Witness

They were roommates in the University 
They call him Alynchin 
His name was Dayo Ali 
He was a genius of a sort 
He was studying Nuclear Physics 
All he did was sleep, listen to music 
play football, chase girls (Even visited 
Angle 90 prostitutes) sing Hip Hop 
music aloud and read novels
Yet, he led his department by a mile 
Bayo was admitted to study Diploma 
in Adult Education 
He hated the course, the lecturers, 
his classmates and the people that 
suggested the diploma programme to 
his parents 
Bayo was a very angry young man in 
those days, he lived a reckless life
He wrote JAMB the first time and 
scored 216, He was told it was too 
low to study Law 
He wrote JAMB the second time and 
scored 245, He was told it too low 
to study Law 
He wrote JAMB the third time and 
scored 263, He was told the cut off 
mark was 275 
Yet, a not too brilliant girl living directly 
opposite their house arrived at the same 
JAMB examination center where he wrote 
the exam an hour later than other students
cried and begged her way into the 
examination hall and crushed JAMB with 
the expo she brought into the examination 
hall 
He saw her using it
He was brilliant and studied very hard 
So He saw no reason to ask her to pass 
him the expo 
She made the merit list 
That girl that wrote WAEC at a special 
center and was designated to sleep 
with the WAEC invigilator so that he 
would look away during the examination 
That one girl that was as tall as an 
ostrich and looked down her nose at 
him because she was sleeping with 
his daddy's agemates 
She matriculated 
He was reduced to begging professors 
and lecturers at the university and 
its environs to see if they could manage 
to place him somewhere with his
263 JAMB result 
Eventually, a Professor decided to 
help him 
The prof took him to the faculty where 
he had some influence 
They offered him admission to study 
Education Economics on a platter of 
gold but he said NO! 
He said he wanted CLA or Classics 
Something in the Faculty of ART
Prof followed him to the faculty of Arts 
They kept hearing admission had 
closed over and over 
For God's sake, he scored 263 
In his opinion, all those departments 
ought to be giving him a red carpet 
treatment 
He surpassed their cut off marks and 
yet the door was slammed in his face
After a week of sorry and hmms, he 
told the professor he wanted to take 
the offer he got at the faculty of 
Education but it was too late 
Their admission had closed too 
You can imagine the depression that 
engulfed him 
He finished the secondary school in 
1998 
They were in 2002, Bayo still couldn't 
gain admission to study law at the 
University where his father got his 
first degree in Political Science 
He almost committed suicide, he kept 
thinking about it over and over again 
What sort of bad luck was that? 
How was that fair? 
Those who scored far lesser than him
gained admission 
He had studied so hard, he could have 
written the Theory of Brain Explosion 
Eventually, one Professor Mrs. told his 
mother it would be best to keep him 
occupied with a diploma in Adult Education 
His mother felt he needed to be occupied 
and agreed 
He was enrolled into the programme 
They had another friend studying Agric, 
Sanmi 
Sanmi had a used electronics store at Iwo 
road (Mufu Lanihun shopping complex) 
He smoked, drank, chased skirt like a 
rabid dog, and was very spoilt 
He also had a car (Girls always fell for 
that and it worked for him)
Then there were these two other guys 
Normal random students who came to 
the University to study and make 
something of their lives 
Bayo met Sanmi and Alynchin at a hotel 
in Agbowo Alynchin wanted to have a 
birthday bash and came to inquire about 
the cost of renting the hall 
Bayo always chilled in that hotel because 
he had nothing else to do with his life 
at that time and those sort of parties were 
the highlight of his week 
Free drinks, free ladies to dance with, 
music and
 fun They all became fast friends and 
somehow when they got a room at tedder 
hall they shared the same room 
He never told them he was doing a diploma 
course 
He was too ashamed of his lifeless life 
He never attended class once 
They all dressed up in the morning and 
left for class 
He would get breakfast, return to the 
room to watch movies or sleep 
He was just loafing around
After that session, he went to Alynchin's 
department and saw the posted result 
He almost fainted Alynchin was almost 
hitting the 7.0CGPA 
He had never seen Alynchin study 
Sanmi told him that he and Alynchin 
attended Wesley college together and 
Allynchin graduated with all "As"
That day, Bayo decided he would do 
something with his life instead of drifting 
around pretending to be what he was not 
He started writing my first novel 
It gave him a sense of purpose and direction 
It also locked him in his imagination and 
made him forget my misery 
Sanmi failed that first year and was 
advised to withdraw Somehow his mother 
was able to pull some strings and he 
stayed on in school 
He started 100 level all over 
The other two guys in the room also failed 
Both of them were from the same village 
and perhaps they got a bit overwhelmed 
by the university life 
After the first semester of the second year, 
NASA came for Alynchin 
He was in 200L but he did some things 
that caused them to pay attention to him 
Alynchin's father was a strict religious cleric 
while the mother was a born again Christian 
Both parents do not see eye to eye on many
issues
When NASA came for Alynchinj, his father 
