The import of the saying: 'a bird in hand is worth two in the bush" was lost on me until after my secondary school education. The reality of the saying dawned on me fully when I had this terrible experience of losing an admission into a university in Nigeria simply because I was trying to get a better one.
I had my secondary education with a relative ease. Throughout my secondary school days, I was rated the best. I always led other students in my class and at the end of every school year, I won awards and laurels. remembered our last social event in the school, our valedictory service; I was announced the best in almost all the subjects. When our WASSCE results were released, I had nine distinctions and was then ready for university admission.
I wrote and passed the examination for admission into the university and I was offered admission to study medicine in one of the prestigious universities in the country. It was at this point in my life that I had an encounter with Mr Davies. Mr Davies happened to be an acquaintance of my father and known to own a travel agency-cum-tutorial school in our neighborhood. Before his plans for me were known to me, he had met and talked with my parents to persuade them to let him help me to study abroad My father in particular gave in to his sugar-coated persuasive talk and the process began.
Few days after meeting with Mr Davies, my father called me to his sitting room where my mother had set down to await the beginning of the family meeting. "Koye, I want you to study abroad. It is good that you have been offered admission into a university here but I think you should travel abroad to study" I shifted on my seat and sat very well probably to hear correctly what my father was saying. Before I could say anything, my mother interrupted: "There won't be any problem about that. Your father had discussed the plans with Mr Davies who had assured the two of us that he would assist to make it work out. In fact, It was Mr Davies' idea since he knows your brilliant performance in your examinations." I sat well on the chair and was almost lost in my thought. Then I came around and asked: "Do you think this will be possible? Where will the money come from or Mr Davies will assist for free?" All I could get as answers to my questions was that they had considered everything and had come to the conclusion that studying abroad was the best for me.
At first, I was thrilled by this sudden change in fortune. "So I would have the opportunity to study abroad!" I sometimes uttered to myself. For the time being, I disregarded the admission offered to study here in Nigeria and longed for when I would travel abroad. Mr Davies helped me to secure admission into a university in America though I knew that with my good result, that would not be a problem. The other processes should follow and my parents struggled so hard to get money to pay for each of the processes.
I became worried after eight months into the plans and nothing positive came from Mr Davies. When it was one year after admission had been given to me and our plan to travel abroad fell through, I went to the university that gave me admission to see if I could resume schooling there but I was turned down. If I still had interest in the university, I should write another examination the following year. Everything stood at a standstill. I was disappointed and furious at the same time. When I got home, I made my feelings known to my parents who only worsened my situation by telling me that about two million Naira had been collected by Mr Davies and he was at large. This news multiplied my woes and with bile in my mouth, I said to my parents: "You made me forfeit my already obtained university admission. If I had insisted that I didn't want your plan, you would have called me a disobedient son. You can see now that "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush."