Nnamdi's Diary

Nnamdi was the first child of his parents. He lived a fairly decent life with his parents and two sisters in Aba until his father’s unfortunate passing when he was eleven years old. His mother being a petty trader, could not bear the burden of raising him and his two sisters alone. He was sent to live with his uncle in Obalende, Lagos.

Nnamdi’s Uncle was a decent man. He worked with the federal civil service as a junior officer, but he was prepared to help Nnamdi. Nnamdi’s Aunty however, was antagonistic from the beginning. “Where are we going to put him?” she whined. “We have two kids of our own!”

Although Nnamdi was older than his cousins, he was forced to do most of the housework while his cousins wallowed in idleness. He was made to get up at 4am and most times did not get to sleep until 11pm. He lived a hard life.

Nnamdi did not know what to do. He knew his Uncle was helpless about the situation. But he remembered what his mother told him: “Always take your problems to God!”. Nnamdi began keeping a diary. He updated it daily. He wrote in it all he was going through and how he wanted God to intervene.

All these did not keep Nnamdi from performimg well in school. Soon he was in JS2 and had been keeping his diary for about a year.

One day they were surprised when their teacher brought a couple of white men to their class. “We are from the United Nations Cultural Organisation” They announced. “We want to discuss with your teacher the possibility of taking some of you on a cultural tour of Europe”. “Please leave now” their teacher announced, “so that we can have our discussion”. All the students, including Nnamdi hurriedly packed their books and left.

A couple of meters down the road, Nnamdi and his friend were discussing when Nnamdi said “Oh, God! I have to go back! I left my diary on the desk and no one must see it!” “I’ll wait for you here” said his friend.

Back in his class, one of the white men was already perusing his diary. He stood aghast. The white man looked up. “Is this yours?... I’m sorry but it’s quite impressive! This will do very well at the upcoming Literary festival in Paris. It could win you a scholarship to Postgraduate level, plus a handsome cash prize!”

Well, Nnamdi agreed to the adaptation of his diary and the rest is history. He won a scholarship that took him from high school to Masters in Global Communications in Paris. He is now a Ph.D. student in Global Communications at the prestigious American University of Paris. With his $2M prize money he brought his family to France, and now regularly sends money to his Uncle in Obalende.