Chapter 4

Dressed in all white uniform, I walked down to the bustop, to take a bus to school. During my time in my former school, I didn't have to take a bus because the school wasn't really far from home,but Victoria island were my new school was located was farther away. I needed transportation to get to school. I was given half of the money that could take me to and fro,I had to wait at the park for another student who couldn't also afford the fare so that we could share a seat and the fare.I stood at the park with a polythene nylon that I used for carrying my books and sure enough a fellow poor student came, and we shared the bus fare and rode to school.

My first day in Methodist boys high school was nice. After arranging the classroom, I began to meet my new classmates one after the other. This time we were over a hundred students in a class. The school was a lot bigger than my former school. There were lots of classrooms, a bigger library and science laboratories. It was a more friendly environment and I seemed love it. The first day in school there was no academic activity going on, this was because school has just resumed after a long break, a lot of cleaning was going and the teachers had to also prepare themselves to get started. It was like that in every public school. There were little or no non-academic staff to do the work, so everything starts when the students come back from holidays.

I became nervous being in a more populated environment than my former school,but I was ready to give in my best to ensure I didn't get to repeat the class. While I was in my former school, I and my friends had planned to be in the science class when we got to the senior classes. My grades were good enough grades to be in the science class, but when I got to my new school I was made to understand that my grades was only enough to be in the commercial class or Art class. When I got home and told my guardians about this, they were glad I changed school, because that meant their opinions were right about being in a substandard school, and I agreed. This school was completely different from the one I was attended before.

I continued to focus on my studies and still did all that was required of me at home. I had made new friends in school, it was easy for me to adapt with the new school and everything was going on well.

There was this teacher who happened to be my class teacher,his name was Mr.Obudu. He taught Economics and he took bribes from students before they awarded good grades. The rest of us who could not afford to pay him had to work very hard before we passed his tests.I spent my break time in the school library most of the time. I didn't have textbooks, so apart from borrowing books at home for my homework, I had to be in the school library to read.I joined the press club of my school in the year 2000. I read a lot of articles on the club's notice board that inspired me to join. At the club I had the opportunity to meet more friends apart from my classmates. We usually held our meetings on Wednesday after school hours.In those days, It was mandatory for all government schools in Lagos state to keep the school gates locked for another thirty minutes every Wednesday for all students to participate in a club of their choice. The press club was not the only available club, there were more,like the rotary club, cultural group and so on,but words beconed to me.

In March 2000, I wrote my first article as a member of the press club. I submitted it to the screening committee,when I got to school the following day,I was suprised to see many people reading from the club's notice board than was usual. I moved closer only to find out that my article had attracted a lot of students, many who were not even a member of my club. That was the day I discovered that journalism, played a huge role in every society. I stood anonymously as students (even seniors)kept on gathering to read my article.They even began an argument about politics since that was the theme of my article.

The new democracy was only a year old,so politics was the popular talk about town. Nigeria, the most populous black nation on earth had regained her democracy in May, 1999. By the year 2000, the citizen's expectations were high. Many were hopeful for favourable government policies that will have positive impacts on the people. Some on the other hand, believed that nothing would change. These were the same arguments that arose among the students that read the article.

The next day when I got to school, one of my seniors whose name was Jerome Israel came to my class to look for me. He told me he read my post and it was the best he had read in a long time, especially from a fifteen years old boy.He introduced himself as a member of The Nigerian children parliament, where he served has the deputy Senate president. He briefed me about his activity as a member of the British council as well as the UNICEF to ensure that child's right is implemented. He educated me about my right as a citizen and a child. I was made to understand that nobody had the right to inflict pain on me. This was when I figured out that all the things being enforced on me at home was illegal, before now I had thought that was the sacrifice I had to pay for education. He encouraged me to keep up with my writing,he said he looked forward to reading more from me and that if I needed any assistance, I could always reach out to him.

I cultivated the habit of reading the news and current affairs to stay up-to-date with my new found passion . I kept on writing and got them posted for students to read. Although, I was in the commercial class, I now wanted to be a journalist or Author so bad. I was young, I needed mentoring, so I got close to one of the teachers to put me through my writing and he was indeed very helpful. Even though I was doing school publications, I didn't allow it to affect my studies in anyway knowing how important it was for me to get good grades.

Sound track : Eye Adaba by Asa