By Ndidi Ekeh
We all knew that girl who was the toast of guys back in secondary school; those of us who befriended her got to know that the hormone-raging and pimple-spotting lads who also happened to be our classmates were small boys, as she took pleasure in vividly describing her escapades with the university dudes.
While guys fantasized and took turns tripping over them to please her, chicks on the other hand gossiped to no end telling truths and untruths about her. If she was out of school for a few days, a rumor would suddenly make rounds that she was pregnant and in her bid to use hanger to terminate the baby complications aroused. If she as much as sneezed during school hours, people (read as: girls) would conclude that she had contracted an STI and would keep their distance from her. But as the hating grew so did her popularity. So you can understand the pleasure we collectively felt when we found out ten years later that she had gotten pregnant immediately after high school and was living in a rundown apartment in a not-so-nice part of town.
However, the scenario painted above is just one in a thousand of such cases, as most times these girls go on to become successful in whatever endeavor they find themselves in. Call it bottom power if you like, na you know but it is safe to say that they discovered at an early age, their ability to make things work for themselves in their own ways and boy, did they harness that power!
Nice honest guys often finish last, we are constantly told and this we believe because we know that one guy who is extremely successful with little or no efforts of his own. I mean what’s our business when we get free meals from him and hope that he would teach us how to catch fish someday? How about the girl who seems to have it all in every sense of the word; the flashy car, the nice apartment in a highbrow district and an overflowing bank account, unaffected by rumours circulating about the nature of her income.
The axiom about 99 days for the thief and one day for the owner makes me wonder; how come the owner gets just one day while the thief gets not just two or ten but 99 days? Heck that just makes dishonesty a lot more lucrative.
The age-old question of why the best finish last, hold the least paid jobs and marry the worse kind of spouse will never be answered because like nature, it in itself is a mystery. We all remember the incident that got a lot of airplay on NTA some time ago, about a young boy that found a huge sum of money only to take it to the NTA office so the owner could claim it. As usual in such cases, the owner was identified and he went on to say proudly that he would complete the boy’s secondary school education as a form of reward. Amidst applause no one remembered that the secondary school education being talked about was one of those sub-par public schools where writing and reading materials are considered a luxury as students barely have enough space to sit. Yes, I kid you not.
So what if the boy had done what the average person would do; kept the money for himself? Maybe he would have gotten a better education, up to university level perhaps? What if also it was even destiny that put the money on his path? But like every what-ifs, these questions remain unanswered.
Without intending to be misquoted, I am not trying to discourage good deeds and being good. On the other hand, I am only trying to state that doing whatever feels right with your conscience is basically the best bet. Because in the long run, our consciences can either be a motivator or a barrier to achieving whatever we want and if we continually act on the knowledge of the existence of karma, decisions will be guilt free and easy to arrive at.
Article written by Ndidi Ekeh
