There is nothing sweeter than vibing with a total stranger on another level like you've known each other before, that is the power of connection.
One beautiful Friday, I had made plans to spend the weekend with my cousin at her house in a Barracks.
One policy about visiting people in the Barracks is that the visitor arrives before 6 pm or would have to go back home if they aren't with their permit, so I decided to leave home early to beat the traffic to be at the barracks before 6 pm.
Unfortunately, Lagos and traffic are like two peas in a pod. I left home by 2 pm, a journey of about an hour took longer than I expected. Firstly, it was these commercial buses stopping at every point to pick up passengers, the unnecessary stops too by louts on the road, and then the "Almighty traffic". I was stuck in traffic at different strategic points and the last one was just too annoying, it wouldn't even move, and then we heard a trailer got spoilt on the road which was the reason for the annoying traffic jam, it was about 4 pm at this time and we had no hope yet to leave that particular spot.
My cousin called severally to be sure I was close but then I told her my ordeal, she was kind of worried, and by 6 pm I was still very far from Barracks, at about 6:30 pm our driver had to maneuver his way out, he took another route after so much struggle.
Since it was another route he took, the journey was now longer, to cut the whole story short, I finally arrived at Barracks by 8 pm.
I knew I was in for it, but I didn't give up I decided to try, maybe I might just be fortunate. I immediately dialed my cousin's number which at this time wasn't going through. " Ha!" I exclaimed, right in front of the Barracks gate I saw a long queue and I saw soldiers too with their guns๐คญ, "Okay, you've got this, just go and explain to them", I whispered.
I summoned the courage and then joined the queue, the process was, when it got to your turn, you are been asked a few questions, and only allowed into the barracks with your permit if you are not a uniformed person, the soldier in charge had a mean face, his stature was so intimidating too, Six packs and very huge.
" Yes, you! Where is your permit?", He asked pointing to me, "Well, I came from a very far place, I came to spend the weekend with my cousin and I have no permit", I replied.
" Who is your cousin and what is your name?", He asked.
"My name is Amara and my cousin's name is...", I was surprised to be interrupted by his laughter, " What did you say your name is again?", he asked again.
"Amara!", I loudly responded. " Guy, see my namesake ooo," he turned to his colleague, this time he brought out his identity card and showed me, just to prove that we were namesake.
"Ehn, Amara for a guy? I've never heard of a guy bearing that name before", I replied laughing.
" ha, you even have a gap tooth (diastema), where do you hail from?๐๐", The soldier continued asking.
"Imo state" I responded. "Guy, see oh, I am from Imo state too, from Mbaise, how about you?" He responded.
"I am from Owerri, ha Mbaise people that use to eat people", I replied.
Laughing hard this time, "Me I don't eat people, he responded. Boom! And that was it o, we just connected like we'd known before just because we were namesakes and hailed from the same state, the people behind me were so surprised to see how the once mean-faced guy had now become so friendly and accommodating.
When the others were murmuring, he switched up on them " Wait there!!" And then he faced me again, "Input your number here, you have now become not just a friend to me but my sister", handing his phone to me.
I was in my element feeling so special " Oh, okay, ... Here" I handed his phone back to him after inputting my digits.
"What is your cousin's name? You know what just stand aside and keep trying her number, so she can come pick you up, I won't send you back home okay?". He politely spoke to me and resumed his mean face to those in the queue.
Fortunately, my cousin just showed up through the gate and My namesake knew her so well, " Oh, na your cousin be this? Na my namesake oh", he told her.
"Hope you would come visit often, whenever you get here, just call me on the phone, okay, nobody will stop you," he told me.
From that day on, we became very good friends, he added me to his social handles.
These were screenshots of our conversations on a social media platform the next morning.
From that day on, we bonded and became very close up to this day, being close to him made me realize how much of a sweet soul he is, I guess being mean is part of their job description, hehe. He even assured me to call on him whenever anybody treated me unjustly,that he would always show up.
Now I have a soldier in my corner as a bestie ๐๐๐, if you do treat me badly, I will call him Asap oh.๐๐๐