I was about 14 or 15 in one Military Boarding School when myself and a very good friend of mine decided to sneak out of school. Interestingly I can’t remember if we had an agenda. It was the “hard” thing (what they call woke now) to do back in my high school then. A lot of my school mates sneaked out of school for different reasons. Some got sick and tired of the dining hall food and sneaked out to buy food from local cafeterias in the surrounding villages, some sneaked out to visit Brothels, some sneaked out to sell stuffs but myself and this friend of mine had not a single agenda. We just wanted to be woke.

As soon as we jumped the fence bordering the school and Ikola village, one of the security guards/ hunter/villagers apprehended both us. In retrospect, I wondered how one elderly man could have been able to apprehend two vibrant teenage boys. Anyway, the guy held us well in the grip of his hand and was threatening to take us back to school. Taking us back to school meant, we would be locked up in the guard-room and that may mean suspension or expulsion. No student from a proper home wanted that.

As the elderly man began to drag us back to school, my whole life flashed before me and I began to cry. I thought about all the morals I was taught at home and before I knew it, I regurgitated one of my mom’s favorite counsel whenever I was leaving home for school “DON’T Follow The Multitudes To Do Evil”. I felt really bad for myself and I wept bitterly. Whether we escaped or we were pardoned, I can’t remember how that event ended but my friend still calls me today and jokingly says “don’t follow the multitude to do evil” referring to himself as the multitudes.

Fast forward to my undergraduate days. Not that I became sober since the previous event as I have observed my life is categorized with a lot of good and naughtiness but as a an undergraduate, I wasn’t part of a fellowship in school initially but to whom to give the credit to, I don’t know. However, I had a semblance of godliness but I also had all sorts of friends (good and bad) with whom I was very lousy. As a friend will later testify about me when I was leaving school that after I took fellowship seriously, he was intrigued I hung out with the very terrible guys but they were not dominant enough in my space to stop me from my commitment to fellowship however, I wasn’t able drag them to church also. That appears Sad but simply put, if I can’t sway you, you won’t sway me neither! Not that I was lukewarm but maybe the Jacob/Israel syndrome. I surely wasn’t just church, myself and God related and I was just being unnecessarily liberal. They say you are liberal in your teenage but expected to be conservative as an adult.

So I had this very notorious friend that had sneaked one of his parents car to school. From Victoria Island to Ife and he told us he just got a car. A student owning a car was a big deal then thanks to the distance of the school to Lagos. Back then in OAU, the culture was that when we newly resumed a semester/term, we spent the first one week or two weeks lazing around at New Buka(complex with a lot of nice restaurants and bars) lavishly spending our parents hard earned money given to us as the pocket money drinking booze. It almost felt like a carnival. I was 18 but I wasn’t so much a fan of alcohol. Besides, it didn’t taste that sweet. Prior to that time, my only exposure to alcohol was my dad entertaining his guests with it during the sallah festival though he never drank ( I heard he did before I was born) and as a result, long after the festival we had several bottles of Guinness Stout in the house just wasting away. So at age 5, I tried tasting it out of curiosity and found out it was the most bitter thing aside the herbal drinks my mom forced us to take.

Back to my undergraduate story, so this naughty friend of mine came with this car and we all went with excitement to New Buka to celebrate with him. A friend bought me my first bottle of Guinness Stout and I did well ignoring the bitter taste. Downed the first, the Second, the Third and the Fourth bottle and somehow, I didn’t feel anything strange so I assumed maybe my system adjust well to alcohol. This was on a Tuesday. Like I mentioned, it was always a week long or two weeks long lavishness. The following Thursday, I got invited to New Buka again and I just felt common, first time drinker, I did 4 bottles, lets get it on and I did another four bottles feeling cool with myself. As I was wondering how my system seem a natural habitat for alcohol, another friend of mine walked up to me, intrigued by my calm disposition after four bottles of Guinness Stout, called me by my very great nickname and asked if I wanted one more bottle. The only clause was that this time around we would be having a N2000 bet if I was able to finish the additional bottle. Of course! Why not? I don’t know what the equivalence of that N2000 is in Nigeria now but that was a lot of money then.

In my naivety, and it was expected, first day four bottles, second attempt for a newbie, four bottles and still felt in charge of myself, that shouldn’t break the camel’s back I thought. What I didn’t know is that, in the world of alcoholics, especially in a bar, don’t allow anyone open your beer in your absence. My friend brought this already opened Guinness Stout which he had mixed with dry gin unknown to me and dropped it on my table. I took a couple of gulps but sadly, I didn’t survive the bottle. I got up and began to say all sort. I danced to rhythm of the jams by the DJ – Thong Song by Sisqo and another of Fela’s hit.

Thankfully, another friend who felt embarrassed for me grabbed me took me to my hostel to mitigate the embarrassment I already caused with my display. However despite I was well-drunk and puking, I remembered some of the things I was saying. In all of the mess, as I puked, I remember saying some things my dad advised me against. I remember asking my room-mate to play me some gospel tracks just to return some form of sobriety. I remember right there and then, asking for forgiveness from God.

Subsequently after all had cleared, I realized the things I said were the things I was full of but I was just trying to be like everyone else instead. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. It dawned on me that my parents and several other people that had a lot of influence on me had injected so much of these in me that even when I was drunk, those were the only things that could have come out of me. It is not that I no longer take alcohol ( I don’t think Alcohol is wrong though) neither is it that I don’t fall short here and there but I got over that incident and it was then I began to accept that what I was full of was what I really enjoyed as I got a little bit more serious with God with an understanding that it was only with him that I find full expression.