(A STORY) THE VC’S LIST - Ugochukwu Ugonna

 

Nneoma was sweating profusely. No one in the commercial bus could understand why someone would be sweating despite the strong harmattan breeze, but Nneoma knew why she was sweating. Although it was only visible that her palms and face was sweaty, Nneoma was actually sweating more on her buttocks. She could not sleep the previous night, since she heard about the supplementary list of Nnamdi Azikiwe University. After swindling her of about seventy thousand naira in early October, Big-Ben had promised Nneoma that her name would be on the next admission list. Nneoma had heard of how people were swindled of their money by admission racketeers and never believed she would fall a victim.

 

When Nneoma couldn’t find her name on the first admission list released by Unizik, she was really worried and didn’t want to take chances on loosing this year’s admission. This was the third time she was writing JAMB and post-utme, and she didn’t want the admission year to elude her. Although she followed up the admission with prayers and fasting, Nneoma saw it as an answer to her prayers when her secondary school classmate Ebele, who was now a 300 Level Economics student in Unizik introduced her to Big Ben. According to Ebele’s testament, Big Ben was instrumental to her own admission in 2013 when she got admitted into unizik to study Economics. So this made Nneoma to have a little faith that this one could be real. But after the second list was released in November, and Nneoma could not find her name on it, she became very restless. But Big Ben kept on assuring her not to worry, that everything is under control. Nneoma vividly remembers their discussion that fateful day in November after the second list was released;

“Nneoma, don’tu worry at all, Nne, I have given your name and post-utme result to Joe. I don settle am sef, ighotago?” Big Ben had said with his thick Igbo accent.

“Who be Joe?” Nneoma had asked.

“Ah ah, na Joe be VC nah.”

“So na VC you dey call ‘Joe’ ”?

“Na my guy na. Even before he became the VC, we don tey for this game. So chillax, nothing mega.”

 

But after the third list, which was the supplementary list hit the internet on Sunday 6th December, 2015 and Nneoma could still not find her name, she lost all sense of decorum – seventy thousand wasn’t a chicken fee, besides all the money didn’t come from her parents but from her own sweat too.

 

All attempts to reach Big Ben on the phone the previous night had been futile as Big Ben refused to pick any of the calls Nneoma put through to him. She therefore resolved to visit the campus and meet him face to face and have him explain why she could still not find her name on the supplementary admission list which is believed to be the last admission list for the year.

 

Nneoma arrived Awka from her home town Ezeagu Village in Enugu at about 1pm on Monday 7th November, 2015. Although she had no idea where to find Big Ben, she only hoped that she would go to her Ebele’s hostel in Ifite and ask for her help in locating Big Ben since she was the one who introduced him to her.

 

On getting to favour hostel Ifite where Ebele lived, Nneoma was greeted with the news that Ebele had packed out of the lodge and moved to a new hostel a few weeks back, and nobody was aware of Ebele’s new hostel. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when Nneoma dialed her number, and it was saying that the line has been blocked.

Nneoma found herself on the floor in front of the hostel gate sobbing uncontrollably. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her.

Martin Beck Nworah was passing by when he saw this beautiful fair girl sitting on the floor crying. On taking a closer look, he saw that the girl was so endowed with plenty body features, and so he approached her hoping to solve her problems and win her heart. After all #ZikitesUSNConnect was coming up by weekend, and he hasn’t gotten any babe for the event.

After Nneoma explained her predicament to Martin Beck Nworah, he did not even know what to do. He just bent towards Nneoma, held her shoulders and tried to console her, but she cried the more

“Where do I start from now?” She continued to sob, “I’ve already spent seventy thousand on this admission, and to make matters worse, I’ve bought all the things I need to use and come back to school, I have even bought my ticket to attend #ZikitesUSNconnect, but now I can’t find my name on the admission list. What will I tell all my friends that I have previously told that I have gotten admission, how do I explain to them that I am still at home when school have started since November? Even my facebook friends that have been thanking God with me and telling me congrats. What do I do now for God’sake.”

“Maybe you should try calling that your Big Ben again. Use my phone just in case he is avoiding your number.” Martin Beck Nworah suggested and gave his phone to Nneoma.

She collected the phone quickly and dialed Big Ben’s number.

“Helloo! Kedu Onye n’ekwu?” Big Ben’s thick igbo accent came on the line almost immediately.

“Big Ben, this is Nneoma Okafor on the line.”

“Oh! Nneoma, have you seen your admission status?”

“No, that’s why I’ve been calling you since yesterday but you have been avoiding my calls.” Nneoma replied.

 

“Avoiding your call? Maka gini kwa nu? Go and check your admission status and give me the good news. I saw the VC’s list last night and your name was there.”

“Really? But I have checked my admission status online and I didn’t see my admission.”

“No nah! This one is not online, this one is the VC’s list, you won’t find it online. Go to the admin block and check your name on the list in VC’s office. The one online is the supplementary list, it is different from the VC’s list. Go and check iti over there.” Big Ben said and quickly dropped the call.

 

Nneoma’s face lit up a little as she handed over the phone to Martin Beck Nworah and sped off to the admin block. She didn’t even tell Martin the outcome of the phone call, and while she was running off after handing him the phone, Martin was calling her, to at least drop her number so that he would keep in touch, but Nneoma did not wait to listen to him, the only thing on her mind now was the admission list…the almighty VC’s list which cannot be found online, but only in the VC’s office.

 

It was Dr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, the director of Information and Public Relations that Nneoma met as soon as she stepped into the VC’s waiting room.

“Please Sir, Do you know where they pasted the VC’s list?” Nneoma asked.

“VC’s list of what?” Dr. Ojukwu asked

“The admission list Sir. The one released last night, Sir.” Nneoma replied.

“Yes, the Supplementary admission list is out, you can check it online.”

“No sir, not the supplementary list, I mean the admission list, the VC’s own list. Big Ben told me that they did not put that one online, that I can only find it in the VC’s office.” Nneoma insisted.

 

“Young lady, if you have been extorted, please go and find the person you gave money to and collect it back, admission into Unizik is free. What we have at the moment is the first list, the second list and the supplementary list that has just been released. There is no such thing as the VC’s list.”

 

With the dashed hopes of being an undergraduate in 2015, the fear of writing another JAMB and post-utme in 2016, the stress of preparing for jamb, crossing the hurdles and travelling up and down for Post-utme, facing shame on facebook and twitter where her friends had already started telling her congratulations on her fake admission news, and most especially the potential reality that she would miss out on the BIGGEST Zikites event #ZikitesUSNconnect on Saturday 12th December 2015, caused Nneoma to slump to the floor and become unconscious.

Written by

Ugonna Ugochukwu N.

Chemical Engineering Unizik

Contact email: ugonnaugochukwu2@gmail.com