Early last year, while I was at work, I called my son, Jesse, who was back at home. This was during the first week of January, when he had not resumed school yet. I called him telling him how my budget has been tight and how his schooling abroad might be quite imaginary, when you take a close look at it. Most definitely, he was not happy, he was really sad as a matter of fact. So he called his mum, who I had already discussed with on this matter before calling him, telling her all I said to him on the phone. Later in the evening when my wife got back home, she called him and said, “Jesse, what exactly do you want?” Jesse is a very reasonable child who understood how much his parents were going through, the amount of fees his parents were already paying for his two sisters, Idara and Mmayen who are going through school overseas also. He knew that what I said to him on the phone was genuine, so he replied his mum, ‘Could I take the SAT exam first?’

When I got back home no one said anything to me, so I thought the boy had accepted his fate as it was. The next day he and his mum went off to register for the SAT exam and also buy the books which he could use to study for the exam. He went off to school the next week. When my wife went to their school on an Open Day that term, the first teacher she met was his Math teacher and she told her that her son who was formally an average student was now topping the class. My wife left his school that day happy.

In June 2014, he took his first SAT exam. His result was pretty good, but he decided that he wanted to take the exam again in December that same year. In this year, he was in SS2. He finished that year in school being the best in Math, Further Math, and Physics. I realized that something had awoken the giant in my son. When he got back home from summer that year during that period of time when schools were all closed due to the Ebola disease crisis, he spent most of his time then, studying for his exam coming up in December. When he got back from school he got help from his English teacher, who really liked him. When the results for the second exam came out, we were all happy; myself, my wife, my daughters and everyone who I had told about his result were happy; everyone apart from Jesse. He felt he could do better. But that was the last time he had to take the exam, he had WAEC coming up in April, so we could not allow him to retake the exam again. However, before he went back to school in January 2015, he used the result to apply for admission abroad. All he had left to do was pray.

He was at school for a very long time due to the preparation for the WAEC exam, so his mum followed up with the admission process. His first admission came up towards the end of February and it happened that that was the school he wanted to go to. He was happy, but it was not actually the admission that was the problem, it was the fees. The fees were really high but I did not want to kill his joy. He noticed that I was not genuinely happy with the news of his admission so he confronted me and asked me why. I told him that I could not afford the fees. He said to me “Let God do what He does. Let God remain true.” I guess the boy’s faith overshadowed mine.

Two weeks later he had come back home so that he could take the tests and immunizations, which were required for his VISA application. He went out with his mum after I had gone to work. When they returned, his mum left him at home because she had to go to the salon to get her nails and hair done. She did not know that was not the best place she could have gone to receive a phone call from Jesse saying, “Mummy, I just got my scholarship.” Yes, he said, “My scholarship” because he had it since. His mum did not even know how to celebrate with her legs and fingers all occupied. He called me and told me as well. I left work immediately and called it a day. I told all my colleagues at work, I just could not withhold the happiness in me. I just had to go home and take my beloved son out. The scholarship covers over half the actual fees. I am really proud of that boy, not just for the scholarship, which he got, but also mostly for his untouchable faith. Nothing is imaginary with God. God is truly great!