Ndani TV’s “Ratings” Recap: Season 1, Episode 2, “The Tip”

FJ’s ride-hailing chronicles continue in this episode of a not so slight mix-up.

—Spoiler Alert for Ratings—

The second episode, titled “The Tip” starts with another trip with a corporately dressed man (David Adonga) who looks like he is on his way to an important meeting. However, the episode ends in confusion and ‘yawa’ as always. This time, FJ is facing the music all alone.

During this trip, the man receives a phone call during which he tells the caller on the other end that he has a meeting with the ‘Governor’ about an issue that’s on a ‘Dangote’ level.

On hearing this, FJ becomes more talkative than usual. Although he’d tried to form smalltalk with the man earlier, but stopped after he was shut down by the man.

After this revelation of where the man is headed, he doesn’t stop and continues to ask the man about his well being and family. During this forceful small talk, he tells the man that he is into real estate and has houses in a number of locations in Lagos which was like a low-key product/service placement for a real life estate agency.

On reaching the destination, the trip ends with an amount of 1,000 naira. FJ reluctantly accepts a bank transfer payment from the man on the assurance that the man waits until he receives a transfer confirmation. Shortly after the transfer, FJ receives a 10,000 naira alert for which he gladly thanks the man and hails him for his generosity. You know on the normal level of “My chairman”, “My Dangote Boss” and “That’s my boss”.

 Personally, at this point I didn’t realise something was amiss. I thought it was pure generosity and the man looked the part, since he’s dressed stylishly with freshly ‘baked’ beards.

The man departs, and FJ’s sister, Cynthia (Tonia Chukwura), meets up with him to collect the money she requested for. FJ is only able to give her 10,000 naira cash, and she pleads for more because she originally requested 40,000 naira. FJ also decides to send a transfer of ’10k’ to her, which she also reluctantly accepts due to trust issues. This is almost reminiscent of the same situation between FJ and his previous passenger.

After this transfer, she is satisfied and departs. Shortly after, the passenger returns, asking FJ why he didn’t tell him that he transferred him 10,000 naira. FJ says he thought it was generosity from him, as we all thought. Then the man exclaims, “ehn, me I will give you 9k tip?” Then FJ brings back the conversation he eavesdropped on, talking about the man’s connection to the ‘Governor’ and ‘Dangote’. 

At this point, the man clears the air that he was referring to a friend named ‘Governor’ and he is only a Dangote truck driver. Arghhhh. Yawa don burst.

The man vehemently requests for a refund, saying that it wasn’t his intention to add an additional zero to the transferred amount, purely a mistake. FJ tries to bring up the culture of tip-giving in other countries where it is a law and informs the angered passenger that his money has gone with other ‘bukata’ (responsibility) which he had to fulfill for his sister minutes earlier. This doesn’t concern this man and he reaches for FJ’s car keys, declaring that FJ will drive him all around Lagos until the surplus 9k is complete.

Who did FJ offend exactly?
When is FJ genuinely going to have a good day? 😂 I can’t wait for an episode when he ends a trip on a positive note.

In this episode, we get to know more things about FJ, such as his family situation and past. He is married with at least one kid, and has a sister who we meet in this episode.

Also, he genuinely seems like an educated man who has only been forced into this job. He constantly corrects people that he is not into “taxi” but “ride-hailing”. It could also be mere ego. Nonetheless, this speaks about the unemployment situation in Nigeria, or in this case— underemployment, whereby he is not in a role that fits his educational background.

This episode was written by Bode Asinyanbi and directed by Adekunle Bryan Oyetunde.

Rating: B+

Side musings:

• Who would like to see an oga Titus and FJ crossover? On that note, I can’t wait for his first encounter with Nigerian police.
• The main bank transfer incidence that occurs in this episode freaks me out every time I want to make a transfer. I always quadruple check my zeros. For all we know, FJ might have transferred 100k to his sister.
• Lastly, I just realised that this might be an extension of Mc Lively’s Instagram persona, BM, “who still never find job”.

A new episode drops every Friday at 3pm on Ndani’s Youtube Channel.