A hard life

It is hard very hard; being a youth in this country; trying not to get killed while trying to make ends meet still juggling with the pressure of adulthood, trust me it is very hard.

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I just remembered the story of a boy who committed suicide a few weeks back. He was a straight A student with promising future and so one might want to ask what lead to his demise, why would a very “successful” young man take his own life ?

The ibro story

“Ibro ” which is short for Ibrahim as his friends would fondly call him was a nice tall dark-skinned 19 years old boy . He didn’t have rich parents but his family was okay. “Ibro the machine” as most of his class mates would call him was a very curios young man; it was almost like he wanted to know everything and anything about everything. He was smart , jovial and a good footballer. He had little or no time for girls, he dedicated most of his time reading or watching anime.

“no be every time you go dey read find time dey play small or you don’t know that all work and no play makes jack a dull boy” his friends would always say to him.

Ibro didn’t care he wanted to be a surgeon and so he knew he needed to study extra and play less . Ibro was quite satisfied with his life, until … misfortunes struck !!! First it was his dad who fell sick . Many said it’s was corona some said it was attacks from their village, so many speculations but nothing was really confirmed. It became hard for Ibro to continue schooling because his father was the bread winner of the family . His mother only did minor jobs now and then to help support the family . Ibro was a Twitter influencer ;he did a few jobs on Twitter that gave him few thousands of Naira but then Twitter got Banned which meant he would need to pay to use Twitter. Things are becoming hard Ibro was getting stressed out how was he going to keep up ?what about school?.

Few months before this disaster; a class mate at school who was known to be very naughty and stubborn, a notorious drug dealer had offered Ibro a job. In his words

“Machine machine, fine boy how far now ? How would you like to make 150k easy”

“Tjay give me space abeg, I don’t want your deals” ibro replied immediately

Ibro had refused over and over again even though Tjay had increased the offer to 200k. Now ibro was rethinking his decision “ I mean he said it would be easy plus 200k can do a lot for my family now, this would be a one time thing for sure” he promised himself. The next day he spoke to ibro explaining to him that he needed the money urgently and it was just a one time thing. Tjay was excited-“ okay I get” let’s just do this.

A few days later Tjay introduced him to the drug boss, telling him that he found a man for that job and this is the man . The boss looked very impressed but the first thing he said to ibro was -“don’t you dare double cross me”

“Of course not sir nothing like that this is even a one ti…”ibro muttered

“Yessss.. he dares not boss I would keep him in check”Tjay interrupted Ibro’s statement almost immediately.

The boss gave Ibro a stack of hard drugs and told him to go deliver them to a man not very far from the community’s health center. It was smooth no problems no calamity. Ibro got 200k smooth!!

“This is probably the fastest 200k I have ever made in my life oh” he muttered as he counts the stack of mints he got from the drug boss. “Maybe I should do one more” he added

The trap …

Fortunately or unfortunately for him another deal came up this time it was worth millions and ibro would get over 500k in if he pulled it off. It was simple get the drug money to the boss assistant so he can take account of it. Ibro was having second thoughts maybe he should just try to invest this 200k and continue his influencing business; but then again he needed this money for school and his father’s treatment. So he agreed that one last time would do it for him.

On the deal date ibro went took the money safely no qualms , but on his way back he got ambushed by a rival drug gang and even though they spared his life they took all the money he was with over 5million in cash. Ibro thought to himself how he was going to explain to the boss “ would he even bother to Listen ?” . You see, few minutes before the ibro left for the assignment he had heard the boss giving orders to kill a fellow drug cartel member over drug-money worth 3 millionaire and Tjay had told him that if ever he gave the boss a reason to doubt him that it was better he ran away or lulled himself because if the boss had found him, he wouldn’t only kill him but also kill anybody related to him.

These words replayed in his head as he sat down on the road side where he had just been mugged. Just when he thought the worse had happen he got a call that his father had died and his mother was in the hospital due to the fact that she couldn’t handle the news of her husband’s death.

Not being able to arrange his thoughts and find the next move to make . Ibro took out a few drugs left with him that he was going to bring to the boss from the person who gave him the cash and overdosed on it he died few hours after this and soon after people gathered around his corpse. His case was reported and his corpse was taking home for his burial rites.

That was the end of such a brilliant talent,a young life who wanted to be a surgeon but life was cut short because of the pressure of this world and some bad decisions. All I am saying is ..it is hard enough trying to figure out who we are ; adding the pressure of trying to make ends meet especially in this time is a different ball game entirely.

In conclusion
when next you see a friend going through life or just having a bad time talk to them , encourage them, point them in the right direction. Who knows you might just be saving a life. Let us all look out for one another .

I can’t appreciate you enough for taking your time to read this. You are the real mvp .

Stay safe and wear a mask

arigato ✌🏼