesterday, Sunday, my mind started taking me through some mental training on how we all tend to do things for immediate need and not think of the long run. Laying the bed will not serve an immediate need due to the heatwave, but if the weather changes drastically or the electricity distribution company decides to up their game when it comes to supply, I will start doing what I should have done a long time ago. The stress I should have been over with a few days ago will now become extra because I will no longer do it at my convenience, I will be doing it with an extra stretch. That is likely to wear me out easily and there is a hundred per cent assurance that I will not do it with my best energy. Yes, I will do shoddy work.
How does that affect you, my reader? This concerns each and everyone of us. Let me start with the Voter’s Regustration process in Nigeria. Some of us don’t show up for it because we feel it does not concern us or the lies being peddled around by individuals who don’t even know what they are saying when they say, “your vote does not count!” Have we ever sat and asked them to expatiate on their conspiracy theory? Voters’ Registration is like the bedspread on the mattress of elections. If this is not well spread, everything else will go wrong. You will not be able to vote. If you don’t vote, your vote will not count. A vote cast will count and the one not cast will not count.
Taking this issue of the bedspread analogy from another angle, let’s look at training one’s child(ren). Their foundation is the laying of the bedspread, if you don’t do it early enough, you will do shoddy work when you try to save face and end up being put to shame.
You can liken my short story to your work, lay your bedspread by training and retraining yourself so that you can create room for growth, which will open doors for bigger and better opportunities. Stop trying to fit in at every job opportunity you get. Have a vision for your career, be ready for it and when it comes, you fit right into it.
A single act can make your life easy or make it hard or make it shaky. Lay your bed exactly how you want to lie on it.
Will I get it done today? Of course, I will and likely leave it that way till another laundry moment for a wash. Might keep up the process till our power supply gets stable – a dream Nigerians have had for years. It can happen.
Maryam Ogunremi is a broadcaster writes from Abeokuta
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