Service Year

By Chuka Nwabuogor

This is a true life story.

Ibaji is a great land with good people.

I’m happy I served in Ibaji, alongside other young people.

This book contains some of the experiences I had and I hope you’ll enjoy the story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chuka Nwabuogor
• Release date: Nov 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005405601

Chuka Nwabuogor

Hi There.My name is Chuka and I write about things that matter to everyone. I share my story as it unfolds.In the past couple of years, I've been a freelancer, working with different professionals and authors on their digital projects, such as editing, designing, book publishing and more.I share my thoughts weekly on my website and on medium.

Book preview

Service

Year

True life stories from Ibaji

Chuka Nwabuogor

This is a true life story.

Ibaji is a great land with good people.

I’m happy to have served in Ibaji, alongside other young people.

This book contains some of the experiences I had and I hope you’ll enjoy the story.

Book cover design, editing, formatting and online publishing:

https://esteemcity.com/

Chapter 1

From 2.2 to 2.1

After my final year exams, I began to anticipate my results. I thought about the class of degree I would graduate with. My expectation was a second class upper degree (2.1). I had worked hard to maintain a 2.1 from 100level till 300l, final year would not be an exception. I needed a 2.1 in final year to seal up my overall class of degree (2.1).

The overall results were finally released. My class of degree was also released so I went to check, it was a 2.2. First, I wondered how and immediately refuted the result. My final year results alone were a 2.1, so my cumulative GPA was supposed to be a 2.1.

Right there in the office, I was told to meet my course adviser (CA). I maintained that I was not supposed to get a 2.2. Oh! What are you supposed to get? First Class? I replied, a 2.1.

I left the departmental office and headed straight to my course adviser for complaints. We had 2 course advisers, a male and female assistant. The male course adviser maintained that the results were accurately calculated and that I got what I deserved. I explained to him about having a 2.1 from 100 level till final year, but it seemed I was telling stories. Afterwards, he finally said if I wanted to contest the results, I had to write to the Department requesting for a recalculation of my CGPA.

I left his office confused. I knew the consequences of contesting the results would not be funny especially if my claims were wrong. At that point, I sought advice. I informed my project supervisor about the development, she encouraged me to take it up, explaining that everyone is prone to mistakes.

Ehi Silvia, (now CEO of CrossCakes and Confectioneries) who was in my faculty advised me to go for it. Apostle Peter's advice was also helpful. I had all the energy I needed to follow up the matter.

I had friends who had similar issues. Some advised me to forget about contesting the results. There's no time. It will take a lot of time to rectify this. What if your claims are not true? These thoughts were ringing in my head. I had a culture of writing down my grades as soon as they were released, from semester to semester, from 100 level till final year. So at graduation, I literally had my transcripts (though not official). I would calculate and calculate and recalculate just to be sure. All my answers came to a 2.1. At some point, I began to cover for possible errors in my calculations by reducing some of my grades and it was still a 2.1. I was a bit sure, but was still skeptical. What if the grades I had written turned out to be different from what's in the files?

I wrote the letter and appeared at my course adviser's office the following week and he was surprised to see me because he didn’t think I was going to take the matter up. He had to sign the letter because I wrote through him to the Head of Department. He took the letter from me and began to find faults, saying things like This letter is not properly written This is not supposed to be here, I quickly ran to make corrections and returned for signing. He signed and told me he would take the letter to the HOD. Normally, the student took it to the HOD but he decided to take it himself, I didn't bother.

I came back the following week to get an update on the matter only to discover that the letter hadn’t been submitted and that my file was missing.  The file that contained my student records and grades all through school. Wait a minute. How could the file of the class rep be missing? It dawned on me that something fishy must have been going on. The CA maintained that my file could probably be in the office of the female CA who was on leave at the time, and I had to wait for her to resume work before we could proceed. It wasn't funny.

How long was I going to wait? At that point, I decided to complain to the HOD directly. After I got in her office and explained my position, she checked her records and told me to be calm, explaining that everything would be resolved. She took her phone and made calls, and in a couple of minutes, the assistant CA's office was opened and my file was out. The CA was mandated to recalculate my CGPA and right there in his office, he recalculated and it was a 2.1. He then apologized on behalf of the Department explaining that the results would be forwarded to the Senate for approval which would come out as an amended result.

I left that office a happy man.

I graduated in 2015 and it took almost the whole of 2016 to correct the issue as the SSANU (Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities) were on strike during the period. This didn't bother me because although NYSC was delayed, I wanted to prove a point. It didn't make any sense that after all the work and sacrifice put into my academics, being the Class Rep, attending lectures and night classes, etc, I would end up like I wasted my time being committed to studies. Not at all.

You know, during that time, some already knew what grades they would be graduating with. They already knew their results from the look of things. During this time, some people thought I had spilled but