*MY FRIEND, BE CAREFUL WITH KINDNESS AND PASSING JUDGEMENT ON ISSUES YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT...!*

Once upon a time in the animal kingdom, there was hunger in the land. The Lion began to kill other animals for food, making the animals unhappy but afraid to confront him for fear of their lives.

Eventually they got together and devised a means to put the Lion in a cage. Their plan was successful and the Lion stayed in the cage for weeks without food or drink.

One day, a certain young boy, who knew nothing about the situation was passing by the cage. Seeing the boy, the Lion pleaded with him to come to his rescue. At first, the boy refused. The Lion told him so many lies on how he got imprisoned in the cage. Rather than hear the other side of the story and after much persuasion, the boy became compassionate and agreed to free it on one condition: that the Lion will not kill him upon release. Without hesitating, the Lion agreed and the boy opened the cage.

As soon as the Lion came out, he thanked the boy but pleaded with him further to complete the good work he had started. How? The boy should present himself as food for him!

Reminding the lion of their agreement, the boy retorted, “Why do you want to repay a good thing with a bad thing?”

The Lion replied, “In the present world, bad things are used to repay good things. Good deeds are repaid with evil”.

After a very long debate, both of them decided to ask any three animals to confirm whether good is used to repay evil or vice versa (good for good/evil for evil). If all the animals say that bad things were used to repay good things, the Lion would devour the boy but if otherwise, the boy would be free.

The first animal they met was Mr. Goat who said, “It is true that bad things are used to repay good things. I am a living example. My faeces is used as manure for farming but when the crops are harvested, I am NEVER allowed to taste what my faeces produced. Human beings always pursue and prevent me from tasting any part of the product from my dung”

Then, the Lion turned to the boy and said, “1:0.”

So, they went to the second animal, Mr. Dog and he said, “Bad things are used to repay good things. Everybody knows that I go into the bush for hunting. I assist faithfully to kill animals and when it is time for that same animal to be eaten, all I get as reward are bones.”

“Besides, at night while others sleep, I stay awake, keeping watch and even used oftentimes as a sacrificial lamb for the thief’s bullet.”

Again, the Lion turned to the boy and said, “2:0. One more chance.” The boy began to weep! _Aye mi, temi bami!_

The third and last animal they met was Mr. Tortoise. In answering the question, Tortoise said: “Before I give you my response, I need to know how this argument started and, also, we have to go to where it started.”

So the trio went to where the argument began and the boy narrated the whole story and scenario . Then Tortoise asked the boy:

“Where was the Lion the first time you met him?”

“In the cage,” the boy responded”

“Go back into the cage,” Tortoise told the Lion.

So Lion entered the cage.

When the Lion went back into the cage, Tortoise asked the boy:

“Was the cage open or locked at that time?” He answered: “It was locked”

Then Tortoise locked the cage and said to the lucky boy, “Let’s go. There is nothing more to say. No more turenchi!”

:

:

*LESSON:*

Always seek to hear a story from its start off point before commenting or passing judgement.

The views of the first two people were not wrong, they were grieving based on what happened to them but applied it wrongly in the boy’s case. This boy would have died but for the folkloric wisdom of Mr. Tortoise!

Let’s be careful how we deal with people. If you are not involved, stay out of it. It is the same sun that melts ice, that hardens clay.

Hope you’ve learnt something?

Miss Olawumi Abolarinwa, a  younger sister of the late 33-year-old tailor, Mr Olatunde Abolarinwa, said that her brother died allegedly from the bullet of a mobile policeman in the convoy of a very important person at Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State on Tuesday evening.

Olawumi said  the  policeman shot sporadically to clear the   road of  #EndSARS protesters so that the convoy of the VIP could pass.

She said, “My brother, who had closed from his shop was on his way home when the incident happened. According to eye witnesses, he wanted to cross the road when the bullet hit  him in the chest.”

The bereaved sister said her only brother and father of three, “was the breadwinner of the family and trying his best to ensure it was well with everybody in his immediate and extended families.”

In Benin, the  Edo State capital,  Isiraojie Moses, said his  house  within the vicinity of the Oko Correctional facility was looted and burnt.

He said,  “On Monday last week, the protest started between the ADP Junction and Central Junction. The protest wasn’t violent at first as they were just burning tyres on Airport Road. Then within a moment  they came into the barracks shouting ENDSARS, EndBuhari and they started throwing stones which destroyed  roofs and hit us in our living room.

“At the same time, we left the building through the back and we told them that we identified with the protest. They promised not to burn the house because we told them that we identified with the protest.

“Later, they (hoodlums) came with guns and broke the jail and most of the prisoners escaped. So after the melee ended, I came out and I saw that my house was on fire. My family came down to salvage whatever we could.

“They (the hoodlums) took two plasma television sets, laptop computers, my mother’s jewel, while my brother’s credentials were burnt alongside many other items. They took the goats we were  rearing at the backyard. My mother took a loan to start the business and everything went down the drain. My clothes, my school files and other items were also destroyed.”

The Managing Director, Tuns Farm, Osogbo, Mr Taofeek Badmus, said the loss recorded by the company as a result of Saturday’s attack by the hoodlums was over N500m.

Badmus in a chat with The PUNCH also said a member of  staff of the company, Mr Abdul-Rasheed Olawale, was shot dead by the hoodlums during the attack.

Another victim of Saturday’s hoodlum attack, Mr Abayomi Oyedeji, who is the Chairman of the Irepodun Local Government Area, said every item in his private residence including window blind and kitchen utensils were carted away.

In Kano State, Ahaji Ahmed Sufi, the owner of the multi-million naira Galaxy Shopping Mall  in Sabon Gari, said N246m  worth of goods were lost to looters .

In Oyo State, Alice Adejumo, mother of 15-year-old Lekan Adejumo, who was shot in Ogbomoso, Oyo State during the #EndSARS protest in the town  said she had exhausted her savings and   no longer had money to buy drugs for the boy to be treated.

Speaking in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday, she said Lekan was allegedly shot by the police on his way to church last week.