So It all started when my cousin David, the self-acclaimed “tech genius,” decided he wanted he wanted solve Nigeria’s rainy season problem, so according to him, too many people do get caught in the rain, and umbrellas were not “modern enough.” He wanted to invent something that would change lives forever.
“Imagine this,” he had said one evening as we sat in his room with fan blowing one side of his face, “a rechargeable raincoat, you can charge it overnight you get?, and once it senses water, it expands and covers your whole body in under one second. Automatic and Hands-free.”
Me I just looked at him with my jollof rice spoon mid air like, “You mean that raincoat that uses NEPA light ehn?” but he was too deep into the dream to notice the sarcasm in my tone
So many Weeks passed and David was fully invested ,he used all his savings, borrowed from his roommate, and even begged our auntie to “sow a seed” into the said changing life project , he bought fabrics, sensors, power banks, glue gun, and one small sewing machine that looked like it came from 1962 and some other stuffs.
And every day, we would hear one “kai!” or “It’s working oh!” from his corner of the house , and at one point, he locked himself inside for two full days. When he finally came out , he was holding what looked like a lab coat, with wires sticking out of the pockets.
“Behold,” he said so dramatically, “the future of rain defense!”
Me I did not even know whether to clap or laugh.
And so he insisted on testing it in real-time , so we waited till one good Saturday when the rain had just started, I just followed him outside like a loyal assistant, he wore the raincoat, clicked a button on the side, and stood proudly like Iron Man in the movie
Then Nothing happened......
Then suddenly, Instead of expanding like he said it would do , the coat sparked small and just shrunk tightly around his body like sausage skin , me I just could not even hold my laugh.
“Wait... wait na......, it just needs to warm up,” David said, panicking, and before we knew it, one of the wires caught heat and smoke started coming out of it
“Jesus o!” he shouted, running inside while unzipping and dragging the coat off like it was chasing him. I laughed so much....
Let us just say… that was the end of the “Raincoat Revolution.” and the coat ended up in our backyard , somewhere between the broken fan and old buckets lying around.
And even after everything, David still didn’t fully accept defeat , “I was just one wire away from greatness,” he told me
I nodded slowly, sipping my zobo . “Sure, one wire... and maybe a little sense.”
But one thing I will say is this is when passion and boondoggle mix, you get stories like this that you can laugh about for many years to come
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