A DREAM COME TRUE ( Student's inspiration to success in education, Chapter 5)

It's another week of the inspirational story that can lead to student's success in education.

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CHAPTER FIVE-

Asuama and the two of his brothers were doing very well in school. His immediate elder brother, Asanga, was in primary four, while his younger brother, Okutama, was in primary two. Asuama was in primary three. Asuama had been consistently taking the lead in his class. He was always taking first or second position from primary one to his present class. Asuama's other two brothers, Asanga and Okutama, had not been doing badly either, but Asuama had always beaten them in grades.

Asuama had passed into primary four. Unlike the previous classes, Asuama was required to pay school fees in his present class. Things were really difficult for the family, but Mrs Akon Atanguma managed to squeeze out some money to pay Asanga's school fees and was hoping that things would get better so that when Asuama crossed into the next class which he was required to pay fees, she would be able to cope with the burden of the two children's school fees.

Upon all that Akon Atanguma was passing through to get some money for her children's school fees, her husband, Chief Atanguma, never showed any concern. He had never given her any assistance. For him, education was a wasteful enterprise that should be left for rich people to gamble with, out of their abundant resources. His older sons were not thinking differently from their father. All the money they made from palm fruits harvesting business had been saved to enable them to get married soon. Akon, therefore, had to bear the burden of shouldering the responsibility of training her three younger sons alone.

That year, their three younger sons excelled in their promotion examinations. They had never fared better previously. The three of them, Asanga, Asuama, and Okutama, took first positions in their respective classes, and the whole school and village shook! The headmaster, Mr. Asibong Effiom had assembled all the pupils in the assembly hall with all the class teachers for the announcement of the result of their examinations. Mr Effiom would only call the best three pupils in each class. It was a moment of decision to know who would pass to a new class or in the following school session or who would repeat their former classes.

The hall was as quiet as a grave yard. Indeed, it was as if all the heads of weaver birds nesting on a tree had been chopped off in one fell swoop. Mr Effiom stood up to read the results from primary one to five.

When he came to primary two, he announced in his barritone voice.

"The first person in that class of 150 pupils is Okutama Atanguma Esenowo, and the second position goes to..."

There was an applause. Mr Effiom continued: "The first position in primary three, a class of 170 pupils, goes to Asuama Atanguma Esenowo, and the second position to..."

There was louder and prolonged applause. The applause hardly died down when Mr Effiom continued:

"And the first person in primary four is Asanga Atanguma Esenowo...!"

There was a thunderous ovation that almost pulled down the building. Teachers and pupils could no longer hold back themselves. They surged forward to embrace and hug the three exceptional pupils who have created record in the school and had made their family proud. It was a joyous day in the school and for Atanguma's family. At the end of the assembly, Mr Effiom posed with the three boys in a group photograph as a memorial. Throughout that week in Mkpetim village, the brilliant performance of these boys was the subject of discussion.

That evening, friends and relations thronged into Chief Atanguma's house to congratulate the family for the success story of their children. One of the visitors was Usendia, the village wisecrack.

Usendia, whose real name was Asuquo Mkpong, was like a vulture. He would attend every function, no matter how small or remote, in the community. He appeared to possess a special nose which he would scent where a function was holding and would trace his way to the place without delay. In addition, Usendia had a "foul tongue." He would satirize or make caricature of people's foibles, no matter how friendly he was with them, or highly placed the people were in the society.

That evening, Akon, out of great joy and excitement in seeing her labour and sacrifice begin to yield fruit, killed a giant cock for a special meal for her three children, "the book champions" as Usendia nicknamed them. Mrs Atanguma had preserved the giant cock for sale to augment Asanga's school fees of £1:4 shillings: two pence per term; but out of great euphoria, she was compelled to slaughter it.

Usendia arrived Chief Atanguma's compound at the nick of time when the meat had just been put down from the fire, and it was still sizzling. Chief Atanguma sat on his specially constructed low stool with his legs astride, ready to share the meat on a plantain leaf, when he sighted his friend, Usendia, strolling into the compound. Chief Atanguma threw one costly joke at him:

"I was wondering whether the scent buds in your nostrils have decayed, so that you could not scent the smell of the meat soup from your house and rush down!" Chief Atanguma jokingly remarked.

Usendia who was always at his best during such jokes, hit back at Chief Atanguma.

"Shameless idiot, see you, you have now become the chairman of meat sharing, but you cannot become the chairman of paying school fees for your boys", he said.

He turned to Asuama, Asanga and Okutama. "Please keep on taking first position in your school so that your father would continue to eat cocks killed by your mother!" Usendia added.

It was a very bitter joke! Chief Atanguma was badly hit and he dared not say anything against Usendia again that night.

The following evening, Mr Effiom visited the family with some presents packets of biro pens, dozens of exercise books, rulers, packets of crayons, pencils and drawing books, among others. They were well thought out items which the children had been lacking, and which would really assist them immensely in the new school session. The headmaster sat with the family and counselled both parents and children on the benefits of education in the modern world. At this point, Chief Atanguma called Asanga to go and bring a keg of palm wine for "Teacher Effiom," but Mr. Effiom restrained the boy and said he would drink it after the meeting.

Mr Effion was on a very serious mission on that visit, quite unlike the previous ones. He had noticed
the great potentials in the three boys - Asuama, Asanga, and Okutama - and had also noticed the indifferent attitude of their father, Chief Atanguma, toward their education. The headmaster took time to explain the benefits of education and the need for Chief Atanguma to support his children's educational pursuits.

"The road to education may be narrow, winding and full of thorns and pain, but in the end, one will wear a crown and receive praises and honour that will never fade away", the headmaster concluded.

Mr Effiom passionately urged Atanguma and his wife to join hands together to educate their children.

"The way you make your bed is the way you will lie on it," he counselled.

That is the end of chapter five. See you in chapter six.

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