My Conversation with an Old Man

He wanted to collect my bread😔

I took an evening walk yesterday in my estate, as I usually do, to clear my head and hit my daily goal of 5k steps. While walking, I decided to pick up my order from the gate and grab something from the supermarket.

As I walked, I noticed how fast my steps were and how much it affected my breathing. So, I slowed down. Because where am I even running to? I also tried recording my daily journal on my voice recording app while strolling. I ended up spending over 30 minutes walking around the estate, taking different routes to avoid meeting the same people I passed earlier. (I can be shy like that sometimes.)

On my final 100 steps back home, I noticed a security man walking ahead of me. He looked older, maybe around 50 or 60. I wasn’t worried since it’s normal for security personnel to patrol the estate, checking for issues or intruders. What troubled me was how old he was to still be working a security job. Then I remembered how hard life in this country has become and silently laid curses on that man up there.

He noticed me walking behind him and stopped to talk.

“Who is this pretty girl walking behind me?” he asked, walking back to match my steps.

“Oh, good evening, sir,” I smiled. “I was just taking a stroll around the estate, but I’m on my way home now.” I hoped the conversation would end there because I honestly needed to pee at that time.

I was carrying a nylon bag with the bread I’d just bought from the estate mall. He then asked if I could give him something for the day. Naturally, I would have given him some cash if I had any, but unfortunately, I didn’t. He went on to ask for the bread. I laughed and said it wasn’t just for me but for the whole house. (Na only me dey house but allow)

Then he asked if it was for my husband, which made me laugh even more, giving him a side-eye.

He suggested I transfer money to his account since I had no cash. I laughed, apologized, and told him I couldn’t do that either. (Not the new begging tactics! Oga please I’m broke too.) I tried ending the conversation because I was already on my street.

But he kept talking.

Getting tired, I considered calling my sister to fake a conversation because he was insistent on either getting something from me or having a conversation I clearly didn’t want to have.

He asked if I was a student. I said no, that I was a graduate. He then asked what course I studied. I told him, and he shared that he studied Business Accounting but, due to the lack of jobs in Nigeria, he ended up working as a security guard.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

I told him it was Nigeria’s fault. The system is so corrupt that graduates struggle to find jobs, thereby forcing them to settle for anything that can put food on the table.

He adamantly refused and even shouted, “NO!” He said it’s not Nigeria’s fault that Nigeria would be great and that I shouldn’t speak negatively about the country. I wasn’t surprised, no be Nigeria elders again?

I asked if he truly believed Nigeria would still be great, despite all its problems. He laughed and said he did. He said that if we kept praying, the country would change for the better. I cackled.

Then he added that Tinubu would change Nigeria. Not like I didn’t see that coming.

I bit my lip to stop myself from arguing with an old man on the street about why and how Nigeria is a lost cause, and that it would take the citizen’s intervention for a miracle to happen. I tried not to ask, out of spite, why he voted for or believed in that man. I’ve learned to mind my business when it comes to that party and its supporters.

Honestly, I think the world has been under this crazy mass hysteria since Covid. The rise in stupidity over the last few years seems to prove it. Because where do I even want to start from?😭

How do you want to convince people like this that the prayers they’ve been praying for years aren’t working? In fact, God has shut his doors on this country that’s why the weather is always so hot like we’re sharing borders with hell, and why we are suffering like we’re the only country experiencing the end times.

Mind you, I had to hold myself back from getting my fav ice cream with the bread I went to buy.

Short intermission— Y’all need to try fan-ice vanilla ice cream with bread. It’s bomb! You may be judging me but try it first✋🏽

I had to end the conversation right there by saying someone was waiting for me at home because wallahi if I spend one more minute with him, we will enter the same trouser. No pun intended.

If the country he believes in had been working all along, oga you wouldn’t be asking me for my bread. My bread? I’ve never given anyone my bread😔💔

Nonetheless, I’m torn between admiration and curiosity for the people who still believes in this country. It takes a special kind of patience to have faith in a nation that has completely given up on you.

I do have the perfect solution to what can fix this country, though. If you’re interested, please send me a dm with a 50M registration fee. Thank you.

Delayed publishing this by an hour because Jungkook was live… priorities, sorry!😭