LOVE INDEED.
This is very unusual. I have been a resident of
this district for years and not for once, have i been in a near condition to this,
or envisaged a day like this.
Its past an hour already, I still remained
unwavering. I continued calling out to them, with my coarse voice but still they
won’t respond. I got more tired and famished, and in a bid to quench my thirst,
I advanced to a man with something soothing.
"Good
afternoon Mallam, abeg how much is this one (pointing at a cucumber)?".
After an unfriendly look, He responded, “That
one na 100 naira, this one 50 naira".
I wondered why his response was delayed, so I
looked up to him only to notice his timorous countenance which baffled me and
prompted me to ask "Aboki, hope no
wahala?". "which one u
want?" he said. Since he
deliberately weaved my question, I
picked my preference, paid him and left his presence without being bothered .
The hectic and busy ambience fertilized my
discomfort, catapulting my patience into oblivion. Aggressively, I resumed my
course after the brief break. After another while of this, an elderly
Motorcyclist, who I presume had place me under microscopic observation,
appeared from a sport betting point almost opposite me and rode towards me. Since
he is one of them, I waved at him, and this time, I was lucky, he stopped. Surprisingly,
he spoke to me before I could utter a word.
"Guy, sorry oo, e don tey wey u don dey hia, I dey shadow (slang
meaning: observe) you from that place." He said.
I responded after a brief pause, "Oga, na wa oo, e be lyk say I offend
una cos I don stop almost every bike man wey I know for here, all of dem go
just look me, zoom off, na u be d first person, wey go follow me yarn. even dt
aboki sef no do normal with me, I con confuse ooo, because to get bike for here
no dey tey at all. Anyways, abeg, carry me reach True Vine estate".
He replied "No
lele but wait oo, hope say you dey alryt sha. See plenty blood stain for your
white top. Guy, u look scattered. Yarn me weytin do u make I no go land for
Police Station untop 100 naira oo (he laughs).
I gasped and busted into laughter. so
hilarious. I asked If that's why I have been standing endlessly making calls at
motorcyclists but all were futile. His reply was emphatically affirmative.
Since he insisted knowing the reason for my appearance before he placates my
situation, coupled with the fact that I can't afford to stay another minutes
doing the same thing, I gave in.
It has been a very tiring day in the studio. I
and a couple of friends had worked on some personal and group tracks all day.
its 9:30pm and we decided to call it a day on the studio sessions. After a
tete-a-tete of relevant issues, promotional strategies for the new singles, we
submitted to making some impromptu calls likewise meetings.
A popular DJ of a Club on the Mainland invited
us over for a meeting but we knew it won’t just be about that. We honoured the
invite and after a little rest, we hopped in the car straight to the club.
The reverberating loudness of the music was so
engaging that the dance floor could not help but lure dance steps. After a successful
discussion with our host, we caught the exuberance and we joined the groove
ecstatically. This continued and it was indeed enjoyable, especially after a
long day at work. I pulled out my phone to update my Snapchat dairy and
co-incidentally, I caught the sight of time. Immediately, I whispered to my
friends “guy, its 4am o, make we begin
dey move, rest is needed o”, one of them replied, “guy, chill abeg, make I sharply go carry my promo cd inside car give
dis DJ”. I allowed him and resumed my Snapchat and Instagram gallivant.
It's about 45mins since he had gone for his Promo
CD and I felt I should go check on him so we could head home and rest. I
reached the parking lot and noticed his car was opened yet he was not in the
car. Still trying hard to figure out
what could have happened, a fainted call
for help pierced my ear drums, "Abeg, help me, abeg help me"
. When I traced it, it was from the
other side of the car. My friend is hit.
Disorganised and disturbed, I tried asking him
what went wrong but the "help
me" cry did not cease as he has been seriously injured on both legs. I
rushed back to the club to get the rest, but they couldn't really do much as
they were either drunk or tipsy. I was the only fit one among us and saving his
life was extremely on me.
I coaxed the club security men’s assistance, after
several minutes trying to locate his car key, wallet and other belongings. I
got assisted and we finally placed him in the car headed to any hospital
around.
On arriving, he was rushed into the Emergency
Ward and this time, unlike the previous hospitals, the Doctor or Matron didn't
request for a Police report before administering First aid on him. I Paced up
and down the hall way praying to GOD on his behalf as his groans in pains and
call for Help was worrisome. After few minutes, the Matron came to me wanting
to know what transpired and I willingly divulgated all I knew to her
satisfaction.
Tired and morose, I sat on a cushion at the
reception waiting to hear from whoever would speak to me about his condition;
this was my state until I slept off and woke up about an hour later. The Doctor
said to me, “You did well. You saved a
life, your friend's life, and I think he owe you one”. I cut in and
enquired "How is he doing now?",
"Hope everything would be fine with
him?". The Doctor smiled and issued affirmative responses as he led me
to his ward. I heaved a sigh of relief and unconsciously muttering “Thank you Jesus” repeatedly, on sighting
my friend who was fast asleep and looking better.
At this juncture, I resolved to heading home, to freshen up, take
a little rest and return as soon as possible but Unfortunately, it wasn't
smooth as I schemed, as I have been standing for hours to get a motorcyclist to
my home despite my sapped state.
The motorcyclist enjoyed the narration and
exclaimed "nawa oo, u try oo but na Dangerous thing u do oo". I was
perplexed by his exclamation. I asked "Oga why u talk so?".
