I called Dayo aside to ask if we had any chance of making it into the school in view of what the teacher had said about the number of people that would be finally admitted out of the multitude of desperate humanity that came for the interview. He consoled me with my “Igbobi alternative” whereas he had no substitute. We …

Spurred by the 85% I scored in my Biology practicals, 82% in the theory and 77% in the objective in the mock examinations marked by my “curser”, my distinction in Biology in my WAEC examinations was almost guaranteed. In my WASCE Biology practicals, I drew and labelled my fish and cockroach (the two diagrams we were asked to draw and …

Mr A. B. Somefun aka “Baba Somefun” was a History teacher of great renown in Eko Boys High School. He was a lively teacher. Little wonder students broke his last name into two- “Some fun” – to amplify his delight for entertainment. He was an elderly man of enviable pedigree and disciplined sociology. As the head teacher, there was no …

I was made the class captain on merit by popular consensus. That, however, did not stop me from making noise. So, even if it was a strategy by my classmates to stop me from making noise, they had failed because I kept on making noise. Let me call my own kind of noise-making “constructive and engaging noise-making”. I hated boredom …

Then the Principal wanted to know why I changed my position. I replied that I went to the restroom and by the time I returned, the boy was already seated in my position. “I did not want to start a fight with a newcomer, I had to go and look for a new place”, I finally submitted. He apologized to …

On the evening of Tuesday, 2nd of April 1974 around 6 pm, I just returned from the field where I had gone to play set. We were five at home. Iya Ibadan was in her room. The remaining four of us were in front of the house holding a domestic assembly and discussing issues of general interest. Amope Nuru-Oniwo aka …

Just to bring slippers from the room I started reciting “Qul hu Allah hu ahad”. The Yoruba have a saying: “Ti omode ba dé ibi eru, eru a ba” (When a child finds himself in a fright theatre, his timidity becomes apparent). To get the slippers from the room was a five-second assignment but the processing of how to do …

As at 17 November 1973, we were still debating an admission letter that was almost a month old. First, I hid it from my mother for three weeks, now we had spent another week on it trying to resolve custody right. My father, the one who was going to pay the school fees and buy all the items and provisions …

As a trainee in Darasingh’s Garrison, you must be “high on something” before training. There was no exception. Thuggery is not evangelism. The school of Thuggery is not a monastery. You must smoke something or you must drink something. Something that would take you from the normal level to “an abnormal altitude”. It was a rule hinged on a traditional …

The choice to make between going for training in thuggery under the mentorship of the famous and dreaded Darasingh and writing an entrance examination into a new private secondary school thereby seizing the opportunity of continuing my education without retaking my failed primary school leaving certificate examinations was made simple by Dada Adesegun. He was a member of my gang …