Thank God I was able to retrieve the money and I handed it over to
her. She went back into her room and came back to me with the
exact amount and said I could have it. I refused to accept it, but after
much persuasion, I took it reluctantly and thanked her. I was able to
pay my school fees and did some other things, having gone to the
bank to withdraw N90 out of the N100 I had earlier saved into my
account. Staying at Owo Poly was tough being a State School, and
not quite long after, I received the letter of admission into the
Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro in Ogun State. Though the letter came
late, as Ilaro had gone far into the first semester, I had to take the
risk and crossed for two reasons:
One, was the closeness to my people and the other reason being that
it was a Federal institution. In fact, I had to copy notes into the First
Semester Exams and that exercise, made me to perform very well
during the exams.
In my first year in school, I met some friends and notable among
them are Yinka Afolayan from Kwara State and Laide Ogunleye
from Ondo State. They were of tremendous help during my entire
stay in the school.
My first two years during my Diploma was historic, there was no
particular source of fund, support or help for my upkeep in the
school. With the statement my uncle made previously during the
preparatory meeting of my sister's wedding, I was robbed of
whatever assistance I could have gotten from any of my family
members that were present at the meeting, because it was a
confirmatory statement that I will get whatever I needed from him;
though he tried in some ways, but it wasn't as expected.
Another uncle who stayed in Ibadan from my father's side also did
not help matters even though I was very close to him during my
secondary school days. He was so fond of me that no one could
The G.M. in charge of the Television section of the LSBC was
sympathetic when he heard my story that he had to give me
introductory notes to both OGTV and Ondo Television but all to no
avail.A friend of mine (a school mate) visited our home one day. He did
not meet me, so he left a note saying that, at a computer
engineering firm, he was sure that they were still looking for
people to be recruited.Off I went to the company very early the following morning. I got
to the office as early as 7:10 am, they were yet to resume for the day
and so I decided to roam the area for like 30min after which I
would be back and by then, if they were yet to come; I planned to
stay at the gate till they resumed. As I stepped out to the road and I
turned, a car passed by me and instinctively I was made to go back
fully convinced that, that is the person I was going to see. Luckily
and interestingly, I met him; he happened to be the vice president
of the Engineering Department who granted me audience to know
my mission to the place. He attended to me and I was given a
written test that same day. I was asked to come back the following
Monday to be subjected to another round of interview but this
time, practical interview involving identification of components. I
was full of praises to God and my friend. A month later, my friend
and his set that had been previously interviewed were employed.I had to wait for some months later for my employment to come
through. Along the line, before my resumption, I had to be going
up and down searching for how to get job.There was a particular day during my search for a job that I had
been out since morning and I realized when I was returning home
that I had misplaced a N5 note. It was like the whole world was
caving in on me. Though it was a lot of money then, but I was able