Last month, our lodge water tap stopped working.
As usual, everyone started blaming everyone else.
"It's the landlord's responsibility," one neighbour said.
"No, the caretaker should fix it," another replied.
"No ,the lodge president should fix it,".....
Someone even said it was the government's fault. I still don't know how the government entered the matter.
For two days, nobody did anything. We all kept saying the same thing:
"Not my jurisdiction."
Meanwhile, the problem remained unfixed while we have to go to the next compound nd fetch water.
On the third day, one of our neighbours, an chiamaka
everyone calls Amaka, quietly brought out some money and called a plumber.
Within an hour, the tap was fixed.
As we thanked her, she smiled and said something that has stayed with me.
"If everybody waits for the right person to act, sometimes nothing gets done."
That simple statement made me think.
How many times do we ignore problems because we believe they belong to someone else? A friend is hurting, but we say it's not our business. Our environment needs cleaning, but we assume someone else will do it.
Sometimes, we hide behind the words "not my jurisdiction" because helping requires effort.
That day, Chiamaka reminded me that we don't always need authority to make a difference.
Sometimes, we simply need a willing heart.
