So as I was standing at my gate thinking of how to go through the stress of preparing dinner (don’t blame an Abuja bachelor), a young guy approached me. I thought he wanted to ask for direction but I was wrong.

Young guy: Good evening (in Hausa tone)
Me: How far na
Young Guy: I dey bros.
Young guy: bros abeg I no wan ask you for money o! I be plumber but for days now I never see work and since yesterday I never chop. I get oil for house but no single rice or garri to eat.

Me: So what do you want?
Young guy: abeg you fit help me with raw rice or garri cos I never eat since yesterday.

I wanted to refuse him, then I remembered that I was in his position three years ago in Lagos with no job, no food and no roof over my head because I was searching for greener pastures. I remembered calling some of my ‘real guys’ if I could stay with them for a while but was given all sorts of excuses. I could remember being chased away by a relative simply because I didn’t inform him that I was coming to stay with him. I could remember sleeping in a cobbler’s caravan because that was the only place I was allowed to stay. Me, a graduate living like a pauper because I was tired of being fed by my parents at the age of 29. I was mocked, laughed at, told to get a job even without offering me a job. I could remember asking my church members for money to buy lunch and been laughed at by the same people claiming to worship a loving and caring God.

Or should I tell you of how I was beaten with a baton by a club bouncer who thought I wanted to steal one of the cars parked at the club (imagine!). Or should I tell you of how the same bouncer called a Mopol to chase me away and the mopol went the extreme by pulling the trigger of his Ak47 at me (only God knows why the gun didn’t fire).

Or should I tell you of how I and some other guys I met there will wait till midnight before looking for a secluded place to sleep. Or how I would go to the general hospital In ikeja and sleep at the waiting room pretending to have an appointment with a doctor?

Me: Wait
I went inside my apartment and gathered the little things that I could lay my hands on not minding if my actions will empty my kitchen or minding if he was not from the same tribe or state with me simply because I needed to give to someone who is going through what I had gone through.

If there is one principle I believe in the Bible is the principle of giving. Giving even from the little we have without listening to the small voice that always has a ton of reasons why we shouldn’t help.

As I stretched forth my hands to the young guy, I could see joy on his face. That expression that says that today will be better than yesterday.

Tradition has made it impossible for people to render help to people they don’t know or people that doesn’t worship them. Some people expect people to wear rags or carry plate begging before they will stretch forth their helping hands.

Living in the street of Lagos gave me a deep insight of the sufferings of people. Whether you believe it or not, people are suffering in Nigeria.

I am not writing this to publicize the little things I gave but to let us know that giving to the poor around us is the greatest form of giving (I don’t care what any preacher told you) and that a poor man today can be your helper tomorrow.

(c) Fourth Street
Son of the 1st Son