LAST week, a 22-year-old tricycle (keke) rider, Auwalu Salisu, exhibited an increasingly rare quality of honesty when he returned the sum of N15 million left behind by a passenger, a Chadian businessman, inside his tricycle while rushing to the market. Salisu, an indigene of Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State living in Yankaba, heard news of the misplaced money on radio and promptly returned it. Speaking on the incident, Salisu said the idea of spending the money never crossed his mind, as his upbringing would never allow such. The tricyclist had carried three passengers from Badawa to Yan Kaba Motor Park in Kano and while cleaning his tricycle, discovered a bag filled with cash. Hear him: “I then rushed to our house and showed my mother the wads of foreign currency. My mother quickly informed my father, who also informed his elder brother. When they came to the house, they decided we should not announce finding the money on radio, but wait till the owner announced losing it.” Two days after, his mother, with whom he had kept the money, heard announcements concerning the missing money on Arewa Radio FM, Kano, and recorded the numbers given to contact the owner. “As soon as I heard the announcement on Arewa Radio, I quickly went to where I kept the money and rushed down to the station to return it,” Salisu enthused.
He was subsequently gifted the sum of N400,000 by the owner of the money, while different organisations have been showering praises and gifts on him for his exemplary act. For instance, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) gifted him the sum of N100,000 for his honesty, an occasion which afforded him the opportunity to reveal that he was mocked by almost all his friends for returning the money. Speaking while presenting the cash gift to Salisu, Dr Gwani Umar Farouk, the Chairman of the ACF in Kano, said the organisation decided to honour him in order to showcase him as an example for other Nigerians. According to Farouk, the tricyclist exhibited a high sense of honesty by returning the money to the owner despite the economic challenges he was facing. Also, members of the Kano State House of Assembly resolved to show their appreciation to the tricycle operator by donating a percentage of their salaries to him, saying that the decision was to encourage others to emulate his honesty. The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Alhaji Isma’il Jibril Falgore, said the Assembly would invite the tricycle rider over to present the donations to him.
That was not all. Someone actually bought Salisu a new tricycle while another promised him foodstuff to last a year long. But in a rather ridiculous development, certain individuals presented him with the option of choosing four out of their ten daughters as wives.
In a clime where the time-honoured virtues of honesty and decency are increasingly under attack, particularly by members of the political class, Salisu’s action is indeed commendable. A school dropout and tricycle rider, he is not exactly well to do. But as a well brought up, admirable youth, he did not allow his economic condition to becloud his sense of decency and justice. If Salisu has been receiving praises for his act, he has fully deserved them. It is heartwarming that in this era of duplicity and moral decadence, there are individuals who are still honest and forthright. In this regard, we join millions of Nigerians in saluting his honesty and noble conduct, and thus showing that, warts and all, Nigerian youth are not all about negativity. The fact that Salisu returned the N15 million left in his tricycle by a passenger, in spite of the privations being experienced by most Nigerians on account of dwindling economic fortunes and the pressure to look for ways to make ends meet, is a pointer to the fact that all is not lost about the country. We also acknowledge the nobility of his parents, who stood by his decision to act right. Nigeria would be a lot better if all parents acted in this forthright manner.
If anything, Salisu’s soul-lifting act shows that honesty and uprightness are not values that will vanish just because of inclement economic circumstances. We salute the integrity displayed by Salisu and his abiding honest disposition and commend such to others. Surely, the money would still have finished at some point if he had dishonestly pocketed it. But he has become the toast of many now with his honest disposition, earning him a name far above, and worthier than anything the money, if deceptively and shadily pocketed, could have done for him. Honesty is still the best policy, even in 2023.
Values are what keep the society going as an entity and the more the majority of members opt for values, the better for all in the society. We enjoin all to emulate the worthy conduct of Salisu and help to create a more beneficial and advantageous environment for all in the society. That said, however, we caution against the practice of carrying huge sums of money about. It is patently unsafe, and it is hoped that those given to that practice will realise that, to use the present case as an example, they will not always encounter an honest tricycle rider.
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