my brother’s keeper

My brother’s keeper is quite literally, being responsible for someone, imagine living a word where everyone around you takes responsibility in your well being,

i will liking this topic to a little experience i had over one of the weekends… 

Due to the whole lockdown, I’ve been spending more on food and gas. I ran out of cash ,so i decided to use the nearest ATM closest to me, meanwhile i had little or no gas at all in my car ,and motorcycle  are no longer allowed to operate for the now, i had to risk it and drove down to the closest ATM in my vicinity, only to be faced with the usual, UNABLE TO DISPENSE CASH, At this point, i was in between decision whether to drive back home and park or risk it that far to get cash from another ATM machine far from home.

yeah!!!  i risked it, i drove so fast(maybe 60/70) since the road was free, the biggest disappointment hit me hard, just when I was thinking whether to get gas with the last #500 at hand then proceed to use the ATM. Just a few meters away from the gas station ,my engine went off on a T junction, this wasn’t funny one bit, in a space of 5 to 10 minutes, the whole place was crowded and jam parked with cars, pole of stagnant water because of the bad road, serious traffic because of me, at this point you already know the reaction of Lagosians, some were shouting at the top of their voice, “will you get that scrap out the way? i mean i was clothed in shame and i was just praying for a miracle to happen, some will drive by staring at me like some fool, yet not one nor two step out of their car to give a helping hand, i manage to roll my car off the junction to the side of the road while the insult of my life kept coming.

The above part is not the main gist of this post, this is the real gist, read on.

While i was still parked by the road side, i sat in my car close to 20 minute without moving or saying a word, a lot of questions kept bombarding my head, are these humans? what happened to being your brother”s keeper.

After i finish drowning myself in my thoughts, i decided to look for solution, thankfully,  where i parked was a bit closer to a bar that wasn’t meant to be opened cause of the lockdown, but then i had to begged the old lady there to assist me with a gallon to fetch some fuel in the nearby gas-station, surprisingly without any question, she gave me a gallon,WOW AMAZING!!!

Fast-forward to the gas station, i handed over the gallon to the sales personal there and told him, i need fuel for #500, the uncle looked at me with a straight face and spoke in Yoruba, which i don’t understand Yoruba language, I told him sir please use English, he then interpret, selling in a gallon attracts #50 charges and i asked why? what’s the #50 charges for, uncle started , if you don’t want to buy you can move to another station, that’s how it is  done here, i told him, but i’m not selling the fuel, i’m the final consumer, my car broke down just a walk away, not as though i want to resell this fuel, even the stations in my area don’t add extra charges for gallons, why is it different here, he was now furious , “Oga if you no one wan buy abeg day go, i no wan any rubbish here” i was already angry at this point and i said, are we to say the government are responsible for this art of looting ? yet we blame our government for bad leadership, why are we now looting ourselves, why can’t we be our brothers keeper…

I thought i was making any sense with what i was saying not knowing i was only fueling his anger. He started shouting, sounding so harsh and rude… his words “since when has the YORUBAS and the IGBOS  been brothers, don’t come and tell me rubbish here, this is where i make my money, if you don’t want to buy you get lost i’m not here to help anyone…” I was pained to my born, but i kept quiet because i knew this is the problem of Nigeria tribalism and religion(topic for another day), i went mute and allowed him sell the fuel.

A lot of us miss it, little things count, yet we want to have it all, what’s then the purpose of existence if you’re leaving just for yourself, you’re busy saving up billion for your generation yet unborn, how about the ones living now, why can’t we live as one as a unified body. How about we love ourselves like Christ loved the church...

Let’s love one another...stop preaching love, start acting it...

Thank you reading up...