Love Indeed- By Samuel Solake

                                     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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