Chidinma “Chi-Chi”

Chidinma, Chi-Chi to the entire Republic, came to Kisi in a hatchery crate at three weeks old, too young to remember her mother's face and too small, the handlers thought, to make the journey well. She spent her first week under the heat lamp beside an older rescue hen called Quiet Grace, who said nothing, asked nothing, and moved her own wing slightly to the left every night so the chick could sleep against something warm.

She grew up careful. She watched the older hens for months before trying anything, the dust bath, the high perch, the fast line at the trough, and then did each one correctly on the first attempt, to national astonishment. The Coop Times put her on its front page ('THE QUIET ONE LEARNS FAST') and she hid behind the water tank for two days.

When she laid her first egg, the Republic declared a public holiday. The President attended personally. Chi-Chi's entire statement to the press was four words, 'I did my best', and it has since been embroidered, quoted in two Assembly debates, and adopted as the unofficial motto of the youth athletics programme.

She has recently, very quietly, joined the Solar Queens' junior sprint squad. She has not told anyone. Everyone knows.