Public Awareness Stories & Experiences

I met one of my friends today, I haven't seen her for over a year now, we only chat online and place calls once in a while. I'm on holiday, so I decided to go and visit her, just like old times; gist, laugh, play, talk about the future and many others. We sat at the front of the compound, under a shade, and it didn't take me long to notice the strange way her eyes was.

A drop of tears rolled out from her eyes, she managed to keep her eyes half closed, and at the same time trying to cover it with her hands. I asked her what was going on with her, she told me she has an eye problem, and it gets worse under bright lights like sunlight and florescent bulbs. I began to wonder how the eye problem came about, because I've known her for a long time, there was never a case like this before.

She began to narrate the story of when she was living at Niger State, and was working at a restaurant back then. They used to cook in the restaurant with a kerosene stove. Everyone knows that blowing off a kerosene stove with your mouth will bring up toxic gas that will inflict some pains to your eyes for a moment. This was what she did everyday, blowing off the stove like up to 15 times in a day.

The toxic gas will inflicted pains in her eyes on daily basis, I asked why she had to blow off the stove, and she said the stove wasn't good, and so it won't go off without having to blow it. Her boss didn't care to repair the stove since she didn't complain about it. And overtime she began to have this permanent eye problem, so sad. I felt very sad and angry at the same time.

Sad because she's my friend, angry because it is somehow her fault. The money she was working for had finished long ago, but the eye problem still remains. Doing a job that brings health complications is very dangerous, the pathetic thing is that the money paid to you all together might not be enough to cure you. Some of the problems might be with you forever, for how much?It's not worth it. Carefully avoid jobs that inflicts damages to your body, or you spend your entire life battling with the consequence.

Some years ago, I decided to get a driver's license for myself, since there are occasions where I'm asked to help out in driving people or items to places, and I didn't want any embarrassment from the Road Safety or Police. One of my relatives directed me to someone at the Secretariat, that will do it for me without extorting money and too much of my time from me because they knew their selves. So I went, with the hope that at least I have who to meet that will help me out.

On getting to the Secretariat, I stopped a man named Mr Benson and asked about who I went there to meet. He asked me what I came there for and I told him, he told me to follow him to the person, only for him to take me to an office and asked someone to do driver's license registration for me. I told Mr Benson that I was directed there to meet someone already who is going to do it for me. He replied by saying that the office we are seated is the office of the person, and he wants to go and find the person for me.

I reluctantly believed and carried on with the registration, I felt compelled to do the driver's license there because I was directed to meet someone who would have done it for me. Mr Benson came back after the registration was done and told me that the person I came there to meet has gone home. I paid 18k, they gave me a driver's permit (that will let me drive without disturbance from security forces) that will expire after three months and told me that the driver's license will be ready before the driver permit expires.

As I was about going, I met someone and the person told me that the person I came to look for doesn't work there anymore, that it's been up to a year since he left. I asked myself why Mr Benson had to lie to me, he obviously has a cut in the registration money. The driver's permit expired and the license wasn't ready yet, little did I know that this man scammed me, he didn't even save my number on his phone, as he will always ask "who is this" whenever I called him. I didn't want to believe it.

He didn't submit my form for the enrollment of the driver's license, he made away with the money, I went there but couldn't find him. Someone told me that he won't do the license, that it is what he does to people; collects money from people and disappears with it. Mr Benson blocked my number at a point, I used another number to call him and he changed his number. Till today I have not heard from him and I have not collected my driver's license, my 18k wasted just like that. I didn't have a strong will, that is why I fell for this, that is why till today, if I plan to do 'A', no one can convince me to do 'B' if I can't execute the 'A', I must take my time and analyze it thoroughly, I might go with 'C' at the end. When I say 'NO', you can't make me say 'YES'. I call it THE STRONGEST OF WILL, that is what it takes to survive in a real world.

Today, I'd like to share my thoughts on toothpastes.
Over the years, I have tried different varieties of toothpaste brands, always opting for quality products. Some of the brands I’ve used include Close Up, Oral-B, Colgate, and even charcoal toothpaste among others, I don tryoo 😅. I’ve experimented with many different options, but lately, I’ve settled on one that I truly prefer: Oral-B.

I find Oral-B to be the best choice for several reasons. First, the fragrance is classic, and the menthol level is higher compared to other brands [investigation done and signedby my mouth]. Whenever I'm done brushing with Oral-B, I can't always help but to move my tongue against my teeth, the feeling that my teeth feel smooth and free of any coating is a clear indication that my mouth is truly refreshed.

