The Opportunity

...A short story created by the BEMORE Girls as part of their project for the Creative Writing and Communication class

Image Source; Covenantgroup.com

Precious was born in Ilaje, Ondo state to an average family that lived a simple life. Her father, Mr Kunle Ajibola, works as a civil servant at the Ministry of Education. While her mother, Mrs Tina Ajibola works as an English teacher at the Aunty Ayo Secondary school just a stone throw from their home. She is 16 years old and loves to read, write and sing. Precious is known to be brilliant. Her mother talks about how she started reading at the age of 2. It’s no wonder reading became her hobby even as a teenager. She has always been the best in her class all her life and now being in SS3, she was preparing for her WAEC examinations. 

But things took a bad turn for Precious when her father died. Her mother, who missed lots of school periods after her husband’s death lost her job as a teacher. She then hawked bread in the mornings and cooked rice in the evenings to make ends meet. The financial downturn in the family caused precious to drop out of school.  She was so depressed and felt sad. Her friends consoled her and told her that everything will be fine.

Hawking goods

After dropping out, Precious decided to support her mother in order to save some money and cater for her brothers. She sold akara to the neighbours for 5 months. During this time, she passed through a lot of mockery by her school mates but she didn’t give up. She had an end in mind. Whenever she felt down, her mother’s words ‘hardwork pays’ rang in her ears.

One day while hawking, she wanted to cross the road and she was hit by a car, she fell down and her pieces of akara spiralled all over the road and some fell into the dirty gutter channels filled with stagnant smelly water. Thankfully, she was not hurt, only sustained a minor bruise on her knee. A woman came out and ran towards her, lifted her off the ground into her car;

'Oh My God, Oh my God’ Jesus, I hope you’re not hurt’ She Screamed

They got into the car and she laid her on the chair.

‘Thank God you’re not hurt’ Oh thank God’ She heaved after a while. She gave her water and let her rest for 3 minutes.

‘What is your name my dear, and what are you doing out here instead of being in school?

Precious then narrated her story beginning from the time her father died and her mother lost her job. As she spoke, the woman observed that she was very eloquent in her spoken English which made the woman pick interest in her. She inquired further about Precious’s mother’s whereabouts and after meeting her mother and learning of their family story, she was extremely touched by it and made up her mind to help. She asked that precious be in her custody for a while. So Precious went with the woman to her house.

Days passed and Precious found out that the woman is the Special Adviser to the first lady on gender issues. On a certain day, The SA needed to go for an official meeting at the government house. So she took Precious along and introduced her to the first Lady Her Excellency Mrs Betty Anyanwu Akeredolu. She told the first Lady precious’s story and recommended to here Excellency that Precious be a part of her Excellency’s BEMORE summer boot camp being a very intelligent girl. 

Her Excellency was so impressed by Precious’s eloquence and brilliance. So she sponsored Precious’s participation in the BEMORE boot camp and also offered her a Full scholarship up to university level. The BEMORE bootcamp will empower Precious with skills that will enable her be productive and outstanding in the near future.

Precious and her family were so excited about the offer and her mother shed tears of joy. Her Excellency invited Precious and her mother to the government house to give the official letter of scholarship.

‘Thank you your excellency’ Mrs Tina beamed, full of smiles

‘What more can I say?” She continued, ‘Ever since Mr Ajibola passed on, things has been so difficult for us. Thank you your Excellency for choosing to support a widow like me. We shall forever be grateful to you’’ She added.

Precious’s life changed from then on. She went on to study at the University of Leicester UK and graduated top of her class.