Abubakar Hidima, a Nigerian Engineer based in Malaysia, has narrated a touching story of how he recovered his lost tablet computer after misplacing it at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Hidima, who won a grant of $280,000 to lead a novel scientific research in 2020, took to his Twitter page to salute the honesty of the official involved.
He stated that his experience has given him hope for Nigeria and its people.
Tagging the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria on the micro-blogging site, he wrote:
”Dear @FAAN_Official, one of your staff Malam Aliyu Kaugama did something very commendable. Few weeks ago, I flew Arik to Abuja from Lagos on Arik 3733 & I was allocated seat number 26D in the economy cabin.
”Before boarding, I was reading an e-book on Well Testing on my Huawei Mate Pro.
So even after boarding and the seatbelt signs were put off, I brought it out to continue reading while the 55 minutes flight takes us to Abuja by the will of the Almighty. I didn’t realise when the journey ended.
So I came down the flight still holding the tablet, and we entered a shuttle bus that took us to the arrival gate. It was in this bus that I left the tablet and didn’t realise until I got to my destination.
The flight was to proceed to Sokoto after dropping those of us with Abuja as destination. So I knew it would take another two hours before it returns to Abuja.
Therefore I called my company driver and asked him to take me back to the airport to see if we could find the tablet. The Nigerian in me was telling me to just forget it because if they found it, would they give me back? But I have faith, so i decided to give it a try.”
Hidima said he later logged into his Huawei account and activated the “Lost Mode”.
On the display message, I added, “This device has been lost. If you are reading this message, please contact me via my phone number 080…”.
He said he was shocked to receive a call from a FAAN official who found it and made attempts to unlock it through a phone repairer.
”I was so happy that I rewarded them both handsomely. There are excellent Nigerians that believe and do the right thing any day, any time,” he added.
