Years ago, when I was a student at Federal Government College, Enugu, I shared a class with some of the most intelligent students I had ever seen.
We were about 86–90 students in class. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I read, my position was almost always the same — 18th, 19th, or 20th.
Yet my averages were good. I scored 80–85%, with A’s and B’s in almost all subjects. Only Mathematics humbled me with a C.
Still, that didn’t matter at home.
My mum would always say:
“Chidi, those children taking first position, do they have two heads?”
And then the beating would follow.
She neve