How a Yobe “Millionaire” businessman became needy in split second, by Abdullahi Salihu
The drama took place some months ago, but its spectacular nature is unique.
On that fateful day, Mrs Aishatu Garga, a health worker with the Yobe State Specialists’ Hospital, Damaturu, had closed from work by 5pm as usual, and had decided to branch at a Provision Store to buy some items. An elderly man in his seventies, dressed modestly, was trailing behind her as she entered the store.
As they entered, the man tried to whisper some words to someone, but tragically, a distorted version of the whisper found her ears. She thought she over-heard the man begging her for alms.
Rushing through the contents of her handbag, she fished out a miserable and partially dirty N100 note. Pronto, she handed the same to the presumed ‘elderly beggar’, who turned out to be a millionaire businessman.
Having dressed modestly, devoid of any aura of economic power, this elderly man, whose identity is hereby concealed, could as well be mistaken for a member of the ever-increasing population of the needy.
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As it were, with the current economic downturn, it has become difficult to draw even a thin line between people barely ‘living’ and those ‘surviving’. And so, the stage was set for a monumental goof at the provision store.
Garga, the cheerful giver, was ecstatic as she stretched out her hands full-length to assist the assumed needy, out of pity and compassion. The millionaire, though bewildered by such a misdirected magnanimity, forced a faint smile from his lips, just as he received the pittance, thanking the giver for her kind gesture.
As the drama unfolded, staff of the Store who knew the elderly man and his financial worth, were dumbfounded. An eerie silence pervaded the environment. Then, someone broke the silence.
“After I had given the man the money, one of the boys in the Store came close to me and said my assumed beggar is one of the millionaire businessmen in town, and that his sense of modesty is so extreme that a lot of people are not aware of his wealth.
“I was lucky that the man was still around when this fact was revealed to me, and I dashed out to apologise profusely for the embarrassment caused him, just as I pleaded for the return of my miserable N100.
“But the man just smiled, flashed the N100 note which was still in his hand, and said it had already become his money, so long as it was my intention to give it to him, out of sympathy, compassion, and in good faith.
“I had never been that uncomfortable in my life, and despite my repeated pleading for the N100 to be returned, he stood his ground. He said the money will occupy a special place in his treasury”, narrated Garga.
And so it was that, in a circus-show kind of drama, the Yobe billionaire became the first person of such financial status to have been inadvertently demoted to ground zero of the wealth ladder, in a split-second.
In the same manner, the incident has bestowed on the woman, the position of the only person ever known to have given out paltry N100 as gift to a millionaire, a gift that was not only accepted enthusiastically , but also given a special place in the benefactor’s Money Vault.
Surely, the two are materials for Guinness Book of Records – one for issuing N100 gift to a millionaire, and the other for displaying an incredible degree of humility by accepting the paltry amount in spite of his wealth, just for the sake of honouring the giver.
Abdullahi Salihu, a veteran journalist, is based in Damaturu, Yobe State.
