THE COVERED GIRL

I get these questions and comments a lot:

Why do you cover your hair?

Can’t you use a turban instead?

Aren’t you hot?

Take that thing off so you can hear well!

But guess what, I am never going to do that, you know why? Because it is who I am and also what I love. Most of the time I find myself unique amongst people. It does feel a little bit lonely sometimes, but I have learned to relate easily with people, the loneliness is gradually fading away. Yes, you read right, learned it, used to be a lone ranger, still am though, but better than I used to be.

I have had a lot of anxious moments, thinking if my headcover would be accepted? It did cross my mind while applying to the Lagos Business School, hence I asked a lot of questions and read the code of conduct and when I say read, I mean in between the lines.

What is the reason for the anxiety, you may ask? Let me tell you about an experience.

I once applied for a job after which I was invited for a test, at the point of getting admitted into the hall for the test, one of the coordinators called me and said, “We do not allow head covers, should you be employed”. I was like, wow! Really! I wrote the exam though because I was already there, but guess what I considered myself lucky when I did not pass it because if I did, there is a possibility I would have made the worse decision of my life.

Another opportunity presented itself, I applied, luckily the test was online, I passed it and was invited for an interview. It was an interactive session. At the end of the interview, the same issue again, the Human Resource personnel asked, “What if we do not allow your headcover, would you be willing to take it off?” I responded, “Then the job is not for me”.

After that incident, I felt that was another tick off my list, then I thought to myself, why should my headcover affect anything, it does not affect my ability to deliver on the job, so why all these? But I knew for sure God had something in store for me.

Some weeks after, I got an invitation for a second interview. The excitement at the sight of the mail was out of this world, meanwhile, I never spoke to anyone about the experience. Reason being that I feared they might start preaching about the scarcity of jobs in Nigeria hence try to convince me to compromise on my value, which I was not willing to obviously.

I eventually got the job, the pay was good, and the staffs were amazing. Most of what I know in PowerPoint, Excel, and Accounting was from my experience while working there.

Dear readers, my humble advice to you:

“Never compromise on your values, you never know what God has in store for you”.