Sometimes, life puts you in messy situations where you’re not sure if you’re doing the right thing or not. That’s what Na Me F— Up? is about — real Nigerians sharing the choices they’ve made, while you decide if they fucked up or not.
Bola* (26) never planned to run a business, but when her friend Ezinne*(26) invited her to run hers, Bola agreed and turned it into something incredible.
However, resentment over finances grew, and desperate to claim the business as her own, Bola made a decision that eventually wrecked her friendship with Ezinne.
At the end of this story, you’ll get to answer one question: Did she fuck up or not?
This is Bola’s dilemma, as told to Azara.
I stole a business from my best friend, Ezinne.
I know that’s a crazy thing to admit, but I’m not ashamed to say it. The business was mine, and should have been mine from the start.
Let’s go back to where it all began.
Ezinne and I met in 2020 during our final year of university. I’d helped her with an assignment, and the rest was history.
From that day on, I became the person she turned to when she was too lazy to do something. I was the “serious one”, the one who attended all my classes and graduated with a second-class upper. Ezinne was the “party girl”, going out whenever she could and then making me do the bulk of her work. At the time, I didn’t mind. That’s what friends do.
When we graduated in 2021, I learnt that the real world unfortunately didn’t care about my grades. Jobs were scarce, and the few available ones wanted years of experience from people who had just left school. We both applied everywhere and heard nothing. I wasn’t so bothered by this until I finished NYSC in 2023, still jobless and fully dependent on my parents.
By this time, Ezinne decided she was tired of waiting for a job, so she started a small jewellery business, selling necklaces, earrings and bracelets on Instagram. I was happy for her, but I braced myself for the day she’d try to make me take over because she got tired of running it.
Things took an interesting turn a month later. Somehow, Ezinne got a job as a media specialist, earning ₦120k a month. At this point, her jewellery business hadn’t amounted to anything, and she’d only made about two or three sales, so she dropped it to pursue her new career.
I’ll be honest: I was jealous. I was the more focused and hardworking one, but somehow she was the one with a job. I felt cheated, but I also knew there was nothing I could do about it.
Just as I expected, Ezinne soon said, “Bola, I can’t run my business on my own. I have too much going on. Will you help me?”
I might have said no if I had a job, but I was desperate, so I didn’t hesitate to say yes.
I took over the business at the end of 2023. At that point, the Instagram page had 53 followers and Ezinne had barely made any sales. But I was determined to make it worth something.
I treated the business like a job. I learned how to take better photos, figured out where to buy stock cheaply, wrote catchy captions, and replied to every DM within seconds. For the first few months, I barely made any money, but I kept going.
Then it started to work. By 2024, about six months after I took over, I was making a steady ₦300k in profit every month, and the page had grown to 2.6k followers. I made my highest profit in March, ₦610k.
My life changed. I started saving for the first time, restocked my wardrobe, and began taking online business courses to learn how to manage the business better. I was so proud of myself; I had built something that was working, and I had done it all on my own.
But Ezinne didn’t see it that way.
In the six months since I took over the jewellery business, she hadn’t contributed in any way, not even to ask how things were going. But once I started upgrading my lifestyle, she realised the business was working.
One day, she called me and said the words I feared hearing, “Where’s my half of the profit?”
Her half? What half? I was doing all the work. I didn’t want to give it to her, but I felt like I had no choice. I had been running the business with her blessing, and she could have taken it back at any time. I also didn’t want to fight my best friend, so I agreed.
From then on, Ezinne got half of my profit every month, and still I did everything. I sourced the jewellery, went to the market in the blistering sun, took photos, packaged orders, handled customer complaints, and posted every day. She never helped with any of it. She’d just text me for her half at the end of every month. It didn’t help that she never said thank you or acknowledged how hard I was working. She even once joked that I was her salesgirl.
Our friendship began to change for the worse. I was used to doing things for her, but those things had never involved my money.
I was tired and resentful, and every time I sent her my profit, I would have flashbacks of all the other things I helped her with but never got properly appreciated for. It didn’t help that she was still making money from her corporate job, so her taking half of my money wasn’t even necessary. I realised that Ezinne had been leeching off me since we met, and now I couldn’t handle it anymore.
At the beginning of 2025, on New Year’s Day, I decided I no longer wanted to share the business. New year, New me, right?
I wanted it to be mine, but I couldn’t just tell her, because I knew she wouldn’t agree. I also didn’t want to complicate things before I could take ownership.
And that is what I intended to do: legally take ownership.
The business had never been registered, and no agreement between us said we were partners. The little stock she’d started with had been sold off long ago, and everything the business had now, I had paid for with money it made while I was running it.
Knowing all this, I said to myself, “Why not register my business under a different name?” And that’s exactly what I did.
I picked a name that wasn’t taken, uploaded my ID, paid the registration fee out of my own savings, and waited. Nothing about it was illegal because it had nothing to do with Ezinne anymore. By April 2025, I was certified.
That same week, I changed the Instagram password. Then I told her everything.
She screamed that I was a thief and that I had been stealing from her all this time. She added I wouldn’t be living the life I have if not for her.
I retaliated, saying what I felt: that she hadn’t done anything for the business in almost two years. She said she would sue me, but I explained there was nothing to sue me for. If she wanted the Instagram page, the only thing she’d made, she could have it. I knew I could build a new one.
She cursed me in every language she knew, and then she blocked me.
I want to tell you I felt free, but truthfully, it was difficult. I knew I was risking my friendship with the stunt I pulled, yet a part of me hoped she would be understanding.
To make matters worse, a month later, Ezinne went online and started talking about the business. She posted on her Instagram story and lied, claiming I was a scammer and a thief and that people should be careful.
I was terrified. This business was my only source of income, and a claim like that could ruin everything. So even though I didn’t think I had done anything wrong, I called her and apologised. I told her I was sorry for the way I’d handled things and that I hoped she could forgive me.
To my surprise, she broke down in tears and apologised as well. She said she was sorry for never contributing to the business and for taking so much of my money. She told me she knew I deserved the business but was jealous that she hadn’t been able to scale it as much as I had.
Within the hour, we were friends again, and she took the posts down. The moment those posts went down, the business matter was resolved.
We’re cordial now. We sometimes text and like each other’s posts, but we no longer laugh together like we used to. I miss what our relationship used to be, but I did what I had to do.
To this day, I don’t actually feel sorry. I apologised because I had to, not because I believed I was wrong. I was the one who worked hard; I was the one who built the business, and I only did what I did to protect myself.
Today, my business is a little rocky. Sales have dropped, but I know things will pick up, especially with Christmas around the corner. Business income fluctuates, so I’m not afraid.
The only interesting thing that happened with Ezinne recently was that she texted me a few days ago.
She said she wants to buy my jewellery.
