I remember when I'd I learnt how to make a source of light from battery and bulb along with the wires. Mehn. It was such a nice thing. I felt like a hero. My dad said I will be a great engineer.
I wanted to be an engineer and so I wanted to know how to be an engineer. I wanted to be a hero and so I wanted to know how to reach the hero's world.
Luckily, my uncle came from Lagos and hearing all that's said about me, he decided to take me to Lagos. I was just 7 year old and to me, I was already a man.
Uncle is a business man, uncle had a shop in Alaba, uncle had a fine house along with a fine wife. Yes a fine wife. Uncles wife was a very fine sombori. For a small boy of my age, I found it hard to understand the mystery of angels and how they came to the world let alone understand how one could be living in my uncles house.
To me, uncle's wife is from Angel country. And so I was enrolled in Agege Grammar school. I'm my very first day in school, I was thought about careers and the teacher explained the different careers she knew.
I never knew engineering is a career till she finally mentioned it and so, when the question "What would you like as a career when you grow up" finally came, I was among the first 23 persons to stand up and when she pointed at me, I said "Anty I wan to be an engineer"
Oh clap for Emeka, my teacher said....
Everybody clapped and later on, we were given some take home assignment. I looked at the boxes and the number, I think it was a quantitative reasoning assignment and since I could not understand it, I took to my angelic aunty.
My aunty instead of helping me after showing her the questions looked at me with her angelic eye. Na that day I know say angel still dey WOR WOR oo. Co.d and see the big eye. I looked at her with my little eyes too. and suddenly, a very heavy but impatient load landed on my hair. koi, koi.
So you do not know how to answer this simple questions eh? That day I cried sha. Instantly, my eyes dazzled me, it was an assignment to be submitted the next day, my teacher had a very long cane for those who didn't do their assignments and she would cane us on the feet, back and sometimes, she will put some jara as she whipped the cane on our head.
Scared and in pains, I went out, sat at the balcony, cried my eyes out, I after crying bitterly, his my faces against a nearby column and suddenly, a hand that God will bless tapped me.
Wetin dey do you? Okon asked me
I explained my ordeal and after this he invited me to his room.
Uncle okon is the security man of my uncle, he is very funny and so he taught me very well. Come and see how he was explaining everything to me.
"Why didn't my aunty teach me", its probably because she's an itibolibo. Iti or itibolibo is an IBO word for Olodo. And so we laughed.
Months passed, years passed, uncle Okon became my favorite uncle and source of encouragement, he became my best friend. And I would always run to him each time I have an assignment. We shared stories and he'll always tell me to never give up on my dreams.
years later, Uncle Okon got married and moved away from our house, I had become a graduate and worked with one of the popular oil companies in Nigeria. I had 2 cars and a house of my own.
So I decided to visit uncle Okon, I saw his living condition, he's not bad, but I felt he needed more, his son is not 10 years old, his other son is about 7 and his daughter is still in pre-nursey 1.
Remembering what uncle Okon had done for me years back, I suddenly saw how much I need to touch his life too.
Uncle, this is a check of #350,000, I want you to be using this to take care of your children's school fees. You're getting old and so I've had a savings account created in your name, you'll get a monthly #50,000 for your upkeep and this is a mobile phone with which you can reach me anytime you need anything.
Uncle okon prayed for me in Yoruba, Calabar language and he even surprised me when he prayed for me in IBO language.
My aunty, yes the fine aunty actually didn't go to school and so, she didn't understand those things from back in the days.
I understood her reason for that monk that day but she would have just said "I don't know it oo". On the other hand, if she hadn't knocked my head, if I hadn't cried because of the big konk she placed on my head, I wouldn't have been touched by my kind uncle Okon and who knows what would have become of my love for engineering.
LESSON
The little things you're able to do for a young chap, never complain doing them, do them with all happiness because they never go for waste.
The memory of a young child always grows with him and those in that memory, he'll always remember.
You have that child in your class as a teacher, he's not so good in maths, do you push him aside and go for the intelligent ones? That's wrong, draw him close, if he doesn't reward you later, your Chi will reward you, if his Chi forget,l to reward you, your own Chi will definitely not forget.
Even if you're not a teacher, seek out the younger ones around you, make them smile, tend to their needs and when they grow up, you'll always be the one they'll remember. You'll always be the reason they smile no matter what they're going through.
©MrPinner 2017
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