By Ahmed Mahmud
This man. He’s a bus driver in Ajah area of Lagos.He is fondly called Mr. Righteous.He is always in rain boots and professional overall.
He is also called an Engineer by all bus drivers at the bus station, apparently because of his choice of dressing.
His spoken English is Queens, very articulate and fluent. He hails from Imo State.
Without a doubt, he’s man of integrity,
pillared by conscience and roundly revered by everybody in the car park.
He is a very simple man, about 5ft tall with white beard. I think he is in his late sixties.
Just last night, at about 7pm.
My wife entered his tiny bus, usually called Korope. She sat at the front with her company’s laptop which contained vital contents and information.
The distance to her destination wasn’t upto 4 kilometers.
Still.
She decided to drop the laptop by her side while seated.
Shockingly, when she arrived at her destination, she got off the bus without the laptop.
It was when she got home she realized her laptop was still on the bus.
Swiftly, we drove out in a bid to locate the man’s whereabouts since he’d told my wife that that was his last trip and he lives around Sangotedo’s ShopRite.
The traffic didn’t help the situation, but I managed to speed when there was a chance.
We got to the United Estate, but the man could not be found. Still we braved the traffic back to Ajah’s bus stop with the hope that he would return the laptop if sees it. Yet to no avail.
The entire time, my wife was understandably distraught. Praying, wailing and crying at the same time. She did so in a profuse scale wondering what is she going to tell her company.
For me, the speed in which I drove the car was unprecedented and I am thankful to God we had no accident.
As we got to Ajah and explained the situation to everyone, they expressed their empathy and assured us that the driver is a man of integrity and if he sees the laptop that he would surely return it.
We went back home at about 10 pm after exchanging telephone numbers with the drivers we met and promised them that we will return this morning since we were told the driver will surely be at the park today.
Throughout yesterday’s night my wife did not sleep and neither did I.
On the other hand, inspite of all the efforts I displayed to get the laptop back on real time, as a husband, I was blamed for the loss.
Understandably so, it is the nature of every woman. They blame their husbands for everything.
The tension in the house was high and I dared not say anything to escalate it.
If you are a married man reading this, you will have an ideaof what I am talking about.
As early as 7am this morning, my wife left for the bus station and I followed her shortly. We got there and waited for close to 2 hours narrating the situation to the drivers and engaged in conversations about incidents similar to ours.
Boom!
At about 8 O’clock, the entire car park erupted in a wild jubilation as Papa emerged with the laptop. On sighting the driver,my wife broke down in tears of joy as we roundly gave the man an appreciave hug thanking him for his utmost sincerity.
As for the driver, he did not see his kindest act as anything important. He believes it is normal to return things that are not yours. He went further to say that,he too was very worried about my wife’s emotional state having realized that the laptop belongs to a company, hence he made sure he came to to station earlier than usual.
After handing over the laptop, I gave him money as a token of our appreciation, but Papa refused to take it
Please, I am using this medium to thank Papa and appeal to everyone reading this to pray for this man because he has saved my household from trouble.
With this demonstration, he has proven once again that God answers prayers and that Nigeria is full of Good Samaritans.
Finally, have confidence in Nigeria and Nigerians, because there are so so many good people in this beautiful land of ours.
