22: Alone in a dark alley

We stepped through the trough, slowly meandering through a moon-lit patch of road between a bridge and an abandoned house. I had passed there alone on many a dark night, fearful that a mugging would occur but none of such came my way.

On this day, I was with my colleague. We had come down from the staff bus and sought to connect to a faster point of getting our tired bodies home. He walked in front as we traded some banal gist or the other.

Suddenly I heard a loud shout and rumblings behind me and I looked back. In the corner of my eye I saw my colleague quicken his step while I was suddenly cornered by three bats out of hell.

They gnarled and barked, pinned me to the wall as they searched my pockets and cut my phone pouch off with a loosely held knife, all the while issuing threats of bodily harm coming my way. Was I scared? I’m not sure, all I felt was a certain surreal observation of the events as they were unfolding.

I felt somewhat detached from it all, it didn’t even occur to me to shout for help. For some reason I only decoded later, I felt it would make no difference. As soon as they had all they wanted, they took off and pounced on a man who was coming into that valley of darkness.

The man firmly resisted, I immediately turned to help his resistance and see if there was still hope to rescue my phones. The three goons immediately abandoned him and bolted into the darkness.

The man and I then walked to the top of the tight road where I met my colleague and two other men. He asked me what happened. In my semi-dazed state I related what happened to him. He then said he had kept on going not knowing I wasn’t still behind him.

Pray tell, when you discovered I wasn’t behind you did you come back looking for me?

It never occurred to me that he had actually been aware of the robbery and ran ahead and stayed in the safety of the other side of the dark alley. The man who escaped the robbers and the other two men asked why I hadn’t shouted for help but I had no response.

All that had happened still had not fully dawned on me. I later pieced the details together and knew why I had not called for help. Sub-consciously I knew my colleague had run out on me, this had created in me a sense of resignation,, for if the person I expected to come to my rescue had run for safety who else would come to my help?

You can be lonely and not alone. A million people may surround you and yet their presence lends no specter of peace to your troubled soul. You may have their physical presence nearby but in your heart you feel you cannot count on them in a storm.

How can this be? It occurs when people are desperate for their own survival, when they place no premium on being there for others. They can be in a company and contribute little or nothing to the success of the firm. They are comfortable just coasting along and playing safe, they have no sense of investment and involvement in the fields of life where they play.

They can be members of a team and yet their presence is not felt. Have you ever noticed what happens in a church during praise & worship when the loudspeakers fail? There is such a sudden drop in the sound of clapping and singing because the speakers were actually doing all the work.


This is the time when the members ought to even increase the tempo of their clapping and the pitch of their voices. Sadly this is the very time when people decrease their participation as their eyes desperately scan the environment for assuring signs that something is being done to relieve them from the chore of really singing and clapping! Funny isn’t it?

Amongst friends, when they notice a friend in need they still behave like all is well. They tell themselves that if their friend is really in need he/she should ask for help. Yet a real friend scans the environment for the needs of their friends and prepares ahead to help out. They hardly wait to be asked, they are proactive. When they are on your team you’re covered.

This may seem far fetched and too tall an order but it’s the building block of great relationships. When I can count on you and you can count on me we can both step forward to excel. Why do you think some groups of friends excel and some don’t or only a few members excel? We can only step out to do great things when we are sure our back is covered.

We can excel without backup but to excel consistently requires having the security of people who will be there for us. Try to be there for people, especially those who need you to be there for them.

Be there for your family, be there for your loved ones, be there for your company, be there for your country and be there for God too. He has needs too you know! Never leave them in a dark alley, if you can’t help personally, rally help from others for them and they would always be grateful.

21: Going Global

My people (thats how the politicians greet us now!), hope alls well with you and yours?
The last write up provoked some interesting responses which led me to think of doing a follow up on it but.....some new thoughts have taken an ascendancy in my mind.

I read somewhere that we are in the Age of Talent, the next fronteir when the skills of persons and nations are the commodities of exchange. Looking at the fount from which i drink i.e. the Bible, i noticed the importance Jesus placed on the word 'Talent'.

This article attempts to find present day relevance to this issue. Let me know what you think.

Have a great month

(P.S I got mugged last night and lost my phones, sad to say i dont have good phone records so pls email your phone numbers to me when you can. Thanks.......please vote someone in that will deliver Lagos from criminals this saturday!)



Going Global

Strengths, talents and resources are in short supply. The wisdom of economics talks about scales of preference, opportunity cost and how you must firmly decide on how to allocate resources. My contemplation today resides on where a person chooses to perform on the stage of life. Must you settle for a local theatre or the national/international theatre? Before you accuse me of rambling let me set the tone.

A biblical story comes to my rescue here. In the time of the Judges, Israel had no king. The implication was that everyone did what they liked. In those uncertain times, a young Levite roamed the countryside. He had been trained to make enquiries of God on behalf of the Israelites.

He was armed with knowledge that was most sought after by a lot of people. He could give direction to the troubled and confused, he could advice men on which businesses would work, he could predict which battles would be won and lost.

As he wandered, looking for a new place to live, he came upon the house of a man called Micah. After a quick interview, Micah took him in as his own personal priest and negotiated to pay him ten pieces of silver a year, a change of clothes and food. Having no better options, the Levite accepted the job and started work as a ‘personal consultant’ to Micah.

All was rosy till the day Dan, a tribe of Israel decided they needed a place to settle down. They sent some spies to scope the territory and spent the night at Micah’s home. While there, they asked the Levite to consult God on their behalf and he told them they had God’s backing for victory.

When they returned after mobilizing the rest of the tribe, they proceeded to cart away all the priests’ tools of trade. When he confronted them, they challenged him to follow them with the words “Isn’t it better to be a priest for an entire tribe of Israel than just for the household of one man?”(Judges 18:19 NLT) He happily followed them and abandoned Micah’s home.

There lies my contemplation. When you are gifted to do something, are you at liberty to choose your field of performance? Should you limit your abilities to a small group or embrace the challenge of taking on a larger role? The answer may seem obvious until you view the world as I see it.

Many people who have been resourced by God to bless the world hide their ability within a small confined space and set of people. They feel that to seek to spread their circle of influence is synonymous with naked ambition. I beg to differ!

When you stand before God he will not only run a checklist of your good and bad deeds, he will also ask you what you did with all His resources. Did you double the talents or did you shrink from ‘hustling’ for fear that you were becoming too ‘ambitious’?

The right type of ambition is not the type Satan expressed in John Milton’s classic ‘Paradise Lost’ where he declared it ‘Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven’. Rather it is the type expressed by Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe who preferred to be called the Zik of Africa rather than the Owelle of Onitsha.

The heart and spirit of service is the essence of the right type of ambition. You seek to go higher not so that you can lord it over others but that you may have more people to serve.

In this ‘Post-motivational’ world when we have all heard the stories of making an impact, dying empty, using your talents bla bla bla….it is instructive to note that though you’ve heard it a million times, the message only resonates when you actually do try to put what you’ve heard into practice.

How long will you limit yourself? Desire to bless larger groups and you will be highly rewarded. You were not born to be a local champion but a global citizen! When will you go global?



You can get my book "War by Other Means" at Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island Lagos....Thanks!

Face the day boldly...if you fall, get up and keep running!
http://idiare.bornafrican.com/