First Lecture…
In Obad’s short period of existence, he had entered pleas before judges, campaigned in the presence of thousands, faced the world on the airwaves through British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), preached in countless of Churches and found himself influencing a varied audience. The experience and knowledge of all these encounters boosted his pride, inflated his ego and sated him in unspeakable arrogance. But nothing within that range prepared him to face a class of students at Mercury University, on that fateful day.
In his first class taken under the auspices of the Faculty of Management and Social Sciences he was wracked with anxiety. He needed a prop to deliver him from his inadequacies. Thoughts flew across his mind in a flash. How would he disseminate knowledge of Business Law, its intricacies, its nuances and its overall objectives. Will the students appreciate him, he pondered, will they grasp his words or would he become a quavering man who simply could not hack it?
This was how he approached the lecture theartre populated with rows and rows of students, presenting a riot of colours, in all shapes and sizes with a nod and wink to the corporate dress sense. He flashed his silver coloured, brand new slim Apple mac-computer for functionality, it contained all his notes. Without much more of a glance in their direction, he ushered himself to the wooden Mercury University branded rostrum neatly placed in the front of the theatre.
In what seemed like a long foreboding silence, descended upon lecture theatre, and the tension became palpable. He could have sworn his imagination conveyed from outside, the howling of winds, flapping sounds of the wings of bats flying back from their insect hunting, interrupting him, as his maiden lecture was about to commence.
Regurgitating line by line, word for word from the notes on his laptop screen, in embedding of the Southern England tinge he began to speak on elements of a ‘Contract’. It was with the question ‘…Are all Agreements Contracts?’ He sought to start. However, from the squint in their eyes, frowns burrowed on some foreheads, and the puzzled look in some eyes he realised he was losing them. In puzzlement he thought he had up until now never met a rhetorical challenge without triumph.
He decided now was the time for innovation, inventiveness and creativity and abandoned the ineffective prop his laptop had become. He drew on something out of the realms of the dramatic that lay latent within him. He was translated in time to his days at Olumi College when he was Vice-President of the African and Dramatic Society and featured in a few drama sketches. He identified two students beckoned on them to rise up from their seats and to come to the front of the class. He announced to the incredulity of the class the intention to put up a drama sketch and then proceeded to give the budding actors some hastily crafted lines. One acted as the father and the other as a University student.
The script followed with the father making a grandiose promise to purchase a brand new Mercedes-AMG C43 4Matic Coupe, which features a twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 that develops 362 hp and 384 lb-ft of torque and a all-wheel-drive system with a rear-biased torque distribution for more neutral handling, and a gearbox which has two additional gears for a total of nine If his daughter was able to achieved a first class degree from Mercury University.
With scrupulous faithfulness to the script the daughter made the first class and then approached the father to fulfill the terms of the earlier agreement. The father balked and gave her N200,000 to celebrate with her friends, suggesting the promise was simply made to encourage to heights so great. The daughter refused his gift and entreaties insisting on the fulfillment and complete settlement of the promise. With the father unrelenting, the drama ended with me questioning whether the daughter could successfully sue the father.
