I have ever been in a situation where I was accused of not greeting someone (Nigerians can sha take greeting personal). The person was like didn’t you see me? So you can’t greet, a young girl like you and so on. Sincerely, right there, I couldn’t even remember if I greeted her or not because I was busy (I think) but I know I greet a lot (Has someone ever dragged your ears when you were a kid for not greeting? Usually happened to me and I just grew up greeting anyhow. In fact, I have a lot of greeting to waste, lol, after all it’s just to say it out). Someone came to my rescue and was like Odinaka did not greet? Oh she is not like that. To let everything end, I just apologized and greeted them well.

What does it mean to vouch for someone? Cambridge English dictionary puts it this way, “to support the truth of something or the good character of someone, based on your knowledge or experience”

Can someone vouch for you? There is a kind of story I would hear about some of my friends and I know straight away, it is not true. But then I also know some people that if I hear certain things about them I can say it’s possible (in my mind of course, I can’t just spoil someone’s image without actually giving them a chance to get their side of the story). There was a time I heard a rumour about a friend and I just didn’t believe. Why? It didn’t seem true, it was unlike her. I asked her and it was what I had thought, untrue. If I didn’t really know her, I don’t think I’d have taken it as a rumour. Someone will say humans can be horrible people and great pretenders, plus you really can’t tell, anything can happen. While I agree to that, there are some people you can truly stand for regardless of the whole humans are predictable thing (I don’t mean blindly standing or vouching for someone maybe because the person is your blood or you like the person). I think it comes with trust and knowing the person too.

Another thing I would like to add is, depending on the situation, the individual and my intuition (very important), I know when to publicly declare a stand or just hold it in my mind until I confirm. If you know you can’t publicly defend someone or vouch for someone, at least let the person know that you don’t believe what is being said about them while you get the truth from him or her and also make your investigations if need be. This helps because if you just believe whatever allegations and run the person down and later find out that it wasn’t true, you have lost a friend and you can imagine how the person must have felt knowing someone they thought would stand by them didn’t.

If at all someone I trust or could vouch for disappoints me, well its life, it can happen. That’s why you need to know when to put yourself on the line and when not to because if you are wrong, people might see you as foolish. That reminds me of a story my mom told me about a woman whose child did something bad and she was really defending her son saying it is not true, it can’t be, she raised her child well and so on. Lo and behold, the guy actually did it. The policeman there started insulting the mother. It was very shameful.

I have written in such a way it only applies to friendship but this also applies to your relationship with your colleagues, your skills, what you can produce, etc. Can someone say “I know this guy, he can do a good job”?

“If you do something well and someone else knows it, you look more credible when they can vouch for your work. Return the favour by endorsing the skills of others”

Unknown

We should build our characters in such a way that people can stand for us to agree or disagree with a thing. What can people say you are capable of and not capable of? What character have you built for yourself? Are you a person of integrity? Will you do business with someone and if something is not right, the person will be like oh, he cheated me or they can say even though things are not adding up, there’s a logical explanation for that because I doubt if so so and so would cheat me. Are you kind? Are you rude? Are you impulsive? Do you have temper issues? What can you do that everyone has to accept is good? Whatever it is, think about it and see if truly, that is what you would want to be identified with. People make judgments on what they see. What can they see in you? Food for thought.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”

Matthew 5:16