I went out with my family to have fun for the weekend; on getting back to the car we realized we had a flat tire. I decided to guardedly drive to the nearby gas station to air the tire up, it didn’t work out because it was a huge damage. Ok now, I opened the trunk, brought out the spare tire, jack and vehicle wheel spanner to change it; the car tire was so flat to the alloy rim, so the purpose for my high jack was defeated; while trying to loosen the nuts, the spanner gave up its functional duties and asked for a change. I thought to myself: “which kain wahala be dis? I for kukuma siddon for house jejely.”
As I walked towards the convenience store, a man in his forties approached me and asked what the problem was, I said: “ I got a flat tire, can you spare me a few minutes to use your spanner bro?”, he said: “ I’m so sorry I gotta rush somewhere, you can have my spanner, I know how it feels because I have been stranded in a similar situation”. I expressed my gratitude, but was a little surprised because I had given up hope in this wicked world. Anyway, Problem one solved. Problem two: I thought of how to buy another jack that was designed for low cars, only to envisage that Walmart was quite a distance away from where I was situated. I knew fixing the problem hastily was of the essence because the cold weather wasn’t friendly to my kids and wifey either.
The Nigerian mentality of improvising in challenging situations like this, took over me, so for a moment I thought I was a “super man” who could lift one side of the car up and requested my wife to slot in the jack, and behold, after some exhausting moments of fooling myself, I gave up, because my innovation wasn’t even “half-way” close to actualization.
Thinking of better ideas, an old man in his early sixties drove towards me showing his concerns, he brought out his jack, I was surprised at the way he laid comfortably on the bare floor, looking for the right spot to place his jack, we later found it, raised the car up and got the tire changed. I rolled the damaged tire like a fatigued 5 year old Nigerian boy to the trunk; still at the trunk(out of his sight), I got out some notes from my wallet to show appreciation, with the squeezed notes in my hands, I gave him a handshake like we were exchanging pleasantries, and telling him thank you; as our hands departed, he realized there were some squeezed notes in his hands, he said “nah! nah! naahh! Bro, I did this from my heart” I stepped backwards and said “ I know, I did it from my heart too” This old man chased me and said: “don’t embarrass me bro, I love to do good, money is nothing”. He quickly squeezed it into my pocket, and I unblinkingly stared at him like a hypnotized man.
As he walked back to his car, I couldn’t say another thank you and all I could “echo” to him was: “there are still good men in this world, and you’re the prove”. He smiled and said: “spread the love.” “I sure will”, I said.
I know every human has a certain degree of selfishness, however, if we could just kill some of those egocentric feelings to the barest minimum, this world would be a better place.
My Story: So there are still good men in this world, Nigeria to be Precise !
