My Brother's Testimony

I come from a family of four which includes both my parents. I have just one brother and he's the eldest child. My brother was very bad when it comes to academics. He had poor grades in school and he passed only on trial everytime. My parents felt so bad about his performances. My dad would give him private lesson teachers who came to the house to teach him after school but he would run to the toilet everytime his teacher came because he didn't want to learn. Oftentimes he would be compared to me, I was the youngest yet the smartest. I was never happy each time I was used as a comparison to my brother. I know my parents did that to challenge him into taking his academics seriously but he still didn't do well.

He had difficulty in spelling, mathematics etc but he was good at drawing. The only thing my brother knows how to do naturally is draw. I was happy that he was at least good at something but I knew this skill wasn't enough. He needed to know how to speak English properly, he needed to know how to write so I was always worried. Whenever he would be asked to read a Bible passage in church, he wouldn't know how to. He would be so shy and scared.

_{A photo of my brother}

Years later, he graduated from primary school and secondary school as well. Since he didn't have really good grades in school, my dad decided that he should go and learn a skill because he wasn't going to further his education. No parent wants to spend money on tertiary education and have his son return home with multiple carryovers every year. That year, after my brother graduated from secondary school, I remember so well that he wanted to further his education but we didn't have money to pay for his JAMB examination registration so he cried. He kept saying his peers would move forward and leave him behind.

The next year, he wrote the JAMB examination and as expected, he scored below 180. We all know that having a score below 180 out of 400 is a failure and no university would grant him admission unless private universities but something miraculous happened. The day after he wrote the JAMB examination, he saw a friend who informed him that JAMB had added 40 MARKS for all the candidates who sat for the examination in his centre and that was because they had received a complaint that the systems used were faulty and kept giving them a tough time. THAT IS HOW MY BROTHER'S RESULT WAS BOOSTED TO 218 AND HE WAS OFFERED ADMISSION TO STUDY ARCHITECTURE IN ENUGU STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. This is something that has never happened in the history of JAMB and till date it hasn't happened again.

Today my brother can read, he can speak and he can write. It might not be so polished and perfect but it's much better than it used to be.
No one including myself ever believed my brother would travel out of our state of origin nor even further his education. He didn't even inform us of the university he applied for so everything came as a surprise to all of us and his life became a lesson to me and everyone who knows him. Today my brother is a graduate of ESUT and is currently pursuing his clearance so he can go for youth service. His entire life is a testimony and is proof to me that change is the only constant thing and indeed, time changes everything and God doesn't see or think like men because He made something out of nothing.

Below are some of his architectural works, enjoy the view!