I graduated from high school more than six years ago now. Many things have happened in those six years, one of which is the fact that I was admitted into one of my country's best universities.
In total, the three departments combined to graduate 90 high school students in 2016. The science department, where I was, had the largest student body with more than 50 students.
Except for a few of us who still reside in the town where our high school is located, many of us haven't run into each other since we graduated.
A reunion party was originally discussed, but it never happened in large part because many of us were still enrolled in tertiary schools at the time and till now. One of the other reasons is that some of us no longer reside in the state where our high school is. Others have moved to other states or are attending school there.
A WhatsApp group chat for members of our set was started after we graduated. There weren't more than 20 participants in the group chat, which was largely dormant.
However, on April 15th of this year, something transpired when someone broadcast a message to the group chat. Some of us responded to it, and as a result, the fire was lit and hundreds of messages from members began to arrive. Suddenly, more members joined the group, and we reached a total of over 50.
Even though it was online, re-establishing contact with those former colleagues was exciting. For the group to be able to quickly recognize who was speaking, we had to provide our photographs.
The online reunion is not only fun, but it also opens your eyes to the many pursuits of my high school classmates.
Every time I think about the fact that some of my high school friends are now married with children of their own, it makes me feel old.(lol)
Some have completed their education and are now employed, while others chose not to attend college at all and instead created their businesses or provided services to others using the skills they acquired.
For instance, among us is a software engineer with expertise in artificial intelligence and data analysis.
Sometimes, when I see what some of my friends have accomplished, I feel (not in a bad way) jealous of their success. However, someone brought to our attention a former coworker who had "kicked the bucket" more than two years prior. He was a very jovial art department graduate.
This brought me back into focus. Then I begin to question why, when I hear of others' accomplishments, I feel so horrible or depressed, and I realize that being alive and well is something for which to be thankful.
The "scammers party," as I shall call them, was one element that stuck out during the reunion. The reunion made me aware of several of my old classmates' financial success. The vast majority of these rich schoolmates did not get their fortune in a morally upright way that they can be proud of.
Many of them (most especially the guys) are into what we know as "yahoo, yahoo" (a local slang in my country for an internet fraudster.)
In my country, internet fraud is a common occurrence; many of them use the "lack of jobs" as an excuse. These days, young men and boys who commit fraud don't even cover it up. They all display their money in plain sight, dress impeccably, and own the priciest smartphones. Nowadays, it is a recurring theme that even some women prefer to date or wed yahoo boys for financial and materialistic reasons.
This raises a cause for alarm because this internet fraudster gives the country a bad image, sometimes when someone online asks what country am I from. I feel shy to say, due to the image these fraudulent individuals have painted about the country
Due to this negative reputation, many foreign businesses are unable to engage or employ a Nigerian, or certain payment mechanisms are not supported in the nation, which is causing many promising young people to miss out on numerous chances.
I want to reassure everyone who reads this that not all Nigerians are con artists. Nigerians are incredibly industrious and clever people, and many of them have made significant contributions to the advancement of the world in a variety of fields.
Remember that both good and terrible people may be found in every nation on earth. Don't allow prejudice toward a certain country to cloud your judgment because of the bad residents' behavior.
