LAUGHABLE ERROR
It
was exactly 6.05am on Saturday 29th August 2009. To Chisom, the
previous night could be best described as lovely and splendid owing to the
fantastic dream he just had, though the 17-year-old teen had woken to face the
reality of the day.
The ‘reality of the day’, which seemed not
unlike paradox, was that Chisom who was reckoned to be an exemplary and
brilliant chap by anyone who knew him, just managed to secure two credits among
the nine O’Level subjects he sat for in his just concluded Senior School
Certificate Examination (S.S.C.E) that precisely took place between March and
May of that very year (2009). Funnily enough, being a science student, the
subjects he barely made credit in were Igbo Language and Economics. The most
worrisome was that, as the best student in Mathematics among his peers, he got
F9 in the subject.
Since
seventy-two hours back he saw the results, he hadn’t taken anything tangible as
regards meals, neither had his parents who felt the pains more than he did.
Prior to the said exams, as the first child of the family, his well-to-do
parents couldn’t wait to see him secure admission in the tertiary institution
of his choice, University of Ibadan (UI) precisely, towards studying Medicine
and Surgery which was his dream discipline. But at that moment, it appeared his
dream had been shattered unannounced.
As he lay in the bed in that early morning of
Saturday, rotating from one edge to another, all he could think about was the
very day being Tuesday he checked the results online; the day in question was
undoubtedly the worst moment in his life. As soon as he saw the results at the
cybercafé he patronized on that fateful day, he asked the computer operator
that attended to him to revisit the site and check the results again, stating
that there was a mix-up somewhere; no doubt, no one who truly knew Chisom that
wouldn’t equally insinuate there was a ‘mix-up’. Having confirmed the results
online for the umpteenth time as instructed by him, he was therein seemingly
convinced that those trashes were actually his. After settling his bills, he
quietly stood up and began to count his steps back home like a walking cadaver.
When he got home in the evening of that
horrific Tuesday, rather than going to his parents who were seated in the
sitting room to intimate them on the outcome of the outing as expected, he
chose to do otherwise since to him he had virtually nothing to present; he went
straight to his personal room snubbing their presence, looked soared, and
irritating. Mr. and Mrs. Okonkwo couldn’t withstand the shock that emanated
from the abrupt and unusual behaviour; having sensed danger, the latter
followed him (Chisom) to the bedroom.
As she got there, the results’ sheet was
lying pitiably on the tiled floor alongside the bearer, thus she ignored the
latter and quickly grabbed the former to see things for herself.
“What..?”
Mrs. Okonkwo shouted, standing as she glanced at the results. “Is this your
result?” She asked emphatically, strongly looking at Chisom who was on the
floor.
Chisom was rather speechless.
Mr. Okonkwo who entered the room on
hearing his wife’s exclamation, quickly took the results’ sheet from her. “What
is this?” He equally exclaimed, looking at his wife who stood very close to
him.
“Ask your son.” She instructed, frowning.
Mr.
Okonkwo looked at his son who was still lying on the floor. “Chisom.” He called.
The poor chap couldn’t respond.
“Is this your result?” He inquired
despite Chisom’s silence over his call.
Interestingly, Chisom nodded indicating
that those results really belonged to him.
“No, this cannot be your result.” the
couple chorused.
Chisom couldn’t utter any word, kept
facing the ceiling as he lied like a forgotten goat.
The scepticism lingered for several hours
until the reality dawned on them. Since then till this Saturday August 29,
2009, the entire family was yet to recover from the colossal shock.
As
Master Chisom Okonkwo lay in his bed in that early morning, looking like one
who had been betrayed as well as robbed, he was deeply consoled by the
‘fantastic dream’ he had the previous night. In that dream, he found himself
rejoicing alongside his family members having successfully secured admission to
study the course of his choice in his dream-university, Medicine and UI
respectively.
“Could it be real?” He thought as he knelt
down to pray over it.
After the morning devotion at about
6.56am, he didn’t hesitate to share the lovely terrific moment with his
parents. The latter never doubted the dream because, ab initio, they had been
of the indisputable view that there was really something wrong somewhere that
would eventually be rectified in due cause. But how the rectification would be
actualized was what they didn’t know or couldn’t explain.
Owing to the dream, the following Monday
being 31st August 2009, they (the parents) were motivated to visit
Chisom’s school toward discussing the issue with the school’s principal – Mr.
T.O. Ayodele.
“No, we must apply to the exam board for
onward review of the results.” Mr. Ayodele assured. “I know Chisom too well;
this cannot be his result.” He added.
The following day being Tuesday September 1,
on behalf of Chisom’s parents, the school management wrote the Exam Board
requesting candid review of the chap’s examination scripts. The formal
application was honourably received, thus the board in question replied the
school in a jiffy assuring them that it would in earnest look into the matter
towards ascertaining the actual error, if any, as well as making amends where
necessary.
Three weeks on, still in September same
year, as God would have it, it was discovered that Chisom’s results were
mistakenly allocated to another candidate. Fascinatingly, his actual results,
in which he made alpha in all the subjects, were misplaced with that of one of
the illiterate male students of the affected secondary school; needless to
reiterate that the beneficiary of the human error happened to be a daft
candidate who could not even defend the results.
Consequently, the laughable error was duly
corrected. Hence, Chisom’s data was updated with the original results whilst
the fake excellent results were retrieved from the other candidate; various
concerned institutions across the federation were equally notified on the
change of impression.
One
month later, Chisom who had already gotten an outstanding grade in his JAMB
examination was admitted into his dream university to read Medicine and
Surgery. It was like a dream come true.
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