I became the Cobra Chief without any election as there was nobody to contest the position with me. I was adopted on Sunday, April 22, 1984 as the Cobra Chief at the Central Cafeteria, the same venue where Kunle Sulaimon raised that objection that eventually lifted him to that position.
As soon as I resumed with my team comprising Tunde Oyesiji (Cobra Scribe), Ijeoma Chucks (Deputy Chief), Bayo Asimolowo (Cobra Manager), Sola Adegoroye (Marketing Coordinator), Ade Oyenekan (Public Relations Snake), David Ogedengbe (Political and Features Editor), Agabi Ajokpa (Director of Intelligence Unit), Gbenga Arubuola (Chief Snake), Lanre Ladipo (Chief Cartoonist), Peter Ogboli (Graphics Editor), we started working on our first edition which was published on Thursday, May 24, 1984.
It was a banger as they say in music. For the first time in the University, the bugging was not limited to ordinary students. We stung anyone in the University Community that had acted with impunity, irreverence, indiscretion and incivility.
We also extolled the virtues of those who upheld the ethical values and culture of excellence that the University stands for. Officers of the University and the students Union, who distinguished themselves in the discharge of their official assignments were deservedly eulogized by the King Cobra. We worked in line with our motto-Without Fear or Favour.
There were other magazines like Parrot, Petals, The Bang, Campus Digest, Torch, Voice, Pointer, Anchor, Echo, The Bee, Light, Chariot e.t.c operating in the University, but we chose to be different. We met a tradition on the ground and we vowed to sustain it. It was a fiery Campus magazine. We stung and praised- depending on the actions and inaction of- the government at any level, the local authorities, the establishment, the academia, the Students’ Union, the students’ Clubs and the students populace. We sent a very strong message of our impartiality in our first and subsequent editions when we bugged and exhorted powerful names and principal students’ union officers.
The names of people who made noble and glorious appearances or their opposite, in the King Cobra, had been documented by the Agency for posterity. King Cobra was strictly for internal circulation. This suggests that one is encumbered by law from externalizing the contents of the various publications.
However, the underlisted names and entities appeared in the King Cobra at one time or the other, during my tenure or before my tenure: Lanre Arogundade (NANS President), Opeyemi Bamidele, Mafo John, Bunmi Oyewole, Olumide Akamu, Babafemi Ojudu, Wole Iyamu, Sola Okediji, Santana Akinwunmi, Adun Alabi, Peter Wanogho, Eddy Olafeso, Chris Fajemifo, Funmi Olonisakin (Shalamar) Taju Lawal, Osagie Omorede, Kemi Santos, Eric Amagada, Vincent Orji, Yomi Francis, Ayo Adekojo. Others were Leke Sanusi, David Onyieke, Ibrahim Pam, Bukola Olanrewaju,
Ayo Fadaka, Bolaji Adigun, Ibrahim Pam, Kembi Adejare, Tobi Adesokan. We did not leave out wardens, porters and students like Mrs Sijuwade, the hall Warden of Morèmi hall, Bisi Asupoto, Yomi Rocket, Yomi Francis, Rosemary Ebulu, Akin Onigbinde, B.O. Iluyomade, Benjamin Ige, Stella Uju-Agwu, Sunbo Agbaje, Arewa Lapade, Olaniyi Vera-Cruz, Esuola Olaore, Molade Koleosho, Yemi Gbonegun, Bayo Okauru, Yemi Abifarin, Taiwo Sódẹkẹ́, Fola Delano, Iretunde Willoughby. We also had on the list “Powerful Clubs” like ALPHA, JAYCEES, Palmwine Drinkerds’ Club, SCAP,
Steadfast, Man ‘O’ War,
SKALA, Klurb Tudmont etc. It’s an endless list. In Ife, we were allowed to disagree, sometimes bitterly and vehemently, but never should such tango degenerate to physical combat. Once you did that, the two of you would be shown ROAD 1 meaning, you would be expelled from the school. Initially, it was tough coping with that rule going by the provocations I suffered from some people but I learned how to live in a decent and civilized society. On few occasions, I had seen people who came to slap me ferociously while sleeping and claiming they were trying to wake me up to lodge a complaint against our stories. Pray, is there no distinction between slapping and tapping any more? The kind of slaps that left marks on my cheeks had gone beyond wake up call. But what could I do? The rule forbidding physical combat did not permit “retaliatory compensation”. That was the price I had to pay for my regular bugging of community offenders.
I had so many tough battles with Students Union officers on different issues but the Ife restraint culture did not allow any retaliatory or escalatory actions. Instead, we were encouraged to seek redress within the available internal institutional mechanisms like Students Representatives Council (SRC), Judicial Council and the University Press Council. To a very large extent, justice was administered fairly and professionally with concerned parties expressing satisfaction with the process and the system.
This is why it would be very shocking to find any graduate of Unife disrespecting or desecrating institutions after going through this kind of orientation. In addition, the Unife culture and orientation was aimed at building a universal family from its past and present generations of graduates ; a family that would form the nucleus of a robust global intelligentsia that the world could be proud of. The Ife tradition of communal fraternity consolidated the bonding and friendship between me and the following people irrespective of our ideological and professional differences as campus journalists and Union activists: Femi Ojudu, Leke Sanusi, Bunmi Oyewole, Opeyemi Bamidele, Bimbo Bamidele, Ayo Fadaka, Lanre Arogundade, Sola Ebiseni, Mafo Ola-John, Wole Iyamu, Sola Okediji, Eddy Olafeso, Chris Fajemifo, Esho Olurotimi.