One of the features of Oral-B that makes it stand out is how long the fresh breath lasts. I’ve noticed that it keeps my breath feeling fresh for about 12 hours after brushing, which is impressive.
Other toothpaste brands dey try oo, but let me praise my preference small. For other brands, I often find that the freshness diminishes much sooner.

Not here to advertise any toothpaste; I'm merely sharing my personal preference based on my experiences. Each brand has its special qualities, but for me, Oral-B simply stands out as the best option at this time.

Living in the city was something very special and enjoyable. I imagined it would be like the Nollywood movies, those kind of films that made me admire the actors as they drove through splendid avenues and past grand mansions. Everything seemed so bright and glamorous, and I longed to visit the city.

When I was applying for tertiary institutions, I included UNN on my list, knowing that my course required me to move to the city for my 200 level to complete my remaining years. This was always on my mind. After I traveled to Enugu and finished my 100 level, life became tough. The economy and various challenges weighed heavy on everyone. No one here is smiling; both the rich and the poor are complaining.

It wasn't like in the movie anymore; I had to cook my own food, go to classes without support, come back home, and do my research. I had to drag myself along and be an adult. I never prepared for this; I never prepared to be an adult so soon, but I think I'm still learning. It's part of the learning and experiences we encounter in life that make us who we are. Well, I'm still keeping on the right path, and I pray that God keeps me and gives me my daily bread, also protects me all through. It's not easy being a student. For every student out there who is keeping on the right path, they deserve accolades.

I was in the market today, and I found myself watching this fascinating scene before me. Let me tell you guys about it. A guy was switching wallets, and it was captivating to see how he switched three wallets around, moving them into different positions. Then he will then ask us who had gathered to identify the one that had a red stripe on it.
I’d seen him do this countless times, about four times, to be specific, and each time I had guessed correctly when he opened the wallets to confirm my choice.

Feeling confident, I was about to step up to stake my 1,000 Naira and win the 3,000 Naira prize for any correct guess when suddenly, another man came up first and handed over his 1,000 Naira. I watched as he performed his usual wallet switch, and I made a pick like I had done the past times in mind, absolutely sure it was the right choice.

To my surprise, the man beside me chose the same wallet I did. We both stood there, waiting with confidence, but then When he revealed the wallets, it wasn’t the one we had both chosen that had the red stripe. We were dumbfounded, I looked at the man who made a stake as his eyes were changing to a cloudy red balls. It felt like a trick, and deep down I knew there was something off, but how sure can one be?

I took my seat on the bus that was set to take me home, many things about the bus was getting me uncomfortable especially the sound of the engine.
It was going to be a long day, and the road was long and dry. It was 3hr journey to my house.

As we approached a police checkpoint ahead, the bus came to a halt, and my heart sank because they will be waisting more of our time. Instead of conducting a proper check on everybody, they were busy moving their eyes up and down through the passengers, and like a scene from a Nollywood movie, they picked three of us out from the crowd, two women and one guy.

One officer barked that we stepped forward, and then I felt fears running through me. What had we done to deserve this? Was it the way I was dressed? My sunglasses or my jeans? With hesitant steps, we approached them, and truth be told, I was scared.

As we stood by the bus, the officers instructed us to identify our belongings. I felt like a criminal. I slowly pointed at my bag. The officer’s expression was hard as they roughly went through our things, and I couldn’t shake the thought: Will they find something? Something that would turn this moment into a nightmare? Because I had some paracetamol and septrin tablets.

Do you have anything illegal on you?
one officer threw the question at me. I began to stammer but I was able to say no afterwards as I shook my head.

In one of our examinations, something happened between my coursemates that dropped our jaws. My coursemates; Emmanuel and James got themselves into a very terrible situation. Emmanuel is a very brilliant guy that writes exams without any help, James on the other hand has never written exams without expo as his main source which he couldn't do without.

While an examination was ongoing, one of the supervisors from a distance, sited James acting suspiciously and told him to stand up, James was using his phone to write the exams. While the supervisor was walking towards him, James passed his phone to Emmanuel to help him hide it. Emmanuel, though a brilliant student, was only help his coursemate to escape severe penalties.

The supervisor searched James and couldn't find anything on him, and so decided to search Emmanuel who sat close in front of him. And of course, the supervisor found the phone with Emmanuel, the lecturers in the exam hall were really disappointed, being that they know Emmanuel to be very intelligent. Emmanuel and James were accused of joint partnership in exam malpractice, their scripts were torn and they were sent out of the hall. we couldn't believe our eyes.

