MY UNANSWERED PRAYER BECAME MY ANSWERED PRAYER

I am devoted Christian who is very careful to do the necessary things to be holy. I am an undergraduate of geology, this is my two years in the university, in this two years I ensure to create a balance between my academics and faith in God oh I forgot to tell you that I am also a determined worker in a church around my campus, I don’t miss any church program even those that collide with my academics, it almost seems I prioritize going to church than going to class but it is not really like that am just trying to follow the word that says “God first” and please note I am not stupid to neglect the main reason of my being in Ekiti for my studies and this is evident in my results, although I am not a first class student but my grade is not bad either, I can say I am in between doing fine.

At 200 level I was made head of a department in my church, everybody see that coming so it was just a confirmation of everyone's mind. This new position I was given put me into more hard work. Now I know, how uneasy it is to be a leader. I am virtually always present at church every day if not for mid week service, it will be for special service or some exco’s meeting. As I said before I need to increase my hard work and shed more from my free time so my activities will not encroach on my academics. By the end of 300 level when the full session result comes out I discovered that my result had a boost, an unimaginable boost in my performance that I couldn’t achieve even in those days when I have less responsibility and coupled with the fact that there are different complexities that comes in 300 level. At some point, I almost give up that I might be having my worst result that year but here I am with this surprise, hmmmm, truly no one serve God and God will not reward the person, I am a living testimony, I shouted this loud, oooops, I forgot that I am at the faculty, so everyone focus their gaze on me including those who were hit by catastrophe of “F” fatai as we always call it then, I felt pity for them.

The next Sunday was a testimony day for me, I wish you can see the way I shared the testimony with an unimaginable joy, it almost looked like I am being proud but yet why won’t I pride in God that made me the best worker in his vineyard that year and also crowned it for me with excellent result even when I less expected it.

Fast forward to 400 level first semester, I discovered that we have less course workload just the project that look challenging here but I have no problem with that, one of those skills that I am sure of, is the ability to write great content and make great research, there is even this common mantra among students in my school then that says that when you scape through 300 level without F, nothing will make you to have carryover again and thereby spill. I have this confidence in me that I have already succeeded my 400 level already and this confidence is not because of what believe people but based on strong belief on God, I know I am not serving a God of failure, yes I know it, so I need not to panic, the one that cooked good result for me in 300 level even when I less expected it is still at the fireplace doing his work.

Then 400 level first semester result came out and to my greatest shock, I had a “F” in an unimportant course, it all look like a joke to me till I went to meet the lecturer and the lecturer emphasized to me that I failed the course and he has nothing that he can do about it, I was totally devastated, I don’t know where to start from, I don’t know how it happened. I was drowned in this thought as I was going home, I almost collided with an incoming bike, God have mercy. How will i tell my friends and hostel mate that I, the Mr Godly brother that advise them to be serious, has gotten a carryover at the terminating point of graduation with a risk of having extra years or how will i tell my church mate and my group members where I was a leader that their brother has a carryover and is on the verge of spilling. This endless thought create a mask of hatred over my zeal for God, my once buoyant faith lost life and becomes lifeless.

Oh lord! Why will you leave me to be reproached and shamed, this was the words coming from every audible channel in my body to God. You won’t know the enormity of my pain until i tell the part I skipped in the story where my brother has been admitted in a big federal University that year and would be in 200 level, the same little brother that just entered Jss 1 when I was in SS 3, I have to struggle with Jamb and the rest to get admission to the university and here I am again, common to graduate I cannot graduate.

I didn’t go to church the Sunday of that week and the subsequent weeks, my church members called and called I did not pick, when they try to visit I am always lucky to see them afar as they approach and I run away but there was this day I was so unlucky, my path crossed the pastor path, like not the members or other people but the pastor. seriously!!!, what da heck. You know I still have some good amount of conscience in me although I have lost my love for God so I have to tell the pastor the truth as he interrogated me concerning my not coming to church, my pastor could be a good detective when it comes to asking questions. After I narrated the whole story my pastor couldn't understand how everything came to happen, He understands my hardwork and seriousness at church activities and he can easily relate to the fact that I won't also be slothful in my academics, at some point he had to succumb to the believe that all this situation was a devil work even though my pastor doesn't believe in such most time but this time story has changed. The pastor word of ''This is a devil's work" drove me into a very deep thought of why should God made me laboratory experiment for this very shameful incidence by the devil, though the story of Job keep flipping in my mind but....... But..... But.... God this is not right, so my days of prayers, worship and service with you can just be neglected so easy, even one of my close friend that I have been advising and preaching for since 100 levels till today about you God, that I force to read and study made good result. At the climax of this thought, my mind dropped in a deep ditch, It made me struggle to breath, I don't know what happened but I remembered that I saw my pastor holding my hand and supporting me with his other hand, ooooops, what has happened, I asked within myself. Anyway I came back to my normal sense all to know that it was just a figure who had been standing since in front of the pastor, like I did not hear sixty percent of our conversation, I was just nodding my head in attestation involuntarily, lost in thought I guess.

My meeting with the pastor ended with an assurance, since he is a lecturer, I mean a professor with a high position in my school so if he said that he will see the lecturer that failed me and see if it can be reversed, I know he can and I have no doubt on it, this assurance aroused my hope but at the other end of my thought, I asked myself why should it be me.

The Sunday came when pastor said he will give me feedback, that Sunday I need to go to church so I go to church, my going to church that day was like a stranger just getting to a place, all the shyness, gentility and calmness, this was not me, I know that. The worst part I thought time should had shrinked out was when people keep coming to me asking what happened, we didn't see you for past three weeks in church, you aren't picking our call, are you sick and I was at the middle been hit by this hail of questions, I almost feel like bursting out and shout please guys chill, Biko, make una no kill me with questions. No I can't do that, I need to be diplomatic, also In my list of action is that I don't want to lie, what will I say, please help guys. Lastly I just have to give them this complicated answer that I am facing a serious matter now so it need me time to heal, that answer was true but it is like an ambiguous riddle that is hard to crack.

Then the much anticipated time came, time to hear feedback from my pastor, I was so positive on this but pastor called me and said the unexpected, the same response I got several attempts after to beg the lecturer with my friends and other people that I think could influence the change of the matter, same response I am still having as I wrote my final exam in my second semester after an almost completed outstanding project. Everything is settled already if not for the No response I am having from the evil incarnate lecturer. A day after my final paper I started three days marathon prayer hoping to see God provoked over my situation and save me from the imminent shame coming on me.

And the result came out with fear I started the checking from my second semester exam because I had the man course to do in second semester, this time a very important course with 4 units, he gave me a B wow, l was almost celebrating before my mind gossip to me, "hey bro, have you check the rest?" Then I checked the rest, and what is left is just that one but, the same but all the while, nothing was changed over that issue. This time I was angry within me, I walked to the faculty with a sharp and arrogant walk, people who saw me were like, was wrong with this brother? I don't care again, I must confront this evil lecturer, then I got to his office, I began to shout and making complain, telling him how I begged and begged, Don't he have someone like me at home. After my whole shout, the man was sitting there calmly looking at me then he said something "hey son, I gave you what you did and nothing can be done on it, if I was wicked I would have repeated the same over your second semester result or give you a worst result but you worth a good result and that replicate in the grade, I hope you have seen it, so I am not a wicked lecturer. If you have a carryover in my course due to whatever reason be humble to resit it or spill in whatever case it may be but I assure you that I am not going to wave it and nobody I mean nobody can change my mind so good bye. At the fullstop of this word, I know what I am in for, I looked all round the office like I am finding something, more like I am finding a club to hit this man to dead, as I was looking then I discovered that we are even three in the office, didn't discover and the third person is this girl, this girl can obviously gossip anything in the world, she is so pathetic, she is like a moving satellite. Now I know my final fate and I have gotten a medium that will distribute the good news to the world.

As I moved out from the office, my life experienced a great transition. I became carefree and i loose my character constraint. immediately I got home I took my phone and I called my parent and everybody that needs to know that I am spilling, though it was a shock to them, what followed their conversation was how did it happen and all other questions of that kind, mtchew!!! I don't have time for too much interrogation, i jus tell them simply that I don't know what happened. The following days, week and months was the moment of revelation to people about my extra year to be used. At first, the extra year make me seclude myself from People, the extrovert me becomes introvert. Woooo at a point, I shed off those thought of shame and insult and I become big brother to other undergraduate in my compound, truth be told I am a big brother, these little young undergraduate might not have a brother as old as 28 years old me.

I dropped alot in my going to church and downgraded to just a regular good bench warming member. My extra years does not bother me any longer, just sometimes I feel bad when people act insultive.

Fast forward to almost four years, alot has happened, I have become older, 31 years old and have become wiser just that I am still walking the corners of University finding a way out. I have champions the argument that life after school is scrap many times, I have gone advanced to advice people that no work after school so me myself I have become a good business man, owning different small business like cyber café and business centre. It's been two years now that money was sent to me last, I don't even know because I am living fine, infact more than those days I was mummy and daddy child. I got a spill after the spill I first had on the same course, this one was due to missing script, who knows maybe the evil lecturer orchestrated it. This time I become chairman of the extra year circle, almost everyone know me, every corner I go you see them hailing, that was fun though But I still need to move with my life and those are the days I am sober a little. My extra year was aided with the academic delay in my school, the strike and all.

