My name is Okon,Uyo-Obong Edem. I was born on August,1994, in Akwa Ibom. I grew up in a somewhat polygamous setting. This is because my grandfather was married to two women. My grandmother was being the younger. I heard she was really beautiful, and she had this air of command when she walked. One of her most amazing feature was her height. Little wonder my grandfather added her to his store of treasures even when he had already 2 able bodied boys with his first wife. My grandmother had 2 kids also 2 boys. My dad was the third son. It was quite a pity that my grandmother didn’t live so long to reap the fruit of her labour. She passed on to wonder land when her children were very tender. She didn’t even carry me in her arms.
My dad grew up to become a fine young man. Even with little support from his father. Not only that, he had large acres of land. Land at that time was a unit used to measure wealth. When a man had acquired large acres of land it meant he had acquired wealth. My dad struggled to live a standard life. Maybe it was because his mother was deceased. He swore never to allow his children go through such stress. Many years later he got married to my mum. The marriage gave birth to 8boys and 2girls. This is where the story of my life began.
As already stated I’m the sixth child and son. I started my nursery school in Nelson nursery and primary school in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state. Where I spent my nursery one (1) to primary four (4). My mum sent me to Okonee Nursery and primary Akwa Ibom State there is were I completed my nursery school education. I recall those times the way I would cry and run to my mum she would beat me up and send me back to my class. I didn’t pay attention in class. No wonder why i came out 15th in a class of 30. Only God knows what awaited me at home. No doubt I was given the beatings of my life. Later on. But with the help of my siblings I learnt to read, spell and write words correctly. By the time I was in my primary 3 I was a force to reckon with. I was loved by my teachers and my classmates. But, there were also critics who said I was shown the questions to examination before coming to write them. I didn’t let that bother me much. I continued in that fine form till I wrote my First School Leaving Certificate and came out in flying colours.
Sweet mum
At home my mom was a no-nonsense woman. She brought us up to the standard she wanted us to be. Those were standards like having the fear of God, showing respect to all both old and young, waking up as early as 5 a.m to start preparing for the day’s job. Even in an area as rough as the one I grew up in. We didn’t get to be like the bad boys. I sometimes, was always with my brothers in the kitchen with my mom. There I learnt to prepare so many native delicacies which includes the famous Native Afang soup, the mouth-watery Edikan-Ikong soup, the salivation ekpang nkwokwo and that is just to mention but a few. Rice and beans are the dishes I also liked to prepare most.
We were also brought up in the way of the Lord. Every Tuesdays and Thursdays I and my brothers go to church around 4p.m in the evening for choir practice. There I learnt to sing the Sol-fa notations and I was able to feature in the adult choir of Methodist Church. Singing became something I had passion for that I even thought of releasing an album. But that wasn’t possible due to financial constraint and my parents wanting me to go to school first. Later on I joined the church band where I started with learning how to play the piano. It wasn’t an easy challenge, because, at that time the members of the band purportedly didn’t want others to come in. I didn’t give up, because of the passion and drive I had for music. I endured all the pains until I was admitted into the band. I started by playing in evening services and other activities like revival programs there I found my onus. I started featuring in Sunday services too. Later on, I decided to switch to playing the drums. That’s what I play till date. I forgot I once knew how to play piano. I didn’t have a piano trainer which is one of the numerous reasons why I didn’t improve much.
My secondary school days were the fun part of my life. I went to a school, very far away from my home and at that time it was a government school so there was no provision made for school buses to convey students to and fro. That didn’t matter much because, when there was no transportation fare. I had to make do of my legs. Sometimes on the way to school. Sometimes I do meet my classmates on the way and we will trek to school together. Days when I’m late I still had walk fast but, even with that i will still be greeted by the whip of those ruthless seniors. You will hear them shout at you from the gate. Run Down! And I will just put my bag on my head and start running down the lane. When the seniors finish with me, I’ll just cry to the chapel ground. At the chapel where there was suppose to be a show of mercy. Mercy was nowhere to be found. The purported seniors will still come to check for socks, hymn books and some days when there was labour to be done, they still check for labour wears. Defaulters were always punished severely. Some days I use to be among the defaulters while some days I just skip devotion and hide somewhere in the classroom till when it was time for classes.
