Nigerian lady who hawked while in school moves to UK for studies in style.

Nigerian lady who hawked while in school moves to UK for studies in style

From Okpo 🇳🇬 to the UK 🇬🇧

If anyone told me that I will study in the UK in 2021, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yes, I have dreams, but how and when it was going to come to a reality, I didn’t know. All I had was big dreams, and nothing else.

It was in the year 2000 that the dark days began for my family. I was just 4 when I lost my Dad. As a child, I didn’t even know the gravity of what happened, but as I continued to grow older, reality dawned on me.

You see, my mother gave birth to 5 girls and because she didn’t have a male child, she was greatly humiliated. The girls were abandoned with their mother after all properties have been seized by paternal relations. Then the real struggle began for us as kids and for our mother who was now both the father and mother. All hopes went down the drain and it looked like there was no future for me. Life ended before it began in the real sense.

Paying for education, feeding, and clothing 5 girls was a struggle for my mother. The struggle through primary school began. A term won’t go by without us being chased from school for not paying school fees. Every night, my mother would wet her pillows and cry. Still, she chose to stay with her children. The struggle continued through secondary school.

In 2006, I graduated from primary school and stayed at home for weeks while my mates proceeded to secondary school. My mother couldn’t afford secondary school registration fee. I would hawk caustic Soda early in the morning while seeing my mates in school uniform going to school. My mates would see me and ask why I wasn’t in school. Then I was so lucky that the Kogi State Government introduced free education for junior secondary school students, (Universal Basic Education) but even at that, to raise funds to sew a UBE uniform for me was a problem. One faithful day, I walked in front of my mother to sell the Cock she was reserving for Christmas. The 700 Naira that came from the sale of a Cock sew my first secondary school uniform.

The struggle also continued through the university. I will return home from the campus to hawk my mother’s caustic soap still all over the market in a wheelbarrow, just to gather funds for the next tuition fee . An undergrad. and a market woman. I made sure I did my best, played my role to have enough funds to continue my education. There were days of starvation, hunger, and shabby clothing on campus. Even basic textbooks, I couldn’t afford. I resulted in using library resources. Only me knew what I was going through.

She shared her joy at LinkedIn

I’m happy for her, l’m a young widow myself with 2 young children to take care of, it hasn’t been easy, and the inlaw wickedness is not helping matter, we founded outreach for fatherless, #Fatherlessoutreachwithchizispace when my husband died,  a platform where we render support and share survival stories.

Aside from this, l am also fatherless,  talking about the trials women go through  because of the fact that  they gave birth to girls only, as if it’s their fault to determine the Sex of the baby, my mother went through such odeal too, we were 6 girls and one boy.

Let’s forget my own story, &  discuss it another day and continue with solace own.

 

1. Fast forward to 2017, I graduated and in 2018, I went for my National Youth assignment. Wearing that NYSC uniform came with so much joy because I knew the struggles I went through to have them on. I was literally crying when I wore that uniform in August 2018. But God said the best was yet to come. I geared up in pursuit of success. The motivation is to put a smile on my mother’s face. Especially for being mocked for having girl children. Hope you are inspired? Share your view.