The feeling of Déjà vu has at one time deprived me of a huge moment and at other times, given me a reason to believe. I am one known to be carried away easily by one scope of a new idea. It happened when I was going to write a professional exam some ten years ago. It was an exam that would be a requisite to get a job with the United Nations and other subsidiary organizations. Bayo Olowoake, a well-known humanitarian worker with international organizations like Redcross and the like was the resource person for the course.
Humanitarian Peacekeeping and International Diplomacy were of high relevance and to engage in the course, I needed a lot of money. So, I started saving some money for the purpose. There was no other way to get the huge amount except through my sacrifice. Thankfully, a colleague of mine who attends the Baptist church informed me that his church, somewhere in the Lekki Peninsula, was subsidizing the fees for the course for any interested persons to the tune of eighty percent.
I jumped at this rare opportunity. The course was to last for five working days and I can tell you that it was an entirely different world than we live in. That program gave me an in-depth knowledge of what world politics is all about.
Following the high rate of unemployment in my country, Nigeria, all those who attended the course started looking for a better job offer from the UN and the agencies attached to it.
The Emergence
Though I already had a job that was good enough to start life as a young man without any dependence, I craved jobs that would pay six figures. The only way open for such is to try out jobs with the UN. I only wrote exams and interviews.
Luckily for me, I got a job as a social worker in Sudan. That was shortly after the ethnic cum political war in that country. There, I played a role in the rehabilitating process of the youths who have already gotten red eyes and wielded the urge to use assault weapons. To say the least, it was a tough job even though the pay was eye-boggling, the risk involved was so high.
In the course of my job in the promoted village of Dongola with a population of about thirteen thousand and over seventy percent depressed youths, unrest soon broke out and all social workers were withdrawn from the war-torn country.
My Deja Vu
At one point at Dongola, I saw myself as head of a very big school in the Lekki area of Lagos. There is nowhere I could leave Lekki for a UN job, bearing the risk that is involved. It was not in a dream though.
As soon as we got evacuated from Sudan, I landed at the Murtala International airport and the next thing was that I was offered a job as the Principal of a school on the Lekki axis. It came with some other benefits.
One of the highlights was when I entered a history class to teach the failures of the African Union in an upper class and saw Muneek, of the boys I had taught in Sudan. At first, it didn't occur to me that we have met before until I asked a similar question asked in one of my sessions with the learners in Sudan and Muneek rose to answer.
The failure of most northern African states to pay allegiance to the African Union has been one of the problems and failures of the African Union. The countries in the north have conceded their trust to the Arabian state, looming down on the relevance of the AU.
He said it exactly as I told the class in Sudan. It was a huge day for me to be reunited to this brilliant chap.