Mr President, Please Pardon The Truant SHS Kids

I, too, was once a truant student. In 1996, there were no social media. I ended my SHS final exams in December of that year.

Standing outside of the assembly hall on top of the rock right under the neem tree and feeling so relieved that the minor seminary tyranny of three odd years had finally come to an end, I removed my uniform, threw it up on the tree and loudly cursed my least favourite priests, brothers, teachers and even the church that I blamed for the 3 years of ’needless’ strict discipline we suffered. I even cursed the Vatican for sponsoring it.

Yes, I was bold because I knew I could no longer be dismissed, anyway!

But my action was noticed by the Notre Dame authorities - or at least someone drew their attention to my truant and juvenile delinquent behaviour on that D-day.

Months later when I returned for my not so excellent results, I was pinned down, reminded of my stupidity on the final day of exams. There was no rule against such action but the school held me ”by the balls” and squeezed me until I remorsefully wrote and signed a letter of apology to be put on record before I finally took the results and the school leaving certificate.

Perhaps, if there were social media in 1996, I would have posted a video of my action online. And it would not have been different from what these kids did to our President today.

But the truth is that I did it out of naivety. Today, I am so proud of the seminary school disciplined upbringing. I never leave out Notre Dame in any transcript of educational written record or speech. Yes because I am proud of the training we received.

These kids who cursed the President and published videos of it online should be viewed from the point of view of ’wild teenagers’ passing through a phase.

They should not be condemned root, stem and branch.

Their remorseful apology is enough. They will never repeat such behaviour in their lives after this. I know because I never repeated myself after I received forgiveness from the school.

So Mr President, in the mighty name of the monumental cathedral you are building for God, please rise above this and order for restitution for these wild teenagers!

Thank you

Source: Sacut Amenga-Etego