So I bolted out of the room feeling high and going up in the air like a balloon. I had just finished an exam and my classmates were anxiously waiting outside for me to come and share the information I had. Scattered haphazardly like sheep without a shepherd, probably discussing exam questions, I knew what I had to do, bring them together, and that’s exactly what I did. So, I started addressing them, oh, I’ve been dazzling them for a long time with my witty speeches and comedic remarks. They silently listened to the sentences falling softly from my mouth, the hook line, the sinking line and they enjoyed swallowing each word as if they were inspirational quotes from motivational books or a best-selling novel worth sticking to. Were they memorizing my words as an inspirational poem in a poetry collection?
Lost among them, there I felt like Jesus Christ because no one could know that I was their leader. It wasn’t until three minutes into it that I started, like a bad news scare, that I was interrupted when they told me that someone was calling me. I left after asking permission from my people; They didn’t even care, they gave it to me easily. When I got there, I found four men standing and one of them, a tall, dark, clean-shaven, quite handsome man, dressed in a suit, said:
Me (bowing): Good morning gentlemen.
The man: Good morning. Are you the class representative?
Me: yes sir. (I said it confidently, not intimidated by their number or appearance.)
Man: What are you doing here? (He asked without any hint of harshness.)
Me: I’m giving you information, that’s why we’re gathered here.
The Man: But you could have gone to an empty room to do that instead of staying here. You can even gather them in the hallway where you wrote your exam. Because it looks to me like you’re plotting a coup or something. (So he said once more in a soft way.)
Me (Smiling at the mild joke or call it a cool innuendo): Oh no sir, the information I have for them is brief, it won’t take long.
Man: It’s short. He’s fine. But if I come back and find you still here, I’ll take it for something else because that means it’s not short anymore. (I immediately felt that this was a serious problem that I had just endured without any rancor.)
Me: No problem sir.
The Man: Very well then.
Me: Thank you sir. (She shook me off and left on the bus she came on.)
That was it! She shook me and I couldn’t feel my hand anymore! I quickly ended the meeting with my people and they dispersed. But for all the short time I still couldn’t feel my hand. This is not literature and fiction, it happened. I thought that with the passage of time I would get over it; but hell no, far from it. I made? Whether my hands froze on me or lost the life that flowed through them I immediately shook off, I couldn’t tell. Could there be some scientific explanation for that? Maybe or maybe not. It was as if he had rubbed a traditional potion on his hand and when I shook him or he shook me, whatever, a magical effect kicked in and washed over me. Hello! Can you help me? I said I can’t feel my hand anymore. Where is my hand?
Would you advise me to go see a doctor? Or report the case at the police station? My friends wanted to hold it and shake it, but I politely declined. Anyway, don’t worry about it. Thank you very much for your concern. I really appreciate it. If I go to the doctor, it would be a pointless waste of time and if I go to the police station, they would find me guilty. Because? It’s very simple: my thought made it so, my thought made me feel like I lost my hand. But of course I’ll be justified considering the reason behind my answer. “What reason?” You can ask. The reason was that he immediately shook me off and turned to leave, one of his entourage whispered to me and said: “Try to finish what you’re saying quickly in five minutes and make sure everyone leaves this place. He’s the VC.”
Oh, you know that, but please keep it there. Don’t be too quick to say anything until you answer this question: If you were the student, wouldn’t you feel the same way? I only lost my hand; Wouldn’t you lose your… maybe your head? No hard feelings mate, I’m just kidding. But it is true. I am not just creating an unnecessary picture scene in your mind or writing a nonsensical story just to waste your time or have fun. This is where I go: the simplicity of Prof. Adeniyi S. Gbadegesin, the Vice Chancellor for me that day amazed me. I found it hard to get out of my head the way he made it clear that he didn’t like us staying there (due to student protests disrupting academic functions at the time), but without hurting me. The brief meeting became one of many important short stories that filled me with fresh blood of motivating lessons that I can’t stop writing.
Frank A Clark said: “Everyone strives to achieve great things, but we forget that life is full of little things.” Little things like smile, kindness, humility, and the list goes on and on. Julia A. Fletcher Carney (1823-1908) said: “Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean and the earth pleasant. So our little mistakes make a great sin. Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, make our world an Eden, like heaven.” above .” In fact, a Saudi Arabian proverb says: “A kind word can drive even a snake out of its nest.” I love Spencer Kimball’s definition of humility, which says: “Humility is royalty without a crown.” These are timeless inspirational quotes that I agree with, and that was exactly what he brought into play. I can go on and on citing people. I’d love to end it here, but not before telling you about Mother Teresa, which says: “Let no one come to you without leaving better and happy.”
Furthermore, he did not ask one of his people while he was on the bus to tell me and my people to get out of the place. He came down and personally asked me to come. He didn’t put his hands in his pockets, look at me condescendingly, or speak to me in a high-handed, dictatorial way. If he had done so well, no one would blame him, he had every right to do so given the high and feared position he held. But no, he decided otherwise. He gave me a golden opportunity to enter his presence and washed over me the fragrance of his humility that filled the entire atmosphere.
I’m not flattering here; I’m just saying explicitly how I felt about the less than two minute meeting where I learned lessons that weighed in at over two hundred metric tons. He never minimized or disrespected a young man like me. That’s a good leadership quality that I’ve been cultivating over the years and I felt on top of the world to see it done to me. He is a guy who is rare among top leaders. He is one of the marks of true leaders that I have read about in books and many free stories online.
Thank goodness I saw one from the Vice Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola Technological University, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria that day. It was a day I’ll never forget: Thursday, December 1, 2011, around 11:15 am I don’t need to imagine how I’ll feel when I shake Mr. President; I already have a sample with the VC. That doesn’t mean I won’t love to rock Mr. President; I would love to, but much more is that I want to be and will be the President of this great nation. Just an observation though – I still can’t feel my hand!
“A great man shows his greatness in the way he treats the little ones.”
-Carlyle
