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Orphaned student hoes his way through Uni
WHILE his peers navigate lecture halls and campus life with pens and books only, Elijah Sichitalwe wields a different kind of tool – a hoe.
For him, the path to a coveted degree in Business Administration at Copperbelt University wasn’t paved hasn’t been a rosey fairytale ride but with the fertile soil of his own hard work and unwavering determination he is about have his happy ending.
Who could have imagined that for the past four years, 27 year old Sichitalwe would be a final year student that juggled to be learner by day and a farmer by dawn and dusk? Even himself wonders.
Well, the calloused hands that grip a pen in lecture halls are the same hands that wield a hoe under the scorching sun.
However, the harsh realities of nature has not spared him as the drought, declared a national disaster has thrown another hurdle in his path.
The recent drought, declared a national disaster by President Hichilema has ravaged his crops, leaving him with significant financial losses.
This has his dream of a final year thesis hanging in the balance, overshadowed by the K7,000 debt he owes to the university.
Orphaned at a young age, Elijah’s maternal grandmother came into the picture and took over where his parents left and started taking care of him and his two siblings in her two roomed grass- thatched house in Luanshya’s Butungwa Township.
Witnessing his grandmother, a peasant farmer, tirelessly work the land to provide for the family, sparked a passion for agriculture within him.
“My father died when I was in grade one. By then, I didn’t really know how his death would impact my life because I was too young to understand. I realised later that the death of my parents would mean I will have to fend for myself,” he told Kalemba.
For a typical 21st century young person, farming may be an activity deemed for the elderly but he proved that a youth could still use hoes to plough funds out of the ground to push his way to University.
Before hand, education, seemed like a distant dream for Elijah because despite excelling in his secondary education, the harsh reality of limited resources always loomed large.
Determined to follow his dream of being at the CBU, Sichitalwe embarked on a journey of backbreaking labour like digging up trenches in order to fund for his education.
After losing three of his colleagues in a landslide, he quit the job.
“After I quit digging up trenches, I did other piece works for survival but I didn’t give up on my dream of becoming a student. So I decided to start farming which I had always loved since childhood,” he stated.
Reconnecting with his childhood love for farming, Sichitalwe decided to take destiny into his own hands. He began cultivating his own crops, using the knowledge passed down from his grandmother and the perseverance etched into his very being.
And Luckily enough Sichitalwe managed to get a tuition scholarship with other expense left for him to worry about.
He said he has been surviving on campus through the use of hoes and it has sustained him for the past four years as a student.
“I do everything by myself and there are times when it gets overwhelming and I decide to hire a few people to help me during harvest because it’s not easy to balance between school and farming.”
“I really love farming not because it gives me an income but because farming raised me and I saw just how my grandmother managed to feed my siblings and I despite the challenges she faced,” Sichitalwe explained.
Yet, even amidst these challenges, Elijah’s spirit remains unbroken. His favorite quote, “Never be afraid to monetize your passion,” continues to resonate, reminding him of the unwavering passion that fuels his journey.
The Niger State Police Command has arrested six suspects for vandalizing and stealing armored cables and streetlights in Minna. The suspects, aged 20 to 201, were caught conspiring to commit the crime along Keteren-Gwari Road.
- Suspects’ Names and Ages:
- Umar Mustapha, 40
- Idris Abdullahi, 20
- Mahmud Mohammed, 37
- Musa Zakari, 42
- Aliyu Musa, 60
- Salihu Musa, 45
All suspects reside in Alagbado and Keteren-Gwari area, Minna.
During interrogation, the suspects confessed to the crime, and some stolen cables were recovered.
Additionally, two suspected motorcycle thieves, Mohammed Hassan, 22, and Isah Mohammed, 20, from Kpakungu area, Minna, were arrested. They were caught with a red Hajoue cargo motorcycle at Obasanjo complex area on October 22. The thieves admitted to stealing the motorcycle from Tunga area and planned to sell it in Mokwa. The investigation is ongoing.
News
A hunter simply identified as Femi has been found dead with bullet wounds in a forest in the Ijebu Igbo area of Ogun State.
