Victor Archibong @solovick

In my childhood days, there's this day that everybody in our family was at home, it must have been on a Saturday or during holiday. We had breakfast, and then we all slept off again around 10 am in the morning. It was raining, and I enjoyed sleeping when it's raining, I guess everybody else liked it too.

I waked after it stopped raining, it was pretty quiet, my parents and my siblings were still asleep, I had enough of the sleep, so I just laid there on the bed. Getting a little bored, I moved my hand on the floor and felt water, my first thought was that one of siblings must urinated while sleeping, so I moved my hand to another spot, but I still felt water.

I got up and looked around, I was very surprised, there was water everywhere in the room and we were laying in a pool of water. The rain flowed into our room while we were sleeping. I woke everybody up immediately, I remember having to do a lot of work that day because of it. We had to take our bag of clothes outside to dry them up, our foam also got soaked and we had to dry it too. Sweeping of the water followed in earnest, it was a big stress.

When I placed my hand in another spot and felt water, I knew that all the urine in a person's body at once can't be that much. We thanked God that it didn't spoil anything, thoughts of how floods gets into people's home and drowns them to dead isn't so much different than in our case, but we were all safe and didn't lose anything in the incident, as our wet clothes and foam were dried up.

Last week was local government elections, and in my local government, what followed after was chaos. I went to vote, it wasn't that peaceful, but at least it was not deathly and destructive yet, until the night after the elections. The people didn't agree with the results, they claimed it was rigged, and wanted something done about it.

I got home after a stressful day at the election ground, I had my shower and eat, and just when I about resting, I started hearing sounds. I started hearing gunshots, people running and screaming, these gunmen literally burnt houses, something I couldn't bring myself to understand why. Is this how to retaliate to a rigged election? obviously not.

I locked myself in, the compound I live has high walls and a gate, I really hoped they didn't break through the gate to attack us. A guy in the compound went out and joined the gunmen causing the chaos, they were obviously being paid by somebody who people suspect to have the lost the election, to carry on this act. In a couple of minutes, the gunshots became more intense, I thought it was the police.

It was a rival gang of whom rumor carriers couldn't comprehend, six innocent people died in the process, houses and properties were destroyed. People will do anything for power and money these days, it was a very tragic incident, I had to travel out of the place for some days till everything was back to normal. The guy from our compound who joined the chaotic display was gunned down in the process.

These guys were paid to do these things, but now that they're dead, what happens to the money? Power and money are very good, but not worth doing something bad for. The community was deserted completely, it's now that people have started returning there, the election result still remains, but the damages done can't be undone. I didn't get caught up, next time, I'll be sure to travel to a place far away, to avoid stories that touches the heart.

I was in SS2, it was a third term, a time where the school management will choose prefects from SS2. I never pictured myself becoming a perfect, because I was extremely shy and I didn't want to take on so many responsibilities and tasks, so I made up my mind to decline any offer of prefectship, should it be pointed to me.

I was in class with my classmates during break time, when the compound master walked in and pointed out some of my classmates, including me, and took us to the principal's office. They wanted to make me the Senior Prefect, but I declined as planned and even recommended my classmate to them, to be appointed the Senior Prefect.

The principal wanted to know why I rejected the position, so I told him about my shyness, and he told me that we learn to do new things by doing them. After school was over, the compound master met me and told me that I have been appointed as the Senior Prefect, and that I should prepare a speech to be rendered after our inauguration the next day. I was terribly scared, I had never held any position before.

I got home and began to compose my speech, in as much as I was afraid, I didn't want to look confused when I'm called out to say something. The next day came, we were inaugurated and I had to address the whole school, both teachers and students, something I had never done in my life, I tried as much as possible to comport myself while I was addressing the school. I felt a sweet sensation when everybody clapped for me at the end of my speech, wasn't so difficult.

As time went on, the shyness couldn't just stay anymore, because I used to address the school twice a day, including meetings with principals and teachers, I was used to it already. Handling tasks and responsibilities helped improve me as an individual, I didn't abuse my power as the Senior Prefect, teachers and students loved me, because I always stood for the right thing. I'm happy to have been in that position, I learnt a lot, which includes how to handle tasks and responsibilities, how to manage people, boldness and decision making. It stays in me, I'm happy for that foundation.

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.

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.

One Saturday morning, I woke up to see that in our University level Whatsapp group, a test was announced the previous night by our class representative, to be held that Saturday morning. I was really disturbed, Saturday was the only day I had the chance to be at home and do some clean ups, including having some good rest to relief the stress during the week. Our class representative announced the test to be by 12 pm, and also announced a football competition between our level and another level to also be by 12 pm. We chatted him up and even placed calls to find out how the two activities will be possible at the same time, but he snubbed our messages and calls.

I took my bath with a warm water because I wasn't feeling too well, I left my house by 11 am and started trekking to school since I didn't have any money on me to pay my way there, I wanted to borrow the transport fare from my neighbor, but I just gave up on the idea. Just when I left my house, rain started falling, I couldn't wait for the rain to stop, I still had a long distance to cover before I get to school, and I was running out of time. The luck I had was that the rain wasn't heavy, but it was enough to get my clothes very wet and I was shaking from the cold, coupled with the fact that I wasn't feeling too well. I knew that the lecturer is very strict and lateness won't be tolerated, didn't want to jeopardize my chance to write the test, so I had to keep moving.

