CHAPTER ONE

It had just been a week since the Association of Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities, ASUU suspended their indefinite industrial action and schools have just resumed. Like every other students, sick and tired of the long wait at home, Oseini had already returned back to school. His   school, the University of Maiduguri or UniMaid as it is popularly called is located at Maiduguri, the state capital of  Borno, one of the major north eastern state,  home to the new  Nigerian Defense head quarters   and the most feared terrorist group, Boko haram.

He sat on a bunk inside a very dusty compacted 8meter-squared room apartment that contained three other two bunked spring-bed settings, a row of eight wardrobes, a toilet, bathroom and a concrete slab projection for a reading table. A rusty fan hung on the ceiling was roaring with a sound of helicopter that is about to crash. The porters had yet to come and do clean up of the student hostel as their own association, Non Academic Staff Union, NASU are yet to call off their own strike action. The dormitory facility as a whole consisted of an estate of 4 complexes segmented into blocks of a three storied buildings with each in the shape of a large P, a symbol of Peace-the ironic slogan of the state.  Each floor was made of 20 rooms like that of Oseini’s.

Being confused on where to start, Oseini, bounced on one of the bunks, grabbed his smart phone    and went online. First he scanned through facebook and seeing major headlines from newspapers pages, he started muttering to himself:

"kai… dis …federal governments amnesty program for boko haram…

…ehen……[still scrolling down]

…. presidential election tribunal…

….Niger Delta militants again…

…gun ban amidst bandits alarm

….this day in history….

.. minister of education,Wazobia faces hard times….

….nigeria- blessed with non human resources, cursed with bad leaders…

….katsina banditary ….

….fulani herders clashes again with tiv farmers…

….unemployment rate quadruples…

….Npower to employ graduates to the next level…

…. 10000 die at Abuja job hunt stampede…

….Nigerian economy: out or deepened into recession, naira says to dollar….

….there is been a rise in suicidal tendency in the last 5 years….

….government is doing her best to tackle the several…

Toh….bla…blablah …. Mennh…. this is so depressing!"

He dropped his phone temporarily; slapped his laps and picked it again.

Moving from facebook he went to instagram, then whatsapp, skype and finally youtube, where he watched a lot of comedy videos as well as online hacks till he heard a sound of an alarm and blinking of red lights. Behold, it was his phone battery that ran down.

"O thank God! Light still dey" He whispered to himself as he quickly picked a charger and plugged the phone.

In the mean time, another alert came in; it was an e- mail. He swiped the screen to the notification. Opening the mail what he saw made him screamed to the heavens. Squeezing his hand tight on the phone and shivering coldly like an armature swimmer helplessly drowning to death in a sea, Oseini groaned with tears.

Still staring at phone, he wiped the screen through over and over again, he could not help it as more the tears flowed from his swollen red eyes. With mucus running down his nose, like the proverbial Christmas goat, he grunted:

"Bu..bu..na me bi this?…eh en..en,

I don die oo, my own don finish!"

Sweating profusely, "wetin I go do now?" he said to himself while trying to use his tear-wet -hands to wipe out the flood of tears that have refused to run dry from his face.

Just four years ago, the story was very different. He had been given a federal scholarship for the best JAMB score. After writing the exams 3 times and his results missing,-he had scored 390 in the fourth attempt- the highest score ever since the establishment of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Nigeria.

Unlike everyone else of his age, Oseini had dreamed to become at least, a teacher first so he could have less stress attending classes and to continue his "hustles" (to take care of his family that have been wallowing in abject poverty somewhere deep inside Agatu forest in the Benue valley) - a home that consisted of a widowed mother who had lost her soldier husband to the militancy of Niger delta in the late 90s. He had also vowed to correct the dilapidating educational structure of his beloved country. During the JAMB applications, he had chosen Benue state University, Makurdi and Unity college of Education, Aukpa-Adoka, as first and second choices to study physics Education. He

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Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 21.09.2021
ISBN: 978-3-7487-9546-9

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This work is dedicated to everyone especially, to those who are in search for hope. There's hope.