Ogunleke, Praise Oluwatobi: The Agent Of Mutation
At around 2am that night,
I looked at him on the other side of the room, he was deep in sleep, totally tired due to the previous day's stress. I considered it as being selfish to wake him up, besides I had just moved in with not quite long.
I really did not know what to expect from him, if I wake him up, I struggled to get out of bed to go out and find help, went to a close friend in another room and knocked on the door several times but no response, he and his roommate were also deep in sleep
I had no choice but to kneel in the common room while coming back, trying to gasp for breath, I was wasting away and wishing for nothing but death.
Such an horrible experience.
With the little strength I had left, I managed to enter back into the room, laid on the bed and still in pains
Help came!
He woke up, he saw me dying and probably he was scared to his bones, he went to call for help from a senior in the clinical arm to check what was wrong with me.
It was as though his waking up brought a dose of healing to my body, gradually the pain went down, I was able to find some sleep with the promise that I will be at the hospital, first thing in the morning.
I had not told anyone what I was passing through, the pain only came at night and left before morning at 2 a.m.
During that period of sickness, I saw care, he stood by me at every moment even in the hospital trying all he could to see that I became well. With his words of encouragement, my recovery was faster. Before the thing finally stopped after some few days, Praise also did not have a full sleep, all because of me, yet there were no words of complaints from his mouth.
Oyediran Thomas(a close friend) has this to say about him,
When I was asked out to write about Praise, many words flew into my head.
Memories. Friendship. Care. Moments. Laughter. Days. Struggles. Relationship. Ambition. Jamb. Life. Life and us!
My brain flipped through the pages of my life and he has his name indented across them all.
Praise has done amazing things that words can't suffice. Paise makes a good friend and more.
Praise has given a taste of friendship and it's moreish.
Help tell Praise that he has his name written here–in my heart, in gold.
Tolu ( a classmate) has this to say,
A man who believes in himself and his dreams and he believes in people and their dreams as well.
He is a great man and more greatness still lies ahead.
A man that cares.
A man that impacts
A man that influences.
A great man.
Again, the enemy struck,
I was sick again, this time around I was taken to the hospital late at night, yet with his busy schedule(Praise is busy oooo), he followed me alongside some other friends and we came back late into the night, trekking from the hospital to the hostel (it was not too far a distance). It was an emergency, yet he abandoned his own schedule to accompany me.
That may sound normal to you, but only very few people care.
Unfortunately, we were no longer roommates this year, but we never separated!
Earlier this year, I was seriously broke, "My broke was broke" and it looked as though my foodstuffs had grown wings and flew away. I was slipping into depression gradually with nobody really noticing it.
So I went that day to visit him casually, during our conversation, he was able to figure out something was wrong, and was able to convince me to speak, my natural me would not have done that but his influence over me prevailed.
Immediately he gave me some little foodstuff, I tried rejecting it because I really hated putting others at a disadvantage because of my own issues, but he ensured I took it. Cries were almost coming but I thought I was man enough to keep it until the next morning, when I woke up only to meet a credit alert from Praise.
I had no option but to break into tears. I was going to start compulsory fasting if that money had not come in. I went smiling to the market.
That money actually lasted me till the time I was able to secure some funds back at home because, earlier that month, I had to use some amount of money to settle some things. I did not ask him for a penny, yet he gave what he had to me.
Ogunleke, Praise Oluwatobi, a man of influence and high standards, popular among his peers and widely respected, his words had so much influence over me and they still do .
Many wondered about my radical change, you can't live with Praise and not change, he has a global mindset.
Praise unconsciously made me a mutant, a positive one tho, he really didn't sit me down to talk sense into me often, but his actions were such a great influence.
I had many dreams in the corner of my heart, he pushed me to go for them all. And according to his mantra "Your dreams are valid", he supported all of my dreams.
I never lacked his counsels, and I still don't do.
From Cephas services, Cephas kitchen up to Cephas Insights, his impact on those things that I came up with cannot be overlooked.
Highly jovial yet strict.
I celebrate a man with a large heart.
I only decided to pick few out of those moments to share with you, dear reader
Please can you help me say thank you to Praise on behalf of Cephas and every lives that he has caused to change positively?
4 comments
Thanks for being a wonderful friend and team player. LEAP Africa YLP Fellowship brought to across my way and I'm goD I met you.
I'm also saying Thank you on Cephas' behalf.
God bless your new year!
Keep making impacts dear Changemaker!
He really has a global mindset and he's not selfish about it.
Happy birthday Praiseeeee! ❤️ Thank you for being you. ❤️ Thank you for being intentional about your life and spreading that intentionality. We your friends that 'eledumare has helped you to impact love you very much and in our hearts right now, we wish we can do more to actually celebrate you. We love you, you can't imagine. ❤️