I told the professor to go to hell, she was shocked and decided I’d fail my project or at best score a ‘D’. I invited people to apologise on my behalf but that would not do, so after all said and done I ended up with a ‘C’ and then-and-then… That was supposed to be the story of my last moments in school. Suppose, because that never happened but it did happen in the ears and minds of some folks. One of my female friends had just resumed to her final year in school when she was privy to the gist – the gist that I had called my Prof’s bluff and had suffered a bad Project result in the process.

I had had enough of my project and I was not willing to do any additional corrections. I had started working and had to travel across state borders just to have something corrected in my project and then for me to correct and either stay over or visit another day and have it corrected again and on and on. I needed to put a stop to that. I decided I’d take any scores my current effort deserved so I made up my mind to tell my Prof. that I felt I had done the best I could.

On the said day, I dropped my project and was truly expecting her to sign it. The project had taken over a year because of the several ASUU strikes. Many of my mates had had their supervisors collect theirs and had travelled for the last time as students. I felt I had had enough and I really could not care about my scores. My body, mind and soul had moved on to the next one. ‘Ma, I can’t do more than I have done’, was what I said in my most respectful voice ever. She said I should go and correct the few ones that she had already corrected. I was really hurt because I just didn’t want to have anything to do with my project anymore.

While it did not look like I had gotten my boss angry at that moment, the next time I came, she had probably thought it over and decided she was not going to sign my project. I apologised as a well-trained Yoruba boy would but that did not hold water. I travelled and came back again and still nothing had changed. She would not sign. I knew I was at fault. I did not invite anyone to apologise on my behalf. It was my cross, I wanted to carry it alone and I did. I got a ‘B’ and not the ‘C’ the young ladies were ‘gisting’ about.

They were not gossiping out of hatred or anything like that, because they would not do such in the presence of this really close friend of mine. They probably were saying all that because they had heard the wrong story and had easily believed the wrong gist because the ‘go to hell’ thing sounded like something I could say ( I wouldn’t say a thing like that to anyone really, at least not since 2007 ). They probably started the discussion in the presence of this person they all believed would have the full gist only to be disappointed as she had not been around me in that period and I did not tell her the gist of the story when I told her about my inability to submit my project.

That same day I met a handsome, intelligent man who after I had introduced myself as Japheth asked if I knew a Jaffe Omojuwa because he had heard a lot about ‘her’. I asked him if he had met that Omojuwa and he said he hadn’t. I asked him why he thought Jaffe would be a female and he said that was how he thought of the person and then because I had to quickly meet with some very important Presidents of youth associations and some personalities, I told him Jaffe or Japheth Omojuwa is male because I am Japheth. He was really pleased and felt a bit embarrassed but we shook hands and chatted about a few stuffs and that was that.

What if that my new friend had impressed his imagination of a female Japheth Omojuwa on his friends?

When does the gathering of people become a gist, a gossip session or a discussion? It is easy to consult the dictionary to find their definitions but I feel the lines dividing these terms have thinned out even more, because they all interlink ins the process of social interactions. I wouldn’t know though, because I really do not know. I am just intrigued by the fact that something happens and in the process of the story moving from one ear to another it gets to lose some things and add some things until the true story becomes a myth. Who does not gossip? You all do or may be you are the only one who doesn’t. What is the most consistent thing people do on the social networking sites? You have been reading this, what do you think we ( you and I) have been doing? This certainly can’t be that educational article you probably set out to read. Or is it? I don’t know really. What do you think? Let’s discuss or er.. er may be i should say gist. Whatever…