I don't quite know why my father didn't name me after himself on the day I was born to mark the arrival of his first son and why I have just three names to the best of my knowledge. I may not know why I was born in Lagos at the Island maternity hospital to be precise and why my journey thereafter has gone the way it has.
Many who know me from primary school may remember that I did well academically. The teachers expected that mainly because my older sister was a mini-star at that time. They must have thought brilliance was entirely genetically transmitted. Something I know for sure was that I was terrified whenever I made progress from one class to another. Terrified that I would fall short but I guess the blessing of having a familiar pool of mates around kept me interested in all that was going on.
Many of the things I learnt as a child came from both home and school; my uncles, aunts and a few cousins passed on whatever knowledge they had and I am immensely grateful for having so many people around at those times. The Nigerian and Ghanaian teachers in primary school were completely disciplined and competent men and women. Chuka Ofili, Adedotun Akinlabi, Brent Nartey and Eddie Bugz will remember arriving school early to meet a regular course of Mr Ojomalade's "mental maths" problems to solve from lacombes (do pupils still use those books these days).Yinka Awobokun provided the comic books for our relaxation and Latasha Ngwube introduced me to the world of Nancy Drew and just about every series authored by Enid Blyton. Those days were surely fun and my friends made it truly worthwhile.
I believe that most of the truly durable friendships are forged from secondary school; the friends who knew how we really looked in our natural state and stood by us even on our worst days. I am grateful to all those bonds initiated during those days or even after. There were times when the urge to rebel was high; days when the consequences of failure neutralised any confidence I had within. The companionship with and good examples of my friends such as Uwa, Tope "Mijo" and Charles just to name a few kept me going. I remember vividly how three or four of us would stroll around surulere visiting our folks from house to house with the strolling party getting larger and larger. We would play SEGA, SNES or whatever game console existed before the the advent of Playstation and sometimes we would extend our voyage to FESTAC, Ajao Estate or Ikoyi...anywhere our people lived. There were no considerations of ethnicity, religion or whatever social parameters in determining our friendships. We dwelt beyond the realm of just mere existence; we were human.
I had to wait over two years to make it into the university of Ibadan. The beginning of that period was approximately 17 years ago. My last SSCE paper was Yoruba language on the 4th of June and the jitters of not knowing what next drained my battery. Four days later was my birthday and there was really no hint of celebration until later in the day which somehow coincided with the news of the demise of the one the cap fit. The JAMB exam that year had already yielded a POLYJAMB score due to no fault of mine; perhaps I was too overconfident. I went to sit that exam wearing a pair of white bathroom slippers because I didn't see what the big deal was about the exam. To cut the long tale short, it rained that morning causing a late start. That was the year they started mixing question papers and in the midst of the chaos, it took more than 30 minutes to find the physics, chemistry and biology paper I was meant to write yet the examination ended at the scheduled time.
The following months went by in a flash and I truly do not have any memories of those days. It took finding a group of "alive" people in church to get going again. We played football, prepared for examinations, danced and had so much fun together. This was the necessary jolt before the conquest of Ibadan began. The Diya boys, Wole and his crew, Tosin and all the guys I prayed together with made life worth living.
University would have been a waste if it was all about earning degrees. Genuine and durable friendships are also possible in such environment despite the abundance of "fake" people. I remain grateful for my many law friends, the medical family and those I encountered in church. There's so much to be grateful for.
I'm grateful for my family, I'm thankful for the sacrifices my parents made I would never trade the experiences. People may not have a clue about what we have gone through in our lives good or bad; the only clue we should let them know is the volume of good that we offer them and the world despite all odds.
I am grateful for my wife, I'm still amazed that I deserve such a wonderful person who only makes me better.
I'm grateful that I played table soccer and played "Whot" with my folks and all sorts of games. I'm grateful for the discipline and the stress we thought my mother was dealing to us when we were younger. I'm grateful for voltron, superted and Terahawks; I'm grateful for Nancy Drew, Hardy boys and famous five. I'm grateful for getting JAMBed and surviving chemistry 157, I'm grateful for general surgery resit and every examination success.
I'm grateful for Nigeria and every night slept in pitch darkness and stale air. I'm grateful that she thrives; I won't ever forget I paid 90 naira for accommodation in freshman year.
I may not always say or show it but I don't forget. This is another opportunity to say thank you to all who have remembered me today; I'm eternally grateful.
Esé púpò. The Lord reward you.
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