Rising to Greatness

By Festus Adu

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Daani was born poor. He achieved greatness through determination, fortitude, resilience, early childhood ingenuity, and the abounding grace of God to see himself through the primary school in his remote village to one of the most prestigious learning institutions in the world after overcoming the initial challenges that posed obstacles along his path as he journeyed from poverty to prosperity, popularity, fame, and greatness. He rose beyond the confines of his little village, Oke-Irele, to become a formidable aeronautical engineer, an inventor, a society influencer, an international figure, and a great politician who improved the land of his people. This book is a must-read for everyone as it paints a story we all need to learn from.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887317458

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Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: A Boy Rising from the Rock

Chapter 3: From Dream to Reality

Chapter 4: From Reality to Realization

Chapter 5: Forward-Looking in the Face of Hardship

Chapter 6: Hard Push through Secondary School

Chapter 7: The Unthinkable

Chapter 8: The Vindication

Chapter 9: Fortune Smiles at Me

Chapter 10: In Search of the Golden Treasure

Chapter 11: Moving to the Next Level

Chapter 12: At MIAAE

Chapter 13: The Sweet Homecoming

Chapter 14: The Dispensation of Service

Chapter 15: A Bit into Politics

Chapter 16: East or West, Home Is the Best

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About the Author

cover.jpg

Rising to Greatness

Festus Adu

Copyright © 2023 Festus Adu

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2023

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidences either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

ISBN 979-8-88731-744-1 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88731-745-8 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To Bukunmi, the God of increase

Preface

Daniel, whom his illiterate, uneducated parent called Daani, is a self-made man who, faced with a bleak future laden with uncertainties, abject poverty, deprivation, and a lack of initial ingredients and nutrients for a prosperous future, is determined to break away from his family's generational ignorance and lack of formal education. By dint of hard work, he rose beyond the confines of his little village of Oke-Irele to become a formidable aeronautical engineer, an inventor, a society influencer, an international figure, and a great politician who improved the land of his people.

Through his determination, courage, and fortitude, sandwiched with the grace of God and early childhood ingenuity, he was able to see himself go from the primary school in his village of Oke-Irele to one of the best institutions of learning in the world—the Massachusetts Institute of Advanced Aeronautical Engineering (MIAAE)—after overcoming all challenges that posed obstacles along his path as he journeyed from poverty to prosperity, fame, popularity, and greatness. After his private, public, and international service to his country, he retired in his old age to his village as an opinion and community leader, where he continued to wield great influence and set as a great example for the younger generations.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. These were the words of William Shakespeare, a great fifteenth-century poet and play writer. Although these words were written hundreds of years ago, their tenet still holds fast today.

Daani was not born great; he was born poor. He was born to parents who didn't quite understand the benefits of education. He literally had to beg his father to send him to school.

He did not have greatness thrust upon him. He was not made great without having done anything to achieve that status.

Daani achieved greatness through determination, fortitude, resilience, hard work, courage, and the abounding grace of God.

Daani's story and climb to greatness started when he was at the tender age of eight years. On the way to the farm every morning, he would not give his father any rest of his mind. He would continue to tell his father about his desire to go to school. Initially, the father would not pay attention to his demand. But as Daani continued to pester his father with his demand, the wall of resistance started to crack little by little.

This boy is the only son I have. If I put him in school, who will be following me to the farm? The father would think to himself without letting Daani know of his thought.

All right! All right! I will think about it, his father, Mr. Gbaja Akins, would say. He was not going to think about it, but just said that to put off his son.

Daani's stars were probably revealing to him what his future was going to be with a good education. In his unconscious childhood mind, he imagined himself to be a great lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a scientist, or a politician. He conceptualized that without a good education, there was no way his dreams could come true. He was therefore more determined to continue to worry his father about his desire to go to school and his unquenchable desire to do so.

Daani's dream came close to coming true when, that early morning on the way to the farm, in the usual slow walking line of villagers to the farm through the narrow, weed-laden path, the man at the back of Mr. Gbaja Akins suddenly started a discussion with him.

"Oga Akins, he said. Are you not thinking of putting this boy in school? I always listen to him and how he talked and discussed with us adults. Something is telling me that he is going to be a smart boy and he is going to achieve greatness. Please think twice and send him to school."

Oh, so Daani has come to gossip to you that I have refused to put him in school? replied Mr. Akins. He has been pestering my life every day.