This served as a big lesson to us, how can you spend hours studying everyday, and at the end you decide to risk it for somebody that clubs everyday without studying. To help people is good, but in this scenario, it is bad to render any help of this kind, because if you are caught doing so, you are in big trouble and it will cost you so much. Emmanuel has failed that course because of trying to help James from getting caught, James didn't deserve that help, Emmanuel should have let him carry his cross.

Today was a really special day at school, and I was so excited.
We had an awareness program to share about our department. Well, the program was like moving in big groups and working together to help others, especially with staying healthy.
Our department is very popular, and today we wanted everyone to know what we do, especially road workers and other random students.

The sun was not on our side shaaa but we were all determined. Our department area was filled with colorful banners that said captivating things about health. My friends and I were all full with energy. We helped hang up the banners and make everything look wonderful.

As we started the program, everyone began talking loudly and cheerfully as we were walking down the street. Some of my friends stood in front of the crowd and and danced as we demonstrated about what we do in our department. People came over to listen, and I even saw some road workers nodding to our exhibition.

Then, it was time to take pictures. We all gathered closely together, like one big happy family. We made funny faces, and the camera flashed.
I'm actually tired right now that all I need is to rest.

I needed to talk to Arinze, our course representative. He often carried himself around like the king of the classroom, with a touch of arrogance.Time and again, I watched him turn down people's suggestions and advice, always behaving like he has all the answers. The truth was, he wasn’t living up to the trust we had placed in him as a leader.

As I made my way across the lecture room, I noticed Arinze leaning against the wall, arms crossed, surrounded by a small group of other classmates that was making enquiries about one thing or the other.

Approaching him, I asked if we could talk to him aside. He raised an eyebrow, surprised, but nodded in agreement, i thought he was going to embarass me, but he was just humble.
We found a quieter corner of the classroom, and I sat down. I immediately started to talk about how things had been going this semester and how it felt like he often dismissed the suggestions we tried to make.

At first, he was defensive. He claimed that He he was merely trying to lead the class arguing that if he took things too lightly, in his view, would result in people not taking him seriously.

But after much deliberations, I let him know that true leadership comes not just from commanding respect but from earning it. I emphasized that he could be strong without being dismissive. People wanted to feel valued, not whisked away.

I was sure my sermon had gotten to him, he agreed with me and promised to change. It was not just hid promise, his eyes assured me.

Yesterday was a special day because it was my friend’s birthday.
We all who celebrated her on WhatsApp was invited in the evening, we gathered to eat cake and enjoy the moment with her.

But then, After I ate some cake, I got a terrible stomach ache. At first, I thought it was just a random ache, maybe because I drank too much water at night. I didn’t think much about the cause.

Later, when I met with some other friends who were at the birthday party, They also had stomach aches.
We all started talking about the cake, and that was when we figured it out.

The cake was so sugary There was so much icing sugar on it that we could barely taste the real cake itself. It felt like we were just eating sugar alone.
Is cake sugar?
We enjoyed the sweetness no doubt but the stomach ache😞
I'll have to be more careful about cakes that is coated with icing from now.

It was my first time seeing a whirl wind that was moving with a lot of force.
I was on a bus going to the market when my eyes caught a cloud of dust. Actually a smoke of thick dust was rotating around a particular region.
I was engrrossed with the view even the people in the bus joined me as we glanced closely at what actually was causing the dust but we didn't see anything causing it.
Was just the wind playing with the dust, I thought. The only thing making it weird was thatit made very Sharp noises and it was my first time witnessing one moving so violently.

The bus driver slowed down and we had the opportunity to look and see what this whirl wind was going to do as if was taking the path leading towards the direction of the marketplace.

Lucky enough the market women had taken shades before it hit their tables, carrying heavy gallons of oil high up in the sky with tables, some fruits, stones, bags, etc.
It carried them very high up in the sky and then dispersed them far away.I never saw something like that before, I thought it was going to be an interesting view but then it turned scary like in the movies.

I faced some heavy temptations in my 100 level in the university, the coursemates I had were clearly a different class of human beings, quite very different from me. They had eyes on luxurious life, and yet they couldn't think of positive ways to achieve it. They almost influenced me with the negative ideas and ways they went about this, they always complained about having responsibilities to take care of, in their family.

