Dominion Okon @grandmaster

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.

There is this compound we used to live in, it was a rented apartment, my mother, father and my siblings all lived there together. At first when we moved into the compound, my mother was so free with the landlord and his family who were our church members, she will stroll to her house any day she's at home and have a fun chat with them. I can even remember a day I wasn't feeling fine, she told me to go and help the landlord to move some trips of sand with a shovel. There was this close, and I really liked it.

But everything suddenly changed when I was away for four months in school, when I returned home, I noticed that my mother no longer goes to check on our landlord's family, and she didn't seem to be in good terms with them. She wouldn't even let me go there for any reason, I asked my siblings, but they said nothing happened, I wondered why everything suddenly changed. I didn't like it. The landlord had one male and three female children, they didn't look healthy and fit to do heavy task because of their poor genotype and blood group.

The landlord needs external help at times to get some tasks done, but my mum for reasons I don't know disallows it. There was a time that the daughter was having a convocation ceremony and invited me, I offered to assist in the little way I could, but my mum tried to stop me, I refused to let myself be stopped, I helped her out. At some point, I helped out anyway without taking permission from my mum, because I knew she won't approve. I refused to let myself be involved in whatever ever hidden dispute they have.

Life has to be simple, I can't let what you think or feel about others stop me from associating with them. My good deeds paid off, there's a time my laptop had an issue, it was the son who is a computer engineer that fixed my laptop for free, the parents bless me with money and other items every time I travel back to school, there is a time my landlord happened to be driving to the state where I school for his business, he asked me to join him and he drove me straight to my house in school, transport fare of 10k was saved. I once had a little issue in school, the son used to be a student in my school, so he called someone to assist me.

So many other favours gained, the relationship is good. No one knows where the future will take us, so it's an error to dislike someone without a reason, humans are supposed to look after each other, that's the only way a better world can be created. So many instances where I've heard people say negative things about people, but on getting close to the people that negative things is being spoken about, I discover that it's quite the opposite and they are much more nicer than their accusers. You look and care after each other, because it's natural and biblical, you might need their help tomorrow. Don't believe every negative things said about people, most of them are lies. From experience.

I was home alone, I slept most of the day sleeping, so I decided to a little stroll when it was evening, to stretch myself a bit, just to make sure that fatigue doesn't get much of me. I didn't really have anywhere in mind to stroll to, so I just walked in any direction I felt like going. I use enjoying the cold breeze of the evening, at the same time listening to music using my headset. I felt good.

I came across a site where an hotel construction was ongoing, they just closed for the day and labourers were receiving their payments. Just as I almost walked past the site, I heard some commotion among the labourers, I turned around to see two grown men in their 40s, fighting themselves aggressively. I stopped and walked back, wondering what the problem could be that would warrant such.

I got to find out that the Engineers of the site gave both of them their wages for them to share equally, the money was shared, but unfortunately a change of 200 naira remained to be balanced to one of them, but there was no change, and the two of them refused to let the other go home with the money, or perhaps get the change the next day. They preferred battling themselves, other than looking for where to change the money.

200 naira looks too small to be fought over, but here it was enough for grown men to exercise their muscles, this is where the present economy has pushed us to, I couldn't blame them much. I felt embarrassed on their behalf, they have families, how will it look like if their wives or children passed by to see their father fighting. I was with 200 naira, I gave the money to them so they won't damage themselves further. They have families to feed, I guess that makes the smallest amount of money most valuable to them.

I was happy I could help, I watched as they took their different routes home. I didn't give because I had too much, just couldn't bear to see such men fighting over such amount of money. The incident kept flashing back in my mind after I got home, they could have inflicted damages on themselves that 200 naira won't be enough to treat them. I was happy that I was of help to them, it's a small world and a small life, let's spend the most of it happily and looking after others.

I returned home after a very stressful semester, it was a very tough semester with lots of challenges, but I thank God that I wasn't consumed. After the conclusion of our exams, I didn't want to travel home for the holiday because some of my colleagues were going to be around, but my parents insisted that I must return home and so I couldn't refuse, I saddled up and travelled back to my state.

I had been away for months that I even forgot the kind of reception I always receive at home, I should have been the one to insist that I must travel home. Immediately I arrived home, I was served a very delicious rice and stew, compared to what I eat while at school. Life at school is a very different one, you can never see a free food, you will starve if you don't cook. I wish my colleagues would know what they are missing by not traveling home.

Back at school, I live alone, so I'm literally bored almost all the time, but here, you can never get bored with siblings and parents around. About three hours after I arrived, white soup that I have been craving for in school was served again, I would have said that it feels like I'm dreaming, but that is the reality of home. Just imagine my mum saying if the food isn't enough I should let her know, meanwhile at school I measure the portion of food I eat to save money. Ha!

And then I thought to myself, imagine a person without a family, without a home, you can't enjoy these things then. The joy and love that is shared in a family, you can't feel alone in a family. I have some rest now from the stress of looking after myself, at least for now, it will ease the pressure and give me strength when I return to school. The musician that sang the song " wherever where you go, remember the road that will lead you home" know the feeling. It's good to have where to go and rest up for a while after series of stress, and that can only be home, family.

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's exams was the best I've ever faced in the university, I didn't expect it to be so easy, right from the beginning of the semester, but it surprised me. The course title is Engineering Mathematics III, and as easy as it was to me, many came out lamented about how tough it was for them.

From the beginning of the semester, the lecturer that is taking the course doesn't allow anybody to enter the lecture hall again after he has started lecturing. He gives assignment every week, to be typed and printed, and submitted in the next class, anybody that doesn't make it to the lecture hall on time won't submit, as the door would have been shut.

The course had a practical aspect where an application called MATLAB is used to calculate the Engineering Mathematics. The practical was held twice in a facility outside the school, not too far from school, and it was already fixed by 4 pm, you're sure to be tired by this time of the day after stressing yourself from the beginning of the day. The practical was our C.A.

In all this, I was very active and participated in all, I never missed a lecture, did all the assignments and never went late to the lecture. The lecture was always by 8 am every Tuesday, and I was quite very afraid of the course, so I took it as a priority. I would leave my house by 6:45 am, just to make sure I'm there on time, and believe me, the attendance was very poor, only 20 students will show up in a department of 85 students. I personally did my assignments, studied in excess, I was fully involved.

The reason why the exam was very easy for me, and why it's difficult for others is very clear now. We all prayed concerning the course, it is the toughest of all, but only few could smile after the exams. God would only help those who help themselves. I told my coursemates as we walked back home, that there's no secret or shortcut to success, even God won't do anything in cases such as this. Study and God will help you understand and retain it, otherwise, you're on your own.