23/08/2025
Never Underestimate the Man at the Gate...
In the bustling city of Arondale, the grandest building was the headquarters of Zenith Group, a company known for its wealth and power. Every morning, expensive cars drove in, carrying executives in fine suits. They walked past the same man every day—the gatekeeper.
His name was Mr. Obinna.
To many, Obinna was invisible. He wore the same old uniform, greeted people politely, and opened the gate with a smile. Some ignored him, some tossed him a casual nod, while a few muttered impatiently whenever he didn’t open fast enough. But Obinna never complained. He simply did his duty, watching and listening more than anyone realized.
Unknown to the staff, Obinna had once been a lecturer in economics before life’s misfortunes pushed him into hardship. He took the gate job out of necessity, not weakness. And though his clothes were faded, his mind remained sharp—sharper than many of the men in the glass offices upstairs.
One stormy morning, Zenith Group faced a crisis. Their accounts had been hacked, and millions were about to vanish. The board panicked. Meetings dragged on without solutions. Then, during lunch, a young manager who often stopped to chat with Obinna mentioned the problem while passing through the gate.
Obinna looked up calmly and said, “If you track the transactions through the subsidiary accounts in layers, you’ll see where the siphoning starts. Whoever set it up left a pattern. They always do.”
The young manager was stunned. “How do you know that?”
Obinna only smiled. “Let’s just say I’ve studied people and systems long enough.”
The manager took his advice back to the board. They tried it, and within hours, they uncovered the exact route the hackers were using. The company was saved from collapse.
The directors demanded to know who had given the insight. When they learned it was “the man at the gate,” silence filled the room. Shame settled on those who had walked past him daily without a glance.
Weeks later, Obinna was offered a role in the company’s strategic unit. Many could hardly believe that the quiet gatekeeper who had held the keys to their compound also held keys to wisdom and survival.
