“Mberede ka eji ama dike” [You know who a brave man is when he is confronted with unforeseen problems and is able to tackle it]

Every day you wake, your number one prayer point for that day should be for God (or for whatever you worship) to keep you away from troubles because just one problem is enough to have all your life savings wiped out, put you in an unrecoverable debt and get your life messed up forever.

I have seen people run into problems that they spent millions of naira solving and they never bounced back or recovered from it. Some had to spend their life savings, sell all their properties, and she even had to borrow to sort out themselves. You may never fully relate until you have been there. 

I am currently handling a case of a client that had N25M in savings as of earlier this year with a flourishing business, as of this moment she’s even struggling to feed. All the savings are gone, she even sold her properties and borrowed more money just to sort out this pending problem; She naively got involved in some fraudulent transactions. She did not just lose all the money she put in, she was also arrested, and detained and she had to refund monies she had no idea how it came about. The case is still in court and all she wishes for is for the whole thing to go away so she can pick up the pieces of her life and start the rebuilding process.

Details of the case of this my client reminded me that the unfortunate thing about life is that even when you do not go looking for problems or even when you are on your own trying to maintain your peace, manage yourself and mind your business, some problems will come looking for you. It is the way that you are able to maneuver and have it sorted that counts and adds a feather to your cap. Old Igbo proverbs say “mberede ka eji ama dike”,  which when loosely translated to English means “You know who a brave man is when he is confronted with unforeseen problems and is able to tackle it”. 

This is why you need to make sure to always have emergency funds for contingencies and also have a good lawyer on standby in case troubles come knocking so you can start tackling them immediately before it becomes too late or blows out of proportion. 

It is part of life that sometimes troubles and tribulations will come even when you do not look for it, you cannot avoid problems in life, it’s part of the roller coaster that makes life bitter-sweet. All we can ever do is hope and wish that the problem that comes is not bigger than us or something too big for us to handle, or what will consume us, if it does not kill you, it will definitely make you stronger.