With my determination, enthusiasm and resolve to succeed to great heights and take care of my mum and siblings, I decided to park my belongings one night to find a way to break the pattern. Honour your father and your mother so that your day will be long is what the bible says but I honoured my instinct and I’m still alive. We all know that nothing comes without a price; I paid the price in a hard way by suffering beyond limit. Leaving home was very complicated for me because no one was ready to accommodate me because of the fear of harbouring a kid without the parents’ consent. Besides, my mother’s family fear my dad so much that they couldn’t accommodate me as well. Therefore, everyone avoided anything that will make them come in contact with him. My friends included.
I finally moved to a friend’s house about fifty minutes drive from my father’s house, his name is Poka. We attended the same high school together few years ago. His parent, siblings and friends know me very well. Poka’s dad is a renowned pastor. The day I moved to his house, I narrated my story to him and his family and they accepted me, but after the second or third day, my friend told me his parent can no longer accommodate me and that i had to find another place to stay. I went in search of another place that very day but I couldn’t find any. That night another friend locked me up in the room they use for Sunday-school in their church. They Live in a lodge within the church compound. So, he did this without his parent’s consent, but I could not stay there long.
I keep moving from one place to another until I arrived at an abandoned building. The place was an extended version of a ghetto; an armpit of civilization far beyond human imagination. The inhabitants of this community are all smokers and drunkards. Besides, they deal in all sorts of illegal things. As time went by, I had to adapt because I had no choice. I consider myself a part of everyone even though I am just a minor part of mankind whose extinction I didn’t fear. I sleep for days without food. I beg people to at least eat once a day. I always sleep with one eye open. One fateful morning, I woke up to go and beg for food as usual and by the time I came back, all my belongings are gone. They’ve been stolen. Everyone I know within this community denied stealing anything let alone seeing anybody with my belongings. As a result of this, I had to survive on the same clothes just taking them off and washing them and waiting for them to dry and putting them on again. This period was really terrible for me. At some point, I wanted to commit suicide but the thought of my mum kept me going. Also, two weeks after I started a home-class lesson in a house outside the community, teaching a boy and a girl. After teaching them for a month, their mother refused to pay by giving the excuse that she’s broke. I decided to start washing people’s cars for a small amount of money. My first customer refused to pay because he lost his wallet. It was really hell for me as there was nobody’s shoulder to cry on or receive some sort of support. With constantly never giving up and doing odd jobs, I finally got enough money and gained admission into one of the best university in the country.
My mum works and lives in another state entirely different from where I got an admission to study. She did not support my decision to study at first because she knew my dad would fight her. She knew that she would be accused of encouraging me to run away from home. To avoid beating and humiliation from my dad, my Mummy decided to remain silent about my admission status for some time. Prior to this, my younger sister became pregnant out of wedlock. My dad became extremely furious and hostile towards her.
She decided to ran away with the guy who made her pregnant. Months later, my dad kicked my mum from his house. My mum works in Abuja and was living at one of my father’s houses. She was also sent out from the house by my father again. My mum had no option but to rent a one roomed apartment outside. The room was worn out and out of place, loads that are not meant to be in the room are put inside there but the landlord. You may be wondering what does she does with the money she is being paid at her work place? She actually spends about ninety percent of each payment of her salary on our education and welfare. It is not quite easy for her sponsoring three children in higher institutions. This included my two sisters and me. My mum makes me strong in every way because she is the strongest, daring and relentless woman I have ever met in my life. She is so selfless, kind, gentle, prudent and beautiful. Without her, I do not know where I would be today without her in my life.
The support my mum gave me throughout my four years in college is immeasurable by any standard. She was always there even when I least expect her to be supportive of me. Despite my mum`s determination to succeed, my dad always found a way of bringing her down. People tried mediating between my dad and my mum, but my dad is an unreasonable and adamant man. Surprisingly enough, a time came when my dad discovered we were all doing well without him, he started feeling remorseful and probably jealous. One of his friends who we were not in contact started calling me, my mum, and my younger sister in order to try and fix the gap that had been created between us and our dad.