He was almost killed!

Good day everyone. Hope the new year is still treating you alright... The continual rise in the rate of infection of the omicron variant is really upsetting. I am afraid that we would get to a level just like the beginning of 2020. What is also worrisome is that the vaccines might wouldn't be able to get to every one if the number of infection become higher than the available dose.

If such a scenario happens,hoarding (artificial scarcity) might result especially in developing nation. This might lead to an unpleasant situation where only a certain number of individuals will have access to the vaccines as due to their higher position in the socio economic ladder.

Meet my humble and magnanimous sponsors.

Sometimes in 2021, I had to go to a salon to make my hair. The salon was a shop in a big building that was facing a very busy road which lead to a market. I always like patronising this particular salon because their cost was average and I was also very friendly with some of the stylists. Actually, two of the girls were about my age and I have known them since childhood.

After I made my hair,I decided to visit the nearby market to get some stuff. I was about crossing the road when I heard the unpleasant sound of screeching tyres tussling to come to an halt followed by the sharp but awful noise of car brakes in distress. An accident had just happened at the other side of the road some meters from where I stood.

My heart sank momentarily and I prayed silently within me that it shouldn't be that serious.. As usually, a crowd have already started forming at the accident scene. I took some quick steps to also see and assess the extent of the damage.

A white Mercedes 450 with tinted glasses had knock down a middle aged man who was trying to cross to the other side. The man that was knocked down laid motionless on the ground as if he were dead. The driver of the car, who was obviously a youth immediately stepped out, with fear and apprehension written all over him, he knelt down beside his victim and frantically tried to resusitate him. By now, a steady crowd had began to pour towards the accident scene.

Fortunately, the accident victim was not that hurt, he had passed out as a result of the shock. He only sustained minor bruises at the sides of his legs when he fell down. Thank God the driver was able to stamp on the brakes just in the niche of time before the vehicle could do serious damage to the poor man. I saw the driver of car breathed a very huge sigh of relieve as he wiped his already sweaty face and hands with an handkerchief.

The driver helped the man up. Then suddenly, a woman who sells bread by the roadside who saw when everything happened declared that it was actually the fault of the victim and not the driver. She maintained that the man didn't watch out before he started to cross the road. Three other people from the crowd who had also seen observed the accident also agreed with the woman. And instead of the crowd blaming the driver, they all blamed the other man.

This really came as a pleasant surprise to me because as far back as I can renember, whenever there's an accident that involve a car owner and a pedestrian, people always blame the car owner. To say the least, i was really impressed by this level of honesty. As much as I know,whenever things like this happens, Nigerians would usually defend the poorer individual. Its a psychological thing you know. The poor are usually united against the rich because "they are our oppressors"

I imagined that a similar accident might have happened somewhere in the past and the crowd must have blamed the car owner. A member of the crowd whose children were out of school as a result ot his inability to pay the school fees might just decide to vent his frustrstion on the owner of this beautiful car. Another member whose girlfriend must have ditched him for a richer guy might decide to transfer the aggression by grabbing the neck of the car owner and screaming insults at his face for causing the accident. Its possible that someone vile might even decide the wreck the car instead of attending to the wounded accident victim.

Lol,sorry for allowing my imagination to run away with me, but such scenario is very common in my country. Alot People always see the owner of a nice car as a rich man who oppresses them. Therefore, he should definitely be the one at fault even though when its so clear that the error was from the hoi-polloi. My Nigerian friends can relate to this very well.

To cut the long story short, the common man agreed that he had crossed the road absentmindedly. With tears in his eyes, he revealed that his two children hadn't eaten since the morning and his wife who was pregnant was also ill. He was o didn't know what to do or where to ask for help, he was just walking around aimlessly. He looked emaciated too.

The owner of the car really felt sorry for him. He unclosed his car and brought out two bundles of cash and handed them over to the other man. The crowd were really dazzled at this spectacular gesture and they all began to hail the car owner. The ovation was so loud that other motorists had to stop momentarily to check out what was going on from their car seats.

The poorer man was so happy that he couldn't stop thanking his benefactor as he knelt down and continued to thank him.

From what I saw, I believe that the richer man was more happier. Had it been the other man had been killed in the accident, he would have been in real serious trouble with the crowd whether the accident was his fault or not and he knew this.

Thank God no lives were lost and everyone was happy at the end of the day.

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