12/06/2026
ORPHAN AT 8, DENIED NECO FOR ₦6,000, FROM STREET TRADING TO FIRST-CLASS GRADUATE BEST IN FACULTY OF HUMANITIES, UNIPORT
Ben Praise Ndifreke PEN DOWN HIS STORY
At 8 years old, I didn't lose a game, a toy, or a childhood dream, I lost both my parents.
While other children worried about homework and playtime, I was worrying about survival.
I was only a little boy preparing to enter JSS1 when life hit me with a pain that words can barely describe. The people who should have held my hands through life were suddenly gone. From that moment, life became a struggle I never asked for.
I became an orphan.
I sold fish.
I sold pure water.
I sold fufu.
I sold onions.
I sold bread.
I sold anything I could find, not because I wanted extra money, but because I needed to eat, survive, and stay in school.
I lived with different people, Pastors, relatives, and acquaintances. Some showed kindness, but many times I experienced hunger, rejection, and pain. There were days I was punished and starved because money got missing after I had gone out to sell. There were days I cried silently, wondering if life would ever get better.
Yet, I refused to give up.
Education became another battlefield.
While in secondary school in Rivers State, I was forced to leave because I couldn't afford the ₦24,000 WAEC fee. My dreams seemed to be slipping away again. But by God's mercy, I returned to Akwa Ibom State, where free and compulsory education had been declared. That opportunity became my lifeline.
I was able to write WAEC.
But even then, another heartbreak came.
I couldn't write NECO because I couldn't afford ₦6,000.
Just ₦6,000 stood between me and that examination.
Six thousand naira.
Many people spend that amount without thinking twice. For me, it was a mountain too high to climb.
Still, I refused to surrender.
I worked wherever I could find work. I taught in schools. I did menial jobs. I labored. I hustled. I endured. I carried burdens far bigger than my age.
Through it all, one thing never left me my faith in God.
I served faithfully in the choir. I sang when I was hurting. I sang when I was hungry. I sang when I was sick. I sang when life made no sense. Sometimes my voice carried melodies while my heart carried pain. But I kept serving. I kept believing. I kept hoping.
Years passed.
Many of my mates graduated before me. Some moved ahead in life while I was still struggling to find my footing. Not because I wasn't intelligent. Not because I wasn't hardworking. But because I had no sponsors, no parents, and no one to carry the financial burden with me.
Yet God never abandoned me.
Today, that little orphan boy who sold pure water under the sun...
That boy who couldn't afford ₦6,000 for NECO...
That boy who was rejected, starved, and forgotten...
Has graduated from the University of Port Harcourt with a First Class degree.
Not only that,
I emerged as the Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Humanities.
When I look back at where I started and where God has brought me, I know this victory is not by strength, intelligence, or human connections.
It is the mercy of God.
It is grace.
It is perseverance.
It is faith.
My story is proof that your beginning does not determine your ending.
Today, I stand alive.
I stand healthy.
I stand victorious.
And with tears of gratitude in my eyes, I return all the glory to God.
Please, join me in celebrating the goodness of God in my life.
If God could bring an orphaned little boy from pain, rejection, and uncertainty to this moment of honor and excellence, then truly, nothing is impossible with Him.
I Pray I keep experiencing more wins from now on.
To God be all the glory.
