What Do You Think?

I have a short story to tell you and at the end of it, I would like you to share your thoughts with me

5 years ago, I attended a program in Owerri and met some young fellas (4 of them between 18 and 20 then) who wanted to be friends with me. I gave ear to each of them in what they would like to be when they are grown up. They all had eyes facing the sun, but I said nothing to dampen their enthusiasm of living the life they wanted to live, I encouraged them to reach for the sky and the heavenlies too were that possible.

I have kept in touch with them since then and vice versa and I have also kept tabs on their development

The youngest of them who was 18 then had the dream of becoming a Medical Doctor - said he feels moved whenever anyone was sick or feeling indisposed, he was always willing to be of help. After more than 3 years of trying to secure admission to read Medicine and Surgery, he finally succeeded last year and is now in his Pre-Med Class - he lost like 4 years trying to start the process of achieving his dream

Two of the guys who were 19 then and were already in Institutions of Higher Learning as at when they met me, pursuing courses they felt pressured to pursue but after speaking with me, thought to follow their passions and their dreams decided to do a u-turn to seek course change in the Institutions where they already were admitted and were fortunate enough to be granted such changes, they are both now into the 3rd year in pursuing the course that their heart beats quicken to.

The last guy and who was the oldest at 20 as at the time he met me but was yet to gain admission into any Institution, tried again after having the talk with me and did not succeed. He told me about it - I mean his failure to secure admission again - I encouraged him to try again, be promised that he was going to try again but he apparently did not; he lost touch with me, his number was no longer going through and since I didn't know him personally as in where he comes from, I could not locate him, I was really sad that I lost him but at least was happy that the other 3 were doing well - that's a good percentage score for me if I was to score myself but still I was not happy that the 4 were not complete again.

You cannot believe it when 2 months ago my old number rang, it was a foreign number, I wondered who was calling me at such unholy hour with a foreign number, but I summoned up courage to pick the call (you know in this era, how they can scam you with voice modulation and otumokpo in their voices but I pleaded the blood of Jesus and took the call). I could not recognize the voice speaking on the other end, but when he called his name and the circumstance under which we met and then he came back to my consciousness. Where are you calling from I asked him, he told me it was Togo and what are you doing there I asked him, he said he was stranded and needed help.

He proceeded to tell me how he was frustrated with seeking admission to Nigerian Institutions of Higher Learning to read a course of his choice as we had discussed and how when that failed he decided to learn how to buy and sell wares and how he was doing well shuttling between Cotonou and Lagos before the Nigerian Custom Service impounded his goods worth hundreds of thousands of naira that brought him down; how he tried again to raise himself by becoming a Wharf agent in lagos, where he met a white man who promised to take him to Scotland and help establish him there, how he had to sell the only land his father had to raise the money for international passport, visa and air ticket to Scotland enroute UK, how he was denied visa after all the applications and how the airline refused to refund his money stating that the flight had been assumed as taken since he booked online and how he met another Nigerian who claimed to help people to migrate to any Country in Europe through other African Countries but Nigeria and how he decided to leave Nigeria with the guy after paying him some monies he put together and even borrowed and how the guy took them to Togo (he apparently was not the only one) and dumped them there and they have no entry papers since the guy has their passport and other travel documents and how he was arrested by the Togolese authorities when he tried to find something to do to at least feed himself and then he came back to himself and remembered me and checked his old dairy where he wrote my number and was lucky to find it and then that call.

I listened to his story without any interruptions and when he was done, I asked him why he did not remember me all these years especially when he was commanding hudnreds of thousands of naira and it's only now that he has ran into troubled murky waters that he remembered him, he started crying.

I asked him what he wanted me to do for him, he said he is in detention awaiting repatriation to Nigeria and that he needs to be helped when he's back to Nigeria.

Now if you were in my shoes, what would you have done?

Thanks for reading