Clasfonunibadan

EPISODE 2
For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power,
love, and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7 TPT

I folded the sizzling omelette in half and barely waited two seconds before switching off the gas and dumping it beside four slices of yam on my plate.
A voice crackled at the other end of my phone. “Okay, there are now a hundred and one students in the class. I believe we can start now.” I placed the plate beside the phone. “Good morning once again, everyone.”
Oh, dang! I haven’t made my tea yet.
Two minutes later, I settled into my chair, blowing on a cup of Lipton tea. Tinuke, my roommate was giving me a stink-eye at the other end of the table.
“Sorry,” I said and plugged in my earphones. The stink-eye reverted to her virtual classroom.
My lecturer was explaining something about an acceptance that was invalid. Something called to object to contract. I flitted to WhatsApp to ask Ife what the title was, to be sure. She replied almost immediately: Subject to Contract. Eh, I was close.
My tea was getting cold.
‘You’re coming to the discussion?’ Ife texted again.
To take another bite of heavenly soft yam or reply to the text?! The lecturer’s voice ceased. Yam and egg it is.
‘Yep. Have you read the topic?’ I texted back. ‘No. Will read after class’

That makes two us😂

The lecturer was back on. Before he continued, someone signified to ask a question. Here we go. I pushed the phone to the side and placed my food directly in front of me. By the time the hour was up, I’d licked my plate clean and was exhausted from listening to questions and answers that scattered my brain.

As I closed my untouched note, I felt him.
“Well, good morning to you too,” I said.
He was in his usual pose-arms crossed over his chest, wings bristling and brows furrowed in an expression that said ‘I go wire you one day.’ Of course, I only sensed and communicated with him in my spirit. He felt more tangible to me than my skin though.
“Best in diligence.” He grunted.
I saw this coming.
“Before you scold me for not paying attention in class, most of those questions were things we would have been taught if they’d just be patient for the lecturer to teach us,” I said. I cleared up the table and went to my bed.
“You were eating hot yam during class,” he said pointedly.
“Yeah, because it’s not healthy to skip breakfast.” Captain obvious.
“That healthy breakfast took up a good per cent of your attention. Tell me, would you have been eating breakfast in class if it was a physical class?”
“No. But it wasn’t a physical class, was it?” Yeah, reply to that Mr Monitoring Spirit. Honestly, I am proud of the lawyer I am becoming.
He sighed. “See a man diligent in his ways. He will stand before kings and not mere men.”
I groaned. Why does the Bible have to have answers to every single thing? My angel was right and I knew it. But what was I supposed to do? I had the attention of a housefly and I was a visual learner. I gotta see what I’m supposed to be concentrating on if I’m going to have a hope of paying attention at all. Lord, what do I do? I can’t help myself–
A big yawn escaped my lips. “I promise, it’s the hot yam,” I giggled.
The cherubim facepalmed.
I set the alarm to twenty minutes and snoozed off. There goes my plan to read before the discussion.
π¶π
“So the general principle according to this case is that acceptance by post occurs the moment the letter
is posted, yeah? That’s the rule.”
Everyone in the room nodded in agreement except me. I was too busy trying to stuff my mouth with as many dry cereals as possible. God bless Kellogg’s Moon and Star.
“Then what do we do with this Dick v. US case?” Ese asked.

Fifehan was near tears. He had been explaining the same principle for the past thirty minutes. He sighed before answering, “You keep it where you keep every other American case, in the backyard of your memory. It only has a persuasive effect in a Nigerian court. But if you’re willing to risk everything and go South as per you be legal revolutionary, then, by all means, use it to argue your case.” Everyone laughed. Again, I was crunching moons and stars like it was my life’s mission.
“What Fifehan is trying to say is that English cases take prominence over American cases.” Miracle interjected the laughter.” It is when you’re stating exceptions or comparing jurisdictions that you can bring in Dick v. the US. You can’t use it to argue your main case if you want your marks. So can we move on, please?” Always the serious one, Miracle is.
“Alright,” Fifehan said. He was the study group facilitator for the day. “Let’s go to the exceptions proper. Where this principle won’t have its presupposed effect. Mirian, can you help us with that?”
I choked on a moon. “What-“
Fifehan was smirking. Of course, he called me out. He’s had it in for me ever since he caught me opening the bag of cereal! “The exceptions?” he repeated. Oh, how I’m going to strangle him and cut him into tiny pieces and feed him to Kenji the Dog when this was over.
The daggers I was staring at him didn’t take him back down. What do I do?! Flashback to when I was supposed to read but slept off like a log of wood. Ah God, please don’t let me embarrass myself. Mirian think!
“Yeah,” I coughed. “Well, Uhm, one of the cases where the principle will not have an effect is where the contract is made inter presented. I think that’s the pronunciation. Like, when offer and acceptance are made face to face, acceptance takes effect immediately after the offer or hears it. I think Lord Denning explained in Entores v. Miles Far East Corporation. I’m not sure about that name–“
The room erupted in shouts and jeers before I realized what I’d done.
“Eiiii,”
“Legal bazuka,”
“The bar,”
“Lord Denning fun ra e,”
I looked at the corner where Ife was sitting. Her jaw hung open. Oh, Jesus.
π¶π
“I thought you said you didn’t read,” Ife said as soon as we stepped out of the common room we used for the discussion.
“I didn’t–“