A hunter simply identified as Femi has been found dead with bullet wounds in a forest in the Ijebu Igbo area of Ogun State.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, disclosed in a telephone conversation with an Online news source on Monday, that Femi had reportedly gone hunting with one Taoreed on Friday, but failed to return home.
She noted that Femi’s delay in returning home had raised concerns with his wife who reported to the village head.
The village head was said to have organised a search party to comb the forest and the search party found his dead body lying in the forest with bullet wounds.
She said, “On 26/10/2024, one Grace James, a female from Ofemodoko village near Ijebu Igbo reported to the station that on 25/10/2024 at about 1700 hours, her husband, Femi, now deceased, went hunting with an individual known as Taoreed aka Kokoro, but failed to return to their village.
“About 0700 hours on 26/10/2024, his disappearance was brought to the attention of the village head who then organised a search with local hunters. During the search, the body of Femi was found in the forest showing bullet wounds on his back with his gun lying on the ground next to him.”
She added that efforts to locate Taoreed who had gone hunting with Femi proved abortive as he, his wife and his children were nowhere to be found in the village.
The PPRO noted that an investigation has commenced into the matter.
“Suspicion was raised when it was discovered that Taoreed, who had gone hunting with the deceased, had fled the village with his wife and children.
“The body was removed and taken to the State Hospital in Ijebu-Ode for autopsy. This case is currently under preliminary investigation,” Odutola said.
A member of the House of Representatives, Alex Ikwechegh, on Sunday, assaulted an e-hailing (Bolt) driver who went to deliver a package to him.
The distressed driver, Stephen Abuwatseya, in a viral video filmed what transpired between them in Ikwechegh’s residence in Maitama, Abuja.
The video depicted the visibly angered Reps member representing Aba North & South Federal Constituency (APGA) repeatedly slapping and insulting the driver for telling him to come out and get the snail the driver was meant to deliver to him.
In the footage, Ikwechegh insisted that the request was disrespectful given his social status while threatening to make the driver “disappear” without facing any consequences.
“Do you know who I am? I can make this man (driver) disappear in the whole of Nigeria and nothing will happen. Can you imagine this rat? I am not going to give this boy one naira of my money.
Watch the video here: https://t.co/3yBaK8WgiR
“I am not going to call my policemen to beat you up, I will do that myself. I will show that I am a big brother to you, tie you up, lie you down and put you in my generator house. Do you know where you are? Because you saw me sitting outside here. Look at this monkey.”
When the driver requested the delivery fee, the politician slapped him multiple times querying if the driver knew who he was talking to.
“Do you know who I am I just slapped you and there’s nothing you will do. My name is Honourable Alex Ikwechegh, tell them (public) I slapped you. Call the Inspector General of Police that I slapped you, let him come. Record me very well,” he boasted.
Recall that in September 2023, the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Umuahia, Abia State capital, led by Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe, sacked Emeka Nnamani, who is a member of the Labour Party and ordered that a certificate of return be issued to Ikwechegh, a candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who came second in the 2023 general election.
Nnamani was sacked based on certificate forgery.
The Appeal Court had in 2015 on the petition of Blessing Nwagba, sacked Nnamani on the ground that he was not a registered member of his then party, APGA in his ward at the time of the election and equally directed the police to investigate the allegation of certificate forgery against Nnamani, who said he graduated from the University of Port Harcourt.
After the Tribunal judgment, there was a report (not The PUNCH) that the tribunal sacked Nnamani because of certificate forgery and that there was a court ruling banning him from participating in elections for 10 years.
Although the lawmaker has debunked and described it as a “lie from the pit of hell”, adding, “There was nothing like the court banning me, Emeka Nnamani, for 10 years from contesting an election in Nigeria. That’s a fallacy and a fabrication from the pit of hell, used regularly by opposition parties to pull us back.
“The records of what the court said at that time in 2015 are there. I do not want to bring the competence of the court into question because our jurisprudence is a perfect one and works according to the evidence available to them.
“As of 2015, there were lots of hiccups that my opponent took advantage of mentioning the institution they mentioned, and the institution has since then said that they had issues with the exams and records of the school, which led to misplacement of some records when they were moving from analogue to digital records keeping.