Noooo! I cannot even remember when I saw him last! We only see ourselves on the way to the farm every morning like this.

But where will I get the money for the school fees? Who will be following me to the farm? He is the only son I have, complained Mr. Akins.

Oh, those are small things, said this man. As for the money, God will provide. There is no amount of money we spend on these children that is in vain. Education is the best legacy we can bequeath to them. If they succeed in life, that money will be recovered in time, this man said.

As for whether he is the only son, he whispered into his ears, holding the shoulder of Mr. Akins and asking him to look at him. Go to your wife and make more sons or marry a second wife to give you more sons now! Both of them burst into loud laughter, drawing the attention of others on the line trekking to the farm that morning. They all wondered what could have engendered such loud and lively laughter.

How I wish I had a smart boy like your son. I would not only put him in school, but I will also throw him there, this man told Mr. Akins.

This discussion totally changed the thinking of Mr. Akins.

Maybe this fellow farmer is talking the truth. When I get back home in the evening, I will discuss it with my wife, he reasoned within himself.

Thank you, my friend. I have heard your advice, and I am giving it serious thought. As you said, God will provide and open ways where there are no ways. I will discuss this with my wife, and we would take the appropriate step. Oga Akins assured his friend.

You are welcome. The discussion changed. Do you have any tobacco wrap with you before we separate to our different ways this morning?

Yes, of course. I always make sure I have up to three or four wraps every day like this on my way to the farm. Oga Akins stretched his hand and handed over one wrap to his friend.

Any firelight? A lazy man needs total rescue, meaning if you give me tobacco wrap, you light it for me too, he said, smiling.

Mr. Atkinson dipped his hand into his farm bag, brought out his firelight, and pressed down the trigger, and on came the red and blue flame.

With the tobacco wrap in the mouth of his friend, Mr. Akins pointed the firelight flame to the other end of the tobacco wrap. With only one inhalation, the tobacco wrap got ignited. After each inhalation and exhalation, a stretch of blue smoke oozed out from the nose and the mouth. The man rubbed his head, a sign of satisfaction, and he continued to enjoy his tobacco smoking until they parted ways—everyone to their various farms.

In the evening, Mr. Akins related all the discussions he had with his fellow farmer to his wife. He confessed that his advice sounded very reasonable and had touched his soul for his son. He confessed that the part of his discussion that really moved him was when this man wished that he was the father of such a smart boy like Daani and that he would not only put him in school but also literally throw him into school.

Mrs. Dupe Akins was very happy. So what do we do now? asked Mrs. Akins.

Good question you have asked! What do we do? You gird your loins, and I gird my loins.

We would need to work harder than before to meet school fees and other expenses and challenges.

We'll begin to get ready for the next school year because it is already late for this year, said Mr. Akins.

It was a lively discussion between husband and wife concerning their son. Mrs. Akins brought a plate of pounded yam with the assorted vegetable sauce that she had prepared before the discussion and placed it in front of the husband. A bowl of handwashing water was already on the table too. Mr. Akins had a sumptuous dinner that evening, and after the heavy, starchy carbohydrate-pounded yam had digested a bit, he went to sleep. He could not sleep soundly most of the night because he was thinking of the great challenges and burden of sending Daani to school on his meager resources. But his consolation and word of encouragement were the last resounding words of his farmer friend: As for the money, God will provide. There is no amount of money we spend on these children that is in vain. Education is the best legacy we can bequeath to them. If they succeed in life, that money will be recovered in time.

These words were like a sedative to him. He dozed off, and before you knew it, he was in the realm of the spirits, snoring.

Chapter 2

A Boy Rising from the Rock

Daniel Feranmi could in no way be categorized among those groups of children born with a silver spoon in their mouths. He was truly one of those that could be described in the local adage of his own dialectic tradition as a child rising from the rock, literally meaning Daani, as his illiterate, uneducated parents would normally call him, was a self-made man. Referring to Daani as one rising up from a rock is an oxymoron, which seemed to contradict the conventional meaning of a rock, which is often used to describe somebody or something extremely strong, formidable, reliable, or hard. Contrariwise, Daani, rising from the rock, identified with his early life of deprivation, poverty, and a lack of the initial ingredients, nutrients, and sources needed to lay the foundation for a prosperous future.

