Day 5 | Ending in a mood of worship

5:07am |

I am woken up yet again by the cries from the mosque.  It is becoming more annoying because apart from interrupting my sleep, the Arabic incantations always gets infused into my dreams. Just yesterday, I dreamt that Papa was speaking in Arabic tongues. I was already questioning the situation until I woke up to find out it was from the mosque.

6:25am |

I was still rolling on my bed when my grandma comes in to tell me that she was on her way out and to remind me to keep an eye on her playgroup kids from 8am when they begin to arrive. I thought I should give myself one quick nap before then so I get back on my bed.

8:12am |

Waking up to hear children’s voices sends me dashing out of my room. My auntie was already outside with the kids so I say hello and head to the shower to get myself ready for the busy day ahead.

9:00am |

I am dressed and ready to leave the house only to hear that the mechanic is coming to check the car (and maybe take the car to the workshop for respect).  I am seriously upset because now all my plans might just be thwarted. I angrily prepare breakfast of fried plantain as I wait for the mechanic to come so that I can have an idea of how long it would take to fix it.

10:45am |

The mechanic finally arrives. I rush out hoping to hear that he wouldn’t have to take it away. He was supposed to check the noise from the exhaust as well as the jerking I noticed when the car just starts to move.

11:45 |

There was still hope that I would be able to go out with the car until my aunt noticed that oil was still leaking (a problem the mechanic claimed he had already fixed). At that point I knew it was over. I watch in anger as the mechanic zooms off in MY car.

12:30pm |

I refused to be comforted by the caring attempts by my auntie in offering me other options. I deliberately refused any other options… Well what options did I have? Either I call a red cab for at LEAST 4K (too expensive) or I take the public transport (too stressful). Hmmmm… I decide to quickly generate a scale of preference and I figure I have only one thing on my MUST DO OR I DIE list. So I go back to bed… Hoping that somehow, the car comes back befor 3:30pm.
3:12pm |

I hurriedly look out the window but still no car. At this point, it’s either I take the bus to Allen Ave to do 3 of the things on my list or stay home all day in total boredom. While I am still trying to decide hunger sends me to the kitchen in search of something to eat. The fastest thing to cook is Golden Penny noodles (like what happened to Indomie? who eats this stuff anyway? Why must every food company make an attempt at noodles?). I put the water on the cooker and I hear my grandma’s voice.

3:30pm |

“Welcome Grannie”, I say with a slight bow in an attempt to ‘dubale’. “Ahh, you are still home? Is it because of the car…blah blah blah… Oya begin to go out now. If you need money I will give you.” I throw the hot Golden Penny noodles (which wasn’t as bad as I thought) down my throat.

4:09pm |

I get on an okada that took me half of the way and on to another which took me directly to the starcomms office.

During the okada ride I confirmed my suspicions that road signs, traffic lights and even instructions from traffic wardens don’t apply to okada men. No matter the brightness of the Red light, they would still go on. Even when the police in charge of traffic say stop and all cars stop they seem to be allowed to go on.

4:20pm |

At starcomms, I join the queue to pay the subscription fee and I’m out in no time. I go on to Suntan to buy my convocation tie. There I meet 4 CU students that said they were at Balogun market and that it was like there was a CU shopping day there.

5:20pm |

I cut my hair then set out to catch the bus home. The driver took one strange road he thought was a short cut and got us stuck in traffic for hours.

7:40pm |

Got home ate eba (after at least 3 months) and went to bed.

10:56pm |

I connect to the Internet to chat with a friend I had promised to chat with everyday. at about the same time she buzzed another guy buzzes me… “congrats on your result”, he says and slowly (I mean really slowly and annoyingly) tells me about the results (I mean my result). Long story short I had a 1st class result, my friend that I came in with also had a 1st class. My joy was complete! My friend sends me the Internet link to check it myself and it was so! I just remember the scripture that says, “Beautiful …are the feet of they that bring good news”(Isaiah 52:7).

