A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE BY ANJOLA AREGBESOLA

CHAPTER 1

 The rising sun cast a rosy hue across the morning sky and shone softly on the city streets, bringing with it a flurry of early morning activity. The birds kept chirping and the breeze was cool. The leaves of the plants were covered by the dew drops.

This was what Ireti looked forward to the most every morning, the 'beautiful scenery of nature'. And she felt particularly excited that morning. Usually, when she felt this way, there would probably be good news or bad news and her instincts told her something good or bad would happen that day. She only hoped it was good news because she had had a lot of bad news in life.

She had a quick bath as she did not want to be late to work; she worked as an editor for The Punch newspaper and she was well paid. Everything went well but within the twinkling of an eye, it could all change. She had to be careful when working, never come late to work, complete all her tasks that were given to her... so far she has not made any mistakes. She did not want her fate to be like that of former colleagues who were laid off from work because the firm had started using robots to perform their daily tasks. It was easier for them because robots were faster and more accurate and there was no need to pay them salaries, but she had been very lucky so far. She was agitated when they started the laying off, but now, she felt relaxed.

 She put on a black turtleneck top and red flare skirt with red shoes and brown bag, then left her room.

In the kitchen she quickly made breakfast of bread and eggs and then called out to her siblings.

Kaira and Aisha rushed to the dining table.

"Good morning sis," they both chorused in greeting as they sat at the dining table.

"Morning," Ireti answered, then pulled a frown. "Why have you guys not had your baths? Aren’t you going to school today?" she asked as both were still in their nighties.

"I didn’t know it was 6:00 yet. I slept late yesterday," Kaira said lamely. He tried to stuff me a yawn.

“Stop giving me excuses, Kairachukwu!" his elder sister fired back. "At 16, you should have the sense to sleep early so as to wake up early; you are not a child anymore!” She looked at her siblings and said sternly, “Now you two, eat your food and take your baths afterwards. You must be in school by 7:45 a.m." She dropped some money on the dining table. "This is money for public transport to school; I can't drop you because I'll be late. Kaira, when you get back home, make sure you cook noodles that you will eat and do your assignments. No running around." She looked at her other sibling. "Aisha, behave yourself, and don’t give your brother more trouble. Bye.” 

She hugged them both and headed for the living room. Her father was sprawled on the couch with a bottle of whiskey beside him, sleeping heavily and snoring loudly. She could still perceive the strong odour of alcohol. She shook her head sadly and left.

CHAPTER 2

The highways of Ore, Ondo State were quiet, since technology had made available an avenue for people to work from their homes. People did not bother going out and this reduced the heavy traffic. 

Ireti heaved a sigh as she listened to the latest gospel songs; it had a way of bringing calm and relief to her despite all the troubles she faced.

Tears threatened to roll down her eyes as she thought about her family: Her father, Mr Babalola, went from being a manager at Great Anjor Ventures to a drunkard when their mother abandoned them. Her mother was both Igbo and Hausa, hence the names she and her siblings were given, Ireti did not understand how her mother expected her father to look after three children. Ireti had just graduated from university at the time, she was 22 years old, Kaira was 15 and Aisha just 13.

Her mother's abandonment a year ago turned her father into a drunk; he just could not accept the abandonment and used alcohol to drown his sorrow, which led to him being laid off from the company where he worked. Afterwards, he lost all his money in gambling. 

That was how Ireti became responsible for their family. They had to move from their duplex to a small 4 bedroom flat in an average environment. Ireti catered for the rent, the school fees for her siblings, and other expenses in the house. It wasn’t easy for her: she had to work from 7:30 a.m to 8 p.m daily apart from weekends.

The gates of The Punch newspaper company opened and she drove in. She was always the first to get to work apart from the cleaners. On the way to her cubicle, she passed by the prayer box which was fixed there so that people could write their prayer requests and drop them in but she had stopped believing in God a long time ago.

 She had lived her entire life from childhood to adulthood as a Jesus kid and asked God for peace in exchange for that, but what happened: her mother left them, her father became an alcoholic and now she was solely responsible for her family. If God was with her, she reasoned, he wouldn’t have allowed all these things to happen to her. Sitting on her chair, she erased the thought from her head and began the day's work. The headline for that day was ‘ONDO AS AN UPCOMING MEGA CITY’

Ireti was sure that this headline would earn a lot of views. Long before she was born, when her father had just come into the world, Lagos was the only mega city in Nigeria. Now it looked more like New York, America. Other states like Kano, Ibadan, Enugu and other cities were upcoming but now they were fully Megacities and Ondo State was on its way to joining them. It was like a competition for both Osun and Ondo states and both were running fast to cross the finish line.

In the years like 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, up to about 2040, the qualification of becoming a mega city was the rate of employment, low-crime rate and Industries built, stable electricity supply, adequate housing and so on. But now, in 2072, it depended on the advancement in technology; the kinds of machinery used in companies, schools, churches and so on. This included robots, although the use of robots had not reached some other places, especially the villages, where only the elderly ones resided and they refused the androids saying that they didn’t need them as it would make them lazy, and soon the traditions and customs of their ancestors would be forgotten.

The villages were more like towns now, nothing would make one believe they were once villages, apart from the farms that were tended to by the old men and women.

Ireti agreed with them; the scientists and inventors had created a world where there was no use for human labour and humans become lazy. Nigeria was a developed country but was not up to the standards of USA, China, England and other countries that were developed way before Nigeria. Just imagine how they would be now; if there was a word like 'over-developed', Ireti would have used it to describe these places.

“Would you like coffee, Miss Babalola?” A robot asked her, causing Ireti to jump.

“No, thank you,” Ireti replied.

“Do you need anything else?” The robot asked.

“I am fine, thank you,” Ireti replied, then the robot left. She did need coffee, but she’d rather get it herself.

 Long before, you got your coffee yourself from the coffee maker, but now, you could send a robot to do it for you.

Not that she completely hated the idea of having robots work. There was actually an advantage to it: one got information quicker from a robot than from a human being since numerous data had been uploaded into the robot, one was able to get whatever one needed.

 They also produced more accurate information than humans. Owners of companies and industries and the likes also had the advantages to them because there was no need to pay salaries to the robots. The use of robots had caused massive range of unemployment in the country and Ireti didn’t want to imagine what the future held.

CHAPTER 3

The 2nd floor of The Punch newspaper was full of both people and robots. Ireti’s head was banging, she couldn’t stand the noise anymore, there was always people needing access to information on these androids and the noise of the androids which irritated her ears, the squeaking of chairs and desks and the idle chatter. Her day was already going downhill and it wasn’t even afternoon yet.

“Ireti” someone tapped her causing Ireti to jerk, she looked up from her computer.

“Oh! hi Ibrahim, what do you want”, Ireti asked politely.

“The CEO asked to see you, he said you should come to his office now”. Ibrahim answered

“Okay, thanks”, Ireti said and Ibrahim left.