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A STRANGE AND FASCINATING NATION:
MY EARLY YEARS IN NIGERIA (Concluded)

oap Operas played prominent role in the socio-cultural life of our people. We all doted on the soaps and lived on them. We never wish any episode to come to an end and the story lines kept us talking for days and weeks. There were so many side-stories and gist around the scenes, characters and the stories. At school during assembly and during short and long breaks our discussions are always around the soaps. We were literally part of the soaps and our lives revolved around and about them.

Do you remember For Better, For Worse? That weekly dose that re-enacted our society, our homes and our families was so much loved and treasured that the streets are abandoned when it is time to sit down and watch it. What about Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett - do you remember her? She brought so much energy and life to the television and to our lives! She brought promise and rewrote television and the soaps. Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett acted like her whole life depended on it; she gave it her all and earned accolades deserving of a true tube star that she were. With that great and talented screenwriter, Laolu Ogunniyi, For Better, For Worse brought a new meaning to television drama in Nigeria. It was sublime with an amazing storyline no one could predict or foretell. Teni Aofiyebi also readily came to mind and Joe Euba, but there were many others in the For Better, For Worse team whose names stood away from me at the moment. It is important to duff our hats to all these people. These are the people who enriched our heritage and informed us.

Later came Winds Against My Soul. Written and directed by Laolu Ogunniyi and featuring most of the cast of For Better, For Worse. Winds Against My Soul was a confirmation of the screen craft and genius of Laolu Ogunniyi. My sister, Y would not miss an episode for anything in the world. Only an epileptic NEPA often came between us and For Better, For Worse or Winds Against My Soul. Frustrated and dejected for the loss of the fun, joy and happiness, we would send curses to the very inept and corrupt souls who mismanage and mis-run NEPA, or was it ECN then.

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The joy of growing up and living in Lagos was so great and compelling that most Lagosians don't even go out of Lagos and don't care about other places. Lagos was where life began and where life ended. There are hundreds of thousands of Lagosians who never crossed the Carter Bridge - then the only link between the Island and the Mainland - in their lifetime. The best food shacks, kiosks and bukatarias are in Lagos. If you want the slightly burnt and delicate rice with fried stew and assorted meat or asaro (yam pottage) laced with ede (crayfish) and well-seasoned fish and beef, you will find them in Lagos. There were so many suya spots where various parts of the cow are used to make suya. You will find shaki, gizzard, goat meat, ishun, etc.

Ileya was a unique time with a lot of activities and celebrations. Ileya often come with the introduction of a new lace material, new shoes for ladies and new album from the musicians. Of course there will be a new system such as "Syncro system" from King Sunny Ade and Apola from Idowu Animashaun. But Ileya is never complete without the rams. The rams are central to the Ileya festivities. Ram fights are daily and regularly staged at Sura and on most streets and fields in Lagos. Some rams never even see the Ileya after several knockdowns and sidekicks from tougher competitors. Ram fights is so popular that some rich Lagos men who consider themselves as big boys often spend thousands of naira in the procurement of tough looking and big rams. Some of those rams are sometime as big as small cows. So there are rams and there are rams.

Like the popular bull fights in Europe, ram fights will remain at center stage for weeks. Nothing more is important and all roads led to the fields where the fights are staged. There are families that have competed for decades with their rams and once they arrive at the field they will pull out their rams and make them face one another or just merely use the horn of one to hit the side of the other. If the one that got hit is a wild type, it will not hesitate before retaliating, taking a few steps back and returning to land a deadly blow on the head of the offending ram. With that a fight will ensue and no one dare attempt to stop the two warring rams. At the end of the day, one ram may get injured or willingly throw in the towel by either running away or avoiding its opponent.

There was Alhaja Ekeolere, the mother of two big boys, Lati and Kayode. She was a big woman with big breasts. She has no shop and does no work but she is never is short supply of male guests. She lived alone with her sons and a daughter, Toyin. No one knew where she came from but people often talk about Ilaje. She wore nearly five colours on her feet and face - chocolate, green, black, yellow, and red. She was determined to live life to the fullest and it does not matter where the money came from. Her male guests treat her like the ghetto queen that she was. She drank small stout and can consume half a dozen at a sitting. She serves the men beer and often you will hear the men refer to the various types of beer in so many names.

"Kayode, give me lanko". Lanko is the name for small stout.
"There is no lanko, Uncle"
"Then give me ACB". ACB is any cold beer.
"What about Guldy omo Gushasha?" That was Gulder
"And Babasala?" The big Guinness!

