A TRAVELER'S DIARY

THE ROAD TO LAGOS

I have always had the fantasies of meeting and chatting with the top nudges of the world. More often than not, I have played out an intrinsic reality shows featuring myself and the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Liliane Bettencourt and Carlos Slim. I came across these names for the first time while doing a careless flip through a diary I received as a Christmas gift. The title above the names in the diary read – “Top richest billionaires in the world.” I developed a habit of consistently staring at this page of my diary until I was conversant with the names and faces of the bearers. I carefully inserted a passport photograph of myself and engraved my name on the plain overleaf of the page, seeing myself on the same page with these high profiled individuals was an involuntary wish of curiosity which I never deemed could see the light of the day. But nature has a way of telling them off.

It happened all of a sudden. Everyone was in an unrestricted haste; stepping out of my car, I had almost thought the world was folding up! Every John and Doe wanted to grab the best seat in the 200,000 capacity theatre in front of me. What was the occasion? I’ll tell you, the individuals I had earlier mentioned (Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Liliane Bettencourt and Carlos Slim) and myself were having a symposium. We were on a courtesy tour, revealing amazing secrets on how to hit it hard in any venture. We all took our turns in speaking and as the last speaker, when I exhausted my memo, I gave a bow and made my way off the stage. “That was totally off the hook, you nailed it bro!” Bill whispered from behind as I made an attempt to sit. Warren Buffet and Lilian gave their words and unanimously welcomed me to league of world leaders...what a dream come true! The deed was done and we were all negotiating our cars to catch the last flight home. Bill, Warren, Liliane and Carlos agreed to have another meeting with me to get into some serious business, aww! Couldn’t help the shout. I gave my words and bade them goodbye whilst accelerating my engine. “Oga, this is the final bus stop…” that was the voice of a tout at Lagos park bringing me back to the reality that I’ve been sleeping all the while. Indeed, it was a dream!