About three days ago, while crossing over from one side of an
expressway to the other in town, one was faced with a scene which for a moment looked
like some mischievous person was throwing a huge bin bag on the expressway from the flyover
only to get to the other side of the road to meet people standing over the body
of a young guy (who would not be anything older than 22years of age) in a pool
of his own blood. He had just hauled himself over the bridge hoping to be
knocked over by the time he reached the ground, fortunately no car owner fell
victim as there was no oncoming vehicle at the time he landed on the expressway.
I’m not sure that guy made it as he was bleeding profusely
from his head whilst resisting any assistance from the people to take him to a
hospital. I sure hope he made it, but I really doubt that.
As I walked away from the scene, shaken by what I just
witnessed as though from a scene in a movie; I muttered “Lord show me your
mercy, do not let us be pushed to that level of wanting to end it all”.
Sometime earlier in the month, I saw a mock video of Dino
Melaye with a tray on his head hawking (what I can’t remember) and I didn’t
know whether to laugh or cry.
Seeing that video, my thoughts were filled with images of
those petty traders who display their wares on trays or tables by the roadside,
at parks or hawk about and just by a mere look at the entire things displayed
may just be like a total of three thousand naira or even less and yet these
people say they are ‘selling to make a living’. And I’m wondering how do these
people do it?
Most times when I buy things from these petty traders, I find
it difficult to haggle or bargain with them every time because no matter how
much they add, you cannot be that cheated. Sometimes, (I mean sometimes)
please don’t bargain, just take it that you’re evenhandedly helping a family
‘get by’. After all how much is the entire tray?
It is with that petty business they feed their families, (at
least that’s what they say) pay fees and other bills yet we expect that the
crime rate in the country would drop?
A child who grows up in such a family would definitely not
want to end up like his parents hence would do just about anything to get out
of poverty. If he finds himself with the wrong set of friends, he may be
pressured to do crime.
But let’s say he does not do crime and then tries every way ‘legit’
he knows to make wealth yet poverty seems to cling on like an everlasting
plague; he may be pushed to the extent that since he cannot do crime, the only
other option is to end it all by jumping off a bridge like the young man
mentioned earlier at the beginning of this post.
Where am I going with all of these?
The times are tough. No matter how little you think you have,
there’s still that ‘someone’ out there you can save from committing suicide
with that ‘token’ that seems like nothing to you. A word of encouragement goes
a long way as well.
Let’s look out for each other in these present times as
people are going through a lot. People are getting depressed on a daily basis
and even the counselors and psychologists are getting depressed as well.
And if the counselors are getting depressed as
well, who will then counsel us? So let’s all do the job together by looking out
for each other.
©Stella Ene – Inyang
