By Abdulrasaq kamaldeen
It was around 6:20 a.m on a Thursday that Shola woke up from bed to prepare for an 8:00 a.m. morning lecture. As it is very common among students to have something in their stomachs before going to morning classes, Shola had thought on what to eat before going to class. “ Abi make I put noodles on fire or make I drink garri,” he said confusingly in Nigeria English
Shola had been thinking about this for almost 30 minutes without knowing what to take in. Suddenly, he stood from his bed to take his bath so that he could catch up with the early morning class. After the bath, Shola, didn’t any longer bother himself about which of the foods to eat has he discovered that he’s running out of time and had only #200 with him. He thought the money would serve him better with “denkeli” and “awara” as one of the foods on the Danfodiyo’s land.
On getting to the lecture venue, he met some of his coursemates sitting under a tree. He asked, “What happened that you are sitting under a tree?” Ridwan (one of his coursemates) replied, “The lecturer is yet to arrive.” Shola, while looking for where to sit, was relieved from his fear, for he thought his mates came late and were chased out of the class.
A few moment later, as the lecturer’s presence was not ascertained, one of his coursemates backed his bag to take his leave, telling Ridwan to help him write his name on the attendance sheet if perhaps the lecturer comes (Ridwan nods affirmatively).
As it was 9:30 a.m, Shola also decided to go back to his hostel by seriously complaining of hunger like someone who’s been fasting for 3 days without a break. Meanwhile, Shola couldn’t hold his thoughts and started thinking of food that would sustain him at the rate of 200. Without giving too much thought, Shola decided to go to Benji to buy “denkeli” and “awara” for #180 and pure water for #20.
30 minutes after Shola had left, he received a call from one of his coursemates that the lecturer had entered the lecture hall. Shola’s mind was kept in confusion because the lecture’s actual time was about to be exhausted. “How can a lecturer be fixing a lecture time now after his time his about to be exhausted,” Shola said angrily.
A few moment after students in the class had received 30 minutes lecture, the lecturer gave a test and vowed to grade it with 20 marks to inflict punishment on students who could not exercise patience till the lecture period elapses.
As Shola heared of the test graded with 20 marks, the information saddened him and realized his mistake of impatience.