Tag: love

Was SuperTed your Childhood Superhero? Na! It was IBB!

On By richardolatunjiLeave a comment

General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida popularly know as IBB was the Nigerian Military President between August 27th 1985 – August 26th 1993. Needless to say I was just 3yrs old when he took the reins of power through a bloodless military coup and I was 11yrs old when he Stepped Aside for an Interim Government. At this age, there shouldn’t be much of my business in who ran the affairs of the country but I was interested for reasons I do not know. I wasn’t interested in Super Ted, I was a bit interested in Voltron and yes I watched Soap Operas with my parents like Checkmate, Behind the Clouds etc but one of the few folks I had extreme admiration for was IBB. I wouldn’t say I know the reason why because I really didn’t know anything then but I admired him. Could it be his Charisma? Could it be his pretty wife – Maryam? I don’t know but something intrigued me about this General.

I wasn’t aware of how much admiration I had for him until Sunday April 22nd 1990. Then we were Muslims and there was never a sunday morning rush to go to church. We would wake up after a possibly late Saturday night movie with my parents and prepare to eat Yam & eggs and watch Telematch while our then Christian neighbours hurried to church. But on this Sunday morning, I woke up to one of our neighbours- Aunty Remi’s knock on our door with ecstatic noise to celebrate a military coup overthrowing IBB. There was a lot of disgust on my face as she broke the news and I watched my parents also celebrating. In my mind, these folks are celebrating the removal of my own Superhero from power. This is ridiculous. It took me a while to grasp their logic and in the process of wrapping my mind around the news, I bursted into tears.

My Parents were shocked. “Why are you crying?” I stuttered “I don’t want IBB to leave power”. I can’t recollect their response afterwards. It was later that day that another news broke that the attempted coup had been foiled. So tell me, who is laughing last? This incident made me realize how much admiration I have for IBB. I began to aspire to join the Nigerian Military (Wild Dream). As a result of the attempted coup by Major Gideon Orkar, IBB hastened the movement of the Nigeria Seat of Government to a more central location – Abuja. (This project was started by Gen Murtala Muhammad in the 70s). I remember the day the Capital was officially moved from Lagos to Abuja Thursday December 12, 1991, my dad, seeing how much admiration I have for IBB, had told me that morning that the political capital of the country was changing and there would be an Airforce display at a certain time and I could just look out for that in school. Unfortunately for me, Mr Danso Mensah was teaching in front of the class when the Airforce Display flew over my school. Needless to say, I couldn’t step out to watch, but I took note. I earned the Nickname “General” from one of my Uncles due to this unfounded admiration for IBB and till today, that is what he calls me.

Fastfoward to 1993, MKO won the presidential election and it was annulled. In all honesty, I wanted MKO to win. (Wait! Why was an Eleven year old boy interested in who ruled his country). Anyways, IBB annulled the election and there were protests and riots. My parents complained but this 11yrs old boy trusted that IBB annulled the election in good faith. Maybe this is what they mean when they say that when you love someone, you believe the best in them.

Amidst mounting pressure, IBB decided to Step Aside on August 26th 1993 bringing an end to his 8yrs rule which I believe recorded a lot of success howbeit, with a lot of controversies too. I remember watching NTA news that Monday with my parents. I saw him stood up from his seat and shook his head as he stepped aside. This 11yrs old boy’s heart was broken but I trusted that he had made a good choice to leave power amidst mounting pressure. Several years later, sometime in 1999, IBB attempted to run for the office of the President again and of course I was happy about it. By then I was a teenager getting ready to get into the University. My dad was opposed to IBB running for reasons best known to him. His preference was General Olusegun Obasanjo. In our regular argument on divergent opinions on polical matters, my dad instructed myself and my immediate older brother to do a write-up on IBB since we were both Pro-IBB. I think Bankole did his, I didn’t do mine. Anyways, IBB couldn’t get to run.

I eventually went to Obafemi Awolowo University to study History & International Relations and as a result spent some time visiting one of my Uncles in Ede who had been an ADC to IBB at a point in time. I spent time sitting with him to ask him about his experience with IBB. He would go on and on about his charisma. He would point me to the chair where IBB sat one of the few times IBB slept over in his house while he was having a function. According to my uncle, IBB was just damn good with people. Later in my Final year in OAU, I did a course on “Nigerian Foreign Policy under Military Rule” taught by Professor Fawole. This opened my eyes to a lot more about IBB from the viewpoint of a leader that made his landmark in International relations and also from the viewpoint of those who had spent time with him behind closed doors. Professor Fawole had spent time with IBB personally, so in his lectures, he would reference some of IBB’s experience during his last days in office and this endeared me to him the more. It appears that behind the Military General was a man that eventually realized he had pulled the strings of his intelligence too far during his last days in office and had to leave office with the stain of cancelling the most free and fair election in Nigeria’s history.

