NIGERIAN BOY IN UK

WISHES ARE HORSES

February 2015, I called Ogooluwa(my student) to my office and asked him to apply for an Essay Competition. He burst into uncontrollable laughter ‘cause he knew 'we both knew' he had issues with his writing. Then, I asked a simple question- “ Do you see yourself traveling to The United Kingdom?
That piqued his interest but he laughed some more.

OUR CONVERSATION
Me: Would you like to travel to UK?
Ogo:  Me? How Aunty, how? Where can we get the money? You know how things are now... 

Me: 💆🏾‍♀ Ogo, it is a yes or no question please😩
Ogo: Okay! Yes, I do. But how...
Me:  By preparing for an Essay Competition that will hold in 2 days time.
Ogo: When hell freezes...
Me: Over your mouth. Now have a seat, we need to teach you how to act on a plane. Trust me, you are winning this competition,.

That day, was the turning point for both of us. We worked on his writing and Ogo read till daybreak. He qualified for the first stage, beating thousands of students from public and private schools in Nigeria. For the second stage, he wrote an examination and broke a tie to qualify for the next stage (16 kids left) . Then came the SHOCKER! The next stage was a presentation. You see, Ogo had a slight stutter and terrible stage fright. He told me at that point that was the end of the production.

Ogo: I can't do this, Ask me to do anything but this.
Me: You can’t or won’t do it? Ogo, after how many stages? 😑😑We  die here o!
 Ogo: Aunty, I can’t face the crowd😰.
Me: We are facing the congregation.😏. Not just that, we are beating the congregation.


My people, Ogo faced the crowd on the finals. He joined his church's choir, assembly presenters and every presenting group to build his confidence. At a point, I was using my hands to clap to demonstrate how to pace. It was rigorous, time- consuming , but we were determined.  Ladies and gentlemen, Ogo won that very competition and travelled to our UNITED KINGDOM some weeks after.  He told me he literarily peed his pants on stage but who cares, he won.  On the day he was to travel, I called him to send an essay for another competition, he did send it, not minding the fact that he was traveling. He won again( scholarship) .

 When he came back to Nigeria, foreign accent and chill🤣🤣🤣, I took him to about 3 more competitions and he aced everything. You definitely can't have a taste of victory and want to make friends with failure. Dreams do come true to them that believe and work hard.