Few weeks ago, I was driving on Onitsha expressway and stopped briefly under the Limca interchange to pick a call. Suddenly, an Awka bus pulled up beside me, the bus conductor jumped out and landed by my side. I was about to be robbed. I was damn scared.

However, the conductor had other plans.

'Awka, Awka, Awka...'

I heaved a sigh of relieve and breathed deeper, then I saw a guy I'd known for long. Years of separation couldn't play on me any trick. He was one of the brightest guys in our class, and had won for us a couple of Inter-School competitions.

He was of a modest middleclass family that valued education and when he says a word is 'adjectival proverb' or 'future present past participle', we dared not argue because he was usually right. He was damn bright.

Always ahead, he had a way of mentally working out complex mathematical equations without writing. He was a silent threat to the teachers and would sometimes challenge their answers which later earned him cold hates. IG, was that hot and was named one of the most likely boys to succeed in our class.

'Awka, Awka, Awka' he continued.

I pushed out my head from the car and shouted his nick name.

'IG'

He was shocked. Only his old allies would know that name, I guessed. He looked intently at me and then screamed. I came out of the car and we hugged fiercely, like old thieves, gallons of his sweat rubbing all over me, but I cared not. I was happy to see my old friend.

‘Guy what’s up? You look posh'

He hailed loudly in street parlance. We however couldn't talk as he had to get back to work, and his driver 'bus' was blaring the horn angrily. I took his phone number and watched him go adoringly.

IG, ran back to the moving Awka bus, jumped in and clung tightly to the door as if his entire life depended on it. He gave me a parting smile and flashed a decolorized teeth supposedly darkened by excessive marijuana smoking and deepseated apathy to dental hygiene.

God, what happened?

I stood, rooted to that spot and sadly watched him disappear into the fast moving Awka buses.

Then came flurry of emotion.
I cried. Why is life like this?

As I drove on, I flashed back to another flip-sided slice of life that made me conclude afterall that life is a scam.

I was on GRA in Onitsha and stopped at Junction to ask for direction. I was admiring the guys doing their works with much passion when a black Range Rover halted suddenly behind me and the screech of the tyres made me dive for safety.

God forbid bad thing. He was about to hit me?

While on the safer side, I glanced back to see the idiot behind the wheel, then I saw a familiar face. 'No way, it couldn't be him' I argued within me, then wiped my face for a clearer vision. The loser was still there, smiling stupidly. The face rang a louder bell, and of course, I remembered him.

'What in hell could Chidi, be doing inside this Range Rover?' I queried myself.

It is tragic to be dumb, and a tragedy to be stupid, but it is a curse to be both. Chidi was dumb and stupid. His parents were extremely poor. That, conjoined with his non-existent academic performance which affected his confidence and social life, he was simply termed a failure and had severally been assured he wouldn't amount to anything in life. He agreed, and we all agreed with him. So we treated him as nobody, a scumbag.

‘Well, maybe Chidi had finally fulfilled his destiny and become a driver as predicted' I concluded, grinning sheepishly.

What a stupid miscalculation. He was a made man.

Chidi, the dullest guy in my class was the proud owner of the R2. Back then, this guy could not even write a decimal point with a bottle, but now signs cheques with gold pen and cruises posh SUVs about town. We hung out out at an expensive restaurant and he told me how he reinvented himself. He attended few crash courses, changed his orientation, worked with a shipping company in Onitsha, became hardworking and brutally honest. His boss loved him and mentored him in shipping and importation business until he stated his own company.

Wow.
Chidi!
A CEO of a Shipping Company?
Chidi!
A scum of the earth?

I couldn't sleep that night as I kept musing over IG and Chidi.

So I concluded like the holy bible says:

"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all."

It is not over until it is over. You can still reinvent yourself. Life is a scam right? Not really if you believe in God and in yourself.

You never talk the position wey you dey na.

what a cool episode...............