HIS LAST DAYS (MY QUIET PLACE 43)

The young lad had dropped out of school at fourteen years of age based on promises he got that he could get a foreign club to play football. A game that boys his age had gotten to like. He was the envy of his friends at the time who never thought ‘dreams’ could come true (at least not at so young an age). His parents were delighted that their son was going to free them from the pangs of poverty. Something that had accpeted as their fate.

However, a few years later, things didn’t quite pan out due to multiple reasons. Still set on a course, he found himself in Pakistan and tried to get into Dubai albeit unsuccessfully. With no money and no invitation from any football club, his destiny was hanging in the balance. Then he met ‘the man’ who again promised to help like others had done. He appeared to be wealthy so there was no reason not to trust him. If you think of it what could he possibly need from a young homeless person like him or so he thought.

He had won the young man’s trust which wasn’t hard to do. Next, he sent him on a trip with a short stopover in Singapore and a package to handover to a ‘friend’ with two thousand dollars for assistance. All this was with a promise that his dreams were much nearer. Things couldn’t get better or so the young man thought. He gladly accepted the package with joy in his heart and renewed hope for the future he had dreamed of.

He gets to Singapore and the ‘friend’ to receive the package couldn’t be found. He calls the sender who tells him to be patient because his friend had missed his flight. Between waiting for the friend and loafing around someone alerted the police who arrived twenty minutes later. Being someone who hadn’t committed a crime (or so he thought), he didn’t make any attempt to run. He gladly handed himself over to be searched and told them repeatedly that he didn’t have anything on his person or baggage.

Fast forward to a little bit later and he is facing a judge for smuggling enough drugs to earn him a death sentence. If you’ve read about Singapore and how the nation transformed from where they were then to now, then you’ll know how lesser offences can land you jail term how much more hard drugs. A message is sent to the then President of Nigeria in 2007 who sends a passionate letter begging for the boy to be saved as evidence pointed he was an unwilling and unknowing carrier. Their President replied that apart from the overwhelming evidence that said otherwise, the integrity of their people had to be protected. Further pleas yielded nothing and so the life and dreams of another was snuffed out.

It’s been fifteen years since the event occurred and it was a story I wish I didn’t ever hear. I’m in My Quiet Place (a place where I recount the events of the past period)] and I am trying not to imagine HIS LAST DAYS. The period the lad would have been languishing with inmates mainly those not speaking a common language but joined together by a common fate. The thought of him dying inside knowing that even though he’s being fed, one day will be the last day and he will face the hangman’s noose.

The receiver of the drug was caught and also sentenced to death but the sender was never found. I always wonder at the minds of such individuals programmed to deprive others or suppress others based on selfish gain. Even till the death of the deprived, nothing seems to be too hard for them. The saddest part of the case was that the judge that sentenced him wasn’t convinced he did it. The overwhelming evidence however couldn’t be ignored and so justice had to be served.

Sometimes I wish I could erase some memories not necessarily because they are bad but because moving on will make it a lot easier for me to cope.#MyQuietPlace#TurnAroundThursday#

DiaryOfACorporateTrainer#WorkChronicles#Training#AllInAdaysJob#ManagingPeople#