Alhaja Ekeolere's house is always busy with these male guests and her housemaid is always cooking and ever busy behind the two faced stove of those days. Hers was a mini brothel and her clients resume there every evening straight from work. Whatever these men have been able to steal from their employers is wasted away at Alhaja Ekeolere's house. When food and drinks have been consumed and negotiations reached, then action will follow as a customer enters the inner room with Alhaja, often after a tough haggling for fees. With a steady face and one or two steps to the music of Yussuf Olatinji, Alhaja will saunter into the room ahead of the customer. Her sons will disappear once such transactions are about to take place. The two boys, Lati and Kayode go to school but are more interested in different things. Lati loved athletics and was running on his school's relay team while Kayode was already picking pockets and stealing clothes from the cloth wires at the back of the house. Mothers have warned their wards about Kayode. The children have been instructed to immediately inform their mothers the very moment they see Kayode going to the backyard. Quite a number of kids have developed a clever battle cry in response to the warning such as "Ologbo has entered the house!" or "Ekun wo le de o!"

With time petty stealing became inadequate for Kayode. He assumed greater exploits and joined the big boys at the end of the street on the rough corridors of Epetedo. By this time Kayode was already smoking Indian hemp and wearing big chains around his fat neck. He had fought so many open fights in the area and there was a day he went into a big show down with Alani, another pickpocket and petty thief who was also trying to make a name for himself in the neighbourhood. It was a rough fight and nothing was spared. Both of them used broken beer bottles, firewood, knives and horsewhips. Kayode was a very strong guy and had endured so much horse weeping from Alhaja Ekeolere as a youg boy for crimes ranging from stealing her money or stealing meat from the soup pots. All of these have hardened and toughened him up. He was a shameless street fighter who will often fight in the nude, sometimes personally tearing off his own clothes when fights get out of hand. Kayode trounced Alani that day but both men had so many wounds and sustained so many cuts to the disbelief of on-lookers.

Then we no longer see Kayode frequently. He would just disappear for months and will return with designer wristwatches and clothes. He said he was "doing business" with some Kora and Lebanese people. He disappeared and reappeared with more loot. Many parents warned their children to avoid Kayode and his goods. He often offered them at give away prices. One day some military police men came to the neighbourhood to look for Kayode. They searched the whole area without success. Someone said Kayode got wind of the mobile men's coming and scaled the big fence into the Abari Cemetery. The Kill-and-go did not see Kayode and were lucky enough to find someone who used his nose to indicate Alhaja Ekeolere's part of the house. Some people said it was Mama Ade, the semi-mad woman married to the pool-crazy schoolteacher in the other compound.

The mobile policemen went to Alhaja and demanded for Kayode. They searched her house and questioned her. She told them she's not seen her son for months and that he no longer lives with her. She added that she does not know where he lives. The kill-and-go men did not believe Alhaja Ekeolere and decided to take her to their offices. It was a big scene taking her out of the courtyard and down the stretch to the main road. She was shouting at them and threatening them, saying something about her man friend who is a top commissioner. As her long chain and fish-head pendant dangle from her thick neck with her finger-dripping buba made of lace swinging here and there, Alhaja Ekeolere swings her Oshodi-Isala while her Oshodi-Oke respond to the twitches of her lower body. The crowd surged forward and everyone tried as much as possible to get a glimpse of her.

The days were evil and the nights were loaded with death traps and nocturnal daredevil armed robbers. The rabid dimension and boldness at which armed robbery overtook Lagos was so alarming and fearful. The late evenings and nights no longer bode well for partygoers and night crawlers. The armed men literally took over life in Lagos. No one was safe any longer. The rate at which robbers attack defenceless people in their homes multiplied. Robbers visited areas and attack long rows of houses and homes making away with electronics, cash, cars, jewellery and whatever else tickle their fancy.

Babatunde Folorunso and Oyenusi were well known robbers who became so notorious in Lagos and assumed cult status while their reigns lasted. Folorunso and even had albums waxed for them and hosted big time parties with big name bands on hand! They had their collaborators among the men of the Nigeria Police. Fear gripped everyone and there was nowhere to hide. The early seventies brought so much setback and drawbacks to life in Lagos. It was the decade of the armed robbers and the touts, the hoodlums and the creation/birth of the area boy. There was so much money around courtesy of the Jerome Udoji award, which brings with it so much inflation also. There was so much cash in the hands of everyone but so few goods to buy. This took prices to the roofs and out of the reach of millions of people. Suddenly cars that used to be around N2000 to N3500 jumped to six figure prices. Udoji award loaded people pockets with paper notes and took inflation to a new height. Even Goody-Goody, the children's favourite candy became unreachable. We now have to settle for Babadudu, the local brand.