Everyone online at the time begin to write in to congratulate and rejoice with me… Then I begin to flash back on the past year…I knew I had only My Father to thank for all of this… I knew where I started from in 100L with a 4.17 GPA… the remember challenges throughout my academic pursuit especially with my Final year project. I had to end all discussion and get into the mood of worship.

11:45pm |

I dance into the sitting room as I begin to worship and flashback on the great things the lord has done!

The source of my early rising

Day 12 | EIE Cocktail

The rain had subsided as we opened up our umbrellas and headed towards the cafeteria after a really interesting service. I always love Pastor Bamigboye sermons. He is very illustrative and seems to know exactly how to carry his audience along throughout the period he holds the mic. We had an unusually uneventful meal as we had just a few jokes and no passer by offered themselves as objects of ridicule to crack us up.

Although,the rain was still pouring down, I decided to go over to Mary Hall to invite one of my friends for the cocktail scheduled to start, from my prediction, at about 5pm. The thought of waiting for any girl under the rain was not a particularly appealing idea considering the fact that I usually thought it was very disgusting when groups of boys loiter in front of the girls hostel waiting like prostitutes and the fact that I thought standing in the rain to wait was too romantic for any of the girls I wanted to see.

A smile tore across me gloomy face as I spotted two of my friends talking in front of the hostel. Two of my worries had already been taken care of: getting someone to call the girl I wanted to see, and not having to wait alone. We started a conversation that became so interesting that I almost forgot that I came to see someone else. I finally asked her to assist me in calling my date.

She comes down still having sleep marks and looking terribly sleepy. I look at my wrist watch, “3:15pm” I say. “Can you be ready for 4pm at EIE building?”. She agrees and I leave.

On getting back to my hostel I hear that the venue had been changed to cafe 2. So I dress up and head back to tell her about the change. I couldn’t imagine making her make that walk all by herself for nothing. Back at the girls hostel she was not in her room. Waited for a bit then left for EIE to get her. I had barely started the long hike to EIE when I met her beside the library. I felt terrible as I went on and on with my apologies.

Even though she had walked all the way to EIE she was most pleasant as she told me the story of her lonely walk to and from EIE building. She tried to describe how sad she looked on her way back by telling me how one random guy sees her and askes her to come with him so that they could both go for the same cocktail I invited her for.

I was welcomed into the venue by the ‘random guy’ who happened to be my close friend. Barely 25mins ago we were both waiting for our dates at the girls hostel but word came that his date said she was sleeping and so he left while I hung on a bit longer. It was on his way back that he met with my own date. We had a good laugh as I walked in with my pretty date.

The cocktail was so much fun. I had the prettiest girl in the room as my date; there was a lot to drink, snacks, music (it was the very first get together I had attended in CU where strictly secular music was played throughout).

The girl I had initially asked to be my date walks in. It was so awkward as I was already having a marvelous time with my new date. The evening was spiced with loads of pictures being taken (to be uploaded later). By the time the night was over, I realized for the first time that I might actually really miss my classmates.

I left the Cocktail venue with her before it was over for the classical choir concert at the CU Chapel. Every moment spent talking with her were my best moments throughout today. By the way, this girl is the ‘deco dinner’ girl.

Can’t wait to see her soon! Meanwhile, I think I love my classmates!

Day 36 | Metamorphosis of Internet in CU

Permit me to entirely leave myself out of today’s blog. I want to talk about the metamorphosis the internet situation in CU has undergone in the past 5 years.

2005/2006

There were about 30 computers in a small cyber cafe at the basement of the chapel building in the same location the call centre is presently located. It cost N60 for an hour of doing nothing… well we thought we were actually paying for internet. I was never successful at opening a single internet page in that cafe but I kept going there hoping, “this next time would be different” but it never got better. Myth at the time had it that there really wasn’t any internet in that internet cafe claiming that the “Page loading…” screen we normally see while we waited for our mailbox to open was only a screen saver. Yet you wouldn’t imagine how much we had to wait on the queue for a turn at staring at the yahoo mail screensaver.

