16/06/2024
FROM GRACE TO GRASS
This will sound unbelievable but it is true. I had a "rich" neighbour who nicknamed himself "Commissioner". He built this duplex within six months, bought six expensive cars within eight months. One of the exotic cars he drove, in fact the last one he bought was 46 million Naira as at 2015.
He was my neighbour, we shared a common fence. Hence, we could interact freely. Once he asked me how much was my salary, I told him 50k by then, he was so disappointed, saying he thought I earned up to 600k. He promised to take me to where I will make money. I smiled, and tactically applied breaks on our the speed of our relationship. He told me I am too brilliant to be a poor man. I told him I was not poor but rich. Apart from bearing "rich" as a name, I told him I was rich in contentment.
He flaunted wealth and affluence but I told him in any case, it is the ambition of everyone to be rich, especially where your hand could not reach. It never mattered to me that he was a younger person to me, his fleeting wealth never caught my attention.
I was still in my supposed poverty when I started hearing stories, and the stories are still there till today. First, his wife left him, and the two children they had, he does not know where they are today.
When I was transferred to Bayelsa State, I was called one evening to come to the traffic light at Ibom Specialist Hospital in Uyo, that my neighbour was running mad. I told the people that even if I were I were a psychiatrist, my "colleagues" are also there in Uyo. Why would I be drafted from Yenagoa to come and pick a patient.
Another time I was in Uyo, and it happened again, and I went to see it with my eyes, and I wept. I saw him in a church where they took him for deliverance.
Since then, life has never been the same again for him. I used to hear about grass to grace but my neighbour's is grace to grace. If at all that was grace.
The man who owned sleek poche cars could not afford to pay a tricycle to move from one location to another. He trekked freely but out of shame was nocturnal in his movements. He sold most of the cars, while others were confiscated for alleged debt.
The house he built, he sold everything in it, and left it a carcass. He sold his water tanks, the tank stands, water pump, electric wires, bulbs, electric pole, DStv, chairs, and everything you could think of in a house or compound.
The house was just remaining the walls and the roof, and he lived there till he was sent away by hunger and trauma.
Today, to my greatest chagrin, the court came to auction the house with a mini court session in front of my neighbour's compound, sorry my former neighbour. The house which was the only thing remaining from that intimidating wealth has gone today, and my neighbour is free from the troubles of this world. As a journalist, I asked the officials questions. They told me he sold somebody's landed property and diverted her money. Since he could not refund, the lady went to court, and the court sold the house after one week's notice.
I now have a new neighbour. I have also learnt a lesson about life. Even when his name is patience, he never had it. He cruised on a wrong lane, and I think he has crashed.
I feel for him but since the house will soon be occupied by people, at least, snakes will reduce around this area. Their habit will be invaded. My former neighbour, is now a confirmed former rich man. He has crashed landed from the pinnacle of stupendous wealth (considering his age) to the abyss of shameful poverty. In less than eight years, he has seen the extremes of wealth and lack.
We should all be patient in life, and get wealthy at God's appointed time!
— Imoh Etimudo