More and more crude oil sites/blocks were discovered in the South West and the military boys did not know what to do with the huge cash coming from oil sales. The construction of the National Stadium started and soon after the National Theatre at Iganmu was added to the droves of constructions going on in Lagos. The Stadium Village in Surulere was part of the bottomless contract regime of the seventies. Nigeria decided to host not one but two major events in close succession! The All African Games brought the whole of Africa to Lagos. It was the second edition and the city of Lagos had never seen anything like that in terms of its size, grandeur, hoopla and costs. Traffic jam and hold-up got the better part of the Games. Bus trip from the Games Village to the National Stadium could take forty minutes to one hour! To prevent athletes from arriving late for their events, police escorts were provided and this exacerbate the traffic problem. Modupe Osikoya became Nigeria's golden girl having won several gold medals in the sprints and jumps while the Green Eagles won the gold medal in the Football event with the contributions of Haruna Ilerika, Kenneth Olayombo, Victor Odua and a host of other talented local players. Most of the players came from the then Bendel Insurance Football Club, Stationery Stores Football Club, Mighty Jets of Jos, and the Electric Corporation of Nigeria (ECN of Lagos).

The Black World Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) then took centre stage in 1977. Christened FESTAC 77 and with people of the black and Negro race from all over the world in attendance, Nigeria pulled off a gargantuan show with a bottomless pit expenses. The audit of that cultural festival has never been made public but your guess is as good as mine that Nigeria must have spent nearly a trillion to stage that event. Some good, however, came out of the jamboree such as the showcase of our culture. FESTAC 77 also helped Nigeria - always in the forefront of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa - to highlight the sufferings and hardships being experienced by our brothers and sisters in South Africa and to condemn the obnoxious regime in Pretoria. Many South African groups and individual singers were invited. Ipi Tombi came with a large group and so did Maria Makeba, Mama Africa and Hugh Makesela. Their shows were sold out and the turnouts were unprecedented. The National Theatre was a beehive of activities and cultural events. The Ipi Tombi album became a must have product and sold in millions. My father asked his driver, Jogbodo, to drive to go and procure a copy for him. Mr. Jogbodo returned with a bottle of epitone tonic! The laughter and cackles that took over our sitting room made everyone to run into the house. When my father narrated the story to all of us we repeated the hail of laugher four-fold and decided to drive with my father to the TYC Record Store to buy the Ipi Tombi album.

"Haya, haya, haya, haya, oh pi tombi ya
Ipi Tombi ya, pi tombi ya''

The involvement of the various South African groups made so much difference to FESTAC 77. The liberation struggles going on around Africa were brought home to many of us and our adrenalin shut up and anger welled up. Poetry became a medium of expressing that anger and frustration. Emotions became a recollection in tranquility and the escape routes were the verses. The presentation of Langbodo by Wale Ogunyemi was also a major highlight at the National Theatre during FESTAC 77. The trend of culture and cultural revival did not dissipate even after FESTAC 77 as the likes of Uncle Fred Agbeyege and Ogungade brought life theatre to Iganmu. The King Must Dance Naked was a major show and there were several productions from the lawyer and theatre enthusiast that was Fred Agbeyegbe. The Jab Adus of this world and Wale Ogunyemi, Tunji Oyelana, etc were involved in one television production or another. There was Adio Family with Jab Adu and Rosemary Anieze-Adams, Sura The Tailor with Tunji Oyelana as Sura, Bello's Way was also making waves on NTV Ibadan while Koko Close with Olumide Bakare as Chief Koko was as entertaining as it was comical. How can you forget Hubert Ogunde (Aiye), Baba Sala (Orun Moru), Baba Mero (Awada Kerikeri), Oyin Adejobi (Court Ashipa), Duro Ladipo (Oba Koso), Ishola Ogunsola and his travelling theatre and many other groups who made so much meaning out of life and took our culture to a new height. Isheoku and Masquerade, which later became New Masquerade with Chief Zebudaya, Ovuleria, Natty, Jegede Shokoya, Apena, his wife, Giringori and Clarus, etc, also added colour and fun.

The Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) Jos crew were just marvellous with their soaps including Cock Crow At Dawn and Behind The Cloud. These groups, people and individuals touched our lives and contributed to making us who we are today and in shaping Nigeria and bringing honour to her. The contribution of arts and culture to our sanity and national development cannot be over-emphasized. Those who have given their all have not been rewarded by our hopeless system and worthless self-appointed leaders who have taken too much, contributed so little and denied the hard work and meaningful contributions of others. These self-anointed leaders - mostly in military uniforms or recently out of uniform and garbing babanriga at the seat/corridor of power - are the reason we are backward and degenerating in all spheres of life. They are the reasons Nigeria's best and brightest are scattered overseas and contributing to the growth of other nations while their beloved Nigeria is falling into pieces. Our best doctors, engineers, artists, teachers and journalists are in Europe and America, driven out by the mad men and specialists who stole the nation and cornered her resources for personal use and self greed. To move forward, we must reverse the trend and restore our nation to its place of honour and in the league of civilized nations across the world.

Concluded.