Chuma Nnoli

I stopped at a canteen to have some amala in Offa few days ago and a guy approached me. I'm used to being approached everywhere and most times I even interject with "From social media abi?" once a stranger walks towards me in such manner. "Sir, I know you? I was a student of the University of Offa and, last year, you came to our school to talk to us on career and encouraged us", the young man started. He was wearing what appeared to be commercial okada rider jacket. A few seconds of confusion. Do I have Twitter followers riding okada? This guy looks too polished to be an okada rider. "I brought someone here", he added. This looks like someone I need to have deeper discussion with so I gave him my Whatsapp number as I felt he was at the mercy of the passenger he brought. Not in a hurry as I had thought as I still saw him after I settled at my table, so I asked him to grab a chair and let us talk the talk immediately rather than on Whatsapp later. His story goes: He was an accounting student, and was encouraged by the career talk I had given last year and he had enrolled for ICAN ATS, passed stage 1 and expecting result of stage 2 he wrote recently. ICAN has 5-6 stages for ATS route (non-graduate route). "So what happened? Were you rusticated?", I quipped, with each morsel of amala becoming heavier in my hand. Then series of bombshells: He had lost both parents. He had been fending for himself almost all his life. He is in his mid 20s. He came to Offa from a nearby village five years ago, for NCE. He got admission into UniOffa as DE to 200L. He spent nights working at a poultry and days a student. More bombshells: He dropped out in 300L when he could not afford school fees. He could not raise the school fees when he resumed 300L. The poultry work was stressful too. So he started doing okada. More: His CGPA at the end of 200L was 4.0/5.0. A solid CGPA. UniOffa school fee is less than N400k, one of the cheapest private universities in Nigeria. ICAN is cheaper (less than N100k per diet?) but I told him immediately that that ICAN will be useless without a degree. He has to go back to school and complete the degree. Serious employer looks at your degree before your professional cert. I'm on the Governing Council of the school (he didn't know - a surprise - and he probably thought I was just brought as an external speaker at that career event. And I didn't tell him.) I asked him to go back to the school and enquire whether he can resume the 300L that just started (his set are in 400L now but that shouldn't matter). I have seen people struggle in life. Not the worst experience, but my mind kept flashing back. Someone is dropping out of school, from a brilliant 4-pointer accounting student to an okada rider because, all his life, he couldn't raise sub N400k. An amount some guys spend on a random night at a tier 3 club. Touching. Joe will finish that degree. In shaa Allah.