The first time I wrote a story in primary 5, my teacher said I copied it.
So, she flogged me.
In my secondary school, my literature teacher forced me to retake her paper, according to her, even Ola Rotimi who authored the ‘gods are not to blame’ wouldn’t be that precise like I did. So, she scorned me for cheating.
In my university days, a coursemate would always lash at me whenever I write. To her, everything I wrote was a plagiarised effort. According to her, she had always read the original thought somewhere. She made life hellish for me as an aspiring writer!
For every time I write, there is always someone in doubt of my effort, but in all of these, there is also someone certain of my effort. That person was me. For every bad review I got, I got emboldened to write more. I was writing so much that the name ‘Haruspice’ became a household name in ABU Zaria. For everything I wrote, there was an error to be pointed out, but I was writing nonetheless. I kept writing and still writing. I never allow the errors in my writing to slow my writing. I was writing and writing until I wrote my way to the USA as one of the 700 Young African Leaders selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2017!!.
Fast forward to 2021, through sheer consistency and irrepressible vigour, I wrote myself to Aso Rock. This time, to author a book in honour of Africa’s most populous president, Mr Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president. Is not the writing of the book that even awed me but the person that ‘foreworded’ the book. I got Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, former commissioner of Justice, senior pastor and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to write the foreword of the book. What more to ask than this? A mere Facebook writer getting his book foreworded by such a celebral phenomenon!! Indeed there is a way only if you dare to walk.
This book may not be anything in the bar chat of literary collections but it is a personal bestseller for me. The acceptance that greeted the public presentation is a stimulating endorsement for a boy who dared to write even when he was viciously reviewed. Newspapers took time to review my book, intellectuals dissected every strand in my statements and lovers of literary works went haywire in pictorial endorsements – so much that the few negative noises that feebly greeted the work were buried in the euphoria of those who believe in me and the efforts of my hand.
#TheBuhariInUs , my second effort at authoring a book has modestly given me a title, a platform and the privilege of being called an author. God, I thank you. By the time, authors are mentioned, my name will be amongst the mentioned references, it does not matter which number, at least, I made the list.
What are you waiting for? Take the gauntlet and write something worth reading or do something worth writing about. Never allow time to pass you by without a reference. This world was created with you in reference. Unpertubedly musing
#twoyearsanniversaryofthebuhariinus
