OBINNA THE SUCCESSFUL FOOTBALLER

PROBLEMS AROUND THE CORNER

Obinna was now in SS3, the final year in the Secondary School at Saint-Patrick Secondary School, Onitsha. He was lucky that the Government has awarded a free Education for all Public Schools that year, so he didn’t need to worry about school fees anymore. His parents were ageing because of too much stress and suffering, his father is sick as a result of excess alcohol in his system, his mother has develop waist pain, she is not capable of gathering firewood anymore.

Obinna who was approaching seventeen (17) years of age, was now the breadwinner of the family, he started with his mother's firewood business, he usually gathers big and strong firewood, he uses the money realized to buy foodstuffs, he was also losing concentration on football and school work, as he couldn’t afford to watch his parent die of hunger.

When the WAEC results came out, Obinna credited all his papers, but he had nobody to sponsor him to the University, his two rich self-centered uncles at Abuja were never ready to help him at all. During the rainy seasons, Obinna left the firewood business, as the trees are now growing fresh, he started doing menial work in building sites, and he uses the daily payment to buy food for his sick parents. Luckily for him, he won a contract worth Fifty Thousand Naira in a site to fill up and level up ten rooms for German floor; after completing the work, he was paid the huge sum of Fifty Thousand Naira, he was very happy, he bought plenty of Garri, Rice, Beans, Tubers of yam, Red oil, Groundnut oil and many food spices, he also used some of the money to treat his parents sickness, his mother is responding to treatment, but his father’s case is critical.

One day, Obinna was working in a building site, when it was discovered that a mobile phone that belongs to the owner of the house was missing, everybody was alerted concerning the situation, everyone denied of having seen nor stolen the phone. It happens to be that a man who was competing for the Fifty Thousand Naira contract with Obinna had set him up, he was angry for losing the contract to him, he stole the phone and plant it inside Obinna’s trouser that was hanging on a wall. Everywhere was searched and they couldn’t find the missing phone, suddenly, the man asked “what of that trouser hanging over there, have we searched it?”, they quickly grab Obinna’s hanging trouser and behold, the phone was inside the back pocket, Obinna was surprise and he cried “God forbid bad thing, I can swear, I don’t know anything about this phone or how it got into my pocket”, the angry workers were not ready to listen to him, they began inflicting blows on him, he was begging them to free him, that he didn’t steal the phone, they kept on beating him till he fainted.

The owner of the building later called the local Police and Obinna was arrested and detained in the cell, his parent was informed about his situation, his mother visited him with food. Obinna spent three days before he was released because of pleas from his mother, his parent knew that he didn’t steal the phone; they believed that someone framed him.