I left Ghana before my national service ended. I was excited about my admission into a school overseas to pursue higher education, so I didn’t want to waste time. When I got there and settled in, I reached out to my family and let them know I was okay. My elder brother, Fidel, constantly checked up on me. When I faced any difficulties, I would turn to him for counsel and comfort. Not a single day did he turn me away, even though he had his own problems.

I was on quite a number of scholarships so money wasn’t part of my problems. My difficulties had to do with emotional stress and adjusting to harsh weather conditions. Adapting to change can be hard. It’s why it meant a lot to me that my brother had my back.

One year into my stay here Fidel advised me to buy a piece of land back home. “You can build a nice house for yourself. That way you don’t have to struggle to find somewhere nice and comfortable to live when you come home.” Anyone who has been in my shoes would agree that ideas of such nature bring a good rush. The exchange rate makes you feel like a rich person even with the little dollars in your savings.

I bought into the idea easily. I saved up and sent money for him to acquire the land. He is a government worker but I hired him as my foreman as well. And I paid him more money than he earned at his regular job. All he had to do was supervise the workers and bring me updates.

When we started the project, I noticed that he only communicated with me when he needed more money. He barely brought updates. He would mention huge sums of money and I would send it without asking too many questions. I was just happy that I had a trusted person in charge of my building, you know.

It took me four years to complete my first house. Two years later, I started another one. Unlike the first one where I blindly left everything to him, this time around I got the sudden urge to know the details of the accounts.

It started when I sent him GHC16,000 for some work. This man came to me three days later to ask for more money. For the first time since our partnership began, I asked him, “Give me a breakdown of what you used the money for.” My brother started fumbling. You’d think he had no recollection of how the money finished. He couldn’t say anything other done, “I paid the labourers and bought cement.”

Another time I sent him money through a friend. A day later, he came asking for more money. “Are you sure you’ve spent all the money I sent?” He said yes. “What about the additional GHC5,000?” “Oh, that? I didn’t know it was part of the work money,” he intoned. This means that if I hadn’t asked about it, he would have kept it for himself.

I became suspicious after these things happened one too many times. I started asking the mason questions about our expenses so far. The estimate he gave me was way below the money I had sent to my brother.

To remedy the situation, I asked my brother to send me the estimates first before I would send him money. His response was to inflate the prices. He thought I was completely clueless but I wasn’t. I had people on the grounds who spied on him for me. These people also brought me the original prices on the market.

My next move was a simple one. I stopped sending him money to buy materials. Rather, I would buy the materials from the shop and pay directly to the seller. The only money I sent to my brother was the one for labour. This didn’t sit well with him. He went about complaining to other members of my family.

At that point, I didn’t care anymore. My sources told me he was living lavishly, while I was here toiling at multiple jobs to send money home. He knew my struggles but showed me no sympathy.

I remember when I confronted him. He tried to lie but eventually, he admitted the misappropriation of funds. He didn’t apologize, nor did he promise to stop. I was so disappointed. I thought with my brother in charge, the masons wouldn’t steal my money. Little did I know that I had appointed the robber to watch over the thieves. Apart from paying him, I sent money to take care of his children but I suppose it was not enough for him.

A lot of things came up in my investigations. I heard from my sources that his wife was the one who encouraged him to take my money. He also admitted to people that he had offended me but he showed no remorse. “Even if I spent his money, I am still his brother.” That’s what he tells people.

I am not angry but when I stopped sending him money, his wife sent me a long passage talking about how the devil is coming between me and Fidel. I agree with her. The devil is only thriving now because I decided to not be foolish anymore.

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I have done my conservative estimates and my brother has stolen more than GHC400,000 from me over the years. It doesn’t hurt because the lessons are more than 500k. I had plans to bring his children abroad but that’s all gone now.

My point is, that I won’t advise anyone to not build back home when you travel abroad. But if you decide to do it, you will learn your lessons the hard way.

My Wife Has The Spiritual Powers To Detect Cheating

I am not looking for any advice or revenge. So those who think family is family should keep their advice to themselves. Also, I take full responsibility for my failures to detect mischief earlier. I learned I could have finished my building within a year but because of his dishonesty, it took me years. It’s fine now though. After all, It takes a bitter mistake to learn life’s most valuable lessons.

At the end of the day, we are cool. He calls and I also call. We speak as if nothing happened and I am happy it stays this way.

—Kweku

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