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Showing posts from March 17, 2015
FILL YOUR OWN MOULD By Emeka Nobis I had boasted to Ikenna and my classmates that I could play the number five position in football. That was borne out of envy because Ikenna's football skills were hailed. I decided to tame his mouth. That was in 1992, my second year of secondary school at Marist Comprehensive Academy, Okigwe. I became the last substitution in the fifth minute of the second half of a match our school played with a neighbouring school. That meant I couldn't be replaced anymore. It was absolute tomfoolery. I ran around the pitch in a pattern similar to pollen grains in water. I couldn't even trap the ball, mostly letting it pass through the hollow of my legs to the opponents. I was playing what was called "Shorting one" in our local parlance. Football wasn't just my forte. For me, it was eating the desert before the entrĂ©e in a four-course meal.  But it was different when I handled a pen and a sheet of paper. I could write e