Biting The Dust

He was supposed to be a happily
married man
His wife owned an NGO, she was
also a good author
She bought him a Range Rover sport
and a Lexus 350
She bought them a house in Lekki
She had a soft spot for people with
special needs and her NGO was
specifically tailored to meet the
needs of such people
They hold an event at Alausa, Ikeja
every December where their European
sponsors and Nigerian sponsors
gather to evaluate the good work she
was doing and the challenges she
was facing
This program is a fundraiser that
when well-staged opened the wallets
of her benefactors and kept her smiling
to the banks
She was a beautiful woman
He was a lawyer
Her NGO was practically his only client
In other words, she was the cash cow
Without her, he would be penniless
Everybody knew this because he didn’t
keep quiet about it
He loved his wife and he was very
grateful for the good hand fate dealt
him by bringing her into his life
He didn’t need to struggle for anything
He lived an easy life
He smoked marijuana socially, listened
to Fela’s music, drank beer, and was
well respected in the community
He was a Christian too,
He often attended church to
criticize pastors and their sermons
He saw the church as a social need
that society needed and attending
the church as a form of check and
balance
He would often joke that the priests
would feed fat on the sheep if people
like him did not attend church to keep
them in check and spearhead the
writing of petitions and complaints
against church leaders
He was a gentleman who rarely loses
his temper
Many people call him by the pet name
“Uncle XYZ”
They met at a season of his life when
he was bored and frustrated with life
He was drinking and smoking secretly
at the time
He was also a pastor
He snuck out of the house every evening,
drove to a bar far awy from his area, and
drank one or two bottles
He also smoked one or two sticks of
cigarette
He told himself he was doing this to
relieve tension
His life was on hold and all his efforts to
move it forward had proven abortive
He minded his business
He had learned that a close mouth
offers no scandal
Nobody knew who he was and since
he didn’t want anyone knowing he
was a pastor indulging in “sin”, it was
best that he shut his mouth and mind
his business
He was drinking at the bar one day
when Uncle XYZ drove into the hotel
premises
The bar was a bamboo affair located
right by the entrance of the hotel
The grill and shawarma spot was
located at the other extreme of the
entrance while the hotel itself was
located further down into the
compound
When Uncle XYZ walked into the bar
there was a lady with him
A lady he picked up somewhere on
the highway and had somehow
talked into being his girlfriend
He had never exchanged words with
uncle XYZ before that day but they
had both met at the bar before and
exchanged a familiar nod
Another guy came into the bar
One of those guys who hung around
bars in the hope of getting a free drink
He ran to Uncle XYZ with some excitement
One of the other guys who frequented
the bar had been caught in a
scandal
The guy was a lecturer at a private
University and had been videotaped
having sex with a female student
The tape had been leaked online and
this guy’s career and life was going to
be shattered
Uncle XYZ watched the video with
interest
Then he said “I used to think this guy
was a pitbull in bed, I am disappointed
he didn’t smash the girl more convincingly.
For all the trouble he got himself in at
the moment, he could have performed
better, make the lady scream!”
The other guy laughed
Other guys came into the bar to drink
and this their friend who was in soup
was the topic
Nobody talked about reaching out to
see how the “sinner” was coping with
the mudslide he got himself into
Nobody bothered to call this “sinner”
to see if somehow the effect of the
poor decision he made that led him
into that pit could be mitigated
Everybody just laughed and drank
and moved on
The unfortunate one was the topic
for the day
A few weeks later, another sex tape
surfaced
It was that of a European man with a
Nigerian woman
The reason it came up as a conversation
was the performance of the European
He smashed the Nigerian lady so well
that she was screaming and crying in
pleasure at the end of the video
The same guy also brought the video
into the bar as soon as Uncle XYZ
landed with another lady with the
intention of drinking and proceeding to
the hotel room to have sex with the lady
Uncle XYZ saw the video and almost
fainted
The colour drained from his face
immediately
It was as if he saw a ghost
Within minutes he had disclosed that
the lady in the video was his wife
It was a terrible evening
He behaved like a wounded lion,
cursing and raving and swearing and
crying
Nobody was able to calm him down
The lady that came to the bar with
him saw the handwriting on the wall
and left
The owner of the bar arrived and heard
what had happened
He talked to Uncle XYZ and took him
to a room to relax
As soon as Uncle XYZ left the bar,
