The Activist - Season 1 - Episode 15

5 years ago

The Activist - Season 1 - Episode 15

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The exams came with the usual buzz of reading even though in actuality, the buzz of reading is always established far earlier than usual. That is often due to the high amounts of assignments and church/mosque work to be done, not adding the conferences and meets around.

Tade was hurrying to his room after a dracula of a exam which spanned two hours before seemed like six hours to the students, including Tade himself, when some students accosted him.

‘Shebi na you be Dr Fakunle’s pikin, why you no answer us wey we ask for answer for exams? You dey form holy, holy for us abi?’

Tade’s looked at them squarely in the face, his face almost bursting into flames.

‘What is it with you people? Can’t you read for your own exam? I was beaten and wounded in the hospital a few days to exams, none of you ask after me. I struggled to get the latest material from him, you guys could not help me there. The only thing you three know is to be copying people everywhere. You can’t get give people answer if they asked.’

He now turned to their leader. ‘If you know that you can’t read for your exams, go and sort yourself out. I had the worst exam today and I can’t start petting you people.’

He stormed out in their presence, obviously fuming. How can humans be so careless and tactless? He had gone through the toughest period of his life and still had to do this exam, yet all they care is about themselves. Not even a “how are you doing?” from their mouths.

He was about taking a bike when a student stopped him.

‘Dr Fakunle is asking after you.’
He hissed.

So this man remembered me today? He thought to himself as he walked briskly back to the department. He did not want to spend much time in there.

‘Good evening sir.’ He greeted the lecturer, who seemed to be busy and had faced the window.

‘Oh, there you are.’ He turned and faced Tade. How was the exam?

Tade looked at him, trying to decipher his thoughts from his face. He failed woefully.
It was fine, though a bit tough. He answered sincerely.

‘I expected it to be a bit tough for you and more difficult for other students. That’s the way to breed fine students, pass them through the fire of examinations!’ He grinned, leaving Tade to imagine if the older man was with his senses. The topics from which the questions came from were basically uncharted grounds as he just touched on the topics in class.

‘But sir, you hardly taught us this aspect of the course.’ Tade tried his luck and spoke out, just in case the man gave some information about the reasons why he did what he did. His luck just shaved the area.

‘Of course! That’s why you have textbooks; so that you can read more about the topics! You students like to be spoon-fed! In our days we always went ahead to search for textbooks and we were always ahead of the class.’

But you guys had free meals and less distractions. Tade thought to himself.

‘If the result is bad, I will see what I can do.’ He concluded. He then looked at Tade squarely.

‘Where is my brown bag?’
Tade broke into a sweat. His feet agitated as he did not want to offend the man, in as much as the older man had to know the truth.

“Sir, some students stole it from me.” He blurted out, hoping that it will be the end of it. His luck then ran out.

“How did that happen?” Dr Fakunle asked.
“They wayla!d me on the day you gave me the bag sir. Tade said a bit more confidently. They beat me up and collected the bag. In fact I was in the Health Centre for a week.”

“So those lads went after the bag, eh?” Dr Fakunle said quietly before breaking into a big, hearty laugh, surprising Tade who did not know what to make out of it.

“The fo.ols! He said. They fell for it, the idio.ts!” He then looked at Tade.

“I told them that the bag contained the question papers for the exams and told them that they will never see it. For course they were the ones who came around to ask for favours that I was not willing to give.” He grinned again. “I put some random questions from other Universities into the bag and used the department answer sheet to cover it. I don’t believe what they did.”

“Please you can go.” He told Tade, who was expecting an apology. When the lecturer turned his back and faced the window, Tade walked out in anger.

What were you expecting? A pity party?” Malik asked Tade. Tade had just relayed what happened between him and Dr Fakunle to the room.

“Of course he was not going to apologise to you, which part of the world did you come from?” He asked Tade again, as Made looked at his roomie. Ajebutter folks can be so stupid! He thought.

“Well, I expected him to show some sympathy at the least.” Tade answered back. “Not like I wanted him to prostrate for me.”

“You are on a long thing, Tade. Made told him. Don’t you know that its a hidden rule that elderly folks don’t apologise to their younger ones, including and especially if they are not so wrong. Even when they are in the wrong, they won’t apologise and woe to you if they are in the right! You will be roasted.”

“See Tade, you just have to forget that treatment meted out on you and move on. These men are not worth it and in four, five years you will be done with them.” Chuks advised him.

“Yes, behaving like a kid whose candy was seized from him won’t help you. Andrew said. Mind you, you have an exam tomorrow and he has none. Its you that is losing if you continue thinking along those lines.”

Tade sighed and moved to prepare for the next day.

The exams continued with no incident. Soon it was time to go home as the session had ended. Most of the other folks had left and the rest ( Malik and Andrew) were not in the room when Tade started packing his load. Again, he had excess raw food to give. As he was about locking his locker, a certain fellow showed up.
“Na you dey form James Bond for me abi?” He asked. Tade turned round and saw the fellow who first accosted him in school over a packet of Indomie.

“Hungry boy, what are you looking for here?” Tade looked menacingly at him. The young guy cleaned some sweat off his head and started removing his shirt.
“Na me you dey call hungry boy? A whole Jugo! Yee, I don die! Who be you sef? Wetin you feel you get?” He said, flexing his muscles.

“See, see if you have nothing to do, I have somewhere am going to. Isn’t it disrespectful to yourself that you have to be making all this noise, like a village tout despite your age?”

The boy could not take it any longer and lunged at Tade with a punch. Tade was swift, and comfortably dodged the attack before landing a choke-slap at the guy’s throat. The action forced the guy to beat a retreat, his eyes betraying the s£nsat!on of shock as he gasped for air. As he make another attempt at Tade, he missed and fell on a wooden chair. Enraged at his failure, he swung an arm to Tade, who dodged it again and then land two quick, heavy blows at the fellow, before dragging him off the chair and laying hold of his neck.

“Now listen to me, idiot!” Tade started. “If you can’t ask for something nicely, don’t ask at all. This will be the second and last time I will let you off nicely. If you continue to harass me, I will make sure that the face of amoeba will have more structure than you, you understand?”

The guy nodded as Tade released his grip and kicked him out of the room.

“Nuisance!” He hissed out