By Florence Amagiya

Nelson Mandela

Just the other day, I was driving from my office through Mile 2 road in Lagos State popularly known as Mile 2 ‘oke’ to connect under the bridge as though I was going to Festac Town and environs. I noticed that the traffic as usual was very heavy, but it was amazing that when I got close to the part that takes you down the bridge, the pace of driving became faster unlike before when one could actually spend three good hours on one spot. And while at it your car gets rammed by the vehicle behind because the man driving is in a hurry to get home and you are not. At some point in this episode, you are forced to come down to ascertain the extent of the damage done to your vehicle.

Before you know it, you start an argument which will result in insults and every other stress. In that state of argument, you could be robbed and mugged; you might be tempted to fight, just to name a few of what can happen. But on a good day, you wrestle, with the traffic for about thirty forty minutes and you might get home in one piece. This fateful evening I noticed a traffic Warden from a distance and I was wondering who he was, working so late with diligence. I drove closer and saw a familiar fair complexioned skin. It is the same traffic Warden I had seen before in another part of Lagos! I knew him to an extent because he worked close to where I reside and he does not receive a million naira per month as salary. He is only rendering selfless service. I was already complaining that the traffic close to where l reside was getting out of hand again and each time I look out for him, I don’t see him around and I have wondered why.

I can see why I haven’t being seeing him around, he has being transferred to mile 2 because of the traffic epidemic and he is doing a good job as usual, not minding the time and who is looking at him. Well relaxed even under the sun or rain, not minding that he is a fair complexioned person who could easily burn under the sun. This can only be service, he doesn’t ask for alms from anybody while at his job. You see him dancing to an invincible music. There were times; he was forced to board bikes to other locations on the roads just to melt traffic before going back to his point of duty. You don’t even see sadness or anger on his countenance while he is doing his job! He is in a force where bribery, corruption and collection of the ‘popular twenty Naira’ is the order of the day, yet he is not involved. He is not doing his job because of what he will gain from passerby, but because he wants to serve in the true sense. This is truly service to humanity.

Now my questions are: Why are we here on Earth? Why did we come in this form? What does it take to serve? What are we going to be remembered with when we are no more? It cannot be a mistake that we are here; after all, none of us can boost of choosing to be here in the first place. So, if we are allowed here, then there must be a reason. I don’t think we are here just to make so much money for ourselves, family and ten generations unborn without touching lives. I don’t also think acquiring all the wealth in the world gives true happiness if we don’t impact lives.

We did not come here on our own and we did not choose our forms, so we could have come in the form of animals. We wore this form (human beings) because we have duties to perform. Let us not forget that in service we also get served and that in giving, we receive. There is more blessing in giving than in receiving. And that the best crop a man can harvest is when he sows into lives. The reward is incredible and you will be at peace with yourself and your Creator. The world will be a better place to live in, if I can know and feel that I am here for the next person and the next person is you.