Everywhere was quiet. The few bikes we had moved at about thirty minutes interval, and people went about their daily routine greeting one another along the way. Women were up and about their shops while some headed to the farm. It was a small village that was just developing into a town, so it was a small community where news spread like wildfire.
Yeaahhhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhh! This is good news ooo. Congratulations oooo! Suddenly, the peace and quiet went on a short break and the noise of congratulations took over. The women that were on their way to their farms looked back and rushed to congratulate whoever had just won the jackpot of whatever they were celebrating. It’s a small village, and everyone looked forward to the success of whoever succeeded. It was a moment to enjoy.
How was I there to see it? I was on my way to buy pepper when the celebrations started, and not because I like aproko, but because I like to know the latest happenings in our little village, so I stayed to hear the breaking news.
Apart from farming, roadside mini restaurants known as buka, and pepper sales, one striving business in my little village was gambling. It was a crazy time because a lot of people, especially the growing males who knew they were going to be married anytime soon wanted to escape the life of farming so fast were all crazy about making huge amounts of money from the gambling and maybe, quit after. Oh, I should not forget to mention the ‘drunkacholics’ who needed a place to get the next $0.2 cents for the next drinks.
On this morning when the noise and jubilations filled the air, it was great news that I smiled and thanked the heavens for. A 25-year-old man had just won the jackpot of gambling and won the sum of one million naira. This was in the year 2008, so it was a huge sum. With that amount, he could do a lot of things. Plus, he was still staying at his father’s, so it was an opportunity to move out, and maybe get a bike for himself too, and start that business that he had always wanted to.
Actually, I wasn’t the one that planned all those for him. Rather, it was the people he had explained his life situation to that thought that could help him start his life over. However, life or fate or maybe gambling had another plan entirely.
I had returned home for the holidays at the end of the term in high school when I asked about the popular lucky guy from our village. Actually, it wasn’t hard to tell because so far, no one had ever been lucky in that community.
Well, he fumbled with the one million naira he won. How? First after winning the jackpot, the ‘boys’ wanted him to buy drinks for them, and of course, he did. He was the latest big man in town, so he should let people feel the impact. And most importantly, he would get the money back in no time from the same gambling. So, he could spend recklessly.
Initially, he used to gamble once a week, however, he became a perpetual gambler. He had spent the money to an amount crazy enough to do nothing according to him, so he needed that luck once again. Hence, the balance from the one million naira was gradually put back into gambling. The money he got from his dad too was gambled away. The little striving business he had also suffered the gambling crisis. And, the rest they say is history.
This is 2024, and he is still in the village, at his father’s house struggling to start his life again. He gambled his life away till over thirty years of age and then realized that his life was wasting away.
One thing about gambling is, you can’t always be lucky, but you can always waste your resources, time and life by hoping to get lucky one day and then addicted gamblers’ lives waste away in expectation. So, no. I won’t recommend gambling in any way.
This is my entry to InLeo Prompt for the month of October. Find the details here