I arrived at school about few minutes to 12 pm, and I met only three of my colleagues at the hall, out of 85 students in my level. The Class Representative wasn't there and the lecturer wasn't there too, we waited patiently and about four of our colleagues came to join us. I saw some of my coursemates for the first time this semester, they came to school because they heard about the test, they have never been to any class since resumption and this was just three weeks to exams. The turnup was so poor that we began to believe that the test won't hold, and some of them that don't come to classes started expressing how sad and angry they will be if the test doesn't hold. Some of them came from far distance and their transport fare was much, some were business guys and some were working, maybe that's why they don't come to classes.

It was almost 1 pm, the rain stopped and neither the class representative nor the lecture came, we decided to check the WhatsApp group and realized that the test was a prank by the class representative, he wanted to bring us to school so that we will watch the football match between our level boys who have been training for weeks and another level, since we don't like coming out for extra curriculum activities. The class representative posted in the WhatsApp group that we should come to the school stadium, that he is there, we were very annoyed because of the sacrifices we made to be there, my coursemates started abusing and insulting the class representative in the WhatsApp group. Some people went home from there, and some went to stadium, I went to the stadium and told the class representative that such a prank is not good, it was a Saturday and we had plans for that day, others spoke to him and he kept mute.

They played the match and lost by 4 - 0 to the opponent, this is when the course representative was enraged and decided to reply the people that abused him earlier, they exchanged insults and even went as far as abusing somebody's father. The course representative angrily suspended extra curriculum activities in our level since we don't like participating fully in them, it wasn't our fault, the activity for the semester is overloaded and we are rarely chanced. The Course representative made a lot of enemies within our level that day, he refused to admit that the prank was very expensive, people wasted transport fare, time, and even risked their health to be there. My coursemates demanded an apology from him, but he refused to apologize. I didn't really say anything about it, we don't participate in those activities because of the distance to school, time and complex academic activities, and he should have thought it through before making such a prank.

Few years back when I was still a kid around the age of 9 years old, there are certain things that happened that time, that there are no explanation of why they happened even till date. It was in a very interior village, where there was no road, even electricity supply didn't reach there as at that time, most of their lives revolved around the community, since the community was rich with granites, okro and rubber plantation. The people engaged themselves in these things.

During my stay, there came a time that a small boy died of dog bite, he was bitten by their own dog, and he refused to let anyone about it for months, which later resulted in his death. But before he died, he told his parents about the bite, the parents tried to chain the dog and maybe perhaps sell it, but the dog suddenly turned wild and ran to the bush to live. Some boys passed through where the dog was, the dog jumped on one of them and gave the boy a very serious bite, and then the dog returned to it's position. The boy went home and informed his parents, the youths of the community angrily went and killed the dog because it was obvious that it no longer had dog instinct anymore, the boy survived though.

Few days later, we started hearing rampant news of dogs biting people, including their owners without reasons, it was not funny. I remember taking our goat to the bush where it can feed on leaves, and all of a sudden, I saw about 5 local fowls running and flying randomly and shouting as if something was pursuing them. To my greatest shock, it was a dog that was pursuing the fowls, and it was running towards me, I left the goat, threw away the matchet I was holding and ran home to inform my parents, my father went to the bush and saw the dog attacking and wounding our goat, my father managed to scare the dog away and brought the goat back home. I went back to look for the matchet that I threw away carelessly while running from the dog, I could not find it, I didn't even know which part of the bush it fell into and so I never found it.

The attacks of dogs became so serious that the village head gave a decree that there should no longer be any dogs in the village, and any dog found should be killed. This was good news for people, dogs were hunted by the youths, killed and roasted publicly for free consumption. All the dogs in the village were eliminated till no single dog could be found in the land, people now had their peace and comfort back. Till today I still wonder why all the dogs in the village went wild and started attacking people and other animals, it looks very mysterious to me, it looked like a kind of dog revolution, nice one, but they can't win over humans, the dogs learnt that the hard way as they were completely erased in one week.

Many years back, when I was still in the secondary school, there is a time I almost lost my life because of show off, to please my classmates and other people around, and it would have been the end of my life in a twinkle of an eye if not for God. I shiver whenever I remember the incident.

One day on my way back home from school with my classmates, we decided to branch a nearby stream and have our baths, at least to make us feel refreshed since the weather was very hot. The stream was big and wide, some part of it can cover a 5 feet human being. I knew very well that I wasn't that good in water when it comes to swimming.

It all started when my classmates climbed a high ground just beside the stream, jumped and dived into the water using their head, it was fun to watch but I knew I couldn't do it. But all of a sudden, they started laughing and taunting me that I was too scared to do it, and instead of me to admit that I couldn't dive into the water from such a height, I decided to try it for the first time, just to show them that I can and quench the laughter.

I climbed the high ground and dived into the water with my head, what followed next wasn't funny. I jammed my head so hard at the bottom of the water, it was as if my head splitted into two, the pains was out of this world. I had no idea that the sand under the water could be that painful to collide the human head with, it was as if I hit my head on tiles. I tried to raise my head out of water but I couldn't move, the effect of the hit on my head paralyzed my body.

My classmates noticed and dived into the water to save me and took me out of the water, it was so serious that I started bleeding from my nose, I had made myself a more laughing stock to the people I was trying to please and showoff. I slowly felt better, wore my clothes and went straight home, my parents scolded me and banned me from stopping at that stream on my way home from school. I was taken to the clinic for some checkup and treatment. Right from that day, me and showoff don't take the same path.