everybody started laughing
Apparently, the video had been online
for several months
They all knew about it but he didn’t
They had all seen the video and decided
to see his reaction when he was made
to see it
These were the guys he smoked, drank,
watched football games with, and
bought stuff for
These are guys who would come to
Uncle XYZ seeking help to pay rent
and other needs
These were supposed to be his friends
One of them had positioned a phone
camera somewhere and caught
Uncle XYZ’s reaction on tape, they all
watched it over and over again and
roared with laughter
The serial smasher’s wife was getting
smashed hard and it broke him
Uncle XYZ attempted to commit
suicide that night in the hotel room
he was given
He hung himself with his bedsheet
tied to the ceiling fan
He was discovered just in time
He was unconscious and had almost
died before he was resuscitated at
the hospital
The next day, the guys
gathered again and laughed
They laughed at the weakling who
couldn’t take such a blow like a man
They mocked Uncle XYZ
They said he was “The beheader
who couldn’t bear the sword coming
close to his neck”
They even mimicked him hanging and
gasping for breath while watching the
video of his wife being smashed
It was so much fun
Another one like them had fallen off the
wild horse and bitten the dust with no
one to look at him or care
He went to the Hotel manager and found
out the hospital uncle XYZ was taken
He drove to the hospital early the next
morning
Uncle XYZ was alone
His wife was in the waiting room but he
had demanded that she should not be
granted access to see him
He told the receptionist to tell Uncle XYZ
he was the guy driving the Camry from
so and so bar
He was ushered in immediately
The sight he saw when he met Uncle XYZ
was terrible
The man seems to have lost half of his
body weight overnight
They had never exchanged a word of
greeting and uncle XYZ chose his
company above that of his wife
He sat with Uncle XYZ and told him
things
can only get better from that point
They talked and cried together for
about two hours
He got some food for Uncle XYZ, they
ate and talked generally
He told Uncle XYZ he was a pastor and
explained to Uncle XYZ why he started
indulging in alcohol and cigarettes
He told uncle XYZ it was a secret sin
that would break his wife if she found
out and scatter the church he was
pastoring
He told Uncle XYZ that things got so
bad that he stopped caring if he lost
everything because keeping up
appearances felt harder than living
free
He needed to come up for some air
and that was how he slid right into
the mud
He was no better than Uncle XYZ or
Uncle XYZ’s wife
As a couple, they were both cheats
just like him
Just as they broke their vows to each
other, he had also broken his vow to
his wife and to those who placed
their trust in him to be a good example
Before God, sin is sin
It is humans that will be indulging in
one kind of sin while casting stones
on others for indulging in another
It is hypocrisy, the booby trap of sin
and it’s consequences
He spent the whole day with Uncle XYZ
Later that evening, he met Uncle XYZ’s
wife and told her to get the services
of some tech guys to wipe
the video off the internet for good
David said his sin was forever before
him
Thank God for Jesus, all sins had been
paid for and taken away
Uncle XYZ’s wife explained that the
video was over four years old
She said she did it in order to get the
grant they were both living on at
that moment
She wasn’t claiming to be a saint
She was just trying to give some
context to the video
She knew he was cheating, it had
been an issue between them for years
He didn’t stop to please her but he
was willing to kill himself when he
found out she did the same
It was very strange to her
It took two weeks
The couple talked and reconciled
Uncle XYZ and his wife put up their
house for sale and moved to another
area of Lagos
He also stopped smoking, drinking or
visiting the bar
He invited them to a couple’s dinner
organized by his church
They attended
The word of God came to them and
they gave their lives to Christ
They took it a day at a time as a
couple
Uncle XYZ stopped cheating and
hanging around bars
He had discovered he really didn’t
have friends and he was also not a
good friend to many
His wife was relieved and happy
(She said she was being blackmailed
with the video and when she decided
to stop paying the blackmailer the
video surfaced)
Somehow God preserved their home
and saved all of them
They remain family friends till today

PS: The consequences of sin is getting
stoned by fellow sinners
Sinners are unforgiving by nature
Their motto is “Never get caught”
The way they treat any one of them
caught in the same act that they get
away with every day shows how
hopeless living in darkness is
There is only one light, and it calls
to darkness to come and heal
Will you be free from the clutches
of sin?
Will you break the yoke of despair
off your neck
Come to Jesus today…

There is power in the blood of the lamb