Awoko Emmanuel

Tracing the outcome of the last presidential election, we could actually infer that we brought this peripetia upon ourselves, however, looking in-depth into all the candidates displayed by each of the political parties, none of them seems fit but it is always right to pick a choice.

My best candidate was never yours and that, oftentimes, raises a frivolous conversation that heads nowhere but within our circle. Basically, no candidate deserves my vote but for the betterment of Nigeria, I definitely have to vote. My candidate died last week, so keep your imagination of whoever I voted for.

As a student, my monthly allowance from home is five thousand naira and I really want to know how I will survive the whole month with the hike in the price of all things on campus, including my already cleared accommodation fee. Life seems harsh to me because the choice to buy things cheaply was withdrawn and majorly, the least thing that was gifted to us by God has now become thirty naira. That is water. The daily cost of living on campus has immensely increased and even data for browsing is now a threat for some of us even though we have so many slides to download, videos to watch, and even updates to follow.

Could we then say we brought this on ourselves? Actually, no! If the most loved candidate had won, Aso Rock would still never change to Aso Sand and the flow of the resources may never even reach you. That is, the certainty of our problems being solved with whoever wins is still very slim.

Moreover, we can be close to perfection, but perfection is not always certain and even when it is certain, we can still find the traces of some flaws that will make us comment that he/she tried by at least contributing to growth even though we expected more. Human wants remain forever insatiable.

While resuming to school yesterday, I heard my mother aggressively complaining about the increase in the cost of palm oil and even the increase in the cost of garri, then, my father as well joined in and said, ’’ petrol price has even increased and the fact is, I can’t really say if this is a rumour or it is the truth’’. I nearly laughed at the tone he used there, and he looked at me and said, ‘’Be careful, you will also take kerosene to school.’’ Suddenly fear gripped me cause the last time I checked, the price of a litre of kerosene was very scary and I could remember the forceful fasting I embarked on because I could not afford the money to even buy a litre of kerosene during last semester and particularly the exam period, so terrible.Now, I love proving hard guy but seeing the state of things, I was scared cause I thought I would have to trek down to school because of the rate at which my parents were nagging about the state of things in this country. It happens but my parents will still be the best parents for the sacrifices that they always pay because of me by making sure they satisfy me.Moving further, a lot kept rolling in my head and it is, how to bring about a change. I am engaged in so many activities; religious, academic, entrepreneurial, and even extracurricular activities and just to build capacity on campus. All these may matter and it may as well not matter. I am more concerned about how not to be distracted looking at the fact that I am in my final year on campus and I must make Mama and Papa proud.

Major concern, imagine my parents, families, and friends coming all the way that far during my convocation just for them to come and celebrate a 4 years certificate that is nothing to write home about. Absolutely, it is a waste of time and resources. Perhaps, if they had invested in agriculture, they would actually see the reward and profit they are laboring for, and on. However, they chose me above any other things.Here I am in school, it is either to go hard and it is never a choice to go home. I hope that rings as everybody’s mantra. Education is not the end but it is a means to an end. That is, it is not the determinant factor to success even with the system that has maintained the same syllabus for decades.

In conclusion, I am reminded of the need to take my academics serious even when other activities are choking. Nigeria is hard and that is one major reason why I must also be hard on myself.