31/07/2026
Three days ago, I decided I wasn’t going to drive to work, so I trekked from the house to the estate junction where I could enter “along” like it’s fondly known.
I walked past the estate gate where I’m usually hailed and saluted by the security guards and surprisingly, the guards didn’t take any interest in me.
None of them greeted me. I said “Good morning sirs” to them and they responded “Good morning.” That was it.
Then it downed on me that what they respected was the status attached to the cars they see, not the person inside.
Their greetings and salute had nothing to do with being respectful. It has everything to do with “sizing people up.” Based on what they see.
This reminded me of a social experiment we did some years back.
In that social experiment, Okada stopped me in front of a major restaurant. The door keeper was sitting outside. He saw me walk to the door and didn’t bother to stand up and open the door. It was as if I was invisible to him. No greetings. Just him busy with his phone.
After a while, I left the restaurant and returned with a car. The same door keeper saw when I drove in.
He watched me park. Before I could even come down from the car, he was already standing with one hand on the door handle. Before I got close to the door, he opened the door with the left hand and saluted with the right one.
Obviously, he couldn’t even recognize that I was the same person that came earlier. Because I came with Okada, I was so invisible to him. Them no Dey see poor people 😂
This is exactly how the world works now.
People respect you not because you are a human being deserving some respect but because of how rich they believe you are.
And they believe that cars, and flashy wears and how much you splash in a club is proof of wealth.
This morning, I want you to know. If you treat people differently based on how poor or rich you believe they are, you are one of the problems in this world.
Everyone deserves to be treated respectfully
