I DARE TO BELIEVE

Today on my way home from a meeting in church I saw a lady standing along the road beside a broken down car. She had at least 5 kids in the car with her nanny and she looked very worried and upset. Her car had apparently stopped out of the blues and refused to restart despite all attempts. As I passed her car, a scene suddenly flashed in front of me – I imagined myself standing there with a broken down car full of kids, stuck on the express... Immediately, all the places I was rushing to...all the things I urgently needed to do before the end of the day suddenly seemed so unimportant to me and so I did something most Nigerians won’t dare to do...I stopped to help!! I got down, walked over to the lady and smiled sweetly, asked what the problem was etc. She lived in Isheri and was on her way to Lekki for a function. I knew I’d probably not know what to do to help with the car but I was hoping to help at least take the kids to a safe place while she sorted out her car or at the very least, keep her company till help came. Luckily a friend of mine saw me and also stopped so we all put heads together to try and help her out.

Eventually someone came and helped call an electrician who ended up towing the car to his workshop. During all this time when we were trying to figure out how to sort the matter out, I offered to help her drop her kids at Lekki (I was on my way there as well). You should have seen her face when I made the offer...she obviously didn’t buy that idea at all. She was prepared to keep her kids with her in the car under the hot sun than allow them go with a Samaritan (regardless of how beautiful and harmless this Samaritan was oh). So she made a few calls, a bus was available to tow the car to the workshop and all seemed in control. My work was done so I left, leaving my number with her to call if she needed anything.

As I drove on, I kept thinking about the lady and then I started thinking about our Country Nigeria. It’s an unusual thing to have someone stop to help another in need unless you happen to know the person. What usually happens is that either the person in distress is a thief in disguise or the person stopping to help is out to extort or generally take advantage of someone in distress. If it’s none of the above, then it might be the police harassing you for helping someone in need. I can’t blame the woman for being reluctant to leave her kids with a stranger but on second thoughts, what’s wrong with that? If this Country was one where everyone was their brother’s keeper, my help would have been embraced with open arms. But in our Country, we all live in fear of one another; we have to look out for our own alone! We have to be careful who we help, be careful who we get help from; we walk about with one eye over our shoulders because we don’t know who is who. It’s so bad that we don’t even know who our neighbours are anymore, the higher our fences, the safer we feel. We’ve not only built high fences for our homes, we’ve built even higher fences for our hearts. If a person is not our colleague, our church member, our school mate, or someone we met in the gym or somewhere safe, we’re quick to keep the person at bay...’’trust no man’’ has become our popular warning to ourselves and most especially to our kids..

Honestly I yearn for the day all these ills in our society will end. I dare to believe that God still has a remnant breakthrough in store for this Country. I dare to believe that one day our kids will be able to ride their bicycles on the streets and play in the Park; that we will feel safe enough to open our doors and our hearts to accept love from one another and be loved in return. I dare to believe that one day Nigeria will be the safest Country in Africa. No, I’m not starting another Martin Luther King speech; I’m just prophesying God’s promises upon my motherland...who’s with me?

Happy Independence Day!

XOXO