Despite our challenges, there are still good people around. The print, the electronic, and social media always take pleasure in reporting bad stories about the people ranging from armed robbery to rape. They take little or no interest in reporting good about good people to celebrate them.
But yesterday I met a good Nigerian who deserves some accolades on social media if not on the pages of our dailies. That unique fellow found a lost purse and returned same. The article was lost in the previous night by a relation who went to visit a patient at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital. Simply identified as Umm Aishah of Okelele axis in Ilorin, the good samaritan got my number in one of the ID cards in the purse and called me. I was shocked and could not believe I was not dreaming. I quickly gave her number to the owner of the purse to call her. She did and the good samaritan told her to meet her at the Teaching Hospital. Before the meeting, we kept calling her number and she was responding well. But at some point, her number went off. So, we thought she might have been advised by somebody not to return the lost article. Lol and behold! Umm Aishah appeared with her little kid and handed the lost article to the owner! It was a joyous moment for the owner especially when she confirmed that the contents of the purse are intact: a cash of N13,000, Driver's license, two ATM cards, among other valuables.
The amazing part of it was that Umm Aishah didn't see what she did as something special. She must have been trained by her parents / guardian and teachers on Islamic virtues such as honesty and truthfulness.
Given her character, we knew she would reject our a token of appreciation. So we smartly dropped some amount of money with the little Aishah and left. The token whether small or big is still not up to one percent of the reward Allah has deposited in the account of her good deeds. Obviously, Umm Aishah is not rich material but she is well endowed and rich morally.
I decided to share this personal experience in order to celebrate the woman and portray her as a paragon of honesty who must be emulated by all. If all everyone is honest we'll be better off as a people.
May Allah provide Umm Aishah with good things in this world and hereafter. She has by her honesty given us some hope for a better nation. Also she has assured us that despite our challenges, GOOD PEOPLE STILL EXIST.
Facts