I tried to let them know that they shouldn't allow the pressure of being the first child, and maybe having younger siblings that are looking up to them, to be their most important problem, especially for the reason that it's just their first year in the university. They claimed that they are only trying to be responsible and perhaps make their parents and family members proud of them.

Soon after, some of them started doing Internet fraud, and started skipping classes. Some went into rituals that would require a part of their body to be cut off completely, and terms was given that they only have ten years to live on earth. I couldn't imagine the length these guys forced themselves to reach, all to please their family and make them proud. There are better ways of getting these things done, the path they had chosen wasn't the right one.

Currently, most of them have dropped out of school, either they are apprehended and locked up by the EFCC or frustration and depression has taken over them. The ones that went into rituals dropped out of school, because they had limited time to live, they were only given 10 years to live all the luxurious life they had ever dreamt of. What a waste, the family they were trying to please are now very disappointed in them. There are more better ways to make your parents and family very proud, and I wish these people had chosen the better way, their life would have still been going smoothly.

I boarded a Keke this evening and asked the rider how much it would cost to my destination.

"300 naira."

"300 naira kwa?" I queried, surprised. "Since when? No be 250 again?"

"The price of fuel increased," he said. "It's been 300 naira for a week now."

I thought it was reasonable, so I agreed to pay.

Soon, this pregnant girl flagged down the Keke and joined me. She didn't ask for the cost of transportation, and the rider didn't offer it to her.

At our destination, she gave the rider a 500 naira note and he tried to give her a 200 naira note in return.

"My change is 250 naira na, not 200 naira," she protested.

"No, ma, the rider said, "it's 200 naira. It's 300 naira from XYZ to here."

"Na lie!" the girl screamed. "The place I just went to this afternoon and paid 250 naira. Is yours different? Abeg, give me my 250 naira balance."

"Madam, it's 300 naira from there to here," the rider insisted. "You can ask anyone. I'm not lyi—"

Before he could finish, the girl grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him out of the Keke.

"Give me my 250 naira change! Give me my 250 naira change!" she screamed.

The rider tried to remove her hand from his shirt, but she retaliated by pushing him.

As he was about to push her back in anger, I jumped in and held him back.

"Oga, please don't push her," I begged.

"Why will she push me like that?" he barked.

"Ignore her," I said. "If you push her back now, she might fall and lose her baby. You can see she's pregnant."

"I'm not pregnant, please," the girl said from behind me.

"You're not?" I asked, and turned in surprise.

"No," she answered. "Why would you even say that?"

Me: looking down to her stomach 👁️ 👄 👁️

Her:

Tonight, the results of the hamster airdrop finally came in, and my neighbors were celebrating like they’d just won the lottery. They were overjoyed, claiming they had become rich. Meanwhile, I only got 500 coins because I joined the process too late. Honestly, I felt a bit embarrassed.

I’ve missed a lot of these airdrops in the past, but tonight really hit me hard. Everyone was talking about how much they got, and I was just there feeling left out. It’s tough when you know you could have done better if you’d acted earlier.

The noise in the compound was overwhelming. People couldn’t stop talking about their big wins, and it was all I could hear.

Still, life goes on. Even though I didn’t get as much as the others, I’ll keep pushing forward. There will be other opportunities, and next time, I’ll be ready. I’ll just take this as a lesson learned.

There are days you wake up in the morning and you feel like staying on bed and cancelling all activities you had for the day, maybe because you feel lazy at that point. This is the feeling I had one Friday morning, I had lectures by 8am and I didn't feel like going for the lecture, I was still on my bed till 7am. I had to summon some courage to be able to get up from bed and prepare for the lecture.

This is a lecture that I have never missed right from the beginning of the semester, but that day looked different, I don't know why. I got to the lecture hall some minutes after 8am, and the lecturer wasn't there, it was strange because the lecturer was always there before 8am. I started thinking that I had stressed myself by coming for the lecture, I should have followed my mind and relaxed on my bed. I waited alongside my coursemates, the lecturer later arrived some minutes to 9am.

Immediately we were seated, he told us to bring out a sheet of paper and get ready ready to write a test. We were surprised at first, no one saw it coming, it was an open test and the lecturer gave us only one question to answer. The question was "set 10 questions for yourself and answer", and we were given only 10 minutes, I was happy that my efforts of leaving my bed to school was not in vain. At least I was able to set and answer 7 questions for myself.

A lecture I had never missed from the beginning of semester, and just because of one day display of laziness, I would have missed such an easy test. Because of what happened that day, I don't allow myself to fall for early morning laziness when I have important things to do, it could be disastrous. I was happy walking back home, I would have gained nothing if I remained in the comfort of my bed when I had lectures. I met one of my coursemates on my way home who didn't come for the class, he missed the test and was so angry that the lecturer didn't announce the test.

