The Very Poor Boy At Silverbird By Joseph Edgar

I had just come out of a meeting with my new partner Lami yesterday evening, when I decided to detour to the Silverbird galleria to meet up with a friend for drinks, all in a bid to wait out the ever regular traffic jam that has now made Victoria Island a tourist attraction.
After wondering round the galleria boring myself with what it had to offer, I decided to brave the traffic and go home. As I came out of the Galleria a very young boy of twelve, walked up to me and shuffled a pack of cotton buds to my face. He was very persistent and could only mutter the words, 'cotton bud, buy'.


Now, I love cotton buds, the tickle it gives my ears and the sensation that slowly goes through my body, gives me goose pimples and makes me just sleep like a fool. This made me not to be able to resist this littles boys offer, so I asked him how much and he said, 'wazo'. I looked at the security men and asked the meaning of what he had just said. They told me he meant N50, so I paid and collected one pack and moved on.

On second thoughts, I looked back and beckoned at him. He walked towards me, dirty green slippers flashing in the dark. He wore brown shorts, held to his tiny waist with a rope, a faded green shirt and a smile that promised a glowing future despite the present gloom. His energy engaged me and I decided to talk with him.

He lives in Ijora, but comes to VI every evening to sell cotton Buds, he had sold a pack that evening and it was a good day. His mum a local pedicurist was in Ijora with his younger ones waiting eagerly eagerly for his return so that they can prepare dinner. He does not know his father.

After each sale, he will jump on the keke Marwa to Obalende and from there he will board a Bus to one Bus Top from where he will be "seeing Ijora from afar" and from there the last leg of the journey will begins.

His skin was powdery, but his eyes where bright. He smiled confidently and was not fazed with his situation. He spoke glowingly of his mum and his business and was very sure that he would get home safely even though it was late. He always got home safely. He was that sharp and strong.

I stared at their 12 year old and I swear cried. Real tears o. His poverty touched me and I began to wonder just why would a living God allow this. Why would this boy be exposed to such suffering but his smile consoled me. He looked at me with those bright eyes and not understanding why I was crying asked if I wanted more cotton buds. I just looked at him and kept crying.

He didn't understand the tears, but saw this as an opportunity to sell the remaining two packs he was holding in his tiny hands, so he stretched out his hands and said those lovely words, 'cotton, buy'. I took the remaining two and gave him N1000 and he immediately prostrated saying thank you in Yoruba and blessing me.

This was the poor boy, I met yesterday. I will pray for his safety and for his wellbeing. God will bless him, God will continue to protect him, secure his future and give him the presence of mind to forgive this society when he finally gets his triumph.

Amen.

http://josephedgarng..com/2015/07/the-very-poor-boy-at-silverbird.html


Joseph Edgar is an Investment Banker, who writes as a hobby. He has a column in Thisday on Saturdays(Page 20), and a blog josephedgarng.blospot.com where he comments on trending issues from a comical, satirical point of view.

*nb: The Photo attached is an internet image and not the actual photo of the boy

Lalasticlala Ishilove TheRealMrstan Seun

Amen.

May God bless our hustle

U and I can save a lot of dis young children out there with our token, pls seun can we av section to donate even if it's 100naira by each person who wants to donate, let's do dis an may God continue to bless each and everyone of us, I weep a lot when I see dis children go through hell like dis, so many of dem av lost their lives and dey ain't safe out there

Well at least Mr. Joseph Edgar bought his cotton buds. That was helpful. The crying? Not so much. Though it must have been quite entertaining.

adeekiti:
U and I can save a lot of dis young children out there with our token

The only way to 'save' a child in this situation is by adopting/fostering him and getting him educated. Are you ready to take the boy home?

Hmmm

Seun:
Well at least Mr. Joseph Edgar bought his cotton buds. That was helpful. The crying? Not so much. Though it must have been quite entertaining.


The only way to 'save' a child in this situation is by adopting/fostering him and getting him educated. Are you ready to take the boy home?

thats if the mother is ready to let go the boy but I can always assist with the little I have for the boy and the mother, bro maybe u can create an account for the support of dis children where we can always make donations too. Thanks

Mr Jo seems to take pleasure at dashing poor people who seem to be in despair 1 thousand naira notes and come back online to blog about them.
Anyways...God is watching o!

On a second thought. Do you know that was how Dangote actually started? The only difference being that he came from a wealthy family and used their servants for his trade.

I admire the young lad's spirit of enterprise. He'd rather offer something of value instead of begging.

He's merely driven by the survival instinct bestowed on human nature and that's why he's survive in such a dangerous time of the night in Lagos.

I see a great future ahead of that young lad.

Brandnew2:
Mr Jo seems to take pleasure at dashing poor people who seem to be in despair 1 thousand naira notes !

The boy was not in despair. Until Mr. Edgar started crying he probably didn't feel particularly bad about his situation. Thank you, Mr. Edgar.

That means if this guy goes to the north, he would weep everyday...

www.nairaland.com/2472559/menace-beggars-nigeria

I remember vividly that he did the same for Majek Fashek who quickly had a tank full of liquor with it.
The same story painted the old man as roaming the streets of Lagos.

The same Majek Faskek was featured on a late night and he seemed pretty okay to me except for him battling alcoholism.

He's a rasta man for crying out loud. He even claimed he had 100,000 USD in his american bank account.

