How I exchanged my new android phone for 50 naira

Miserable Exchange

I had gone to do a little something at my old school (OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY) and was on my way back home. I was only going to take a quick detour to the bank. Teachers, we hardly get the chance to do anything else than teaching. Our mornings are never free to allow us go to the bank and I had some money I had been wanting to deposit for a long time.
Luckily, I got this chance to go back to school where I could easily do my transaction and be out quick to continue my journey and I was going to grab it.

Now, quick information about OAU if you’ve not been there. Basically, you don’t have money if you don’t have ‘change’. ‘Change’ in school means: small denominations of money, e.g. ₦10, ₦20 etc. Nobody could be bothered to break big denominations for you. And big denominations begin from ₦50 and above. Knowing this peculiarity and knowing the least amount I had was ₦200, I had asked my friend who I stayed with to give me ‘change’. She only had ₦50, which I thought was fair, so I took it and began my journey.

Here’s how my journey was going to be like:
Hall to bus stop- ₦20
Quick trek to the bank
Carry out my transaction and out- then
Bank area to Gate - ₦20
Board a bus from gate back home

All this I envisaged, shouldn’t take more than some minutes to an hour then I should be on my way back home. Obviously, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I stood in front of the hall, waiting for a bus and soon, one came along,

“Bus stop!” I called as the driver paused to ask,

“Sho ni change?” (Do you have change?) To which I responded,

“50 naira lo wa” (I only have 50 naira).

At this, the driver shook his head and drove off.
Next, came a white-coloured bus, He paused in front of me and when I told him my destination he threw me the same question as the first driver, to which I gave the same response. But this one said I should come in,

‘Ah finally, I wouldn’t wait till eternity’.

I moved to go into the bus very happy. He then stopped me as I was going to sit at the backseat, asking me to sit at the front. Okay, no biggie, I sat down. All this while I didn’t realize my phone was not deep inside my bag.

Some three minutes after, we were near the busstop.

“Busstop wa” I called out, that’s to say, “someone will get down at the bus stop”. So he slowed down for me to get down. I then dipped my hand into my bag to bring out the 50 naira but this driver couldn’t wait,

“Get down first” he said impatiently.

I ignored him and continued my search till I found the money. All these while, he was still shouting

“Just get down first” and I was just thinking,

‘What’s up with the impatience?' But I kept quiet, handed him the money and stepped out of the bus.

I stood right outside the bus expecting him to give me my ₦30 change, since he already knew how much I had and allowed me in. But instead, he turned to the passengers and started asking for who had change. When no one replied favorably fast enough. You know what this driver did?

He drove off without giving me the change!

Of course not!, that’s definitely not what he did. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he did that.

What he did was…. He returned the money back to me!😲 As in, the whole ₦50, if you’ve encountered this people before, you would know they don’t even give out ₦10, no, they’d rather drive off with yours!

So, blame me if I was shocked, beyond shocked even. I stood outside the bus looking at the money and looking at the driver, looking at the money and then at the driver again. I was still in this dazing moment as the driver drove off. Then I came back to myself, ignorant me, I told myself,

'He must be a really different driver, I’m going to call my friend and tell her this special occurrence.' I should have known better.

I put the money back in my bag and crossed the road, some two minutes walk to the bank and I was in the door. Unfortunately, Nigerian banks, automated doors, metal detection, blablabla. In short, the door didn’t allow me in,

“Step out and bring out your phone” said the security agent at the door.

I stepped back out and dipped my hand in my bag to bring out the phone, I thought I put it by the side, it wasn’t there. I put the bag on the floor to search properly, it’s supposed to be somewhere in the bag. I started removing the things inside, Books, hair straightener, phone charger ….. Phone? The phone was no where in the bag. But I was still searching, panic full-blown,

'It must be hiding somewhere in this bag.' I mean… I could only hope, right?

But slowly, I was coming to the acceptance that my phone was gone.. Finally, I could understand that the real transaction had already taken place that day. It took place in the bus. What a smart driver that was? I didn’t even know I was involved in a transaction.

“Wow, I can see a lot of things in your bag, you know what? Just take what you need and hand over your bag, so you can go in”

Dense security agent, he couldn’t even sense what was going on. This had nothing to do with him though, I couldn’t blame him for not ‘sensing’. So I replied,

“That won’t be necessary, since I can’t find my phone” and sadly walked away at the realization of my fate.

Everyday since that day, I've beat myself up on what sort of miserable exchange that was (if I could have at least known that a transaction was going on when it was going on, maybe the whole exchange could have been prevented. I was totally oblivious of it though and I can't deny that driver was a very smart one too.) and while I've been able to come to a point where it's not as painful, I've also been able to learn a thing or two. The sort of transaction we may be carrying on with the devil while not even knowing because we're very oblivious and also because he is very smart. The scriptures say, "watch and pray...." Because God knows very well that we could be caught off guard by the tricky ways of the devil! Trust me, you don't want to find yourself in my shoes, only in a more spiritual sense, realizing that you we're involved in a dangerous transaction only a little bit too late.

It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes in my own case but what had happened, had happened and not redo/undo- able. And the absurdity of the exchange? 50 naira to a new Android phone? You don't want him taking your 'destiny' in exchange for a pot of 'red stew' as in Esau's case, Orr... Your sexual purity for a ride in the back of 'his' car. Orr... Your peace of mind for some minutes of Fame/success. Orrr... Your Life in exchange for money. Absurd exchanges, but that's the devil's own business and he's very good at it.

"The enemy cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy...."

Isn't it worthy for us to think about that, everybody saw that driver give me the money, but nobody saw that he'd collected it back in a bigger way. The present enjoyment is what you'd see, right. Be sensitive to know that it's more than what's obvious on the surface.

Please, don't be oblivious when he's trying to make a stupid bargain out of your life, and 'try?' he will. WATCH AND PRAY!!!!

Hey guys! It's been a long time. How have you been? Me? I've been fine, in the lightest sense. I want to apologise for my absence since March, it's really not deliberate on my part and after reading the story, I'm sure you understand with me and you forgive me😊. It was highly unexpected, the way I lost my phone and it was my only medium of communicating with you guys. So yeah, that's it. Thank you for letting it go 😉 I love you😍

Expect more posts from now on, I promise to be more dedicated 🙏🏽

And make sure you check out all the previous posts. Selah😁

Comment please, your own lessons and views. Thanks