Nigerian Man Shares Emotional Story of Friendship and Kindness Rewarded
A Nigerian man has shared an inspiring story about resilience, friendship, and the long-term rewards of kindness, recounting how his former university hostel mate rose from hardship to become a professor in the United States.
In his account, he said:
“I remember during my university days at Ekiti State University, I had a hostel mate whose parents had to struggle for months, sometimes starving to raise just ₦50K for his tuition.
Whenever he knocked on my door, I already knew it was to ask for garri. So I would often leave a bowl of garri at my doorstep for him. At one point, he drank garri so often that he vomited.
Fast forward to now, on Sunday, he reached out to me from the United States. He is currently a Professor of Physics at Arkansas State University. He reflected on those difficult times, how I used to give him ₦30 for bike transport to and from lectures, how I would take him along to my girlfriend’s hostel so we could eat swallow, egusi spiced with sawa fish together, and how we would go to Ado Market to buy those ₦500 starchy shirts for both of us.He remembered how I would wake him up for compulsory night classes in the cold Ado nights, and how, when he fell sick, I used my own tuition fee to pay his medical bills, then lied to my mother just to get another one.He recounted everything… and then sent me ₦500K ‘to buy some green bottles.’ And that’s just a fraction of what he has done for me in recent times.Never look down on anyone. Today’s struggle can become tomorrow’s success story. I think kindness is an investment that never loses value…”
