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I am the strongest man I know. I am also the weakest man I know. Wanna know how weak I am? I don’t watch movies Cos I end up crying at some scenes:scenes that bring back memories both good and bad. Until you go through stuff,you won’t know why people do what they do.Let me tell
You guys a short story. As we drove out of the house, my colleague, Elkanah, parked to go back into the house to pick stuff that we forgot.Just as he stepped out a young man and young a lady approached me on the passenger side of the car and started a story about being stranded.
I didn’t let them finish as I reached into my bag and pulled out all the wads in the bag and handed over to them.Elkanah was livid.He told me that the couple are beggars and do that all the time.I told him I was aware. He looked perplexed. I kept quiet. What Elkanah didn’t
Know was that in 2000 I was like them. See, a colleague friend and I had sent a proposal to Eki,the then First Lady of Edo State. We wanted an opportunity to present a proposal for her pet project,Idia Renaissance,which was taking on the bold initiative of dissuading
Young girls from going into prostitution. Her office contacted us and fixed a meeting. We left Ibadan for Benin. The presentation was supposed to be for a Thursday. So, we left on a Wednesday. We had all we needed to remain in Benin till Friday: hotel accommodation for 2 nights,
Food and a little change for cigarettes and other side attractions(Na Benin we de go, enough point and kill to go round). We got to Benin and checked into a hotel. The next day we were at her Office only to be told that she had proceeded to Abuja to meet with the then First
Lady,Stella Obasanjo. Hian! We asked when she would be back and they told us most likely the next day. So, we waited. By Friday, she was not back. Someone in the Office suggested that we should come back on Monday. Take note that our resources could only take us till Friday when
We were expected to return to Ibadan. We conferred amongst ourselves and decided that since our transport money back to Ibadan could not pay for two nights in Benin, we could go to Warri and chill in my friend’s sister’s house and return on Monday.But the problem is: if we get to
Warri, we may not have the cash to return to Benin. As we were conferring,that someone in the Office told us that the First Lady sometimes receives people on Saturdays and that word was that she is already on her way back.The someone assured us that we would see her if we waited
Till the next day. But,if we spend our cash waiting, how then do we go back?The whole thing was just getting more confusing so we decided to step out of the office and find a place to reason. Got into a joint,3 bottles of Gulder apiece and two plates of hot fresh
Fish pepper soup later, we had done terminal damage to our transport fare. Ol boy! Man no die,man no rotten. Under the influence of chilled aqueous solution, my friend hit another ‘brilliant idea’. He informed me that his family was friends with a popular pastor in Benin. He
Strongly suggested we go pay the said pastor a visit. What do we have to lose?Na so we enter motor go there o! Apparently, said pastor was now a biggest boy. We could not even gain access to the gate. Long story short: we were stranded. We had blown the cash that would
take us to Warri by way of Bob Izzua motors. Yawa! So we started trekking towards the park. Take note, night was approaching.We had walked for about 2 hours when we saw one V-Yansh Benza with the doors wide open and ma man’s with a punk hair vibing to Shabba Ranks on full blast.
Must be one of those ‘been-tos’,by today’s parlance, Dude coulda been a Yahoo boy. I took a look at him, then gestured at my friend to follow me. We walked up to him and I politely asked to speak with him.He obliged. My heart was thumping, but a brother had no choice. I
Cleared my throat and said: “I am Chima Amadi, a graduate of the University of Ibadan, this is my colleague. I am not gong to waste your time but what I am about to tell you now, though absurd, is the truth , the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. We arrived
Benin to see the First Lady, however, she is unavoidably absent. Problem is, we have depleted our resources and are right now stranded as we want to proceed to Warri to go stay for a while with a family member till we can figure this out. You may be the only way we get there.
Now,I am humbly asking you to assist us with 700 Naira to get us there.If you think our story does not make sense, by all means,please, feel no guilt in refusing our request,but if something in you thinks that these two young business persons may be saying the truth, and if God
Has placed it in your heart to help us then please do. If you help us, this much I will tell you, now speaking for myself, I may never get to see you ever again, but I will someday be paying this debt by assisting other stranded persons that approach me with no
Questions asked“. I stopped talking. Bro looked at me and said:“wow”!He reached into his glove compartment,pulled out a wad of notes,handed them to me,shook my hands and said:”love your confidence, never give up”. I told him I didn’t intend to.We left.After walking a few distance
Away from him, I counted the notes, Oh boy, 10 thousand large ones. Whaaaaaaaaaat?! We wanted 700, this brother gave us 10k. You guessed right! We decided to enter a bar to take two bottles for the road as we waited for our bus to be filled. So, Elkanah, this is
Why I do what I do. I am not a money miss road. I know some of the folks that walk up to us on the streets are frauds but, we never can tell who is real and who is not. It is me paying my debts. And to others reading this: sometimes you have to do the unthinkable to survive.
When you get to that situation,do it with your head held high knowing that it is just one more obstacle to cross.Are you currently doing a job you consider undignifying or beneath you?Never let it dampen your spirit or blur your vision of who you know you can be.
It is part of your story that will make you the person you will become. I approached the Punk-haired brother with dignity. Even though I was going to beg,I let it be known that my best days are ahead of me, he saw through it and did the needful. He knew that there was more to me
Than coming to him to ask for assistance. That should be how you approach any humiliating situation you are currently faced with. Even as a servant and later,prisoner, Joseph approached his tasks with finesse, dignity and effectiveness. Naturally, he was noticed. That is why
The good book says that anyone faithful in a small thing will be faithful in a big one. May our dedication in our hour of need and during humbling periods be noticed by those who will lift us. May little trials never deter us from greatness. Happy Sunday.
