Prince’s Lessons From 2016

Happy New Year to everyone. 2016 has really been a good and sad year for me. I have learned a lot from this year. I got into 2016 as a Leader in FECA and as a Final Year Student in the University. Let me explain to you what FECA is and how it’s Leadership works. FECA is an acronym for Federation of Colleges ex Students Christian Association. It is a body of young people who serve God with a sincere passion and a desire to build the values in the society.
As a leader of a department, you are in charge of about 5 to 20 or more people. It’s your level of Accommodating people that will determine how many people will come to your Department. We have the Drama, Ministration, Follow Up, Publicity and Publications department amongst other departments.

I was a leader in Publicity and Publications Department. I served with someone who was directly my opposite in virtually everything. His name is Joseph Modey.
He is a very tall young man. He is calm and a little bit of an introvert. Handling a department with someone who was clearly my opposite was not an easy ride at first. We had our first confrontation while preparing a plan for our meeting. He wanted more time for poetry while I preferred that we ask people to talk about themselves and their aspirations in life. We ended up doing both after quarreling and arguing. It didn’t really take long for us to understand each other. I learned the value of silence from him. He became and is still is a very close friend.

I have also learned that “By Strength Shall No Man Prevail.”
My dad was not paid for more than 6months. Life became tougher and challenging. I had to join builders to serve as a laborer by mixing concrete and cement.
I really had no option except that. I still attended my meetings, laughed and prayed with everyone like nothing happened. It was only the Exco in Charge of my department my Co-leader that were aware of this.

My penultimate and Final Year fees were yet to be paid. I got so worried about this. As God will have it, all the salaries were paid around September. My fees were paid and I graduated successfully from History and International Studies Unical.

The death of a very close family friend really made me feel sad. Mr Samuel Ekpo’s death was not imagined by anyone. One complication led to another sickness and to another. He died of kidney failure…

I’m Prince Ekanem. A graduate of the Department of History and international studies Unical.