When people see me, they wouldn't
know I have drank water from a stream using cocoa and cocoyam leaf. Have you
done that before? I bet you haven't. When some see me reading they wouldn't
know my primary school foundation was a public L-shaped village school, where
the only thing we do from 9am to 1pm was to peel 'egusi' for 'teacher' and most
time sell 'pufpuf' from primary 1A to primary 6D in the L-shaped primary school
and at the end of the day I write a very big O on my slate with green colored
chalk and the teacher will mark it with red colored chalk, signing 'very good'
and every Friday we go to the school garden to clear the farm. We would rub
charcoal on our faces to scare the 'gbomo gbomo' on the bush part because we
hear a lot of kidnapped children. We even heard 'Old Soldier', the most wicked
teacher we had then who do take us to the garden, was kidnapped one day but he
begged the kidnappers to release him that he would bring 20 students for them.
Pupils with rumour shaaaa. Most of the times we would go to 'teacher's house'
at the camp to work for them and they would give us 'ice cream' and cold water.
The only book I read then was 'Macmillan Primary English book 6'. We called it
'reader' and it was mostly used in playing picture games. You wouldn't understand
what I'm saying if you've not done it before. I remember the day we were to
write common entrance exam in that village school; my mom cooked the best of
food as if I was going for a function. She packaged it well in a warmer (though
we were not that rich but she did her best). When I got to school that morning
it was as if we were doing food competition. Different kinds of food all
because we were sitting for common entrance. My white shirt and blue trouser
was well washed and ironed with a charcoal iron by my elder sister. That was
the first time I wore 'shoe' in my life. The shoe was for my elder brother who
has very long feet and my feet were short so i had to pad it with a lot of
clothes to make them fit. The name of that school is Eramhe Primary School,
Afokpella, Okpella, in Edo state. Try to find that out. Nobody knows I have
trekked over 50km going to farm as at when i was 7yrs old. Wow... have you done
that before? As at age 10 I already own a plot of land where I do my farming
activities. (I was a bit lazy then though). Nobody knows I've gone three days
without food, not for fasting but because no food. Nobody knows the history of
education, nobody knows how I managed to pass exams, nobody knows how I stopped
going to school for years because there was no school fee. I was termed
"onigbese" meaning debtor in secondary school. NOBODY KNOWS but today
the story has changed. Nobody knows that my first encounter with a computer was
in 2006. That was the first time in my life I ever touched a mouse. Thanks to ACTIVE FINGERS GLOBAL NETWORK in
collaboration with PURE COMPUTER
INSTITUTE who gave me scholarship to study desktop publishing. I worked for
it anyway. I came 1st in the scholarship exam. I am not planning to live a
small life. So when you see me living BIG tomorrow don't get jealous. Just know
that I have been through a lot of hard times. If you want to know me get close
and ask questions. Don't judge from afar.