He was to be the first generation in the family lineage to taste formal western education. He had nobody to look to as a mentor, an adviser, or an example whose steps to follow. He was totally on his own.

Daani would often recollect some of his childhood discussions with his father, during one of those early morning trips to the farm. His father was a subsistence farmer who grew in his farm only sufficient food to sustain and feed a family of five. And this often depended on the climatic condition of the time. When nature was not kind enough to give an early or late rain, the harvest could be very poor, often leading to famine, starvation, and poor nutrition.

Baba, Daani called his father. Why didn't you go to school when you were my age? Baba would sigh and give a welcoming, smirky reply to his inquisitive son.

I have nobody to send me to school, replied Baba.

You mean you have no father or mother? a bewildered Daani asked his father.

I have a father and a mother, but they were not enlightened enough to know the value of education. And besides, there were no schools in our village at their own time.

In further explanation, Baba continued, He was afraid to send me out of the village to attend a school where he knew nobody and where none of his close or distant relatives that could take care of me. He was afraid to send me away from home at such a tender age.

With a wide-opened eye, Daani asked his father if he would send him to school now that there was a starter primary school where he could spend the first four years before thinking of going to another bigger village with the opportunity of completing primary school. Answers were not immediately forthcoming from his father. He was thinking about how he would handle farm work alone—Daani was the only son at the time—and how the other villagers would interpret his action if he sent him to school.

He continued to ask and remind his father about this question at the most convenient and appropriate times—on the way to the farm, in the farm, and at home. After a while, it dawned on Baba the appropriateness of his son's repeated question, and he began to give thought to it.

Daniel was determined to go to school, to be educated, and to break the myth or the curse of illiteracy in the family lineage. He was determined to be better than his parents and grandparents. He was determined to explore the frontier of wisdom and knowledge, which could only be brought about by good education and which would open his eyes to see and understand beyond the limitations of his parents and grandparents. He was determined to go beyond his village. He was determined to know that there were possibly larger farms than those of his father. Such was the determination of Daani Feranmi.

Baba was beginning to seriously ruminate on the hidden benefits of education. He began to think alongside his son. He began to see in his inner mind that his son was becoming somebody of value. He imagined his rock-arising son transformed into a formidable rock in society.

Daani, called the father. Come here. You say you want to go to school? asked the father.

Yes, Baba, I want to, replied Daani with determination.

Baba told his son that if he went to school, he would no longer be free. He reminded him that when he sees his teacher coming, he will be afraid and run away to hide. They will flog you and give you bodily punishment if you fail. You will not be able to follow me to the farm to eat those fresh yam and plantain, garden vegetables, and that delicious bushmeat we trapped in the farm.

Daani looked up into the face of his father, with determination boldly written in his unconscious mind, and told his father that he was ready to lose those benefits for a good education. Determination at its rudimentary peak!

"This September, the school's enrollment for primary 1 is over now until after Keresimesi, the local word for Christmas," said Baba.

"After Keresimesi, I will take you to the village headmaster to enroll you in primary 1 for the new school year.

Thank you, Baba, Daani replied with a broad smile.

Before you begin to smile, don't forget I will no longer give you some of those bushmeats we trapped in the farm. And also don't forget that I don't have enough money. If I don't get money to pay for your school fees, you will come and sit down at home, follow me to the farm until I am able to gather or borrow enough to pay for your fees.

Baba, God will provide! When I go to school and become a great scientist or an engineer, I will create a machine that will be catching bigger animals than those small rats and rabbits your small traps are catching now, reasoned Daani.

Baba smiled back at his son and seemed to have agreed with him.

The first battle has been won by the determination of Daani Feranmi.

Chapter 3

From Dream to Reality

It had been almost four months since Daani and his father had that major decision-making discussion. There was no doubt that Daani was happy about the decision of his father to send him to school, and there was also no doubt that Daani's father was ready to keep his promise. Since that time, in anticipation of the new school year after Christmas, Daani had been silently gossiping to his village peers and playmates that he would be going to school to start primary one after Keresimesi. As expected, that generated different reactions from those little minds.

Some showed some signs of rejoicing with him, while some became jealous.

I will also go and tell my father to put me in school, said Lanre, the ten-year-old playmate with whom they played local soccer barefooted.

I don't want to go to school, cut in Ranti. I don't like those teachers. I am afraid of them.

"When you start going to school, we will not see you again on our way to the farm every morning. I will