I spoke with a friend living and schooling in North America recently and he complained how his inbox is filled with messages from guys asking him to send money and other goodies to them back home. He noted that the funniest thing is that some of these people had never said hello to him when he was here in Nigeria but started sending him friend requests on Facebook when they discovered he had moved to the supposed heaven called America.
I teased him by telling him how chubbier and fresher he looked in his Instagram pictures. Many people would analyze his shoes in the picture and calculate the worth for him before they asked him for money. That’s life. I consoled him not to be under any pressure. I shared with him the time I ate dry bread for two days and people still said I looked finer than any other day. May be pictures looks finer in such locations compared to our own country. I should think so.
To end our discussion, he noted a guy who would always threaten him with the phrase “eat alone and die alone”. I would never know where that sense of entitlement came from.
My advice to people is that, ‘money don’t fall on the street in the abroad’ – like my friend, Koya, would say. It is not your business to calculate people’s financial capacity for them because you see their fine pictures. Some of those people you feel are very chubby within two months have only eaten too much chicken. Calm down.
If anyone abroad feels like sending you money or material, cool. If they cannot, stop displaying this annoying sense of entitlement.
If you don’t know a man’s story, never write your history thesis about him.
Thanks
Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU
