Allah wa kuba! The Imam cried out and worshippers ran to the mosque for the morning prayer. It was 5:30 AM. A young boy named Okeychukwu got up from his bed and hurried to the bathroom to take his bath as he was to leave Ibadan for Enugu State.
“Have you taken your bath?”, Mother asked.
“I will be done in a minute”, Okeychukwu replied.
The alarm rang it was 6:00 AM, Okeychukwu and his mother set out to Enugu bus terminal where her son could take a bus going to Enugu State. After hours of putting passengers’ luggage, the terminal called for departure time for Enugu bus. All passengers went in and the driver began to move out of the terminal. Okeychukwu’s mother waved hands to say good-bye to her son.
Many hours of driving, the bus arrived in one of it terminals in Enugu State. The passengers alighted and moved out to their various destinations. Okeychukwu who got admission in one of the prestigious Universities in Nigeria—University of Nigeria, Nsukka to study Economics. He went straight to the school’s hostel where he had paid for accommodation as a fresher.
Three weeks in Nsukka, Okeychukwu joined a church that was a stone’s throw to his hostel. He was handed a flyer during the church’s crusade, so he made it possible to attend a service in the church. He came to the church the following Sunday with his Yoruba attire. This was not new to the people because there were diverse ethnic groups in Enugu State. At the end of the service, the preacher opened up to the members that the church needed more souls for Christ and more persons in the church’s choir. So Okeychukwu heard of it and decided to join the choir group even when he knew he did not know much. Okeychukwu attended his first choir rehearsal, he was mumbling while others were singing. The choir master watched Okeychukwu as he acted as though he was singing, because of that he ignored teaching him. Okeychukwu’s reason for such act was the fear of singing out of musical key. But never shared the reason for acting in that manner.
Okeychukwu began to have second thought which was to look for another church since he was not making an impact. Days after days, Okeychukwu got weary coming to rehearsal where he felt things were not fine. So he gave himself a break to prepare and work on himself. Okeychukwu sat down one sunny noon to ask himself series of questions concerning his performance in the choir. Immediately, he made answers to those questions and he blamed himself for not working.
Okeychukwu asked,” Why am I afraid of the microphone?” And he answered, “I was foolish to have become afraid of the microphone. Now, I will unveil that talent in me”.
After days of reasoning to himself, Okeychukwu started to work on his voice, listened to great singers and attended music classes. He did it for month concurrently with his University education. Okeychukwu became so good in singing that he now decided to write his own songs. Through his connection with the music coach and well-meaning friends, Okeychukwu’s songs went viral and became top-notch. OKeychukwu entered lime-light within a short while.
Happiness revolved around Okeychukwu’s heart that his talent was not hidden by his foolishness.