The Life Changer   Ikyereve Denen   © Copyright 2022 by Ikyegeve Denen

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Ngumimi was the last child in a family of nine children with 4 boys and 4 girls in the family of Mr and Mrs kato, a peasant farmer and also an ordained pastor with a Pentecostal church based in his home town in Tarka local Government. Ngumimi’s elder siblings did not have the opportunity of furthering their education after their high school because all of them could not get the required number of credits for them to even qualify for polytechnic admission talk more of university admission, this made their father to be very sad as he had become a laughing stock among his friends and associates who looked down on him for this singular reason. Ngumimi’s siblings were all struggling in life and life was not easy for them, she made up her mind that she will not disappoint her parents when she gets to the university, most of her siblings were not happy that she was getting more attention because of success in her Waec exams and there developed hatred for her because of this.

Ngumimi gained admission into the best University in the country, the University of Ibadan to study Medicine and surgery which is one of the most prestigious degrees in my country Nigeria. She studied so hard and because of her brilliance she was always amongst the top five students in her class and she was liked by both her lecturers and fellow students because of her humility and intelligence. For reasons best attributed to morality she was not into any social life on campus but focused more on her studies and fellowship in church with fellow Christians.

It was in church that she met this young fellow who was the son of the first class king in Ibadan (Olubadan in council), we were in the same faculty of law and he was also a very serious student who was well respected as we were all unionist in school. Since I and Ngumimi came from the same community in Benue State and her family were very close to mine, we were very close like brothers and sisters and she confided in me most times when she had challenges on campus.

Ngumimi came into my room one faithful Saturday morning as early as 6. 00 am and I was disturbed by the look on her face, the expression on her face suggested that she was not ok, I asked her what the problem was after giving her a chair to sit in my room. She explained to me that the son of Olubadan has asked her out and that he was very serious about it but that she was afraid of having anything to do with a Non tribe, we were both of the Tiv Ethnic group while the Olubandon’s son was Yoruba by tribe, I told her instantly that language, skin colour, race, tribe were not a barrier to love and that she should use other parameters if she didn’t like her and she answered that she liked him for his calmness and composure and more importantly the fear of God in him, he was not like most unionist who were very corrupt, morally bankrupt and wicked, he had a compassionate heart which made many female students to flock toward him in a bid to seduce him but he was very disciplined and these prosmiscous students were very disappointed in him that there were throwing themselves at him but he refused to be tempted. We prayed over the matter and asked God to reveal himself to us o that she can take a decision about him because he had told Fayemi the son of Olubadan that he should give her time to think about his proposal.

Ngumimi and Fayemi began dating officially after one month with the agreement that there should be no sex between them and this went on till both of them graduated from the University with flying colours, while Ngumimi went for her internship as a qualified medical doctor in Abuja Fayemi went for law school in Lagos state. Something dramatic happened in the house hold of the Olubadan at the end of Fayemi’s last month during his mandatory youth service to his fatherland, the house of assembly seat for their constituency was zoned to them and pressure was mounted on his Dad to bring one of his 3 sons to contest by the Elders, his father initially refused but had to cave in when other Kings came to visit him and told him there wanted to honor him for the good things he had been doing in their community.

Fayemi Adenkola was presented as the candidate of the ruling people’s democratic party for the house of assembly election and he won by a wide margin, he decided to get married immediately to my friend Ngumimi immediadely, after he won the elections the seat of the speaker was further zoned to his constituency and he became the youngest speaker of the Oyo state house of assembly at the age of 26 years old.

Ngumimi became the wife of the speaker of the Oyo state house of assembly at the age of 24 years, he changed the fortune of his family tremendously. Immediately her husband settled down he made sure that all her siblings were given employment with the state government, she also build a befitting house for her parents and was a source of blessing and inspiration to many extended family members, many girls in her community were encouraged by her story to go back to school and eke a living, many young men too were encouraged to further their education. Through Ngumimi’s connections she also facilitated the employment of members of my family since I had decided to go into full time business instead of working for anybody.