I doubt if there are still people who claim to have never lied before and it baffles me how we develop the habit of lying without being taught how to do it. Some people learned it from their parents or guardian and they develop themselves to a supreme level in telling lies.
Lying seems to be an instinctive thing, something that pops up in our heads just to escape punishment, embarrassment, and others. It is more than that for some people who are very fond of it, they lie about everything.
I remembered my first lie, I was barely four years of age when I stole a piece of meat from the food my mom served my dad. I was caught and I lied despite holding the piece of meat, I was punished and it created the fear of lying and stealing in me.
Despite being punished for both crimes, I have lied many times after that day for a good purpose. I hate to do it because I hate being lied to but some situations demand it and one of them happened about 11 years ago.
I wondered what would have happened to me that day if I didn't lied, I might have been killed for a crime I didn't commit. Nothing justifies me for lying and I think that's the biggest lie I have ever told in my life.
There was a transporter who was my neighbor when I was a teenager and we were very close. He brought a phone home one day and told me he wanted to sell it.
He knew I didn't have a phone so he reduced the price for me, it was a good offer for me at that time so I broke my piggy bank for the phone.
I paid seven thousand naira for a second-hand Nokia Supernova. The phone case was bad so I took it to my engineer to fix it. The engineer is the best in the community and almost everyone patronizes him.
The engineer was working on the phone when some boys came to fix a phone as well. One of them kept staring at the old case that was removed from the Nokia phone and he suddenly picked it up.
He showed the others and they were whispering. One of them asked the engineer if the phone that owned the case was repaired at his place and he showed them the phone while fixing it.
The guy wanted to collect the phone to check and I quickly took the phone from the engineer. My environment wasn't a cool one, there are thugs and gangs everywhere.
I snatch the phone from the engineer because I thought the guys might want to pull some silly stunts.
The guy eventually told me that his phone was stolen at the car wash where he worked. The old phone looks exactly like the missing phone and he just wanted to check.
I didn't have anything to hide so I gave him the phone to check. He checked it for about two minutes and found his sister's picture on the phone.
The eldest among them asked where I got the phone from and I just told him that it belongs to me.
I wanted to take the phone back but he refused to hand it over. Immediately, they started speaking a native language and I was able to pick the part where he called me a thief.
We started arguing and before I knew what was going on, another set of their friends arrived with bikes. They had sticks and iron bars, and the engineer quickly got out of his shop to intervene but they wouldn't listen.
I have seen cases like that where people were lynched for a crime they didn't commit and I started thinking of the possibility of that happening if I didn't do something immediately.
From the way they behave to their utterance, I could tell that they were thugs.
I tried calming them but they wouldn't listen, one of them finally said that they should deal with me because I stole the phone.
Immediately after he said that, I started laughing. It was a laughter filled with fear but they didn't see what was behind it.
I stopped laughing and with an angry look, I told them that they don't know who they messing with. I told them that they will all sleep in the barracks that night if anyone touch me among them.
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They didn't get what I was trying to say so I told them that I am a soldier and that if they don't allow me to settle things amicably, I will call for more soldiers to punish them.
Nothing scares thugs more than the presence of a military officer so they calm down and I told them how I got the phone to prove that I didn't steal it.
I called the man who sold the phone and he came there, immediately the thugs saw him, and they started praising him.
The man collected the phone and told me to leave and that he was going to settle it with them.
I left there wondering what really happened and when he arrived, I asked him. He revealed to me that he actually found the phone in his bus, it turned out to be that the boy left the phone in his bus when he went to wash the bus at the car wash.
Why would you sell a phone you found? I was pissed because I didn't want to continue using the phone and he couldn't refund the money.
The boy who owns the phone saw me weeks after and referred to me as Oga soldier( soldier man), it made me laugh but I didn't reveal to him that I wasn't a soldier.
Things could have gone bad if I didn't lie and the experience thought me a great lesson that has to do with buying second hand goods.