By: Illah Micheal
For the records, the ideals I hold of Kogi Rebel may be a subjective one, but I’ve grown to know him as not only a humane, but shockingly compassionate individual.
In a country where the average youth suffers against the piercing thorns of suppression and marginalization, he broke the restrictive glass ceiling, changed the narrative, and carved a niche for himself.
Today, he holds an enviable position as the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Kogi State– the youngest the country currently boasts of.
But that is not the big news to me. What is to me, is that l feel we share identical vision as to what life is and the genuine essence of living it.
What is also perhaps, interesting, is that I have personally seen him make him calculated efforts to becoming even a better person.
Historically, my personal relationship with him dates back to 2014, Mass Communication Department, Kogi State University–a fact which by sheer logic, predates his current political portfolio.
As his junior in the Department, I had observed with keen interest that he was the guy who fought a lone war, he steered his ship against all odds, navigated his troubling waters and the rest today, gets even more interesting for him.
Kogi Rebel is not perfect person. It would be fool-hardy to assume he is. In fact, to be in his circle, as I have learned also, one requires a great deal of patience, tolerance and emotional intelligence. Plenty of it.
But that doesn’t take off his dazzling garment of compassion, empathy and loyalty to friendship.
Of what we may see of brute confidence and rascality, Kogi Rebel is inherently gentle, pious and unpretentious.
I recall that anytime I go through challenges of life– like the lost my uncle some months, he would literally provide me his shoulder to lean on. He would be here to mentor me through my choices and walk down the rail lines with me.
Regrettably, his astuteness and stubborn resolves may paint him in contrast colours, especially on the social media. And that is understandable since its algorithm partially works on perception.
But I know our lives are wholly dependent on the choices we make, not how other architects of choices design them for us.
So when others choose to mirror him from their watery social media perspectives, I would stick to his guns on the physical level. I will be here with him. Because that’s what genuine friends do.
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