Then.... I heard my younger brother who was in a better school with good academic calendar was to be writing final exams before me, the delay in my school has shrink more than one year gap between us. I did not even cry about it, since I have developed an addiction to those everybody have their time motivational speaker.

Many days after he became graduate based on the end of exam and hopefully he will be graduating since I heard that he is on a journey of a first class so no D in his result before talkless of F. I almost thought it was generational curse that was at work in me but my brother case make me discard that lazy thought.

. Yeah!!! I am through with the exam again and this should be the last because any other failure means either I will be sent off from school or handed a certificate of attendance as they call it.

The result will be delayed this time since all public University went on a general strike, some schools couldn't continue with the four months old strike and my younger brother university was one. When I walk around the school environment, I use to hear people complaining about the strike, I just look at them and shake my head, i have been in this school to experience two generations and I know one thing for sure that strike is a regular ritual in Nigeria University, more like a regular two - two years thing. We pray our government will one day have sense to make plans in regulating our educational system.

In the afternoon of 19th April 2014 when I was in shop, I received a call from my parent, specifically my Daddy, I was very shocked because it has been longed he called me, let's say he do call me annually, I suppose you know the date the call will be and I have received this year call. Something serious would have happened for him to call me, I prayed it is positive, so I picked the call. After he said hello, he paused for a while like he is finding the next word he want to use , after the break some powerful word come out "see your life, you are just waste of money and a bad example and nothing but a failure, your brother has been certified graduate today but you for four years you can't study common geology, you better go learn vulcanizer and the call was hanged'. I can't explain the sensation that came over me after the call, I was so mad that I have to break the innocent plastic table in front of me.

God! Is this what you want for me, to make me an object of reproach. I couldn't wait till evening to close shop before I go home that day. As I got home, I jumped on the bed, buried in thought and tears was flowing from my eyes. I was in this agonizing thought when I switched off, the next thing that woke me up at 5am the second day was the ringing of my phone, who could be calling me again this early morning. As I looked at the phone, I discovered the caller was my mum, never will I pick this call, never will I hear part two of yesterday insultive talk. I immediately silenced my phone and I resume back to part two of my sleep.

6:30 am I finally wake up, my phone has been flooded with calls from my family members, including my street friends. So what could have happened, everybody couldn't have hate me or is it that my Daddy asked people to apologise on his behalf over what he did yesterday, alot of thoughts hover in my mind. There is even a message, I quickly opened the message since I discovered it is from my close friend at home. As I read the message, I shook my head to discard the message. No, this can never be true. I immediately dial my mum's number but she didn't pick, I called my dad, same thing. Hey, could this be true? Then I dialed the phone number of my other brother at home, this time the call was picked. Immediately he picked, I was hearing noise at the background, hey bro what is happening? Why is everyone calling my no?. His answer was the same thing my friend told me. My just graduated younger brother slept yesterday night and in the midnight he shouted for help, gasping to breathe, he was rushed to the hospital and that was it. At 4am this morning he died. The boy that graduated just two days, What could have happened? How could a boy who just graduated with first class, who became the joy of my parent and their pride, who is so intelligent and smart die just like that. Why will the best just die and we, I mean failed people like us still leave strong, hmmmm seven wonders of the world. Today was the finishing of yesterday terror so I resumed fully back to my sorrow.

Two weeks after the sad news, our result was posted and this time I become a graduate with 2.1 grade, and I was so happy, my happiness is not because I am graduate today but because of a better reason.

This is the real story behind my today's joy; if I had graduated the time I should graduate, i mean fours year before now, I would have died because of the cursed my father earned during his service year when he impregnated a lady which he refused to take responsibility and forced the lady to do abortion which later bounced back and led to the life of the lady to be on the line, during her moment of pain, he cursed my dad that whoever among his child in the future that becomes the first to graduate shall die and that is the reason why my younger brother died. So all prayer, service and sacrifice to God was never a waste as I thought, the delay that made me far from God was actually God blessing me and I am replying back as evil, ooooh Jesus forgive me. I choose to love you back with all my life.

Today I understand that the four extra years which made me study geology a four years course for eight years was a buyout for my life. My fellow graduate were surprised how a pitiable person like me who struggled for years to graduate from a course could be this happy. They never know the story, they never know the blood and pain that birthed today. They see me as a pitiable ordinary graduate but I can see a very lucky guy whose answered prayer has just been approved.

Sometimes delay in life is actually a blessing, we usually blame God when things are not working as planned but we forgot to understand that our God is a the Alpha and Omega, He knows the end from the beginning. What might be keeping your request might be what is still keeping you alive.

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I am speechless!!