Just a short story


SINS THAT ARE NOT THEIRS!
Little she was, but her environment had made her wiser than her age. From the cradle, she had learnt to cry higher enough to gain her mother’s attention from lots of other activities she might be preoccupied with, like tending to the mess the other three children might have thrown the little squalid one-room apartment into.

The world is all about the survival of the fittest, she had acknowledged that early in life, little wonder at age of six Abike was so determined to have all she had ever craved for…she knew how to go by it without ruffling anybody’s ego.

Was it not at school she had escaped the bitter cane of Mr. White who always took delight in flogging children at every little opportunity that came his way. He would flog children who didn’t come to school with school materials, those that came bare footed, those that wore dirty clothes to school and those that made noises in the class. Today he was going to cane Abike for not paying her school fees but before he could land his cane on Abike, she had screamed ‘‘Please, let me say my prayer first’’ loud enough to hold Mr. White to a halt.

Mr. white chuckled and couldn’t believe his hears. So, he let her say the prayer and here Abike went
“Oh father! bless my parents with plenty of money so that I will be able to finish my studies and become a lawyer fighting for the right of children not to be punished for sins that are not theirs. Amen!”
It worked like magic, Mr. White never knew when the cane fell off his hand, he had been wisely engaged in words of wisdom by the little Abike, since then he had resolved not to flog the innocent pupils again but rather he would write to their parents not to bring the children to school if they wouldn’t be able to pay their fees.
So was how the little Abike began to show extraordinariness that stood her out from her peers, no one ever beat her of coming out first in all stages of her primary education. She was not well equipped with school materials yet she was wonderful in every subject. With that she had won admiration of all her teachers and friends who always wanted to bask in her reflected glory.

“I know my daughter would make me proud she would become great and set us free from poverty.”That was the hope her parents had of her. She was their apple eye, though they did not have money to cater for her studies. They had to engage her in hawking fruits by the road side. You know market do sell in hold up, especially at Ore when vehicles coming from Lagos would be trapped in the snarl up, the passengers would be hungry and Abike and other little children hawking different foodstuffs would be there with their goods to sell.

Today Abike just had to sell all her goods to make up money to pay her common entrance into secondary school…just this last bunch of banana in her tray. A passenger had called her at the other side of the road and here she was, jumped onto the road without paying attention to the oncoming vehicle.
“Haa! She is dead!”
Blood splattered…tray into the bush and the banana lying by her mutilated body. She could not become a lawyer fighting for the right of children being punished for sins that are not theirs!

There are many Abikes who die on our roads everyday just because somebody arrogates the wealth of millions to himself...latched up somewhere abroad.If they had distributed this God given wealth around...maybe Abike's parents would nt have sent her to d road to fend for her living which resulted to her untimely death.D Millions u embezzle today from public coffers might b d casuative effect of what pushed Abike and many others to their untimely death.U ARE WORSE THAN BOKO!