■  Inside story of how an undergraduate of Imo State University was saved from taking own life after his education funding ceased,  owing to parents death

By Jet Stanley-Madu

Ifeanyi Onuegbusi was not born with a silver spoon, hence he went through life with much deprivations. But his life held out some hope while his parents lived, and financially supporting him as much as they could.
With their help, he, the first child in a family of six, was able to finish his primary and secondary schools career as to secure admission into Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri, in 2006, to read Nursing Science. Much hope was pinned on him that, when he was through with his studies and secured a job, he would help his siblings gain a handle on life. But he was barely a year into his university education when tragedy struck: his father who had been ill for sometime but who was showing signs of recovery, suddenly died.
About two years later, his mother who had been the only source of comfort and consolation for him and his younger ones had, in the absence of a father, also took ill unexpectedly and died. With the second tragedy, economic hardship and hopeless feelings came full cycle for the native of Ihitte-Uboma in Ihitte-Uboma Local Government Area of Imo State. The young man, who all the while had been trying to eke out a living by doing whatever menial job his hand could find, to see himself through school, suddenly became the breadwinner of the family. But no matter how much he tried to make the two ends meet, they remained as far apart as two parallel lines in infinity.

University education in jeopardy
With his university education in jeopardy, nay, truncated by the death of both parents, and no one to turn to for financial help but his poor self, he began to hear a   voice urging him to take his life and end it all. An insistent voice! A persistent voice! An inaudible voice! A wicked voice! A hopeless feeling-inspiring voice!
For a while he resisted the urge as much as he could. But somewhere down the line, when hardship became seemingly unbearable for his frail mind and weak body, when no glimmer of hope appeared to show up anywhere for him, at the end of the dark tunnel, he decided to give in to the promptings of the evil voice. He was better dead and relieved of life and its unending sufferings, the voice told him, than being alive and going through all these. But as he was about taking the journey of no return help suddenly came for him from unexpected quarters, to help him continue with his university education.
The story of how that happened, of how sorrow and hopelessness suddenly turned into joy and hope is what Onuegbusi set out to tell in this inspiring encounter with The Sun Education at a recent event organised in Lekki, Lagos, by Joan Agha Foundation (JAF). It is a story that leaves you with some lessons: don’t give up hope yet because after rain comes sunshine; the downfall of a man is never the end of his life; tough times never last, but tough men do. This, incidentally, is the title of a little autobiographical work he has written about his life: Only the Tough Lasts. His story:

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The year my dad and mum died
“During my secondary school career, my father took ill. Even before he passed on, I was doing some little chores after my secondary school education. I was doing things like hawking. I worked in pure water company. I did one little job inside Ojo-Alaba International Market, all in a bid to survive. It was still in a bid to survive that I went back to Imo State.
“Somewhere along the line, my father’s health began to improve. I was happy and hopeful. At this point, I secured admission into Imo State University to read Nursing Science. But one day like that, without any premonition or notice, he suddenly died.
“After his burial, I knew with my father’s death, there would be nobody to take care of me. He died barely a year after my admission. I then knew I was in for the role of a father. So, I started looking for job. I got one in a hotel where I worked as a receptionist. Ends weren’t just meeting. So I dropped out of university. It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to go to school. I really wanted to but there was nobody to sponsor my education, to see me through school, at this point. I was busy doing the receptionist job when a call came through that my mother was ill and that, in fact, her ill-health had become critical. But after all said and done, despite our efforts to save her life, she died also. This happened within an interval of two years from my dad’s death.
“Whereas things were tough following my father’s death, in 2007, they became even tougher after my mother’s. It was now just my siblings and me. Being the first born in the family I needed to work to take care of them and myself. It was after my mother died that I started doing what you can truly call menial jobs, more menial than the ones I did before. I washed plates in restaurants to get N150 pay per day, for survival.