2006/2007

There was an extension of the cyber cafe with a new cafe at the College of Business Studies (CBS). This was a great improvement on the previous year as it was fast enough to open up to 3 pages in an hour and at the same time chat on yahoo messenger almost comfortably. The long queues however, was a still a serious problem as students would sometimes have to wait up to 4 hours before getting a free computer to browse. I would usually pay for an hour of internet browsing, leave with my ticket for a 2 hour class, come back after the class and still have to wait for about 30 minutes before I get a computer to myself.

2007/2008

The CBS cyber cafe continues as the leading internet spot in CU… bringing the chapel cyber cafe to an abrupt end! The room that once housed the internet cafe was turned to a printing room. This then gradually faded into obscurity as the room seems unoccupied at the moment.

Announcements that I prefer to call rumours, claiming that wireless hotspots were coming up all over the university became rampant on campus. So we were all kept on our toes in anticipation of this great improvement.

In a dire quest to connect to the internet some students began to search for LAN ports in the college buildings that they would connect to their laptops via a LAN cable. They would then bridge the network and then share the internet wirelessly to all the remaining internet hungry students. This worked very well for us until it became clear that it was illegal. Although, the knowledge that it was illegal reduced our internet activities it wasn’t enough to completely stop us from occasionally checking our mails on Saturdays.

2008/2009

Not much improvement from the previous year, however, the wireless hotspots we had been promised was partially implemented with wireless internet connection almost everywhere in the library. The wireless was also extended to some hostels but would require students to sit in front of their windows with their laptops almost falling off the window sill.

The media center at the Library was fully functional with fast internet and long queues. The media center however, was restricted to final year Students who had their project researches to carry out. Students at lower levels would have needed to impersonate as final year students to have a turn at browsing.

Meanwhile in defense of the present internet condition, the school made it clear that they wouldn’t be letting us have internet in our hostels to prevent us from visiting porn sites. I used to think to myself that should a single negative thing prevent us from enjoying the many benefits it can possibly bring?

2009/2010

CU had finally decided to contract out the provision and management of internet services for the university and had most likely already signed the deal to Swift Networks. By the beginning of the new semester promises of wireless internet services to be spread across the campus including the charges students would be required to pay was constantly being announced. The presence of the Swift Network company in the University was unnoticed till March when they came in to erect their mast.

Wireless modems from Zain, MTN, Visafone, glo & etisalat had quickly become the only option for students who needed reliable Internet connection to constantly update their facebook status messages or more usefully, for the final year students who needed to carry out researches for their Final year projects.

Depending on the network provider and the data plan selected, the monthly cost of accessing the Internet using this reliable modems was between N1000 and N12,000.

Meanwhile, less enthusiastic Internet users would settle for the periodic internet access at the library either wirelessly using their own laptops or wired using the computers at the media center. The wireless option would require going up to the 2^nd floor of the building into a room where Sunday offering is usually counted. We would often have to climb over offering baskets, envelops, papers and buckets littered all over the floor as we walk into the dark ‘browsing center’. For some reason, I don’t even think the school was aware we surf the internet there. On the other hand a faster internet speed option would require waiting sometimes for up to an hour for a spot at the Library’s Media Center. However, only academic sites could be viewed at the media center leaving the facebook addicts out. These options were free!

As the session went on, the Swift Networks company installed a very tall mast as well as boosters at strategic locations around campus. One Sunny morning, the Registrar announced that the internet would be available everywhere but the services will attract a token fee of 1500 a month but it would be fully operational for testing free for a few days.

I hardly ever got to use the Swift internet but from the few times I did I can say that, the internet speed was incredibly fast (up to 1MB download speeds). However, it disconnects every few minutes and one needs to be very close to the mast to receive signals strong enough to connect ones computer to the internet. Browsing from ones bed is presently impossible.

Below is a picture of two students ‘hustling’ to browse at the hostel corridor by directly facing the antenna at close proximity.

In search of internet

We still patiently wait for the days we had always dreamt of when we could surf the internet anywhere we are in CU. The possibilities are however not farfetched anymore, from the slow but consistent improvements in the internet services in the school. The dreams to browse on our beds, check our mails in the cafeteria, Skype each other around the campus (since phones aren’t even allowed in the first place), surf the net on the way back from class etc. The newer students can be rest assured that in their time, the dreams of their forefathers would be realized.

