I WOKE up today with the hankering to tutor on the importance of treasure, and the need for people to always respond to the gesture of treasure, to those who know the value of treasure. I am of the opinion that people should correspond, or return gesture in the same way it is given. He or she, should give what he or she gets. Nothing less please. In other words, one should strive to give as good as he or she gets.
Conversely, people should be unafraid, to treat as valueless, those people that fail to understand, or appreciate the virtue of value. The principle of reciprocity, suggests that, respect begets respect. In other words, if you show respect to others, you are more likely to receive it in return.
Yes, it’s a Sunday, and you may think I am trying to behave as a person who teaches or promotes morality, but even if you feel or think that way, I would give you an amnesty, after silently convicting you of the offence of fallacy. Sunday is believed, by my Christian brothers and sisters, as the day of the Christ’s resurrection.
So, as a brother to those who believe in the return of the messiah, there is nothing wrong in me going metaphorical, by calling for the revival of the conscience of appreciation, or the recognition of people’s worth. People should have in them the property that endows something with value, and when that property is passed on to them, it behooves on them to return it, or respond in the same way. That is the worth of appreciating the worthful.
Last night, I had a lengthy and emotional telephone conversation with an old friend, a boarding secondary school mate that was exceptionally good. In the days when we had nothing, as such we were nothing, he had almost everything, by our own standard of gauging life. He came from the elitist class, that was going shopping at chellarams and Kingsway.
On the day of school closure for holidays, there was always an expensive car, that comes to park with the near pride of entitlement, right opposite the Principal’s office, with the mission of collecting our friend. Although we were friends, and ought to see our selves as equals, because of the exceptional benevolence of our friend, who often empty his ever loaded box of provisions, to unleash to us, the leftover goodies of packaged food and drinks, we were always happy to walk him to the car, carrying his luggage of course. After which, we shall depart separately to the motor park, for the lorry journey to our various villages and towns.
Sometimes, even the few among us that came from Kano city, were not left behind in the struggle to serve as errand boys for our benevolent friend. Today, because of the uncertainty of life, the situation has changed. Our friend is living on the sad and opposite side of the good life.
In narrating to me his ordeal, because we haven’t met in a long time, he pushed me to tears, particularly when he touched on the treatment he received from one of us, who was almost always at the mercy of his help. And like I said, he was criminally generous. Because of the turn of life, the one time person on the receiving end of largesse, has become a king today, a political king, but he is unwilling to reciprocate the gesture of yesteryear.
That is the irony of life and the cruelty of wicked behaviour. A person behaving like this, obviously does not know the virtue of value, and should be treated as valueless, because he doesn’t appreciate the value of value. Until he arrived at his present predicament, our friend, whom I consider still worthful, was, and is still a man of merit. He has since relocated to the village, where he is still treated with some degree of respect, by those that know his antecedents.
I am however consoled, by the action of some friends, who recently converged to make generous contributions, to a kitty that was set up to assist the family of a late friend and businesses partner. There, I saw the display of affection, in the absence of a man that was adjudged by all, I repeat by all, as a man that was stainless, on the issue of trust.
Yes, Alhaji Ibrahim Sarki, may his soul rest in perfect peace, lived an exemplary life, to the applause of all that had any dealings with him. He simply knew the value of value and in his absence, friends and family members, were falling over each other, to reciprocate that gesture. That is an action that is at variance, with the valuelessness of those who don’t know the virtue of value.
- Ibrahim, is the Director, Publicity of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
