BREAKTHROUGH BY A BOY WHO DARED TO BE DIFFERENT

There was a boy named Akor from the Nzaga-nyanga hills, about four thousand miles away from the capital city of Jos. The community was so hostile to the point that visitors who sought to introduce Western education were slaughtered once the news broke out. Many a foreigners tried to have access to this hostile group of people but all effort proved abortive. Some who succeeded in visiting the community were killed to appease the gods of the hill. It was into this type of community that Akor was born but he chose to be different. The whole community was deprived of Western education because they held unto some erroneous ritual beliefs that education was meant for those with mental illness. The level of illiteracy took its toll on the members of the society, as they preferred wearing fig leaves to putting on clothes made from cotton or wool. Many a youths met premature deaths when they insisted on associating with modern trends.

Akor was a very dogged and subtle boy. This made him come up with the idea of taking charcoal and slate each time he was about going for his hunting adventure. While others were in the heat of hunting, he would privately retire to the top of a raphia palm and write down the names of some tree species commonly found in the forest. Among the numerous tree species, he saw in the forest, he took keen interest in Anceistoclads korupensis and Prunus Africana because of the manner in which the fluid from these species killed pest on contact.

After each hunting session, each youth was to take his kill to the village square for evaluation by the king. Most of his peers returned with large antelopes but Akor on several occasions returned with nothing. This made the villagers to suspect he was involving himself in some illegal activities against their norms but no one had a concrete evidence to lay the charge against him. His colleagues in the society were entrusted with the task of monitoring his movements and the activities he engaged in during hunting sessions. He was nearly caught by a neighbour of his while he practised his writing skills but he luckily escaped. Meanwhile, many a member of his community were exposed to deadly diseases as a result of multiple sex partners, dirty surrounding and drug abuse. This was a great source of concern for the young boy who saw scores die yearly from different ailments.

One fateful day, while the rest of the villagers were conducting a festival, he sneaked out for his study. On his way, he discovered that a helicopter carrying some European researchers developed a fault mid-air and crashed near a hill. The incident made him scared but he summoned courage to visit the site to see if he could render assistance to the victims. On arrival, he discovered that the helicopter was on fire with all the passengers trapped. He forced his way through the window by making use of his local hunting gun and succeeded in rescuing the crash victims. Being a member of a community that were hostile to foreigners, he quickly resolved to hide his victims from his fellow villagers. He fed them with green apples and lodged them at a cave, rarely visited by members of the public. The researchers agreed on taking Akor along with them but he resisted the offer at first but after series of plea, he succumbed to the offer. Two days later, the researchers recovered and established a contact with a rescue team. The rescue team on arrival whisked the crash victims and Akor away without the knowledge of the villagers who were engrossed in a weeklong ritual to appease their gods.

On arrival at United Kingdom, Akor was flabbergasted at the site of his new environment. He even had to change his clothing from the leaves to cotton to be able to cope with the harsh weather condition of America. While at United Kingdom, he enrolled at a foundation school where he was able to perfect his reading and writing skills. His seriousness earned him a scholarship exam, which was to be written a month later. He burnt his mid night candle to be able to meet up with the syllables for the examination.

On the day of the exam, he was terrified by the number of students that expressed interest to partake in the exam, but that never dissuaded him from the “I can do spirit of a Nigerian”. In the course of the examination, the invigilators informed the students that only ten students out of the thousands that sat for the scholarship examination would eventually be selected.

A few weeks after the examination, the scholarship results was released by the concerned agency and to the surprise of everyone, Akor was among the lucky students that gained scholarship to study any course of their choice at Harvard University. He opted for pharmacy because of the interest he developed in some African tree species in the course of his hunting sessions in Nigeria.

At Harvard University, everything from lectures to practical classes looked very strange to him but he able to adapt through to the help of a colleague of his named Kaitlyn. She noticed that Akor found it difficult to comprehend what was taught in class, so she organized a tutorial lesson for her friend to help him cope with the rigours of the medical school. Their friendship grew daily to the extent that she was able to influence him to abandon traditional worship and embrace Christianity. He became a regular member of the Pentecostal fellowship in his school, and often told the congregation about life in Africa.

One night while sleeping, he had a dream where some organic structures appeared to him. He pondered over this for a long time and shared it with his friend. They decided to pray about it before conducting an extensive research to unscramble the potency of the structure. Several trials from the research were not successful and this made Akor almost quit the project, but words of encouragement and support from Kaitlyn, helped him to overcome the thoughts of giving up. He went an extra mile to visit a biological garden and came across the tree species he studied about during his hunting days at Africa.  He made effort to get some plant extracts, which he compared with the organic compound he saw in his dream. The result showed that the extract and the organic compound had similar structures so he used the extract to produce a drug called solution. Preliminary test at the laboratory of his university proved that the drug was able to cure Cancer, Hiv and other deadly diseases around the world.

A week later, the drug was sent to the advanced laboratory of the world health organization for confirmatory test. The technicians tested the drugs on mice, monkeys and guinea pigs and the results proved that the drugs truly had the potential to cure the ailments in question. The drugs were mass-produced and sent to all the continents of the world for use on ailing patients in hospitals.

After graduation, many pharmaceuticals contacted Akor for a work placement but he declined to their request. He instead chose to relocate back to Africa in order to contribute to the continents development. He spent some time to pray and prepare for the uphill task of returning to his hostile community. On arrival in company of his team, he discovered that his people were still practicing the evil traditions of their grandparents. He disguised himself to be a lunatic and when the villagers saw him afar off, they ganged up and forcefully took him to the kings’ palace. At the palace, they were thoroughly beaten before judgement was served. The king inquired about who they were and it was at this point that Akor revealed to them that he was a son of the soil. The whole village drew close to have a better view of what was unfolding and discovered truly that it was Akor their son, who had been declared missing for past seven years. The king wept for his cruelty and organized a welcome party for them. At the party, Akor told the villagers a comprehensive story about what transpired from the crash accident to the time he discovered the cure to Cancer, Covid19 and Hiv. Many villagers who were on the verge of dying from various ailments were treated with solution and this helped them to regain their health to the pleasure of the entire community.  

After days of public awareness, the villagers accepted the idea of Western education and even started wearing clothes made from cotton. Bricks were laid to erect the school structure and within three weeks, the entire village enrolled into the school to acquire education. The world leaders organized a ceremony to appreciate God for the breakthrough, and award the team that contributed to this achievement in the health sector. Nzaga-nyanga hills became a tourist site for visitors because of the decision of an African boy who dared chose to be different.