At Agbado Station, the train decided to wait for several minutes before starting the return trip. While I hoped that memory would put less stress on me during the return ride, nostalgia ran haywire as we waited in Agbado. To others it was a 20 or so minutes rest, but, to me, the wait was like an eon based on the volumes of events that got re-enacted in my memory — as it was a landmark and pregnant reunion with Agbado. The same Agbado Crossing!
I spent some four years in a room self-contain at nearby Ijaiye Ojokoro/Powerline area, before later moving into another house still in the Powerline area of Ijaiye. The latter was a more befitting three-bedroom accommodation, which suggested that I was already getting big and preparing for marriage. As of around 2004, my rent was N80,000 per annum. That was the same me who started with N5,000 per annum in Iyana Ipaja.
While whiling away time at Agbado Crossing, I remembered life as a teacher at Providence Heights Secondary School, Iju-Agege. I joined the school after the meat business failed. Well, did it fail? We did not have enough money to back it up when it needed refuelling, I must admit. It was from Providence I joined the then Sabo, Yaba-based The Diet newspaper and later The Comet which was based in Ijora. It was to those far places I travelled daily from Ijaiye, with molue being my saviour most times.
It’s good that a lot of vital things have changed for the better in Lagos. For who can compare the comfort that BRT buses offer to the 29-sitting-99-standing experience in molue trucks? Who can compare the terrible state of many of the roads I plied then, including those in Mushin, Oshodi and Agege to what generally obtain now in Lagos? It was a period one would stay for hours in traffic jams in such naughty settings. Some of the menace may not totally have evaporated but Lagos has surely left Egypt and is progressively on its way to Canaan. For one, the coming of the trains is an experience with unimaginable impacts based on how mobile the city is.
My Providence years were indeed eventful. I was usually on the road once I was not in school. I taught English Language and Literature, working with my Head of Department, Mr Kinni, a Ghanaian. There were about four Ghanaian teachers teaching at Providence and their presence somehow helped my spoken English. Although some of their elocution might tend towards the extreme (like when they pronounced ‘country’ almost as kentri), it is sharper and more deliberate than what many Nigerians who just say kontri instead of kuhntri) exhibit. Being an Education/English graduate teacher, I paid extra attention to the phonological tradition and differences, while I studied more to validate some things. And these helped me in class and later in life.
Although this is supposed to be an account of a harmless train ride, I must stress that many Nigerians need to be more conscious when it comes to the articulation of a good number of English words and other expressions. For instance, many, day and night, with glee bungle the pronunciations of the likes of ‘come’, ‘mother’, ‘earth’, ‘this’, ‘without’ and ‘sing’. Imagine someone pronouncing ‘earth’ as ‘at’ and ‘this’ as ‘dis’! Hmm. Teachers and schools need to do more on this, while parents should also encourage their children to watch major programmes (like news) on TV to observe and imbibe the way trained broadcasters speak. Online, there are also many outfits and packages and experts teaching oral English, with all dictionaries also having their digital versions.
Apart from classroom teaching, I was involved in home lessons. This was despite the fact that, as it was in Victory Grammar School, I was very active in school. I was in charge of the dramatic and cultural society, which gave me an opportunity to help nurture young talents. Interestingly, it was in the course of grooming the students that I first met Nollywood actor, Kolade Folarin (Kadeshprince), who was the protagonist in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods are not to Blame, and Zulu Sofola’s King Emene, two of the plays I directed at Victory Grammar School. Also in the cast were his fellow students, who included Bushola Osho (now a medical doctor) and Babatunde Owotuga (a big guy in the financial world now).
During the train ride, I also remembered that, at Providence Secondary Schools, my exploits in socio-cultural programmes were more expansive. The reason is that the Proprietor, Mr Ademoa Oduyemi (may God bless his soul as he passed away about three years ago), really loved arts and culture. The students staged several plays with me as director. These include Wole Soyinka’s Child International, Ola Rotimi’s Grip Am and The Gods are not to Blame; and Zulu Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods as well as her King Emene. At Providence, my students such as Temitope Famoroti (may her graceful and most resourceful soul rest in peace) , Bayo Fanimokun, Fisayo Fadelu and Kikelomo Teriba always made my day and made the school proud before parents. They were ever fantastic on stage.
While all of them have grown to become successful in their various fields, and Kadeshprince, who was also the Head Boy at Victory Grammar School, founded by Chief CFO Olaniyan (now late), is a known name in Nollywood, there is an irony in the story of my drama life at Providence. There was a student who never participated in any of the events. She never acted in any play. She never joined any dance group nor did she even rise for debates. Indeed, she was almost ever mute in class as she sat gently, just listening to whatever the teacher had to say. As a result, I never had the cause to ask her to be part of any cast. The towering twist, however, is that that same formerly snail-mute student has become one of the biggest actresses in Nollywood today. Guess who! Mide Funmi Martins! The fiery actress, who is married to another giant in the industry, Afeez Owo. Hmm, I had better allow her to tell her own story of transformation.
I can only hope that, sooner than later, Mide will oblige me when I request she feature in one or two of my new poetry videos. After all, a Yoruba proverb says b’ókèété bá dàgbà tán, ọmú ọmọ rẹ̀ níí mú, meaning, at old age, the big rat relies on her child’s breast milk. Joking apart, I’m also glad to recall that my poetry performing group, Akeem Lasisi & the Songbirds, started as an experimentation with my students at Providence, where Mr. Nola Oduyemi, is now the big boss. Indeed, I was still at Providence in 1999 when I released my first album, Post Mortem, dedicated to Chief MKO Abiola, who had then just died in military custody where he was held for fighting to realise the mandate Nigerians widely gave him during the 12 June 1993 presidential election.
Ah, memory! Will you please release me as I rejoin my people in the Red Line train, ready to take off back home!
To be continued