said No way! 
He didn't want his son to become corrupt 
by the influence of the American Society 
His roommates didn't know that whenever 
Alynchin went to see his father, he dressed 
like a cleric and behaved very religiously 
The guy's brain was so good, he had all 
his religious verses memorized and even 
teaches his father's little children from the 
other wives and pupils of his father's 
religious school 
At the same time he was a devout Christian 
with his mother 
His mother had remarried and moved on 
too and had given birth to three other 
children 
Alynchin teaches them Bible stuff and 
attended one of the popular "Holiness" 
churches with his mother 
He was practically a different character 
to all the people in his life at the 
same time He was very unique, a special 
species of the humankind
Alynchin was according to his mother 
a child of promise Her mother said she 
married her father at a young age and 
they were Christians at the time 
After the marriage they had a delay 
having children and the delay dragged 
on for some years 
There was no medical reason for the 
delay
She said her husband got impatient 
and left the church because he 
wanted to marry a second wife 
After marrying the second wife, he 
still didn't have any child so he 
married another, making three
By this time the delay had gone on for 
almost thirteen years 
Then she went to church to pray and
The Holy Spirit told her she would 
give birth to glory, the kind of glory 
that uplifts all those around him
That was the year she got pregnant 
and moved back to her parent''s house 
because her husband converted to 
another religion and insisted she must 
do so too or leave his house
She said Alynchin was a genius from
childhood and had been writing 
computer codes before he ever saw a
computer!
Ayo had written an algorithm that
did something alarming in America
Nobody really knows why NASA
honed in on him but their determination
to take him to the US was confounding
After much talks and persuasions,
NASA decided to relocate every member
of his family to the USA because of him
This included his father, his mother, his
father's other wives, all the children 
and other people Alynchin declared
would make him feel at home in the
new environment
By the time they started the second 
semester of that session, Alynchin 
was gone
The impact of his departure was 
mixed
In 2003, Bayo wrote NECO and JAMB
and gained admission to the University
to study Law
Sanmi sat up and began to do very well
in his studies
NASA kept Alynchin hidden from the 
world, it was as if he walked with God
and was no more like Enoch
Bayo passed the bar examinations in
2010
Sanmi impregnated a secondary school
girl when he was in 300L but he 
graduated and secured a job with a 
grain processing firm
Everybody went on with their lives
until January 2019 when they both got a 
strange phone call
Alynchin was in town and would like
to meet the two of them
They met at a beer and pepper soup
joint popularly called Umbrella in
Ibadan
He had grown a little fatter but was
still his playful and happy self
He told them that his father was
pastoring a church in America and
his mother was back with him
He said within a month of their
arrival in America, he met the Holy
Spirit at an open-air crusade
He said he just noticed that there
was a fire burning within him and
every time he opened his mouth,
strange words came out
He said he kept it a secret for as
long as he could until one day
when he went to pray with his
father and he started crying
He said his father saw the tears
and wanted to touch him and ask
what was going on
He said his father started screaming
on top of his voice as if he held a
live wire
He said after almost an hour of screaming
her father asked for a pastor
The pastor came and his father gave
his life to Christ
It was the most dramatic change
He said his father's other wives also
converted and within a year they were
married to other men by their own
choice and as led by the Holy Spirit
While he was telling them the story
Bayo began to cry, he was already
born again but to hear the good news
from his friend was very overwhelming
He didn't know why, but the tears just
flowed
Alynchin prayed with them, 
He gave them both ten thousand 
dollars each 
They hugged and parted ways
They gave him their contact but he
didn't give them his own
He said his number was unlisted
and because of the nature of his 
work
When Bayo got home that day, he
started praying in the spirit
He went to church the next day 
and renewed his commitment to
the Lord
Sanmi had impregnated three
more ladies and collected the
babies for his mother to raise
He had maintained his Cassanova
lifestyle until Alynchin's return
He changed after then
He got married in September 2019

GSW's notes: I met Alynchin via
WhatsApp call in 2018
He called out of the blue saying
"He wanted to know how to help
his friends come to the knowledge
of the gospel!
He told his story and said he was
worried that either or both of his
friends could go to hell if they do
not give their lives to Christ.
I told him to sit with them and tell
them how the Holy Spirit changed 
his story and that of his family
The power of a testimony shared
among friends should never be
underestimated
When he could spare the time, he
came home and did it and it worked
Hallelujah

PS: Tell somebody your conversion
story today
It might be simple, uninteresting, 
unusual or boring to you but when
those who knew the old you see
the visible change, that picture
is worth more than a thousand words