In the throes of suicidal feeling
“Lest I forget I came back to Lagos after my father’s death. It was while I was here working as a receptionist in a hotel that a call came through about my mother’s ill-health. Somewhere along the line, I started working again in Ojo-Alaba market. I was arranging CD plates for a token per day. One day, I got tired and could no longer cope because it was from these daily pays that I catered for myself and siblings. One day, I said to myself, ‘is this me, an undergraduate? Man, I can’t do this thing anymore.’ So, it was really, really heavy on me, having with me my siblings, but with no tangible means to cater for them.
“I thought about how I have lost my education, of how I had lost everything. My parents had nothing –no land, no property whatever I could sell and raise money to care for my five younger ones. I could no longer go to school and there was no relative willing to help. It was at this point the feeling to kill myself by just any means started playing on my mind very strongly. It did for days. The more I suffered, the more the feeling came. Courage simply left me. In fact, I was on the verge of taking my life when help suddenly came my way.”

The saving call
As he weighed the option, he got a call from one Rev. Father Mike Emerue to see him. According to him, the Roman Catholic priest had presided over his mom’s wake. “I think that was the very first day he saw me. On that day, while trying to appreciate people for coming, I burst into tears because I could see my future right there, without my father and mother. I think he was moved with pity. So he encouraged and reassured me, saying, ‘don’t worry me, man, it will be well. Don’t cry. Don’t kill yourself over things like this. I will do the best I can to see how I can help.’
“At first, I did not have faith in his words. It was not until one day during that time I was seriously thinking of ending it all by taking my life that the Rev. Father called and said there was something he wanted to tell me. He talked about certain Foundation where a friend of his was working and that he thought he was going to be a board member of that very Foundation.”
The priest then directed Onuegbusi to officially write to the Foundation, introducing himself, informing it of his need and taking time to explain how it could help. Armed with the letter, he made himself available for the meeting on the said day. “The board and Foundation members saw me that day and I told them what I was there for,” he said. “And from that day, I became a friend, a child, a beneficiary to Joan Agha Foundation. And it’s been good. I just give all the glory to God”.

How a Foundation put smile on Onuegbusi’s sad face
Today, he is a 500 Level student of Lagos State University, (LASU), Ojo, where he is reading Computer Science on full scholarship from JAF. “The Foundation gave me a new lease of life,” he said enthusiastically for the umpteenth time. “Right from my 100 level till date it has been the one paying my school fees.”
Giving reason he switched from Nursing Science to Computer Science, he explained that “Nursing Science in Lagos State is a very professional course. Hence, it needs all of your attention because it requires serious reading and time. And I was looking at my finance, my siblings and all that. It would not really give me the time I need to look after my younger ones and to do other things I would have loved to do. Nursing Science is more like studying Medicine. It’s really, really a tough course. And based on the fact that I actually wanted to study on part-time basis, that requires that I’ll be working and at the same time be schooling and still have the responsibility of parenthood for my sibling, I decided to opt for a course that will not eat too much into the time I have to take care of other things. So? When I applied to LASU, the only science course that could be done on part-time basis was Computer Science. Hence, I went for it. To the glory of God, I should be graduating between February and March this year.”
As it were, the future computer scientist has written a book for which he was glad to give some insights.
“I titled my book: Only the Tough Lasts. It’s a way of saying, tough times don’t last but tough people do. Things were really tough for me. That book is not a story for me only; it’s a book I did because I wanted to encourage people. The book was launched in 2013. It’s just that I’ve not updated it by way of correcting the observed errors and all that. I have done two or three others, not published yet.”

The Foundation with vision and mission
The Founder and President of JAF, Mrs. Joan Agha, who shared her vision with The Sun Education said the Foundation was founded with the vision and mission of addressing the needs of indigent persons in the society through educational scholarships, women empowerment, youth empowerment, counseling and advocacy. She disclosed that the Foundation caters for indigent youths and women, grants scholarship to brilliant ones. It provides training on entrepreneurship to various categories of people like widows, orphans and the fatherless. It also provides them with soft loans, particularly women, to set up businesses or expand existing ones. According to her, the Foundation executes these mandates, irrespective of the beneficiary’s tribe and creed.
“Since inception, the Foundation has trained women to acquire skills in catering, event management, sewing and fashion design and, more recently, hat-making, bead-making etc”, she informed. “A good number of them had been sponsored to acquire basic skills at the International Women Society (IWS) skills acquisition centre. And we are dedicated to helping indigent persons in the society and will continue to do so for a better society, a greater nation and a world at peace.”
An author and motivational speaker, a certified life coach and management trainer, she disclosed that her vision is to make a difference in the lives of women particularly widows and indigent youths.