Unless you live under a really teeny, tiny,
moss-covered, icky rock, you've heard how that the life of a former
bread-seller named Olajumoke, changed when she walked into TY Bello's photo-shoot with Tinie Tempah.
Just in case you really have been under the said rock … consult Google, abeg. Or CNN archives.
Moving on, four things that struck me about this entire thing:
Olajumoke was busy working, when this happened.
In other words, she wasn't hounding people on those horrific groups on Facebook. She wasn't typing “Amen” under those laughable yet paradoxically irritating commands … you know those ones of “If
you don't say 'Amen' to this status update, you'll grow horns
overnight, but if you do, the 'god' who turns situations around, will
visit ya house”? Yeah, those ones. Chic was working.
TY Bello didn't ask silly questions.
One
of the things I find really baffling is how ridiculously pervasive
religion is, in Nigeria. It's like a freaking virus. I think it's odd
when I meet someone for the first time, especially in a social or
business context, and they're trying to tell me about Jesus. I just
think, “Psycho, that is so irrelevant right now.”
Even
worse are people who are so naive, they won't do business with someone
who doesn't attend their church. Then, the person who does attend their
church, turns out to be incompetent or a fraud, they start fighting,
then they look for people like me to fix the mess – which is great for
me, because I can comfortably charge them triple to fix the mess, then
start from square one … on a project, that they should originally have
hired me for.
People's religious sentiments, which
usually take away their brains, are phrased in questions that TY Bello
didn't ask Olajumoke, before helping her: what church do you attend? Do
you pay your tithe? Are you a church worker? Does your church believe in
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, with evidence of speaking in tongues?
She didn't ask these, or any other silly questions … which brings me to
the next point.
You can actually do something nice for someone, without having an agenda.
TY
didn't ask what was in it for her. Many times, when Nigerians give,
they're trying to boost their own ego … or bribe their way into heaven.
No, seriously. So, you have those fund-raising gigs where people are
calling out these fantastic amounts they're planning to give (which from
what I hear, almost never gets redeemed). Or even in church … actually,
these are the most impressive offenders, cos folk actually think that
they're in a new phase of “Umana E Umana”; folk who grew up in Nigeria,
in the 90s will understand this. Many Nigerians give, because they have
somehow bought into the lie that if their pastor is impressed with the
size of their gift, they're getting a free pass and a half, into heaven.
It's very disconcerting because in so-called ungodly societies, you
have atheists, humanists and agnostics give to the less privileged …
just because.
Being greedy ain't cute.
So,
in the past week, I've seen all these memes/prayer points on social
media, along the lines of “Please, send me my own TY Bello.” Why do
people think they were put on this earth, to just collect? Truth is, you
don't have to wait till everything in your life is perfect, before you
do something for someone. And for a society that's so obsessed with the
religious connotation of 'sowing seed', it's important to note that
everything you do, is actually a seed – good or bad. You don't have to
take money to a church. The Universe is incredible and has a way of
giving back to you, what you send out; especially when you're not doing
it because you're trying to get something back. So, you can actually be
somebody's TY Bello, starting today
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