It was a cool Saturday evening and Victor, a young tech bro residing in the Bariga area of Lagos began his preparation for church service the next morning.

Indeed, it has been years since Victor attended church, making ends meet has been his priority since the very day he set his Igbo foot in the Yoruba land.

As he ironed his plain pants trousers leaving the lines on each edge as sharp as a kitchen knife, his eyes rolled through his table and to his greatest surprise his Bible was not at its usual spot.

Thought of abandoning the ironing and searching for the Bible filled Victor’s mind.

But no, his country’s electricity is one that could not be trusted.

“I go look for the Bible after I iron finish”, he said to himself.

The Search

The ironing phase came to an end, and Vic determined to be in Church the next morning started the search for his Bible.

For hours he searched but to no avail.

His Bible was nowhere to be found.

As he searched his mind to remember where he may have dropped his Bible, another thought came to him.

Immediately, Victor got dressed and off he went to the junction ready to buy a new Bible for himself.

Majestically, he walked into a bookstore situated right at the heart of the junction.

“How much for this Bible?”, he asked one of the store attendants as he pointed to one of those old Bibles that he could easily remember from his childhood days.

“24k Sir”, the attendant replied.

Victor’s jaw dropped immediately and his eyes grew wide open.

“Even Bible?”, he exclaimed out loud although he had intended that question to be in his mind.

Quietly, Victor bowed his head and retreated.

“I go use my phone”, he thought to himself.

The Good Old Days

As he strolled down his street, headed back home, memories of the good old days ran through his mind.

The days when all you needed to do to own a Bible was to partake in one of those Church competition.

Then, even buying a Bible from the shop was very affordable, such that it littered everyhome.

“This country don spoil”, Vic said to himself as he remembered the number of Bibles he had while growing up.

Also Read: How Lagosians Are Benefiting From Economic Hardship

As he looked up to cross to the busy road, Victor spotted another bookstore.

Without even giving it a second thought, Vic stormed the stationary store.

“Una get Bible?”, he asked.

“Yes”, a female attendant responded as she pointed to a counter.

Vic got to the counter, he picked the same Bible he saw at the first store but to his greatest surprise the price tag said something different.

The price tag was 27, 000 Naira.

Quietly, he dropped the Bible and left the store falling back to his resolve of reading from the phone.

You see, the economic hardship is telling on everyone, Christians included.

Now many people read the Bible from their phones. One cannot help but wonder what would become of those whose church do no permit the use of gadgets during services.