DIRTY BUT NOT GUILTY

The proverbial dirty child

Abdullahi Okai Hamza

Happiness is a gift that comes from satisfaction but satisfaction could be expensive with relative cost depending on the person, the situations and efforts that births the outcome.

This picture obviously shows that I'm dirty but the camera could not go beyond my flesh to also tell you that I'm not guilty. The keyword is here is # Innocence which is the direct opposite of guilt. A careful observation of the picture with regards to my age will give you a perfect understanding of the word innocent. When you look at my house in this picture, you could see lack of sophistication and worldliness, I'm innocent. With respect to my age and mental capability It goes further to prove how much I'm innocent. But the big question is....Innocent of what?

 Just this evening, a neighbor passed by our house and saw me seated dirty by the entrance to our room and took this picture of me, this neighbor ridiculed my appearance and credited it to my mother's laziness in taking care of me. Perhaps because I was a child, she never bothered to ask "why are you yet to be bathed" , she never did but instead, was only interested in how dirty I looked and my lazy mother(according to her).

It was then I smiled and said to myself " I'm dirty like any other child would be after playing in the dust and besides, no child of my age could bath his or herself before I failed to do myself. The smile on my face also expresses optimism that my mum will definitely return to bath me no matter how late. While I was waiting, other neighbors passed with the same complains but I was not moved because I know my mother has never let me go to bed without taking my bath. 

To my mother, I'm her happiness, and my own happiness to her is when she confirms that I'm satisfied. My Satisfaction to her goes beyond bathing me to bed but also include making sure I don't go hungry to bed. Because of this, she prefers to delay my bath until she returns from her daily hawking from which She'll buy the food we would eat to bed. But painful enough, no neighbor cares to see and know when and what we eat late every night before sleeping, not because they were prevented by the darkness of the night but perhaps because they must have earlier eaten enough and gone to bed. Whatever the case, the most important thing is that we later eat every evening and we get satisfaction at the end of each day no matter how late, i also get enough sleep and energy renewed ahead of another day for me to play dirty in the dust. Due to the assurance of getting satisfaction, my happiness outweighed the neighbour's ridicule. 

This is how the world treats you and also forces you to give up on yourself or people around you in times of misfortune(s) but those who trusts in their creator believes that happiness will definitely come no matter how late and no matter how long the sorrow may last. You may be dirty today but knowing that you're not guilty also adds to your hope of a better tomorrow. In other words, you may be experiencing delay but you're not capable of changing the process.... Only God can. Be patient, your mother is on her way!

Abdullahi Okai Hamza is a public affairs commentator,

An agriculturist, and a motivational speaker.Tweet @okai_hamza