Thursday, July 5, 2012

What They Don't Know

They say what they don't know won't kill them. Probably in certain cases. I do know certain things they don't know and it wasn't in my position to tell them. I turn to the little boy in the corner, the spectator, watching their lives like a tele novela.


I know this Guy did not get to graduate. We were in the same Faculty in the University of Lagos. He was one of those who claimed 'big boys'. While I was a graduate he had an extra year before he was 'advice to withdraw'. But his girlfriend had no idea. She was proud of her boyfriend and boasted they were off to the UK in September for their Masters programme. How could a guy who failed to have a Cumulative Grade Point Average over 1.0 get admission into any university for a MA programme? Well, with lies, all things were claimed possible. His girl would find out eventually, but not from me.

There is this Man who got involved in politics and became an Honourable. He lasted a term but the title stuck. The Honourable relocated to England and relatives assumed he must be living the life, you know, after Nigeria politics. Well, someone travelled to the London and realised the Honourable was an honourable taxi driver. I don't intend to criticise someone surviving on an honest work but the way he acted whenever he was in Nigeria contradicted his lifestyle in London. I mean, in his apartment in London you weren't permitted to flush after urinating except it was sh!t. Also plates were rinsed in water in a basin so that they could be reused through out the day. He did these just to save cost but in Nigeria, Honourable had a lavish lifestyle. This they don't know.

What a family do not know is their daughter had an extra year in school and wasn't eligible for National Youth Service (NYSC). She lied about graduation and that she was posted for service. She couldn't stand to see her parents disappointed. She packed her bags, left home for the bus park, with the intention she was off for the orientation camp in Ekiti where she claimed to be posted. It was supposed to be a 6 to 7 hours journey. Her parents kept calling to know if she had arrived at the destination, worried. If only they knew she was few miles away, crashing with a friend close to the gates of University of Lagos, preparing for her extra year 2nd semester exams. How would she keep this up?

What I didn't know was why a Guy was getting married in Nigeria while two of his brothers remained in the United States. The parents, other siblings, and the groom all travelled from the US to Nigeria for the wedding except two of them. On Facebook one of brothers in the US wrote "Lasgidi state of mind". Now, I thought he was in Nigeria. I don't know why, but I googled his name and the first link on the search result was www.justice.gov/usao/nj/Pressrelease...
That's United States Attorney's Office, New Jersey, Press release... From what I read, these brothers were serving 30 months in prison for "one count of conspiracy to commit identity theft and wire fraud...on September 28, 2010, and October 20, 2010". "In addition to the prison term,...the Judge sentenced the brothers to three years of supervised release and ordered them to pay $177,217.72 in restitution. The sentence does not preclude them from facing additional civil penalties". That was what I didn't know and that answered a lot of my questions. If I knew earlier I wouldn't have been seeking for answers, but would have been offering prayers.

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