Victor Archibong @solovick

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.

There is this young guy living in the same compound with me, this is his first year in the university. He used to be a very devoted Catholic church member and this guy can quote scriptures very well, he has been reading his bible thoroughly to the extent that he can explain almost everything. He told us that he has a position in the church, and has invited me to his church many times, but I have always turned him down because I am also a devoted member in Salvation Ministries.

Everything suddenly changed just few months after this guy had admission into the university to study philosophy, he no longer believed that God existed, he stopped going to church and even said that heaven and hell does not exist. In philosophy, they taught them to believe that there is no God and that we came into existence by evolving from monkeys and apes. He believed all of this without any doubt, and this is somebody that can quote the scriptures extremely well.

People in the compound often argue with him on this matter and we try our best to tell him to ignore what they are being taught in philosophy, reminded him of how active he was in the things of God, and how he used to invite people to church, but his heart was hardened and he will reply by saying that the bible was written by a human being and that there is no evidence to confirm that it is true. What an unfortunate unfolds of events, somebody that was for God, now against God because of what he is taught in philosophy, I can never let my child study philosophy in the university.

I pray that god forgives him and reveals himself to him, because with the way he says that God doesn’t exist, if God wants to pour out his wrath on him, he will regret why he is studying philosophy. Currently, things have not been working out well for him; division in the family, the mother is in the hospital and his business has not been moving so well, we try to let him see how God can help him in all of this, but he will replying by saying that the worse should come on him instead of believing that there is God, heaven and hell. We’ve tried our best, and we have left him to his own fate, who knows if God is angry with him already.

A long time ago, I used to get angry at any slightest provocation, I was very hot tempered and will always displayed my anger to the fullest anytime someone looks for my trouble, no matter how insignificant it is. It was a difficult time for me, because I started losing friends, and every body knew me for my hot temper. My parents complain about it almost in a daily basis. This was when I turned 13 years, and I felt people should try not to piss me off.

My classmates used this weakness against me, they will deliberately make me angry just to see my angry face and reaction, and they always got me with this anytime they tried. No day passed without any of my age mate intentionally plotting ways for me to get even angrier. But this lifestyle cost me so much, because I have damaged so many items because of anger, I have injured myself so badly that the scar is still there till today because of anger.

This anger started becoming violent and more violent as the day goes by, my father had to complain to my teacher in school that I was very close to. The anger was triggered the first time the teacher talked to me about my anger issues, but he didn’t give up and kept telling me the damages that it has incurred in my life already and what more damage it can do. I turned 14 and slowly I started reflecting on my life, there is absolutely no benefit and the things that anger has damaged in my life is too numerous to count.

Today I saw an article that explains that during the stage of adolescent, abnormal behaviors like anger is common to be found on an individual, of which I believe it to be true. I just found myself slowly overcoming this anger as I grew older, people couldn’t make me unnecessarily angry again and my life continued peacefully and smoothly. But till date I still regret that time of my life, I have a scar on my hand, memories of things I have destroyed out of angry. I will say that period was the worst time in my life ever.

This happened some years back when I was working for somebody as a POS attendant. I had written JAMB and was waiting for admission, so I decided to find myself a work, while waiting for admission. My boss had told me that the last two people that worked for him ran away with some of his money within two weeks of working for him. He accepted that I work for him because one of his friends who knows me, vouched for me.

Within one week after I resumed work, my boss was very pleased with how I was able to give efficient and accurate of account of money and there was never a shortage. This amazed him so much because the other people that worked for him always had shortage and little amount of money always went missing. I was happy too that everything was going well.

One day, when I went to work, my boss gave me the sum of 20k to hold, just in case anyone comes to withdraw money from the POS business, while he goes to the bank to withdraw money. He returned from the bank shortly after, made account of the money he withdrew so that it can be used to start the POS business, and later left. He forgot about the 20k he had given to me in the morning.

Later in the evening when we were about closing for the day, I handed the 20k to him and reminded him about it, he looked at me in astonishment. He was very surprised that I returned the money, I was happy I had done something good. When I finally had admission, my boss paid my acceptance fee, gave me some of his textbooks that is related to the course I was reading and gave me some amount of money too, out of kindness because of how truthful and faithful I had been while working for him. He used to call me during my university education and will send me some money, we had become good friends, one to be trusted and recommended for trust. The man’s house is like my second home and I am his children’s lesson teacher, doing good feels good and gives good rewards.