By Faith Eke
Jay Jay was the head of a local gang in Ajegunle. He was a secondary school dropout who got involved in street crimes because he was always on the street. Jay Jay was on the street all the time, because his family lived in a tiny makeshift dump. His house couldn’t contain all of them.
Among the poor in AJ city, Jay’s family was considered very poor. His father was a drunk who spent his earnings from the palm wine he sold on betting pools. To make sure he and his siblings never went to bed on an empty stomach, Jay Jay learned how to pick pockets. He began at the age of 12 and by the time he was 17, he had his own small gang: about seven boys he had gathered together. He taught them how to pick pockets. One day, when he was 20, he picked someone’s pocket and got The Golden Ticket.
The golden ticket was a ticket given to “Area boys” or local underprivileged boys who didn’t finish school and are on the street engaging in minor crimes. This ticket gives them a chance to go to school at Gregory University, a private university founded by an Olympic gold medalist in tracks and fields. His name was Gregory Adebayo, a man who declared openly that he was a product of grace because he was born with a deformity on his left foot but grew up to become the fastest runner in the world. As an athlete, Gregory got so many endorsements that he became very rich. Thinking about how to spend his money on earth before it became useless to him when he transited to the great beyond; Mr Adebayo came up with a noble thought to help build a special university that would help the underprivileged. His university did not require O levels or A levels, all it required was the presence of a willing mind.
Gregory Adeboye received help from his local church and the World Bank whose mission statement incorporated what Mr Adeboye wanted to do, which was to help people of different lands and tongues to come out of poverty. So together, they built a private university and started The Golden Ticket Project (TGTP) to help poor street children. He said the grace of God saved him from the street because he came from a very poor family.
For one week, recipients of The Golden Ticket would be given an orientation course of as many vocations as possible on earth. At the end of the one week, they would be asked to choose what they think they could do or would love to do. In addition to the orientation courses, the recipients would be taught the English Alphabet, and how to form words and make simple sentences. Once a recipient chose a vocation, they would be sent into a vocational school within the university where they would learn a trade or a skill for mine months, an academic session period. In addition to they would be taught communication in English language. Through this project, many street boys had been taken off the street. But it wasn’t always easy to get the Golden Ticket to the people who needed it most.
Every year one hundred golden tickets are released in Lagos at every bank. To get the ticket you have to fill an application form and go through interviews with HOD of skills acquisition in the university. After the interview, a package would be given to the candidate. If the package contained the Golden Ticket miniature, the candidate would become a winner and would be enlisted to participate in the programme. It was difficult because the number of people who turned up always exceeded what the school had capacity fit. However, because the school targeted street children who extreme poverty had led into crimes, another way was secretly made to get the ticket.
AJ city was filled with deft pickpockets and aim of the organizers was to take as many as possible off the streets. They sent moderately well dressed men into AJ city’s streets who carry in their pockets, The Golden Tickets. The tickets were meant to be stolen from the well-dressed men and that’s what always happened. A local announcer would go round thereafter encouraging all those who had the ticket to go to Gregory University, promising them mouthwatering rewards. They served them food and gave them stipends for the period of training while a minister of the gospel met them for 30mins a day to share the love of Jesus Christ for even little boys who had gone astray, then he would pray for them.
The first day of the programme, the recipients were taught values: how to be polite, how to be humble, and honest, caring; how to be responsible in life, do honest work. Alongside this moral aspect of the seminar, there would be running concurrently, the vocational training and English grammar tutorials. Jay Jay picked trading; he had always had a thing for buying and selling. They were taught the basics in trading by tutors from the marketplace.
The third day of the programme, Jay Jay didn’t show up. He had begun to feel remorseful for stealing the ticket. He had no idea that the organizers already knew his ticket was stolen and had anticipated his reaction. In fact, the organizers used to be worried when those with the marked stolen tickets didn’t show remorse or stopped attending classes. They had a team of experts who followed them up and brought them back to school. During the day he got a call from the university asking him why he didn’t show up. He told them that he didn’t deserve the ticket, explaining that he stole it. They told him how stealing is bad but that Jesus already paid that he might be forgiven, so they had forgiven him, and so he should return to school the next day.
Many others had the same problem Jay Jay had, some even never returned until they were visited by the team from the University.
The teachings helped these miscreants to improve their behaviours and character. It made many to turn away from their bad ways.
Jay Jay got the chance to be trained for nine months with the privileges of three mentors: a business developer, a pastor and a counsellor. After the first one month of the programme, Jay Jay could hold a proper conversation with a well educated person without feeling stupid. He was also one of the few who saved up to half his allowances. He got an award at the end of the training because he used his savings to start a small breakfast and soft drinks and snacks place because he learned in trading class that a trader should consider what many people cannot do without and supply it. He built a small stall as a shop, and engaged three out of his seven gang members whom he had convinced to drop a life crime.
A year later Jay Jay was invited by the university to give a speech to the new set of people, and he was paid handsomely for his time. Today, Jay Jay was known as Mr Olusegun Jackson. Through the financial help of the World Bank, the former pickpocket and gang leader owned a Café where breakfast was sold in the morning and iced drinks and snacks sold in the hot afternoon. Moreover, he became the caterer for all events at the Gregory University.
- Faith Eke is a teenager. She wrote this short story when she was fifteen years old. I couldn’t resist using it for Inside Literature when I read it.