When I arrived at the lecture venue today, I was greeted by an unusual noise and fuss, as people were all on their phones in groups.
Everyone was discussing the recent airdrop listing of GAMEE airdrop, and the excitement in the air was very disturbing as they eagerly tried to claime their coins while some lamented as to why they weren't qualified to claim any tokens. Curious, I logged in on my telegram and decided to give it a shot myself.

I recalled turning on the bot at some point back in time, but to usually mind escaped my memory. I navigated into the bot, hoping to find some coins to claim. As I checked my balance, I was met with a sense of a shocking total of zero tokens to claim. I couldn't quite understand how that happened.

After a moment of reflection, I simply admitted that the bot hadn't delivered as I had expected. It was a minor disappointment, but I reminded myself not to dwell on it too much. There was no sense in worrying; after all, it was just one of those things that sometimes happens in the world of crypto and though I was disappointed, I didn't let it affect me much.

So friends, were you able to claim?

By 5am, a man had been caught sneaking into someone’s house to steal. People in the area rushed out of their homes, armed with sticks, stones, and anything they could grab. They dragged the thief out into the open and noticed his leg was crippled, but no one cared about that. In the town I stayed, the law was simple, any thief caught before sunrise faced a harsh punishment. Many times, that meant being beaten to death or even burnt alive.

The crowd wasted no time. They started hitting him, raining blows from all directions. As they began discussing how to burn him, a man stepped out from the back of the crowd, shouting for them to stop. He begged the crowd to let the thief go, saying it wasn’t right to kill him, especially in his condition. But nobody listened. The people were too angry, and they were already preparing to light the fire.

Desperate, the man made a bold offer to pay them ₦50,000 for the damages caused by the thief. That got everyone’s attention. ₦50,000 was no small money, and slowly the crowd began to calm down. After some discussions, they agreed. The man handed over the money, and the thief, badly beaten but still alive, was set free.

Word later spread that the man who intervened was the thief's older brother. He had been living in another town for some time and had only recently returned. He couldn’t stand by and watch his younger brother get killed in such a brutal way. Family is family, no matter the shame or situation. He did what he had to do to protect his own.

Today, that same thief owns two estates and has become a respected man in the community. I still imagine how things could have gone differently if his life had ended that morning.

We have had a lot of problems with electricity. It has been two years, and the power supply is very unsteady around this part where I live.
Sometimes the transformer is broken, other times the cables are damaged, or the connections are bad, it is either this story or another. One would say it's a curse.

Every week, we all put our money together to pay for the electricity and to rectify the damage. Untill the whole transformer broke down, and we were without power for three weeks.
Just yesterday, they fixed it, and the power came back, but I didn't feel excited or anything even while the neighbourhood was in jubilation.

In just a minute, the power went out again. When it came back, it was so low that I couldn’t even use it properly. I didn’t care anymore. I went to my friend's house to charge my things, but when I came back home, the power was gone again.

I was still on not moved nor did I show any sign of care. Blackout had dealt with me and I was already used the the whole stress of finding a place to charge and battling to study.
As people lamented about how they thought that the power which was restored would atleast last some hours, I just chuckled and kept mute.

I recently attended a conference called "Change Waves" that focused on important aspects of life such as money management, career growth, and building a healthy home. It was a three-day event packed with valuable insights and practical advice. The sessions were well-organized, and I felt that the topics covered were relevant to many of the challenges we face in our everyday lives.

One of the highlights of the conference was meeting an old friend. It was a huge surprise to run into him just as the event was wrapping up. Even though we had only a short time to catch up, it was great to reconnect. He mentioned that he had been invited to the conference and that he really appreciated the kind of discussions and learning opportunities that were offered.

My friend was enthusiastic about the conference, sharing that these are the kinds of events he values. He emphasized how important it is for people to learn the basic principles of life, something that often gets overlooked in our busy schedules. It was encouraging to hear his thoughts and realize that we both saw the same value in the program.

As we talked, I could see how much we both gained from the conference. The knowledge shared about managing finances, advancing in our careers, and maintaining a balanced home life was truly beneficial. It felt like the kind of learning experience that can make a real difference in one’s life.

Before we parted ways, I made sure to get his contact details so we could stay in touch. The experience was enriching, and I look forward to more opportunities for growth and learning like this one.