It Costs Less Than Five Cents To Be Wise

The wee hours of the night it was in Ajegunle area of Lagos State. No one seems to take notice of the time as they carried out activities as if the evening just came upon them. The area bubbled like one of the First World countries that the government has since provided notes of assurances of safety of life and property whenever, wherever and maybe however; so citizens could walk freely at anytime, 24/7. The area was also brought to live by harmonizing sounds from power generators of different shapes, sizes and make.
Our government for so long has promised to provide uninterrupted power supply, but till date what we have been witnessing is epileptic supply of power, in the mildest of words. ‘Market’ has not been fine for Iya Rasheeda, owner of a kiosk stationed on the gutter; she prepares indomie and fried eggs for a living. Sales have been dropping as the days go by, so she wants to make some money, this rare day, off some passers-by whose stomach would call for attention. All these happened as the clock ticked and ‘everything was good’.

It was the Christmas Eve. Among those walking around, having a good time were a man and his girlfriend, holding hands. They had no fear in mind as people were seen walking in all directions. As they got to the corner of a street, some boys, who were enjoying themselves with all sorts of spirits, both locally and internationally made, plus cannabis jumped out all of a sudden to halt them. Surprised at this, the man inquired what the matter was but before they could give a reply, the girlfriend, sensing what these boys have been up to, lashed at them, calling them all sorts of bad names. This didn’t go down well with the guys, and as they attempted to pounce on her, the man kind of block them and started pleading. And since he refused them having their way on his girl, they descended on him, beating him blue black. They left him after some thorough beating. He sustained different degrees of injury on different parts of his body, and they rest, as they say, is history.

But the story is that this man, some two months after the incident –recovered from the encounter he had with the boys, was seen by one of the many witnesses. They got talking and he was asked about his girlfriend, to which he gave a long hiss! What happened between the two of you, the witness queried with his eyes about to pop out of the socket in huge surprise. The man just said: “she dumped me for another guy; the reason for the dumping is very immaterial”. That ugly incident came to his mind and he was broken. The other guy, seeing this, had to take his to a nearby ‘joint’ to cool him with some ‘bottles’.

The boys just wanted some ‘christmas money’ (money to buy more spirits and weeds to enjoy themselves), but the table was turned against him because of a girl he held dear to his heart (but apparently, his girl didn’t reciprocate that). If the lady had pleaded alongside him, the boys would have mellowed down and an agreement reached, but that was not the case. Let be wise. In our deals with our fellows, let us, as it is said, love our neighbours as ourselves. It costs less than five cents to be wise!