You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters.
Plato,  (427 BC - 347 BC)
Last Christmas, I lost a very special childhood friend. He is 3 yrs older but I looked up to him in many ways while we are kids. He has a wonderful way of interacting with the world. His smile can melt even the hardest of heart. He was full of life and zest and knows exactly what he want out of life. And that is to get rich and become very successful. Having come from a poor background and being the first-born, he believed that he must survive at all cost. It was also the decision that failed him in the end. Others have done same and survive but each of us has something different. And sometimes, it is the awareness and implementation of it that ensures our continued existence on the physical earth.

Without a formal education to bank on, his parents having not much to spend on his education , he came to Ladipo Used Spare Parts Market from Nnewi having nothing in his pocket but dreams and eyes full of hope. He started a laborer, off-loading engine-laden containers, helping store-owners in return for feeding money by carting the engines bought to the waiting vehicles of the customers. He swept the market and did all odd things. After saving up, he bought his own shop and started his own engine business in partnership with another person.

He did amazingly well! He was a born hustler, able to wade through the often flooded market to get to his customer in the rainy season. This business took him to all nook and crannies of the Western Nigeria and beyond in search of the engines. With time, the business blossomed into 3 different shops. He got married to a lovely Lady who bore him 2 children. He was happy until a crisis within the market union forced him to give up much and he lost faith in the business.

When the Chinese route became the norms, he also joined in. But at the second and third attempts, he lost almost all the money he invested. He couldn’t pay for his apartment. He sold his car. He withdrew his kids from school. He was completely bankrupt and subsequently became very depressed that nothing can comfort him. Just as most folks, it is at this stage spur on by desperation that we grasp at anything to remain afloat. With a connection to act as a drug courier and nothing else to lose than his freedom as he sees it, he embarked on a journey to an early grave.

Having made 3 successful trips to Turkey, he was on his way again for the Christmas haul when the Sisters Fate decided to cut the silver cord. He has just bought a Montero Jeep which the registration number ought to be out and affixed to the vehicles pending his return. According the a  nephew who was with him during the last hours of his life, just after Oshodi he started complaining of feeling intense heat inside his abdomen. It became so unbearable that the cab driver stopped on the road and he jumped out of the taxi and headed straight to a woman selling palm oil.

He emptied 3 bottles of palm oil into his mouth to the surprise of the dumb-struck onlookers. But this wasn’t of much help! He was rushed to 3 different hospitals along the Airport road but none have the facility to treat such emergency and was been driven to Lagos State Teaching Hospital but the traffic prolonged a journey of perhaps 20 minutes to one of almost an hour. He died a very agonizing death on the stretcher en-route to the operating room. There was nothing the doctors could do. 400 grams of cocaine that he swallowed just 30 minutes before burst inside his stomach. It was not the kind of passing on that I would have envisaged for such a great guy. He was just 37,6ft 2”, a father of 2, husband, son, friend and brother.

I have been hoping that we will grow to be grand-parents and watch our kids do the many things that we did together. I was hoping that we will one day talk about our growing up and the lessons learnt thereof. My hopes towards him died on that stretcher that day. Indeed, life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.


I have not been able to come in terms with his death. I have seen him in my dreams many times, looking so happy and most times offering me advices. I couldn’t attend his funeral but I am still wondering what to say at his grave when I get to Nigeria. Will I say “Scanty, you took a wrong decision” or “Scanty, you should have gone to a factory and work instead of leaving this kids fatherless”. Will I say to him “Well, you did your best, you fought like a man. Whatever happens is Fate”. I don’t know what I will say to him.

But no matter what I will say when I kneel or sit on the grave, it won’t bring such a great back. Neither will these in anyway discourage other young ones from taking to this path. Our society has become one of utter desperation where nothing is sacred anymore and everything is put at stake for the prize of “making it”. Nothing is spare! Everybody wants to make it come hell or high water. To be seen as lagging behind your peers is an unforgivable sin. Hard-work and patience are for the losers. We seem to have forgotten that work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need[b][/b]. Jails across the world have had their fair share of young Nigerians serving all kinds of prison terms and death sentences. The sight of the green passport makes you an instant criminal in the eyes of the Customs and Immigration .A recurring decimal and pattern that have become a routine, accepted and almost expected.

Is it the society or the individual that should be blame for this?  Is it the uncaring, lazy and corrupt-ridden governments that have brought a country with so much to give to the world to its knees? A state brought about by our apathy towards the politics. Who are we to blame for these waste of human lives? Should it be ourselves who prefer to live on our knees instead of doing all we can to effect the much needed change? Who do we blame for the death of a pregnant mother who with her child died because there is no oxygen in the labor room? Or is it the factories that can’t work because the government has failed to generate electricity to last an hour? Who do we blame for the countless number of Nigerians who their roads have become sure-one-way-ticket to the after-life? Who do we blame that our educational system has collapsed so completely that our tertiary institutions are churning half-baked graduates unable to find a place in our world or beyond?

Yes, Scanty might have done chosen another path than the one he did. Yes, for the sake of his kids, he would have started afresh from somewhere no matter how humble. But the sad truth is that, there are millions out there who will no hesitate to take on the same road if they have the chance. We have lost all sense of morality.  We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach in the churches and mosques but do not practice, and another which we practice against the one we preach.  No matter what we may think, history is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.

Will anybody profit from his experience? To be honest, I don’t know! Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. In his case, there won’t be any repletion. It’s all over! But for those that are still breathing, I will say like Cato the Elder said “Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise. Yet, one should not continually fear that he will make mistake. The daring and victories of all heroes are full of mistakes. Mistakes are portals of discovery. They are part of the dues one pays for a full life. But one must first weigh the considerations, and then take the risks.

I sure do not know what my honest view about his death is for now. But if there is anything that it has achieved, it is to propel me further in my search for the solutions of that country.  For me Scanty, I will be silent and speak no more of you. Maybe beyond the veil, you have found happiness and contentment.  Those you left behind will try to understand what led to your untimely death. Your kids will grow up and will be taken care of. I cannot judge you because I know you won’t if it is me. Even then, I do not know how to judge you and not find myself partly to be blame too. Should I have warn you, I don’t know. Maybe one day I will understand. Goodnight, dear Friend, the rest is silence!

Hope you find another NLer that'll be willing to read all your essay.
goodluck

@ horus-Ra

i read through your story about your late friend. . . it is pathetic,
life has thought us a lot.
"get rich or die trying should'nt be our aim in life even though we're from poor homes."
its sad he left this way
sorry men!!!
i see your love for him in each words you wrote. . . may his soul rest in peace.amen

ive said it before and ill say it again we are a bunch of herds being led by cattle
during the election btw obj and olu falea nigerians choose an ond holder and ex miltary man to be president over us than a well acedemically qualified man whom also has political experience(was babangida sec).thank God for umaru but am sorry to say but thers no difference btw now and obj govt. the prob now is that most of objs men are still very much in aso villa doing what they know how to do best, squander

the talk now is vision 2020 read my lips it will change to 2050,jst watch and see

i know this post may not directly relate with that of the poster but God help us all
if we had human leaders life would have been better

may you find solace in the reassuring arms of the saviour. time as bruised your heels but be rest assured it will also heal the wound.take heart and do your possible best for those kids, its not all about financial assistance, a father figure and fatherly concern will go a long way for them. trust me i am wearing the shoes and the one i appreciate most over the years is the father figure not the money bank.