Sometimes I Mind My Business And Other Times I Don't

"If minding one's business is a person, I think that should be me. I do not like to meddle in other people's affairs that do not concern me. This approach has brought me peace of mind and kept unnecessary drama at bay." I got to learn this thanks to some other people's experiences I have witnessed since I was little.

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A long time ago, a sister in my neighborhood came home one day with broken front teeth after she tried to separate two people who were fighting. This taught me a great lesson: be very careful when trying to break up a physical fight. I can do my best to prevent a fight, but if people ignore my advice, I won't insert myself between them, as I have seen how dangerous it can be to do so.

But something I can't ignore is when injustice is done to someone who can't defend themselves. If there's any way to prevent it, I can't rest until I try.

A few years ago, while I was living in Lagos, a friend of mine had a bad experience when she trusted someone to help her buy a phone from Computer Village in Ikeja. If you're familiar with Lagos, you'll know that purchasing a phone from Computer Village requires a lot of caution. If you're not careful, you might end up with a well-ramped fufu in a phone case, and you might not realize it until it's too late.

Our friendship was barely two months old when I found out that someone was trying to cheat her. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. It turned out that a friend of hers, whom she had known for a while, was using the same London used Samsung model that my friend wanted to buy.

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After promising to help my friend bought the phone from a trusted seller to save her from the hassle of buying from a fake seller in the market. She trusted him and paid the full amount of 90,000 Naira for the phone. However, days later, he disappeared and started avoiding her calls, eventually blocking her number.

All of her attempts to contact him were unsuccessful. I was furious when my friend told me that she only knew the guy from her workplace and didn't have his home address. It's no wonder he thought he could get away with it.

Thankfully, we were able to locate his house after about a week by tracing their previous conversation. Once we had the address, my friend and I decided to involve the police. However, when we went to the first police station and reported the case, they asked us to pay 30,000 Naira to assist us in finding him.🤔

We went to a different police station, and thankfully we met some kind officers who didn't ask for any money. The only time the police ever proved to be my friend lol 😂

Throughout all of this, my friend felt too embarrassed to tell her family, so she kept it to herself. She shared with her other friends, but they just listened and didn't get involved.

That evening, my friend and I went to the police station at 7 p.m. after finishing work. We had to wait until 9 p.m. for the officer to be ready to accompany us to the guy's house.

Finally, we brought the person in question to the station around 10 p.m. and it was around midnight by the time everything was settled. When my friend saw him, she was in shock and couldn't speak. I had to step in and ask him questions. I tried to intimidate him as much as I could because he thought he could take advantage of my friend's quiet nature. In the end, the officers were able to recover my friend's money from him, and we were relieved and happy.

They presented him with two options: either he could pay the money or they would lock him up. Only then did he choose to pay.

That midnight, my friend had to sleep over at my place since my house was closer to the station than hers. Helping her retrieve her money from the thief brought me a lot of happiness, and seeing the joy in her eyes afterward made all the trouble worth it. Yes, I was stressed and tired when we got home around 1 a.m. after the whole thing, but I would do it again if I had to.

There have been many other times when I had to intervene in someone else's business when something unjust was done to them, and sometimes I got into a bit of trouble.

Turning a blind eye when something unjust is being done to someone is something I detest doing. If we turn a blind eye to seeing that someone is treated unjustly today, tomorrow same thing could happen to us.