He narrated a very similar ordeal of a family
friend, who ended up in a very ugly situation after a good intention to save a
life. His friend’s ineptitude today is as a result of a naïve assistance. The
motorcyclists reiterated that my appearance had prevented motorcyclists from
considering and even responding to my calls. From their perception, I appear
like an injured individual with the several blood stains on my white T-shirts
and they would be afraid to even talk to me.
"Me
sef dey tink say u no well oo, weda u be injured person, na when I see u dey
relate with that aboki na him I know say u well. I being dey reason say make u
no go be person wey don get injury from gunshots or something, cos na early
mormor and u get all this blood stains. The way Nigeria tey be now sef ehn,
Pesin gats dey reason before hin help oo, if not, na gbege oo, Me I no fit help
anybody in that situation oo when I know wetin fit hapun next".
This explicit statement from the Motorcyclists
instigated various thoughts and questions in my head. Although, I didn’t permit
my mindset of reality to cloud me from the obtainable in our society, today. I vividly
understood the motorcyclist’s assertion on this kind of issue in a
dysfunctional society like ours. But Still I asked myself.
Firstly, has the society turned this bad that rendering assistance in
good intentions to someone might subject one to undesired circumstance (s)?
So, this OYO (On Your Own) slogan is actually very operative?
If this is the case, how then are we supposed to be our brother's
keeper as instructed by GOD?
How do we evolve a better world with this kind of belief?
Most importantly, where is the Love?
I ruminated over these questions incessantly
with no answers in sight. Its quite unfortunate and very disheartening that
this is the mindset of an average Nigerian to a brother/sister in need.
I paused and imagined what if I was injured
truly and needed immediate medical attention, would I have remained at that
point beckoning on motorcyclists or whoever to come to my aid? Would I have
died seeking for help? *sigh*.
In a very religious country as ours, this ought
not to be. YES. I may not be a cleric, but I am sure the length and breadth of
the holy books (The Holy Bible & Holy Quran) reflects and admonish us all
about love, GENUINE LOVE, I suppose.
Undoubtedly, that is a pointer that the only
way to an enjoyable and stable world for all, is a world filled with GENUINE
LOVE, as recommended by GOD in his infinite wisdom and unrivalled greatness, in
the most supreme books ever. The book which almost every single individual owns
and believe in, either. Saddening.
Daily, the media is embodied with different
catastrophic and inhumane events, depleting and destroying humanity with no
remorse. These occurrences unfortunately are either masterminded or spearheaded
by another human somewhere for only GOD knows reasons, which they probably believes transcend the reason of
Love and forgiveness. Each time I
stumbled upon such happening, the question I ask myself are,” how far as this
taken us?” “How much of a blessing has
this been to the human race?” “ In the actual sense, what problem has this
solved?” But the answers I hear almost immediately I query myself in this
regard is “boy, there is no love”.
Each time I hear the phrase “Pray for Nigeria”,
“Pray for Africa” or “Pray for the World”, I smile, and mutter “the world is blessed already, humanity is
just wicked to the world and full of evil-no love”. There are inexhaustible
cases to justify this assertion, from those wicked thoughts in our heads to our
fellow human, to those massive killings and punishments meted out to humanity
in the society and world at large.
However, it seems to me that the very few
people that verbally advocate for better societies cum world, do so little in
practice, else, perhaps this piece you are digesting may not have
surfaced. Soliloquizing, I am like, “If truly we are bothered by the state of the
world, and If we pray and crave for better lives and better world, if we crave
for change in the world, we need to be the change. We all have what the world needs and whatever we give it, is what it
becomes.”
Unarguably, Humanity has injected more of hate
into the world than love, and that is why the world radiates more of adversity.
It’s high time we realised this and do all we can towards it. I am quite happy
I found myself in the analogical situation, as it has opened the lids of some
kind of improper situations in our society.
In the words of Mother Theresa (1910-1997), "Never worry about numbers. Help one
person at a time and always start with the person nearest to you". I
find these words very germane to this experience of mine. Blessing each other
with love shouldn’t be influenced by ethnicity, race, numbers, family, title,
etc. love should know no border, Love should alleviate positively, Love should
bring forth omnifarious of goodness and positivity.Dearth of love is Omni-present
like the indispensable gift of GOD to humanity-Air. It is one that cascades
from the very highest level of government to the lowest one, which also waft to
private set ups. Even some religious bodies.
Pathetically, the faces behind the masks of
such despicable acts still confidently preach love and try to justify their
wicked acts by weaving them around love and making the world a better
place-Love Indeed.
The world is sick, humanity is ill, the
universe is unwell and nature is becoming unfit every tick-tock. Interestingly,
we have the antidote, the cure to the deteriorating condition of the world-LOVE
INDEED.
I, however, submit that, until we have a total
shift in paradigm, embrace ourselves, look out for one another, declare and
exhibit genuine love to one another, support and encourage one another when
necessary, the world would not know peace as our societies would wallow in crisis
and disasters and The world would will transform into a dungeon of perpetually
sacrosanct annihilation.
Lest we forget, GOD created us out of Love, and
with ONLY genuine Love, we shall survive.
By: Samuel Sokale.
“I believe in love. Love conquers all.”- Erona
Zeqiri.
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