Three delicious fantastic memorable fun filled years passed in a hurry and it
was time for our industrial training, so we both left for our homes. I came back home. She didn’t go anywhere far. She was an indigene
of Udi LGA there in Enugu. When I got
home, my peeps were so excited to see me.
I got back with a better bank account than
ever, so there was a lot of celebrations and
jubilations. With time I started missing
Ogechi. Though we talked and talked on
phone, yet it didn’t seem enough. We
proceeded to Skype calls, and that was a
bit okay for a while since I got to see her
beautiful face daily. During one of our
calls, she told that one of her relatives who
stayed in Ghana had invited her to come
over there, promising to get her fixed up in
a cinema for her industrial training, and
she was set to leave in two weeks. Hmm,
na wa o. Must you go to Ghana for I.T? I
asked. ‘Of course not! But that seems to be
where there is an opening at the moment. I
wouldn’t want to be far from you. But if all
efforts to find an alternative turns out
futile, I guess I have no choice’, she said.
Okay, I understand. Next thing she said
was; I have to see you before I leave to
Ghana. Definitely! I replied. So how is it
gonna be? She asked. ‘Would you mind
coming over here’? ‘Alright’. We fixed a
date for our little get together before her
journey.
Just one week to the day of our meeting I
got a call from her, saying that Ck, the
singer, who was then at the United States
Of America, asked her to come over to the
US for a song he was recording. According
to Ck, the Americans loved that music so
much, but critics said a woman’s voice
would spice it up all the more, so he
decided to call on Ogechi who had once
done excellently and attracted a lot of
thumbs up. Out of all the female singers Ck
knew, it was Ogechi he decided to call on to
feature him. Not even the American female
singers impressed Ck as much as Ogechi
did. And the song had to be recorded as
soon as possible, so Ogechi had to be in
the United States in three days’ time to be
back in Nigerian after her deal with Ck
before heading to Ghana for her IT. So I was
only waiting for her to finish up there and
come back so that we could meet before
she left for Ghana. She left for US in three
days. We continued our audio and video
calls all the while.
The song she did with Ck, titled; VOICE IN
MY GENERATION was trending highly on TV
and radio stations both home and abroad.
She had spent three months there already
and there was no sign that she was
returning anytime soon. She soon got
famous to an extent and created her own
website in order to reach out to her fans.
One day she called me and asked if we
could communicate via BBM. Her reason
was that she didn’t want to draw the
press’s attention to herself before they
documented her conversation in the
newspapers since she had become a little
bit famous and was mostly in the midst of
other really famous singers. So we switched
to BBM, and this was our conversation;
‘Hi baby’ she greeted
‘Hi. Still glowing as usual. Your dp says it
all’ I complemented
‘Hahaha, I only get like that when I think of
you’
‘Wow!! You must have been thinking of me
the whole time then’ I said.
‘You are not far from the truth. I really
have’
‘I miss you too, beautiful. What’s been
happening?’ I asked
‘Nothing much, It’s just the songs and the
performances’
‘You need not say. It’s all over TV and
radio stations here. ‘Ck featuring Oge’. Why
did you make Oge your stage name?’
‘The Americans find it a bit difficult to
pronounce Ogechi, so I made it short for
their sake, and now it’s everywhere’
‘Everywhere indeed. What about the song
you did with Ck? I don’t seem to find it on
the internet’
‘It is’ she said.
‘Well, I’ve been searching for it endlessly
yet couldn’t find it. Can you give the link
please? I want to have it in my phone so
that I can listen to it anytime’
‘Okay. Here is the link; http://
m.naijapals.com/music.php?id=40459
‘Alright. I’ll download it right after now. So
when are you coming back home to me?’
‘Actually, that’s why I called for this
conversation’
‘Oh really? I get the feeling you’re coming
soon. That’s what you want to tell me
right?’
‘Eehm.., on the contrary, I won’t be coming
home anytime soon. Ck has been booked to
sing at various places already, and the
bookings will keep coming. As his backup
singer, I need to go with him everywhere he
goes. From the look of things, I might not
be coming home till the period for our
Industrial Training is over’
‘What?’ I exclaimed.
‘Yes dear. I really wish there was something
I could do to avert this. But as it stands,
I’ll have to go along with everything that is
happening.
(Still finding what she said hard to believe)
‘Are you serious about this?’
‘Yes I am. I really am’ She replied
I held onto my phone without being able to
type another word. She tried to keep the
communication flowing but my spirit was
too destabilized to chat anymore. When it
was apparent I wasn’t going to continue
with the chat, she just typed; talk to you
later honey. At this point, the hard nut was
cracked. My emotions got the better part of
me to a point where I nearly shed tears. I
couldn’t believe what she just said, and
there was absolutely nothing that could be
done. I felt like my world had crumbled. At
least, if she was in the country, I would
have the liberty to visit her whenever, but
with her out of the country, nothing like
that could happen. I was deeply traumatized
for weeks. Eventually, I got over it, got
involved with a theater and won a role in a
major stage play titled; STOLEN.
Rehearsals for the play were all I did
throughout the period for my Industrial
Training. Conversation between me and
Ogechi reduced little by little until it was
no more. We got to see each other again
after the IT period was over. I went back to
school first. The first quarter of the
semester was over before Ogechi got back
to join us from the US. She was highly
respected and admired. Above all, she was
also very RICH! Time alone with her
became a myth. She always had people
around her. At that point I didn’t know if
she craved for my company the way I
craved for hers. There were lots of guys
around her. Rich guys, handsome guys,
singers, actors, and all manner of guys
lingered around her to achieve different
purposes. All my meetings with her was
brief and in public. When I asked to see her
privately, she would promise to make out
time for that but won’t eventually, perhaps
because she had become a very busy
person. I was confused and didn’t know
what to do anymore. So I assumed that
things had taken a new turn which I had to
accept, and I did.
Travelling to America became like traveling
from Lagos to Abuja for Ogechi. During our
final year in school, she had travelled more
than twenty times abroad to perform with
Ck. A recording label abroad even concluded
plans to sign a contract with her the
moment she was done schooling.
Apparently, God had made a way for her to
live her dreams. I, on the other hand
directed all my focus to studies and
business. The only mega thing I was
expecting was to be called upon to play the
role I had won in a stage play, which was to
be performed anytime soon. But the play
wasn’t performed until I graduated from
school.
The year ended in a hurry and we became
graduates. I went for service while Ogechi
bypassed service and travelled abroad for
her contract. Ogechi and I were still in good
terms, but only as acquaintances. We
usually met online and would chat a little.
But that happened once in a long while. I
followed her work closely. I became one of
her fans. I knew I stilled loved her, but at a
point I murdered my feelings and thought of
her to be the closest person to me that had
hit the walls of fame. It was an honor
knowing her. I still called her though, as an acquaintance and a fan.
To be continued.
