The Jonah In Us All, Part 1

  

I once shared a blog titled Zane ( https://bit.ly/3oSwtIA ). For those of you who haven’t read it, let me give you a quick recap of how it starts.

When I was in SS1, I was given an English exam, and just before we began the exam, I saw a question on the exam paper that I hadn't the slightest clue about. The question needed us to write a descriptive essay on the theme, "Man proposes and God disposes." At that time, I had no understanding of what the phrase meant and was sure I would fail the question had it not been for a very observant classmate whose seat was just beside mine. In the blog, I named him P.D. as those were his initials, but in reality, his name is Paeke Dongban.

Paeke was quick to notice my facial reaction and asked me what was wrong. In a hushed voice, I told him the challenge. He looked at me, smiled, and hurriedly told me the meaning of the proverb before the teacher could say "start!" (For those of you who are judging Sese and thinking "chokes!", my Lasisi emoji is looking at you)

Looking back at the incident, I don’t know why I believed him and didn’t question whether he was sure of his answer or not, being that he was never amongst the much revered ‘top ten' students in class but rather an average kid who rarely bothered to display his level of intelligence much. It could also have been the certainty in his caring voice or just plainly the fact that I had no other option. Whatever it was, I was not going to attempt letter writing, as I would surely be doomed. For what it’s worth, I believed him, and I wrote one of the most fascinating non-fiction stories a student could write at that time, and I aced the paper. I reminded him about this early last year and we laughed about it, not knowing that by the middle of this year, he would go and rest with the Lord (RIP).

I can’t remember when I was last distraught over the death of another person, but it hurt so much. Maybe it was the fact that he had died on a similar date as my best friend Hadiza (another classmate from elementary and high school) had died, or perhaps it was the fact that we had attended elementary school, high school, and then became colleagues that hurt so much. His death just seemed to bring back a million memories I had fought hard to let go of and fears I never wanted back, but there we were.

It was hard to accept his demise and even harder to know that his beautiful little girl and wife would never get to see him again as they were such a close-knit family, one that I admired so much. I thought about his mom, who had lost a son before (years after we had finished high school) and then his sister, Betty. How do I ever forget the number of times "Betty Love", as he fondly called her, had bailed us out whenever we needed a car to travel for a classmate’s wedding or some funny event we often went to with Paeke and our travel crew? I don’t know if it was the last-born factor in him, but whatever it was, Paeke seemed to be the glue in that family, and I don’t want to imagine what they are going through having lost him.

The crowd at his burial was unbelievable, and one would think it might have been because of the position his mom holds, but when we analyzed the event with one of our teachers who was consoling us, it was obvious that people came out en masse because of Paeke.

The one thing I hated hearing throughout the burial was that "it was his time to go." up until my teacher mentioned three things that made the truth sink in. He made reference to an incident that had happened in high school years after we had gone, where a 15-year-old student died and our then principal, Deacon Frama, made 3 statements, which he at that time also battled to accept as true.

The statements were that " the boy had accomplished his purpose, it was his time to go, and if the boy had stayed longer, he may have ventured into a path that would lead to his destruction and not allow him to make heaven, so God, being God, took him at that time."

How does this relate to Paeke? Our teacher said that, while at the wake, he saw the number of youth who were present, and truth be told, a majority of them all had personal dealings with Paeke. Testimonies coming from the church, pastors, and random older people were that he was always willing to help anyone he met or just brighten your day with a gift. Some of the older women cried because of how he often received them when they came to visit their family compound. They felt they were nobodies, yet Paeke always noticed them and never missed an opportunity to make them feel relevant.

That was when I realized that he was a unifier!

A few days after his burial, our class reassembled and, for the first time, embarked on a three-day fast, asking for mercy and just asking for direction. Things we hadn’t spoken about for years were coming up, and people who hadn’t seen each other or chatted were showing up and talking and singing, praising, and just having one voice.

People were coming out to do the most amazing things before God, and the feeling of oneness and maturity could be felt. There are very few times I’ve been proud of my set and this was certainly one of them. What was the unifying factor? It was Paeke!

Everything seemed to stem from his death. We had lost another classmate, but it wasn’t strong enough to bring us to a point of lowliness and humility. However, this death definitely brought the point home.

While preparing for the fast, God kept leading me to read the story of Jonah again. I’ve read this story so many times, and there is a hidden joke in my house where I tell Nailah to ‘be the fish’ (meaning be obedient, without complaints and questions), but this time, God wanted me to see something else.

Something I hope to share with you in my next blog. Something I hope gets you up and running.

Paeke did his assignment! Even in death, he is carrying out his assignment dutifully! You and I are still alive. The question is, can God say the same thing about you? Can you, like Paul, one day say, ‘I have fought a good fight and I have finished my race'?