KING MAKERS DON'T LOOK LIKE KINGS.

A friend told me this personal story of his. I'm sure he will remember if he comes across this post because he is on my friend's list.

His words..... Many years ago I was working as a clerk at a faculty in one popular university in Nigeria, then I saw an advert for NDA (Nigeria Defence Academy), I have always loved to go to NDA so I applied, submitted my form and was called for admission examination.

I had to travel to Kaduna all the way from Osun State, I have a distant uncle that was resident there then, I wrote a letter(no telephone) to my uncle that I was coming to sit for an exam in Kaduna and will love to stay in their house.

 I didn't get a reply to my letter even as my departure date was approaching. I became so worried because I needed to go anyway, as I was talking to a colleague in the office concerning my fear of where to stay, our office cleaner who was a Hausa man overheard us and in his broken English interjected that he knows someone right inside NDA.

Who could he know there, is it not a cleaner like himself, I unintentionally said it out to his hearing. 

"oga no o,the commandant op za NDA na ma classmate and ma priend". 

In his bad handwriting, he scribbled the comandants name on a piece of paper.

 "Just mention my name por am, him go helf you".

I reluctantly collected the paper from him, not because I intended to make use of it but because I didn't want him to feel bad.

The next day I set out on this long journey by train from Osogbo, I got to Kaduna the next day towards evening, upon getting there,I went straight to my uncle's house only to find out that they have relocated from that place and no one knows their new address. I became stranded and it was getting late.

Around after 7pm, I made up my mind to give my cleaner's contact a shot, I got to the gate of NDA and mentioned the name I was given, to my utmost surprise, everyone in that bit, recognized the name and one person was promptly detailed to take me to his office.

I gave the paper where Kabiru wrote his name and that of his friend to the secretary who took it inside, on sighting the paper, the commandant shouted from the office and followed the secretary outside to usher me in. "where do you know Kabiru? He's my colleague in the office sir," I answered. 

Where is he, how is he, hope he's doing well? This man was asking me many questions in an obvious excitement. 

The look on his face confirmed to me that kabiru was his beloved friend. He asked me what I came to do in Kaduna and I said it was for the NDA exams. Wow, do you have where to sleep? No, sir. He immediately called someone to take me to his house. On getting to the house I was lavishly entertained.

This man came late in the night and he woke me up and took me up on tutorials for the next day exams. After the exams he personally drove me to the park the next day.

When I got back to the campus, I began to look at Kabiru with a different eyes, how on earth will this man know such a powerful person?

Needless to say that my name was number four on the list when the results came out.

Friends, I put it to you today that relationship is a currency. Every man needs another man to move up and that man may be the neighbor you look down on, may be the taxi driver you so despise or even the house help you think is a nobody today.

Relationship is a stream of income, everything in life actually reproduces on the basis of relationship. Those we know in life matters. Most of us are talented but we need a cup bearer that will tell pharaoh that there's a Joseph that can interpret dreams.

There are some heights you may never get to in life until someone tells someone about you. So shut the door of relationships gently, you may need to use it tomorrow.

As we enter a new year with a new beginning and promises, let us endeavour to take our relationships seriously, even if you meet online, don't look down on anyone. You never can tell which of the relationships is your own key to success. 

Sometimes those who crown kings don't usually look like kings.

Bismark Ekenedilichukwu Benson  wrote :

I know life is unfair, but sometimes we need to understand why people are a certain way towards the poor.

Why they keep them at bay.

That man who doesn't want to accommodate his poor relatives in the same big house knows what he's avoiding. 

They'll be the ones to misuse and devalue items whose worth they don't care to know, so long as you appear to have more than them.

They'll turn that quiet mansion into filth in one week, that's after pretending to be humble for the first 2 days.

They'll start eyeing the cars in the garage.

They'll burn the fuel in oga's gen on a nonstop binge on Nollywood 'feem', believing that oga has enough money to replace it.

And then use their circumstances to guilt-trip you whenever you complain about their excesses, a skill they're very good at. Or start telling wild tales that you have money but you're so stingy. Just because you gave them a life that they'd never have otherwise had.

Meanwhile everyone looking from outside in will think oga is the mean guy.

I can remember when we were little kids. The first time a really poor kid came over to our place, a new wristwatch belonging to us went missing. 

After turning the whole house upside down, it was nowhere to be found.

We later suspected that the underprivileged boy might have moved it. So we went to their place in anger, only to meet him outside their compound already rocking the watch. 

To be sincere we didn't have much, we lived in a cluttered house. But the first day we opened our door to this kid, he stole the best thing my brother owned at the time.

And feigned ignorance that he didn't know how the watch ended up on his wrist.

That incident is a vital lesson that still rings to this day.

Poor people, I mean, really poor people most often are selfish as hell.

All they care about is their poorness and how to continuously obtain from others, but tend to have so much disregard for their benefactors after a while.

A bunch of kids I allowed to fetch water from my place, because of them my gate is almost bad due to their careless, frequent banging of the gate. 

Most times they leave the free water running and wasting until you scream. To them, after all, 'the house has a pumping machine'.

The height of it was today, after many warnings they nearly broke my window during a rough play, which had become a routine each time I allowed them access to water.

I yelled at them to get the hell out of my place with their remaining empty gallons.

Now guess what the story will be tomorrow... Exactly!

People in lack know how to reel you in with their pitiful faces and false humility, until they get really comfortable with your magnanimity.

But as a society, the privileged ones are always to blame when things go awry. 

You and me can't help but feel bad about a story told this way, "he threw his poor relative out of his house".

On hearing such stories, a general conclusion is instantly drawn that the owner of the house is a devil.