One of my first official assignments as the President of History Students Society was a sent-forth party we organized for our Final year students on 7th June, 1984. At the party, attended by both the academic and non-academic members of the department, I stated the following: “Once again, I congratulate all of you for being able to cross the Rubicon; for being able to change illusion to reality, for being able to take the dreaded bull by the horns; for being able to start a good fight and fighting it to the end ; for being able to continue the struggle with courage, determination, and hope of survival right from 1980 to 1984.” My final charge to the graduating students was a quote from the eminent nationalist and Nigerian politician, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe: “A hardworking man shall find his name in history written on a platter of gold while the lazy man shall find his name missing from the ordinary story told by children at the dawn of the night.”
These new positions (History and Cobra) were very challenging. I already anticipated that the headship of the King Cobra was going to be a major distraction and I was ready for it. But the “accidental” Presidency of History Students Society had made “load-shedding” a necessity. In order to reduce the pressure on me, I decided to shed my involvement in women affairs by “offloading” some of the burdens on me and just stick to only one. Obviously, the chosen one must come from PMB. My Jambite “toastees” had automatically disqualified themselves with their “Beggar Orchestra Style”. You would invite only your girlfriend to an outing at Oduduwa, by the time she showed up, they would be three or four. I was tired of “Harem Fellowship”. It was draining my pocket with reckless abandon. There was an instance when I planned to take only my Jambite girlfriend to watch “Third World” and listen to their latest hit “Lagos Jump”, that night, I ended up paying for five people. Since I was the one that got myself into this mess, I should know how to terminate it. As a student on the “communal scholarship” of Surulere indigenes, I must spend wisely. I didn’t know if I was the one who gave them the impression that I was a rich man’s son or they were the ones that drew the impression from the way I was dressing and the way I frequented Forks and Fingers, whatever it was, it was time to live real before they turned me to “please, can I have a meal ticket from you?” In choosing from PMB, there was no doubt that I loved the three with graduated affection. When Mosun (M) came, she was clear about what she wanted- a reading partner. She didn’t want a boyfriend.
I had to respect her wish by not treading that path with her. So, the choice of who to toast was between P and B. I went for one of them and I got a long nail. I had to be protective of my self-esteem by not going for another nail. I maintained my lane. I decided to face my studies, my History assignment and my Cobra activities. I should stop my “playboy gerrymandring” before I dropped to Third Class. Despite my efforts to downsize my extra-curricular “workload”, my CGPA still plunged that semester, this time, pathetically. The details were as shocking as the CGPA: HIS 202 (B), HIS 304 (B), HIS 316 (B+), PHL 309 (B), PHL 311 (B) and FRENCH (B). The cumulative was 3.57. This was an ominous caution for a man that was abusing the abundance of grace he was imbued with to run the race of his life. I got the message and I got more serious. Still, I must complete my task as the President of History Students Society and as Cobra Chief. I had few more months to do that.
When we resumed for the final year in October 1984, the details of our project topics and the names of our supervisors had been released by the department. I was assigned to Prof. Isaac Adeagbo Akinjogbin, the eminent Yoruba historian, for supervision. I had never met him before but I had heard and read a lot about him. He had been on sabbatical leave since I got to the department.
Based on what I had heard about him, I knew that I had to go back to my original survival plan when I first got to the University. Therefore, I resurrected my regular reflections at the “Cadaver apartment” at BOOC. That was when I knew that I was gradually rediscovering myself. So many truths that I had buried began to show their legs from the uncovered part of their graves. Truth is a good hunter who waits patiently to haunt and hunt his prey until it falls into his trap. I fell into the trap I set for myself. I had come back to confront my truth after months of playing the fool.
In addition to all these personal measures I took, I was also fortunate to share room with serious-minded and ambitious people who complemented my resolve to shift attention from the mundane to the sublime. There was Kunle Ajibade, Paul Obah, Olanrewaju Bolarinwa, Aribisala Adefemi and Ashaolu. We lived like one family in that room, with me and Kunle Ajibade playing the Big Brothers’ role as the most senior students in Room 299, Fajuyi Hall. It was during this session that Muhammadu Buhari withdrew subsidy on our meals and as soon as he did that, we started cooking our own food in our different rooms, in our own ways. Before the withdrawal, and going by the meal ticket system, we could eat three square meals with N45 for three months and spend N90 eating three square meals for one session. Kunle Ajibade and I started drawing up roasters on market shuttle and foodstuffs purchase and cooking schedule.
We cooked our food the way we wanted it. I was in charge of boiling the meat while Kunle was the one in charge of the finishing. He claimed to be a good cook but his finishing showed otherwise. Sometimes, the pepper would be much, sometimes, it would not be enough. Same for salt. We ate what we cooked, good or bad, sweet or tasteless, palatable or insipid, our food was our food. We ate it like that. The Buhari policy taught us how to appreciate the kitchen staff whose job it was every day to cook for hundreds of students. The King Cobra edition of December, 1984 wrote an editorial on the subsidy withdrawal titled: “Dancing The Kokoma Music”: “Now, our students were worst off. No more bursary. To eat now is a luxury. Only few can afford to eat three times a day. The average student will manage two.
The not-too-well will manage one. Waoh, to compound it all, the possibility of securing job after graduation is uncertain. It is glaringly bleak. There is a lot to say in a one Kobo book but we shall stop here. The King Cobra, however, believes that the Kokoma music will soon be danced by the present band. We are all at the corridor of history and we are watching. To those who are dancing the Kokoma music now, we admonish them to be patient as things will be alright later.”
As I was trying to put “my house in order”, I didn’t know that my supervisor, Prof Akinjogbin and Muhammadu Buhari had their own agenda for me. It was not until their plans started unfolding that I knew how enormous the problems were. It was tough and determination alone was not enough. It was rough and courage alone was not enough. Nothing was enough to still the storm but I kept my calm believing that all will be well.