Look at what the hunger for internet turned this student to… Note that the low quality of the shots was due to the fact that I had to steal this shots (make sure the student couldn’t see me) so that I could get natural pictures.

In Search of Signal

He stands up in frustration as there is no Signal

He looks up to the antenna from whence his help comes

heading to the source

I couldn't believe he would do this...

Day 19 | Opportunities Aren’t Timeless

Sometimes I want to pause it

Or better still absolutely stop it

And have my bursts of euphoria never end

In other situations like this one

I long for it to pass

To run out completely

And finally come to an end

Everything is truly about it-Time

The pain

The joy

The highs

The lows

It takes time

And when time is gone

It is all gone

The reset button of the counter is depressed

And the countdown to the next milestone restarts

Time for impromptu midnight assemblies,

Time to talk and laugh with classmates and friends,

Fear of slow vehicles and headlamps in the night,

Chapel Rhymes,

No pairing,

The enviable CU fashion sense,

Living without choices,

Café hustles

It’s all over

Whether you had more great times

Or most of your days were spent in fear

Even if it you felt it was all a waste of time

Not worth all we had to go through

As time fades away

It all slowly becomes just a memory

And as our time here comes to a close

It’s about time to say our goodbyes

To let go of some tears.

I think there’s just enough time

To lay down our pride

And say sorry

To save relationships that took years to build

An opportunity to say thank you to friends that have mattered

Cos it might just be the last shot

An opening to meet that person you’ve always wanted to meet

A chance to tell those who love you

And whom you love that you love them too

An opportunity to appreciate parents

Before you lose them

Opportunities don’t last forever

Events don’t last forever

Friends don’t stay no matter what

No matter whether we want time to elapse quickly

Or linger for a bit longer

Eventually time always runs out

Day 20 | Depressed

I’ve been indoors too long

I’m not just sure if it is friendlessness

Or if I simply love my own company a bit too much

Spending this much time on me can’t be such a bad idea

I initially thought…

I’ve spent time reassessing myself,

Generating great ideas,

Preparing myself for tomorrow

But it seems that’s as much good as I can get

Cos now am such bad influence to myself

My body hurts from over-rest

I feel alone but not necessarily lonely

I am totally unaware of what is happening beyond me

I find myself less considerate of others

My bed is fed up from carrying me all day

She has been a sweetheart all the way

So I decide to start by considering her as I  head outdoors

I get up and look back at her

but she seems permanently depressed from all my weight.

Day 54 | Deco Dinner

There was so much lined up for this ‘special’ service- special numbers, games with prices to be won etc so the service kept going on and on… Just before I finally left the chapel building I popped wine with a couple of friends (was fun) somewhere in the chapel building (not in the chapel). This was the first time I left the chapel before the service was over!

Is it me or does everyone have that someone who just seems clearly threatened by our presence? You just seem too comfortable, happy and loved by others for their liking. They become so defensive whenever they are around you. I am referring to those acquaintances that simply have such a low self worth that they hope by competing with you they just might be able to fill that void. You can see that they strive to be better than you are or even just be as good as you are in every area they can attempt, but you easily knock them out just living your life normally with no extra effort. When they are not making derogatory statements they hope should bring you down to their level of worthlessness, you can see them leering at you from the corner of their eyes? Trust me if you don’t have such a distorted person in your life you can’t even imagine, how disgusting it is for me  to live with such a person only a few rooms away from mine…

I finally decided to put my exams studies on hold by going for the deco dinner. I had been a member of this service unit for well over 3 years now.