The teachers didn’t even help matters much because they didn’t come to class regularly therefore. They Seniors will just come in their numbers to the class and ask everyone to put their head on the desk. And before you know it, they will start hitting everybody on the back. In a twinkle of an eye they will just move to another class to continue beating others. The first three years of secondary days was like “hell in a cell” and also fun because at some point I learnt a secret by be friending some of the seniors to skip beating. Labour days were also days to worry about too; it was always Tuesdays and Thursdays. The arrangement was like this. Jss1on one line, Jss2 on the next and so on and so forth till SS2. The only class exempted was the SS3 that were always in charge of co-ordinating the labour activity. There was a time I was given a large area of grass to cut but I just ran off back home. The next day, the seniors came to check the list for those that worked. I was found wanting, but to skip that I had to give them the #100 I was supposed to use for my transport. But academically, I was still a little bit solid. The position was given after three terms and I managed to come out second out of a class of 120. I had a friend that time whose name was Isaiah, the guy was a good guy too and later on we became very good friends. We walked home together and also shared ideas and other things together. Now he is in Akwa Ibom State University studying Mechanical Engineering too. We still communicate frequently.
During my SS1 Second term, that the best time of my life in school, the organized a scholarship exams for all the best 10 student in each class using their first term grade to fetch them out and I was surprise the day I was call by the principal to received my letter of invitation for the scholarship exams, it was an honour to be recognized by the principal and at that point I made a choice that I will make my parent proud and finally the day to the exams was here and all the student where running around to get to the venue of the exams but me I was still attending class and all my classmate were asking me if I won’t go for the exams I told them I had to attend this class, after the class I went to venue and wrote the exams, then after a week the result was out and me that love playing Football I had went to play, returning to class my classmate told me that my agric. Teacher was looking for me, I won’t lie my heart skip out because the man is one of the most fearful teacher in school due to the way he do beat student if you do something wrong, but I had to summon courage to go and meet him, so when I introduce myself to him, he smile and ask me where am from and I told him ikot obio atai in itam he finished me by teliing me that my village love fighting and that the are always stubborn before he then congratulate me for coming first in my class for the scholarship, I was so happy that I hung him unknownly, before reach the class to spread the good news, all the student were waiting for me to congratulate me and I felt like a star in school.
Life after secondary school wasn’t really easy. I stayed at home for 2weeks and home became very boring. On the third week, my friend Isaiah introduce me to Badminton games and I got interest in it and 2month after joining the game I was taken to Calabar State for inter-state competiton and the I play up to quarter finals where I was eliminated by the number one badfminton player in Calabar State, Even with the defeat my coach was proud of me that just 2 month of joining the gamer I could reach that point.
But my zeal for the game made my work hard to climb the ladder to be one of the best in my State. As a badminton player I didn’t forget the ambition I had since when I was a child to become a mechanical engineer. I worked towards it by purchasing JAMB form and also sitting for the examination. I made it on my first sitting. Then I went further to purchase the then aptitude test form which I wrote and came out clean too. I was offered admission to study mechanical engineering in University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
My parents were joyous because I was not the only one being admitted. I had to do the necessary. School was at the top of my scale of preference. But I still had to create time to go for my badminton training and last year I was called upon by University of Uyo to represent them at the Nigerian University Games (NUGA) 2017 which was hosted by University of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State
and my and my doubles partner made the School proud bagging back a Silver medal from the competition we were warmly welcome by the vice chancellor of the University, what always keep me going is my mum’s words which still ring in my head “do not disappoint me son”. It a promise I could keep and I am determined to keep the promise.
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