2009| FIGHTING THE SYSTEM

2009!

The year was 2009, I was in my final year in primary school. We were selected by an NGO to champion a child government scheme that was meant to allow children to add their voice to the pursuit of peace on the Plateau.

The scheme was grand in that it chose students who could talk articulately and indeed our voice was loud. There was large coverage of the event, NTA, PRTV etc. We met with the Governor, with the Gbom Gwom Jos, with the members of House of Assembly and with many other stakeholders.

It was really fun!

It was a real government, just that it was a child government. We were given some form of power for 24 hours during that time. We had our Governor, Deputy Governor, Speaker etc. Yours truly was the Commissioner of Police.

We had some of the best meals I could ever imagine as at then. Ate the best snacks, used the best cars and met with the most influential people in government. I don't fully remember but I think it was for a week we did.

All was well.... Until money issues came up.

The program was richly funded by an international NGO. The government gave cash for the program and so many dignitaries gave out cash too. As kids, we were given some allowances from the donations received. That was enough for us. Coupled with the fun that the program came with, man, we didn't need more. However, my school was deeply chagrined. They believed that they should be given some share of the money. They said that we were their children, hence they deserve to "benefit on our heads". After serious conversations, they threatened to hold us back if the organizers do not release some money to them.

And indeed they decided to hold us back when the money didn't come forth! Yours truly was chagrined. I believed what we were doing was a just cause. Irrespective of their money squabble, our peace campaign was going great and ought to be undertaken until the end.

I boycotted my school authority. I attended the program for the remaining days. We were supposed to be 3, for the last few days, I was the only representative from my school. The remaining 2 could not even imagine taking the step I had taken.

My school was outraged. They sent outrageous messages to me but I persisted. I was right. The pursuit of a peaceful cause was more important than the battle for money, more so, the money they were demanding was not for us, it was for their stomach. They were just selfish. Period.

On a faithful Monday, I resumed school, the campaign was over. I was told I will lose my prefectship. All round the school management office, I was needed. The principal, the guidance and counselor, all the big authorities, called for me. But you know what, none of them had a case as powerful as mine, they were stunned. They could not build a substantial case against my rebellion, there only argument was that I was stubborn in a vague sense. I replied that I did what I did because I had to, and I did for the whole state, I argued. It was as though the whole school was against me; but I didn't think about anything else, I was not afraid anymore, my prefectship, my friends that I had lost, the new look of a rebel, the impact of that on my acceptance amongst teachers, the suspension they had threatened, all those didn't matter I was on the right side of history I believed.

I wasn't removed from my prefectship role. The school backed down. 1 boy against a school system. I didn't apologize. They knew they wrong.

It was the first time I went against an authority system, but it was not the last.

I was 12 but in many ways, that event reshaped my thinking. It was the first time I understood the powers that will fight you if you want to do good in my country. It was the first time I came in contact with how corrupt an entire system could be. It was also the first I knew that standing up for what's right is dangerous but worthy.

They struck backed by denying me some privileges. In fact, I wasn't the one who collected my primary school certificate. Someone had to get that for me.

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

When I read these words in early 2014, they resonated well with me, I fully understood them;

"Once a child is not given a right in which he believes in, he has no option other than to become an outlaw" Nelson Mandela.

Little did I know that by December of the same year, I will have to pass through the same words again. This time around, it was brutal, in a most complicated story.

........ A story for another boring Sunday.