While I was in my first and second year, I looked forward to Sundays so I could admire the new decoration for the week and I was always inspired by what they put up. At the time I never even realized that the people behind those decorations were students-they were just too professional. I wanted to be a part of the group that made those great decorations and at the same time learn how they did it so wonderfully. That was what triggered me to join! Below are two pictures of more recent decorations:

During a dance performance

Deco 2

The dinner started on the low with no girls with us to give it the dinner feeling. It was just I and a close friend on my table having what you could call an awkward guy-type dinner. We had 2 free seats at our table to accommodate the lucky babes that were about to have the time of their lives with us. While we cracked jokes and at the same time tried to go along with the evenings proceedings we eagerly anticipated who the fortunate girls were going to be.

Suddenly, the girl with the strikingly beautiful piercing eyes, flawlessly white dentition, cutest set of lips, smile that had seemed so sweet and confident that it became almost intimidating walks in with her extremely tall girl-friend!! I had seen her couple of times and I had strangely considered her my kryptonite (A little humble side note: I am extremely good with girls! Talking to them and getting them to like me in a couple of seconds comes surprisingly easily to me).

OMG!! “Not those girls!!” I almost screamed to my friend who was sitting right next to me. “Ok, the other isn’t that pretty besides she’s a bit too tall so I hadn’t really considered them either. But why not anyway?”, he asked. “Cos she’s the one, My Kryptonite!!”. For the first time, listening to myself say that sounded like a cheap excuse not to talk to talk to a girl. “Then you’ll have to meet her tonight” he responded. Without thinking about it like I would normally do out of impulse I replied, “Of course, it’s about time” but this time I wasn’t so sure I actually meant it.

It seemed like no more babes where coming for the dinner and we would be stuck on a guy only date for the night. We looked over a few tables behind us at where they sat alone with two free chairs in front of them.  At some point he asked us to go over to their table to give our day a lil twist… I sincerely am not sure if I genuinely didn’t like the idea of leaving my table to move over to theirs plus going over to their table would mean me backing everyone in the room which is against a principle I had learnt from Donald Trump that said, “I like to sit where I can see and be seen” or was I really just allowing the crush in me to push me down. After much persuasion I backed down.

For a split second her friend walked off so he walked over to the girl, whispered something into her ears, came back the table and wouldn’t tell me what he told her.

After the dinner I was off meeting and taking pictures with new girls but in my heart I knew what I really wanted… I finally walked over to meet to her and trust me she wasn’t any less than my imaginations had painted. When I found out what my friend had told her I was almost angry because it almost cost me my shot at getting this babe. In fact the first few minutes were my worst with any girl! I wanted to quit at some point. As soon as I got my game back, I asked her to wait for me while I go over to take a few more pictures after which we could leave together and she happily waited till I was done.

Getting bored...

She was the most pleasant girl I had ever spoken to, her smile was electrifying, and every moment of the brief time together was exciting. I hadn’t made any girl as euphoric as she had become and I hadn’t been that way in a long time. I totally enjoyed her company as we talked like we had known each other for years and laughed all the way to the hostel (Details of the conversation have been withheld for privacy reasons).

This ended up being a great night for me!

I just don’t know how many Mother’s day we now have every year. This is like the 4^th one this year alone! On the flip-side my Mum’s worth 365 Mother days so… Happy Mothers’ day to you mum! I love you more than I can ever describe and more than you’ll ever know.

Day 51 | A Little FYP Hustle

Dressing up for Lectures

Woke up at 2:00am! Shoot! How the hell could I have forgotten to call the guy that was supposed to help me with the programming for my project? He had promised countless number of times that he will come over to help me out. I had become a nuisance constantly looking for him in his room. I rush upstairs to check on him but he is already fast asleep.

I was tempted to get upset but I remember that if I do it would just be for my own pocket as he would have nothing to lose. At the same time considering the fact that he is doing me a favour which I technically am not paying for (at least from our first meeting it was clear that it was simply some form of assistance- No Charges). It then occurred to me that there were more downsides to free stuff than I ever cared to imagine.

I’m I allowed to get angry and show it if someone promises to assist me at something and constantly let’s me down bearing in mind that the person helping me with no obvious benefits and stands nothing substantial to gain?

Well I decide to etch my first PCB circuit board myself or at least I try to… because my two attempts resulted in two wasted PCB Boards. Now back to square one!