“Alayeeee! Where did you now see the cases you were spewing?”
“It was just one case and I heard when the lecturer was explaining in class,”
“Dude, we were chatting throughout that class,”
“I no dey use my ears to type na. I heard some things every once in a while that my attention went back to the class.”
“Omo, God when?”
“No dey whine person, abeg. But seriously, I need help. I’ve been eating and sleeping like someone that did money ritual.”
She burst into laughter. “What has money ritual got to do with sleeping?”
“I’m serious, guy. I keep sleeping through my alarms. Four consecutive alarms no fit wake me up.”
“Why did you think I asked you to call me at 2 a.m?” she managed to say.
“You won’t believe I went back to sleep after calling you, without opening a book.” The pain of waking up with an empty head was still fresh. The plan was to be diligent, not sleeping like palm oil.
My friend leaned on me and coughed. “Want to know what I’ve been going through?” She said in the most serious voice she could muster. “Fear.”
We stopped walking. The word sounded too sudden that it took some minutes for it to register. The F word. I stared long at her face but there was no bright, almost-annoying optimistic glow that always emphasized her features. I waited for the Scripture quote that would dispel her hesitation in vain. My strong, always-cheerful, chaos-loving friend was pale with trepidation.
Fear was not something I’ve ever known with Ifeoluwa. Except for that one time that a cockroach crawled over her face in the middle of the night. The dude was crying over the phone when she called to tell me about it.
Her lips were set in a sad smile as she looked back at me. She shook her head. “Last semester’s results–What if I don’t do well again?”
“No,” I grabbed her hands. Oh, the devil has been busy quite alright. “You will do well. Better even. Ife, you are an excellent student. Regardless of your results, that’s what God calls you. And that’s all that matters. Remember, fear is a spirit. And it only comes to take your joy, peace, self-esteem away from you. It’s a deceptive spirit that tells you lies.”
“I just keep having these thoughts. And when they come, I can’t even read the letters–” she choked on tears.
Satan is a stupid bastard.

“Listen to me. The devil is a liar and those thoughts are lies. You can’t let fear hold you down. When those thoughts come, you don’t accept them. You don’t even ignore it! You counter them. You tell him to shut up! You tell him you know he’s a bloody liar and he’s just a pest. You tell him you are righteous and you don’t have the spirit of fear. Don’t ever let those thoughts settle down before you kick them back to wherever they came from. You gas be violent, Ife.”
“Yeah–“
“And pray. Talk to God about how you’re feeling.”
“I will.”
I embraced her tightly. No devil oppresses one of mine.
“Thank you–“
π¶π
Angel G-R12 scowled as Fifehan watched the two girls hug in the middle of the road. He knew what the boy was thinking and he did not like it one bit. Yes, Mirian was beautiful. God had taken special time creating her. She had the type of face that made discerning men want to take another look. And there was this calm aura that permeates even through her playfulness. To cap it all, she was very intelligent. The spirit of excellence was at work and it was evident, again to the discerning eye. As annoying as it was, Angel had to admit that it was inevitable that men be captivated by the masterpiece God created.
Fifehan quickened his steps, much to Angel’s chagrin. The cherubim planted himself right behind him.
“She dey enter your eyes be?” He breathed into Fifehan’s thoughts.
His spirit stirred in excitement as he got to the girls.
“Close am!” Angel G-R12 snapped.
At the same time, Mirian’s fist slammed into his gut.
“That’s for calling me out in the discussion.”
Fifehan doubled over. All mushy thoughts of his friend’s awesomeness evaporated from his mind…

Author’s Note: I think fear is an annoying spirit. Like, you’ve got nothing to offer yet you want to stress me. Thank God we have authority over pesky spirits. The gist is a few minutes of prayer and declaring the word with faith.

I’d love to hear your stories too. How did you overcome fear? What gets you through scary times?

About the Author

Akinlade Folakemi is the Academic Secretary and a member of the Publications and Content Unit, CLASFON UI.
She is a lover of God and books. She believes in achieving academic excellence in partnership with God.