Happy New months to every steemians, i hope this new month brings with it every blessing and success that we all deserve.
It is not such a good day for me, to remember as it makes it one year today that i lost my bestfriend.
YES he was my bestfriend and i miss him so much, right now.
His name was Olokun Babatunde Alexander he was a very vibrant young man when he was alive.
Little are those times when you see him get sad or sit down without having fun.
Many people never truly know him because of
his jovial nature, he was a very lively person to both male and female this earned him a lot of friends both male and female.
I have to admit he was so popular in the university environment.
HOW I MET HIM
I was a fresh man just like him in the university back then in 2014, newly gained admission to the federal university of technology Akure (FUTA) to study Project Management Technology.
It was a new challenge to experience the life of freedom where you can do whatever you like, when no one will monitor you.
This is a dream of most Yoruba youth, specifically Western part of Nigeria, to go to a higher institution, it is there believe (Yoruba's) that as a yoruba boy/girl you can never amount to anything good if you dont have a first degree BSc....
Therefore my dream to go to the University wasn't a strange one, infact it was expected giving the fact that i achieved that fit very very late, i said this because i finished my Secondary school around 2008, and i had to hustle hard to send myself to the university, Naturally that is not supposed to be the settings of things but i had a problem where i lost my dad when i was very young, my mum was a single mum from when i was just 6 years old, so when i grew up to that age i had to do something and be independent not dependent because i had siblings which needs are more of a pressing matter.
To cut the long story I finished my secondary school may/june 2008 but i didn't gain admission to the university until 2014 that was kinda long to wait, but ultimately i was glad i did.
At the University it was not what i thought i will meet, i thought university life was just fun and you study very few times, it turned out that my guess was wrong, i found things difficult at the university, i was not doing well atall i missed so many classes, infact my first semester result was so bad that i was contemplating withdrawal from the university.
I was on my way home one day and i met this very funny guy, this was his usual attitude anywhere you see him, i was lost in thought when i heard him call me, first i was very surprised because i hardly go to class and very few knows my name i didn't know how he managed to know my name, and he told me look i saw your result and believe me you can do better, i was like is this guy serious, i asked him that is he making jest of me, and for the first time i saw him serious when he was talking to me, he gave me some good advice and we exchanged contact and from there onward we clicked.
Second semester i moved to his hostel and we became room mates, he was very helpful academically, financially and morally he was a brother i never had, he was always there when i was in need.
The things he did to me, he did them when i was truly in need so i could never forget him. He didn't even realise how much he meant to me, he just live life and enjoy it to the fullest, he was a very neat person with style and guile, i love his free spirit you could always see girls around him but he loved only one.
In class he was known for always making a dull class lively, he could even crack some funny jokes, thats just Alex for you, most lecturers knows him because he must have at one time pull his/her legs in one of our lecture time.
He never plays with his study, he is brilliant and intelligent he did transfer some of his brains to me while we were together, he would wake me up at midnight so that we could study.
His GP was at 3.67 when he died he was doing well academically, we all have our down time but it will take a great deal of digging to see him in a sober mood, sometimes i wonder if he ever has problems.
I can only remember all the sweet memories he left behind before he left this cruel world.
HOW HE LEFT
It was on a saturday morning july 1st 2017 we were both in 300level, as the university requirement we were meant to take an enterprenuer course, that is, to learn a trade, so i picked hairdressing trade, and he picked fish farming and processing.
He made sure we had breakfast that morning, since i met him there was never a time that we eat with seperate dish,after breakfast we both went to our various centre to learn at around 10am i got a call from a departmental mate that something happened to alex, initially i thought he was joking, but then he called again this time around the way he was talking it was obvious something bad had happen, i left my centre immediately without telling any supervisor, when i got to the university health centre i met him laid dead on a stretcher his clothes all wet and his body cold. I never believed my eyes it felt like my world came crashing down on me, tears started rolling uncontrollable from my eyes, i shouted and shouted oh i cried, memories started coming back, OMG! My friend had just died.
I had to man up and call his dad to break the news to him, it was a very sad experience to be bringer of bad news to that family, he was the first born son of the Olokun's Family.
I asked the departmental friend that called me how he died, he told me he drowned, that they were playing with a canoe besides the farm where they were training and the canoe capsized, i was told he had swimmed out successfully but he went back to help a drowning friend but he was pulled down by the weight of the person he went back to help.
I must admit the university did little to provide help in the case of such accident, no life saving jacket, he drowned in a 15fit deep natural dam. His body spent 15minutes in tje water before he was later found, i was told he opened his eyes when he was found but later gave up when he is being taken to the university health centre.
I lost a hero, a role model, a legend, an academics, a bestfriend, the most peaceful guy i have ever met.. I wish i was there to warn him, to guide him and to not allow him enter the canoe, i just wish i was in hand to do something, i know if i was there he wouldn't have died like that. But things will never always go the way we planned it, i praise God for his life he touches everyone he met with atleast a ounce of sweetness, Alex can make you laugh when you are down... I would never see my friend again, i have to thank God for a life well spent by him.
To God be the glory, he was very young when he died, he should be around 21years old when he died his birthday was supposed to be on the 10th of April.
He gave me a gift before he died, he gave a replica of himself before he died, he had a son just 5 month after his demise..thats another story for another day and we named the boy Olokun,Olatunde Aristocus..
Farewell Alexander Babatunde Olokun my friend may you continue to rest in the bossom of your God.
Thanks for reading and sharing this moment with me.....cheers...