Although I am just dressing up to go to class as I type this, allow me to end here today…

Day 37 | Finals Day 2

Woke up by 12am to continue from where I left off… reading was such fun that I was up all night! Very unlike me I was dressed by 6:30am! I was doing a refresh of my past questions for the last time then off to EIE building!

Overnight studying isn’t just my thing. The effect was immediate as I fell asleep immediately I got to the building. For the first time the thought crossed my mind that the questions may just be unique this time around then I’ll be totally on my own!

The invigilators begin to distribute the question papers and… it was ALL questions I had seen before! Haba!! Does change really disgust them so much? Can’t they even be a little creative? That’s why I love them anyway! It was easy selecting 3 questions out of the 5 options available- I had NOT read any of the other 2 questions so I was left with no choice but to kill the 3 I had mastered! I made a slight mistake in one question but it was still another ‘A’ bagged for this semester. Amen!

Had a discussion with friends still on the fact that they felt it was just wrong for the lecturers to keep repeating past questions. I totally agreed with them but at the same time I let them understand that, “when in Rome do like the Romans do” which in this context means that, I should simply follow the rules that determine success in the CU system… and just do it! If it was different or I was in a different place I’ll act differently (create unique strategies- academics is a game). Plus they hadn’t gotten the strategies and they felt they wasted their time studying irrelevant stuff. But I finally got to agree that if one has the time and the seriousness involved in reading the whole course material he should as well do that (especially if they are not risk takers). However, everyone should at least in addition to his own personal studying methods take my principles seriously!

Went to the library to blog and on my way back met a friend through whom I met a group of people. Worthy of note is this interesting confident young girl studying Mass Communication. This makes the third overly confident and gabby Mass Communication girl I have met recently. Do they all have this characteristic? I think I like it a lot!

Day 38 | Take a Study Risk

I woke up extremely late; I had totally forgotten that there was supposed to be a chapel service today. I reluctantly get up, bolt around the room and was out by 8:15am for a service to start at 8:00am. I knew I should have let the service go because on getting to the chapel we had to write down our names for coming late accompanied with the long tirade that came with it about how we should have learnt from some students that had just been suspended (barely 3 days ago) for missing a chapel service…

I rushed to the library to read after the service that I didn’t even participate in the EIE photo session.

I was in the library from 10am up until 4:30pm! By the time I was to leave, I was totally famished and my brain was saturated.

I still engage in the ‘studying risk’ I had been taking for almost 5 years now. So far I have not really been disappointed using my system of study. However, I can recall once when I was totally blank during an exam because I stuck to my methods. It was so bad that I considered suicide after the paper. It was my first paper that semester and it seemed like a sure ‘F’. I immediately knew my raw score in that subject was 45 when I heard I got a ‘D’.  Summary, it has worked in at least 98% of the tests and exams we had written since.

Now I feel it isn’t even a risk anymore. The examination system in CU had become so predictable, so strategic, so like business, where it is not necessarily the most hardworking that succeed but the smartest! I have studied the system so much, from 2005 till date and I have this to say:

(Disclaimer: I will bear no responsibility for damages caused to students GPA’s in any event that they take the Study Risk after I am gone and the system changes )

1. Attend all lectures and listen between the lines: the lecturers ALWAYS give a clear but occasionally subtle idea o what questions they would set. Sometimes by over emphasizing a particular question, by explicitly stating that you should expect a particular question, by asking you to underline a particular phrase etc.

2. EVERY calculation solved in class is a potential exam or test question.

3. CU lecturers love to repeat past questions!!! I Rephrase: past questions will almost always become present or future questions. Whatever you do don’t ignore Past Questions!!!

4. Focus and take risks! Except you is an exceptional student or a student who reads way ahead of exams it will not do you much good to read all the handouts! Questions don’t come from the entire course work so read what is ‘most likely’ to come out (that leads to developing the power of accurate prediction) and leave out the rest. It’s about focusing and therefore answering any question asked on something you had read on perfectly, rather than reading through the whole material and yet finding it impossible to recall what you read in a specific area some hours ago. It’s like knowing a little about the whole material when you could know a few and know them well. After all, the exams are not all compulsory! You could choose not to answer any question set from a particular topic. This is where the risk taking really comes in!

5. I’d rather meet a question I never read on during an exam and pick a different question to answer than to see a question I had read on and yet not be able to remember a thing.

6. Develop accurate predictions: maybe this should have come before number 4. This skill is developed over time as you study your lecturer as it is different for ever lecturer. This skill will be what determines how far you go with everything else I have spoken about. I had developed this skill since 200L so much so that my classmates always came to me to ask what the questions coming out would be. It was almost always perfect!

7. Study your lecturer: It all boils down to this guy! I knew this early enough so that when I had to select electives I based my judgments on the lecturer taking the course not necessarily on the course content. The lecturer determines how the questions are set, from where it would be set, what is expected of you to write and how you would graded.

You don’t have to kiss his ass (i.e. by residing to his office, laughing at all his jokes, lending an ear when he is in the mood to advice a student or to brag about his achievements…) except of course that’s what you love doing. All you need do is study him! Study what he likes to hear from his students, how he likes to say things (he would like for you to give him back that way), the methods he uses to draw emphasis to specific areas… this list of what to watch out for in your lecturer is limitless. Just listen to him, observe and get all you can!

For the same course a lecturer may mark ‘signal’ as the answer to a question but another lecturer may insist that in must be ‘signals’, some lectures like your answers the same as it was in the material he gave i.e. ‘word for word’. Little details like this about each lecturer must be taken into consideration when answering the questions for each subject.

NB: The correct answer to a question is not correct if the lecturer doesn’t think so! He is the boss so it is what he wants that counts!

8. The God factor: Its position as the last on this list should in no way suggest that it is the least important. In fact, the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first. The God factor I believe made and still makes ALL the difference for me in my decisions, predictions and my academics as a whole. The Holy Spirit is always available to help if I call on him. God has never failed me so I when I want to start my prayers especially when it’s about my academics I start by saying, “I thank You because you always hear me…”(John 11:42). I say it first and foremost,  because it is true and then because it shows my clear  reason for having faith in God.  I believe so much in the help he offers as an add-on to your own personal investment. It is however important to note that this is by no means a substitute for those strategies listed above!

The truth though, is that I have a strange belief that God loves me more that the average guy!

So while others where reading about the whole handout I focused on the past questions! Hoping my gamble pays off again. Can’t wait for tomorrow to tell you how it all went!

Day 40 | On and On

I woke up about 7:45am for a service scheduled for 8am. There was no electricity and none of my shirts were ironed! Up until now I had never missed a Sunday service in CU but I was beginning to consider stabbing this service after all there was no way I was going in a rumpled shirt. I took the ‘hot’ risk of putting on a sweater to mask the shirt hoping the air conditioning in the Chapel will work.

Today was the first time Papa came for the first service. He came just to pray and bless us b4 the exams starts tomorrow. I left the service feeling totally different!

I got back to the hostel to read…. At some point I thought about the future and my thoughts are summarized  below:

On and On

Almost free from this tight rein

Never to undergo it again

Just this one phase left

This last cross to bear

Then on to the next

The next is finally here

Everything seems so perfect

I get all the possible accolades

But at some point I still want something more

So on to the next

It’s not quite what I’d want to hold dear

This came way to easy

I want something more challenging

I need something I’ll be proud of

So on to the next

I could quit and move on to something else

Or just sit and hope it’s just a phase

Whatever I decide it soon passes

And I’m on to the next

It all never seems to end

Starting over whenever I think it should end

Just some endless circle of discontentment

We might never be truly free of

Spoke to my mum today! It has suddenly become so much fun talking with my family than it has ever been all my life and there’s always so much love, smiles and joy whenever I do.

Rumor has it that Aliko Dangote wants to buy off some stakes in Arsenal Football Club… I don’t even know what to think! Is he a ‘bad guy’ about to put Nigerians more on the global scene or does he think this is an investment in a Cement and bagging company?