"Going forward, my Oga, isn't it time you end the free services you render? I know how you often struggle to raise pounds to pay your kids fees abroad", my buddy, Mazi, asked and asserted in our long phone convo. A question and assertion truly!
There are questions that go deep to your being, that profoundly push you to the point of questioning and re-questioning your essence
When questions are posed by your friends, I mean friends who mean well, you ask yourself, perhaps as a soliloquy: are my friends not telling me the truth? You pause the whole of your being looking for answers.
I did. I found the answer in an incident that happened in 2010. I had just arrived the George Bush International Airport in Houston for 2 weeks winter break. Wife, heavy with our last child; and two young kids tired from the long flight from London.
I joined the queue for immigration checks and asked my wife to sit somewhere with our kids. I had all four British passports which I presented to the immigration lady. She looked at me and looked at her screen.
"You were born in Nigeria and you live in London?" She asked. "Yes, ma'am", I answered.
"Both are your kids?" She asked. "Yes, ma'am", I answered. "Where is their mama?", she asked. "On the passport with you", I replied.
"The mama doesn't have your name on the passport. Any proof she's the mama of the kids?", she asked. This time she the smile on her face had disappeared.
"You see as a libertarian I don't believe a woman should drop her maiden name because of marriage. She's not a property to be named", I explained to her. She smiled and asked me to move away from the queue. I did. A colleague joined her.
"You're a lawyer, Mr. Mahmud", she asserted. "Yes, I'm". What a small world she screamed.

Do you remember the expelled students of Federal Poly Ilaro you fought for in court in 1995?

My memory went blank.
"Yes, yes, yes. Abiodun and twenty other students?" I asked.

"I'm Abiodun, Sir", she replied with utter elation.
She was the boss of the small team on duty that morning. "Where's your wife and kids", she asked. I pointed in their direction. "Is anybody picking you all", she asked. "No, ma'am", I replied.
"Where's your hotel?" She asked. Marriott Bonvoy, I answered.
She retrieved her phone from her desk and made a call. "A driver will be coming to pick you, Sir. Don't pay; it is on my account. I'll stop by later to see how you all are settling in", she said.
She returned our passports. Driver arrived a few minutes later and drove us downtown.
2 weeks became 6 weeks following the volcanic eruption and the ash cloud that shut the European airspace that early 2010
Abiodun became a pillar of support. We met her family. Her kids and my kids bonded so well that the morning we eventually left for London, we couldn't separate the kids at the airport. All teary.
See, we are wired to do good and evil. My prayer always is that the good we do will speak as our redemption on that day of God's judgment. Should I stop doing good? No. Should I pay evil with evil? NO.
Happy New Week.

Good morning from the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine.
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