I can still remember in vivid terms growing up and playing in the sand
pits of Sadiku Lane, Abule-Oja, Yaba with Callistus and Sylvannus. Literarily
across the walls of our compound, we had the Okogbenins, (Callistus, Sylvannus,
Antonia, Angela) and with time two more siblings Emmanuel and Jude who joined
the family. I always wondered why their mother was extremely fair complexioned
and they all seemed to retain such complexion. It was so natural and never
induced by bleaching from creams, a beauty regimen so common amongst high
society ladies in Lagos at the time. It was only more recently that
one of her daughters revealed there to their ancestory. They were from a town in the
then Bendel State and spoke Ishan a language closely related to Edo spoken by
the Benin people. As a seven-year-old boy, in my ignorance I
sometimes described them, as ‘Igbos’ and they always responded
firmly:
“We are not Igbos!”
Callistus, Annene,
Sylvannus and I became very entrepreneurial and during the holidays, we would
create magazines and comics and sell them at a price. We constantly devised moneymaking
schemes but in one holiday, I went too far. St. Dominic’s Church, the main
Catholic Church in Yaba always had an annual raffle draw to raise money for
good causes. It relied on its
parishioners to sell the raffle tickets to their friends. On this occasion in 1978, I collected a
bundle of tickets from Callistus sold it all and then decided the lure of the
money raised was too much to ignore! I
simply pocketed all the cash raised from the sale and treated myself to few packets
of shortbread biscuits and a variety of sweeties. It was only later when I became a Christian
that repentance gripped me in the heart and I was compelled by my conversion to
return every stolen kobo to unsuspecting relatives and friends, it certainly
was not my best hour.
At Abule-Oja were we
lived we usually strutted around on the dusty clay caked streets and engaged in
set piece matches of football. Whilst Callistus was mercurial on the ball,
Sylva was shy and retiring more reflective.
Anyway, with time the
paths of Callistus, Sylvannus and Annene diverged as we went off to various
boarding schools but I am certain we left an indelible mark on each other.
In my reminiscences, today,
I appeal to each and every one who is out there enamoured with daily routines,
distracted by the daily grind of life, to spare a though a prayer for my
friend, to do anything within their power to ensure that Professor Okogbenin is
released. Now is not a time for recriminations but for action!