Truth or lies, Mr Edger seems to be the crazy roamer in despair to me.

#NoOffence.

at seun

Why do i feel this is just a imaginary story from the op...Anyways thats just life,not everyone was born with a silver spoon,you just have to strive to survive the harsh countrx,you cant help everyone.

adeekiti:
thats if the mother is ready to let go the boy but I can always assist with the little I have for the boy and the mother, bro maybe u can create an account for the support of dis children where we can always make donations too. Thanks

Someone I know tried to rehabilitate a 13 year old boy that was working as a conductor, few years back. Took him home, got new clothes and was in the process of enrolling him in school. He ran away after a week and when they found him again at ojuelegba, the child said he was not use to such life, the house was too quiet and he wants to hustle.

Their mothers will always be happy to let them go

In such case one can only take the responsibility of taking of such child not taking him away from where he grew up but make sure he gets all he wants and always educate him/her abt the lifestyles until he/she is ready to change environment

sassygal:


Someone I know tried to rehabilitate a 13 year old boy that was working as a conductor, few years back. Took him home, got new clothes and was in the process of enrolling him in school. He ran away after a week and when they found him again at ojuelegba, the child said he was not use to such life, the house was too quiet and he wants to hustle.

Their mothers will always be happy to let them go

In an ideal situation nigeria and nigerians have no business with poverty. Infact nigeria is too rich to be poor. We have every potential to make us a first world nation but nigeria seems blessed with pathetic leaders

na real Island of squalor

SAMBARRY:
In an ideal situation nigeria and nigerians have no business with poverty. Infact nigeria is too rich to be poor.

We are not rich. Though we have many natural resources, we also have a really large population so there's not enough to go around. Countries with very large populations cannot become rich just by exploiting natural resources. We must increase our productivity massively.

Seun:
We are not rich. Though we have a lot of natural resources, we also have a really large population so there's not enough to go around.

we are supposed to capitalize on our human population to our advantage na.america no get population ni? After all they make everyone fit in to one place or the other

I believe every nigerian is useful and can contribute to the benefit of his society ONLY IF HE IS EMPOWERED. given an education and a life and see him blossom


Seun don't listen to the lies that nigeria is not rich. What of our natural resources

Op instead of you giving them fish, put them in a place where they can catch fish themselves for life and don't have to depend on anyone for what to eat

Seun:
We are not rich. Though we have many natural resources, we also have a really large population so there's not enough to go around. Countries with very large populations cannot become rich just by exploiting natural resources. We must increase our productivity massively.

good point.human capital developement is lacking over here.this is where education comes in .by education u nean formal and informal education .the government should bring back our technical schools.they should out number the grammer schools.let skill acquisation be the in thing.
our youths shoukd also be re-oriented.they must realize that you cannot makecit in life by betting.100 naira can never,will never and must never fetch 1000000 naira.it is preposterous.the government should do thw next generation the favour of banning those football betting centers.it is a corruption.let no man dash anybody money.let every kobo in your pocket be earned.we need attitudinal change all of us especiakly the youths.come to akwa ibom nobody is ready to work.they wouldn't go to school.they wouln't settle down to learn a trade.i'm sorry i mentioned a place but i have never seen such laxity before.yes hausas' beg, but the ones that are not ready to beg do business or work .while here, only few work and the rest indulge in 'sharp practices' , intimidations, and petty thievery for survival. (sorry i deviated a bit).the koko be say we all , the govetnment the citizens need serious attitudinal change. ka Chineke mezie okwu!

SAMBARRY:
Op instead of you giving them fish, put them in a place where they can catch fish themselves for life and don't have to depend on anyone for what to eat

Abi o!

And in the case of that street kid that escaped from his foster home back to Ojuelegba. That was so funny.

You made very good points. Laziness and entitlement mentality. It's not only in akwa ibom its every where. The period when youths are meant to engage in something productive even if it's selling cotton bud like the 12 year old young man, they'll rather engage in pickpocketing and other forms of domestic crimes then when a young chap eventually succeed in his hustle they become jealous and attribute his success to jazz and before you know it they begin to scheme of ways to pull him down. If they ask for money and the guy rather shows them how to catch fish. They'll say he's stingy and proud.

We have a very long way to go in nigeria. There are so many things about us that needs to be changed as a society

Chidoks:



good point.human capital developement is lacking over here.this is where education comes in .by education u nean formal and informal education .the government should bring back our technical schools.they should out number the grammer schools.let skill acquisation be the in thing.
our youths shoukd also be re-oriented.they must realize that you cannot makecit in life by betting.100 naira can never,will never and must never fetch 1000000 naira.it is preposterous.the government should do thw next generation the favour of banning those football betting centers.it is a corruption.let no man dash anybody money.let every kobo in your pocket be earned.we need attitudinal change all of us especiakly the youths.come to akwa ibom nobody is ready to work.they wouldn't go to school.they wouln't settle down to learn a trade.i'm sorry i mentioned a place but i have never seen such laxity before.yes hausas' beg, but the ones that are not ready to beg do business or work .while here, only few work and the rest indulge in 'sharp practices' , intimidations, and petty thievery for survival. (sorry i deviated a bit).the koko be say we all , the govetnment the citizens need serious attitudinal change. ka Chineke mezie okwu!