I Do Not Come to You by Chance

by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

think a child should be named for his destiny so that whenever he hears his name, he has an idea of the sort of future that is expected of him. Not according to the circumstances of his birth. The past is constraining but the future has no limits.’

To my parents, education was everything. She was the recipe for wealth, the pass to respectability, the ticket to eternal life.

He explained that without education, man is as though in a closed room; with education, he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards the outside world. He said that education makes a man a right thinker; it tells him how to make decisions. He said that finishing school and finishing well was an asset that opened up a thousand more opportunities for people.

‘Take this and add to it,’ she said, handing the driver some of her own money to complete their fare. ‘Thank you,’ the boy said. ‘God bless you,’ the beggar added. ‘Your husband and children are blessed.’ ‘Amen,’ the woman replied. ‘You people will never lack anything.’ ‘Amen,’ the woman replied. ‘You will never find yourself in this same condition I find myself.’ ‘Amen.’ This time, it was louder. ‘All the enemies who come against you and your children will come in one way and scatter in seven different directions.’ ‘Amen!’ several passengers chanted in an attempt to usurp this most essential blessing for these perilous times. I wondered why the beggar’s magic words had not yet worked for the beggar himself.

Anybody riding such an extraterrestrial car must either be a dealer in human body parts or a 419er - a swindler of men and women in distant lands, an offender against section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code, which addresses fraudulent schemes.

After all, my father, with all his brilliance, was wallowing in poverty. I shuddered at the thought of ending up like him - full brain, empty pocket.

‘So why are you swallowing Panadol for another person’s headache?’

Siphoning from foreigners in parts of the world where the economy was sound was one thing, but stealing from your own brothers and sisters who had entrusted you to serve was the abyss of wickedness, especially when you had the firsthand opportunity to witness their daily sufferings and struggles. I was not hurting anyone by taking a little of what the Winterbottoms of this world had. There was much, much more where those millions had come from.

‘Let me tell you something. Women are like babies. Just give them whatever they want and they’ll keep quiet. Don’t mind all their shakara. The only time a woman becomes dangerous is when there’s nothing else she wants from you.’ I

He often referred to the female gender in plural form, as if they did not exist except in batches.

Once you faced the harsh facts and learnt to adapt, Nigeria became the most beautiful place in the world.