Hacked Chapter 8--The guy next to me

               CHAPTER EIGHT
             The guy next to me
"What course do you want to study?" The man asked "  Medicine and Surgery" I replied. He then proceeded to getting the details of my other choices. While this was going on, Father dipped his hand into the front pocket of his white stripped shirt, brought out his phone to press, as he was no longer interested in the rest of the registration information.

My JAMB examination centre was in a high school located at the outskirt of the town, very far away from where I stay with my parent.

Unlike today's method of conducting exams, where everything has been computerized, it was a Paper Based Test.
Our seat number is written at the left hand side of the print out. It is written immediately after the personal information. My sit number was 2056.

The exam was set to start by 9am but I arrived at the centre around 7am. Just to get myself settled on time. On arrival, I met few students. Some of them had schoolbag pack which seems to contain clothing and toiletries on them. who had , who had peradventure slept over at in some of school's classroom. I mean it is possible, afterall, the school wasn't fenced.

"Here comes the second stage I need to overcome, if I want to succeed on this road to freedom".  This words kept coming to my heart as I sat on one near broken bench, that leans against the almond tree located immediately after the school's entrance, decorated with big stone, designed with white carbad.

The test didn't commence until few minutes to eleven. The officials and invigilators stated arriving at around 9:30am. Thirty minutes after the exam ought to have kicked off, it was around that time, they stated dividing the classrooms into centres.

Before the commencement of the test, a bell was gingled. We all assembled, as we were given instructions by various coordinators, who had all addressed and admonished us to cooperate and follow instructions. They warned strictly against examination malpractices.

I didn't pay attention to the guy sitting next to me, until after after like thirty minutes. We were made to sit in pairs. I wanted to adjust my sitting position as well as move the table closer to me so as to enable me write comfortably. It was then I realized that this guy had not done anything except for filling in his details and shading his registration number on his OMR sheet.

I paused for a while to look at him carefully, peradventure something is wrong with him. I was wrong. He was perfectly fine. I was about to take my face off him, when I discovered, he had a small phone wrapped in a black stripped handkerchief on his left hand, which he press often as he pretends to be adjusting his trouser, from the middle of his laps.

 I have no idea of what his result was, for that was the first and last time I ever saw him. All I knew was that, he finished his exam before me and even offered to help me with answers to any of the questions I find difficult. He barely used up to thirty minutes to do the shading. He didn't even open his question papers. Well, I didn't blame him, the centre invigilator is to be blamed. The poor man slept almost all through the hours of the exam.

My prayers became intense after the exam. I became so unsure of many things, of the answers I had chosen and of the questions I thought I got right which eventually was wrong. Especially for the Use of English, where we had been given comprehension passages with lots of vocabularies I am seeing for the first time. I prayed harder. I remember telling God to send angels to erase some of my wrong answers and make them right.