My name is Ogheneochuko, I am from Nigeria, West Africa and this is my story.

I was born on the 17th day of January 1996 in a small town called Warri. Warri is a part of Delta State, Nigeria. It is known mostly because it is a major oil producing town in Nigeria. The Federal Government of Nigeria has always taken resources from my people and our community and in return have rewarded us with oil polluted waters, oil polluted forestation and no means for people within the community itself to work and take care of themselves.

I am aware that under law all mineral and underground resources are property of the Federal Government of Nigeria, but there's serious issues of greed and corruption that has led to years of destructive mismanagement of resources, which has in return, over the years, continually affects Nigerian people.

Ever since 1960, from the moment you are born into this country, you've spawned in a melting pot that deals damage over time (dot) and depending on what family/tribe you're born into, we're all assigned different levels of inhumane struggle, but hey if you're born into an elite/corrupt family, you're gonna know luxury all your life. Sadly I was given birth to in one of the most neglected parts of this country.

I certainly wasn't born with a silver spoon, growing up I lived in an area in Warri called "Swamp Road, GRA". My father had a small house there that was given to him by his father and through most of my kid life I grew up in this place and watched my father hustle his way out that trench. It was known for robbery, kidnappings and a lot more dangerous stuff I have chosen to leave out. I thank God we don't look like what we've been through over the years on this earth. I saw a lot of things I shouldn't have seen as a child, exposed to a lot of life's discomforts. It's made me who I am today.

"Ogheneochuko" in my tribe means "God is Support" and let me tell you something its been God all the way. I am from a minority tribe in Nigeria known as the Uhrobo tribe. My tribesmen are known for their canoes, mud sculptures, masquerade dances and other things I have chosen to leave out. All my life I was rushed forward to chase opportunities I was not ready for, not built for at the time.

I was pushed around and was always made to obey, I constantly had stoic individuals around me, the lack of a voice nearly destroyed me on multiple occasions. I remember taking lashes for crime I was accused of as a child, A crime I never committed, and for something so trivial. I remember laying down on ground in the dirt helplessly looking up at my oppressors mercilessly beat a kid version of me. When I'd look up to beg and plead for them to see reason, I was met with cold stares and heartless looks on everyone of their faces. My father had sent me off to Ondo State to seek education in Yoruba land. I was always looked down in school because of where I came from in the country. I remember being bullied, beaten but I never gave in, I got used to it.

That was all until I moved to a different school a few years later, it was a bit closer to home. This time around I was in Benin, Nigeria. The school I went to was a boarding school and it was certainly a "fall from grace" compared to what I had to bare in Ondo, Nigeria.

I remember moving into my room when I got to the hostel, 8 bunks in a large room. a 16 man setup. I had 15 other people around me I didn't know from anywhere and we were all in final year of junior school. I stuck out like a sore thumb. I remember walking into the room and seeing an old friend of mine from primary school. Layefa. He was the toughest person in the room and would eventually earn the nickname "The Blue Beast' because of his athletic contributions to our faction "Blue House" we had 4 color factions in school and both of us happened to be in the same faction.

I was in this large block packed with senior and junior students, no electricity, hardly any water, bad food, it was survival of the fittest. But after a few weeks in my room, I found out I had two other roommates from the same town as me Layefa and Japhet, Japhet become my bunkmate I got comfortable.

Everywhere I went, it seemed "Adapting" was what I never really got my head around, I was always falling behind, never ready for situations where everyone had to break away, always chose the most stupid hiding spots when fleeing from seniors, I was being oppressed again and it was getting worse than the last time.

I remember one time I was asked to represent my faction in a 400 meter race, Layefa and Vowero had already ran for us and they needed one more leg and they asked me to run. My addition cost us the race and the contest as a whole. I let down the entire faction that day my nickname in school was "jew" back then if you were called a jew it meant no one stands for you. This kicked off the beginning of the most intense and degrading bullying I ever went through in my life, I was 13 at the time and anytime I went to bed and slept I never wanted anyone to wake me up, because that was the only time I found peace.

I remember Layefa stopped talking to me, that had really affected me without me realizing it, the strongest person from my set in my faction started bullying me because of the race I made us lose someone I had considered a brother, it broke me, like that one time in Ondo when I looked up to meet cold eyes staring at me while I was taking a lashing. It broke me. I decided to become distant.

After a few weeks of more unbearable hardship at school and in the hostel, I remember the night that I would finally adapt. hehe, my first stoic moment, the moment I decided to finally turn my loser story to a hero story.

One evening at prep my buddy Layefa was getting bullied by senior students, we were meant to be reading the bullying caused a ruckus, I remember being rudely awakened by the presence of our school's principal, who we hardly saw, he saw the ruckus and asked what was going on, then the senior students lied to the principal that my buddy Layefa causing the ruckus. This man walked over, grabbed Layefa by his shorts, took him in front of the hall in front of all the girls and guys, took a long wet flexible cane, and started flogging Layefa in front of everyone. "30 strokes!" the principal shouted and around the 15th stroke Layefa looked up at the man and started crying, in front of everyone, it sparked something me.

I got up and shouted "Sir!, i'll take the rest of the strokes!' there was a long silence in the hall. No one had ever said that to the principal. I remember the stares, everybody looked in my direction. The principal shouted! "Is that right?! okay, come and lay down here". I got up from where I was sat and walked from the back of the hall to the front of the hall, it was the sound of my slippers hitting the ground all the way. I laid down and took the rest of the strokes from the principal for my friend Layefa. Then he asked us to go back to our seats, I remember everyone laughing cause I cried too.

At the end of prep everyone was leaving the hall, I was always so sluggish compared to everyone else so I was one of the last few to leave the hall. As soon as I stepped out, one of the seniors from the green faction shouted at me and asked me to come towards him. I almost pissed myself because I thought I did something wrong, I was mentally getting ready for another beatdown when the senior said "What's your name" I replied "Ochuko". he said "You know me?!" I said "Yes". His name was John and he was a thug in his 2nd year of Senior School. he looked at me and said "That was good what you did for your friend there, I like you".

And for the first time in my 13 years of life, someone I revered gave me some damn respect.