Copied I saw a post asking people what the weirdest rule was that their landlord had given them; I went down memory lane and remembered a certain landlord I had. He didn’t have rules, rather; he had this wicked trick up his sleeves… I took this picture on November 29, 2015 in the self-contained apartment I had just moved into in Asaba. It was a great deal I got, in a city where landlords preferred to collect 2 years rent upfront. The landlord here told me that they lived like a family and if I ever needed anything, I shouldn’t hesitate to ask. They even brought me his birthday rice even though I didn’t attend the said birthday. A month into my stay, I woke up to notice that the water was not running from the tap. I went to his flat to make a complaint and he told me that the borehole had a fault and they’re working on it. But in the meantime, I should buy water from him (he sold water to people in the area). As a show of kindness, since I was his tenant, he told the sales boys to sell to me at a discount. I didn’t think anything was wrong until a neighbor told me that there was nothing wrong with the borehole. This man was using us to do business; he would lock the pipe that supplied water to the tenants so that we would buy water from him. Since my own apartment was a stand-alone one, it’s own feed was different. I quickly went to take a look and to my chagrin, it was indeed locked. I unlocked it, went into my house, and voila…water gushing from my taps. Wow!!! My ‘nice’ landlord was not so nice after all! I played it cool and pretended to not know what was going on. The following morning, it was locked again…I used the water in my reservoir and went to work. When I got back home, he summoned me and asked ‘worriedly’ why he hadn’t seen me buying water. I told him that I still had water in my reservoir; he sounded pleased. So here’s what I began to do, when it’s nighttime and he goes indoors; I come out, unlock my pipe, use water for whatever I need to use it for, fill up my reservoir and lock it again. I did this until they got tired and opened the pipe up by themselves. I have always been one to solve problems with the least amount of confrontation…🤓 By Hazel Ajuamiwe