IBB has written his autobiography. Some have criticized it but I have enjoyed it. However, I am also coming to terms with the fact that some dreams will never come through and such was IBB’s dream of returning as a Civilian President and such is my dream of sitting next to him to glean from his experience but that I can find in his book. But this was one man that I admired so much as a kid and that stays the same.

Of School Mothers in COMLAG

On By richardolatunji1 Comment

Why am I awake at 12midnight thinking about my School Mothers in Secondary School? Well, the trigger is my school daughter turning 40. You mean I have a school daughter that is turning 40? Absolutely yes but not that I am that old. As I began to probe how Tope became my school daughter, I realised that beyond her sister and older brother being my friend and Tope being that cute litte teenager too, was my desire to give back some of the privileges I enjoyed as a Junior student from my school mothers.

It is not very usual for a guy to have a school mother not to talk of three school mothers. Of course I had very powerful School Fathers in the likes of Kazeem Agboola in JS 1 but in JS 3 as a thirteen years old boy, I felt I had outgrown that but some I founf myself having three influential school mothers. Oh my! I call them influential because in a school like ours, everyone was powerfull. Then being a prefect gives another layer to that power (Hopeful you have the charisma to sway the badge you wear). So I was in JS 3 and my older brother (Bankole) was the House Captain of Scorpion House and because we are guys, we weren’t the regular chummy chummy follow follow type of siblings. I had spent my first two years in that school without a lot of his female colleagues knowing he had a younger brother howbeit, in the boys hostel, it was obvious. Either through resemblance or me running to his hostel to hibernate from the fiery darts flying around the Boys Hostel.

Bankole’s prefectship exposed me to his female colleagues. The likes of Ronke Fernandez (Food Prefect), Funmi Awote (Catholic Prefect) and Goriola Dada (Muslim Prefect). If you went to my school, you will understand this was luxury and I didn’t hesitate luxiriating in the opulence that these people’s influence provided. While the three of them were exceptionally good to me, Goriola Dada was the one that mothered me the most. As a JS3 student, I stopped eating the regular food in the Dining Hall. As Prefects had their duties in dining hall, I had the privilege to enjoy the presence of three well respected Female Prefects. The days Goriola was not on duty, I had the attention of Ronke and when Ronke was not on duty, I had the attention of Funmi. Needless to say I was without anyone of them at any time. My School Mothers really shielded me but that had nothing to do with me.

On days I wanted to be humble and sit with my fellow masses (JS3 students) for dinner, Goriola would walk to my table and pull me out of a table of 10 to get a pot of food to myself. It was called the Prefect’s pot! Wow! I felt priviledged. She wasn’t just pulling me out of the table, she held me around the entire Space Ground while I had my colleagues quaking at the stiff supervision of the other prefects. Now for those that didn’t attend Command Lagos, Space Ground is a sacred place for the Powerful and Mighty. Just as Space in our Stratasphere is considered the gap between Heaven and Earth. Space in Command Lagos is the space between the Boys Hostel and the Girls Hostel. Remember I said it is the preserved of the Powerful & Mighty. Needless to say being a senior student doesn’t guarantee your presence there. You must have some clout. You must have some cariage or in my Gen Alpha son’s word, you must be sigma with infinite aura.

I would swagger around space with Goriola or Funmi or Ronke where some seniors didn’t have guts to go. Space was not just Space, guys met with their girlfriends there and if you move to close to the Female Hostel Gate, it is percieved you are trying to sneak into their hostel so Space was kind of out of bounds. So the idea of you being in Space increased your profile somewhat. The influence of School Mothers. Of course I was one heck of a cute clean teange boy (this I am 100% sure of) but I knew I was just enjoying the friendship they shared with my older brother and not exactly because of me so I knew I had to return this favour to someone else. Several times, I watched my colleagues fight over pots of food while I had my “Prefect Pot” waiting.

I need mention amongst my three school mothers, I felt most comfortable with Goriola because she is family and she lavished me with some big sister love that even as I write this, I feel incredibly indebted to her. Goriola was so posh that she wasn’t even drinking school water. They brought her water from home and it wasn’t just water. It was Ragolis Bottle Water in the 90s. You can imagine on several occassion when we had scarcity of water in School and I was going to walk back to my hostel with Ragolis Water. Thanks to my loving School Mother. The several N50 notes she would just slip into my pocket. I was shielded from what every other JS3 boy was going through that I had to sneak out of school a day after that 95set passed out (finished their WAEC) because I just didn’t think I could go back to my reality of being a regular student.

I became a Senior Student and out of the strong friendship I have with Okanlawon & Folake Ajayi, it made sense to have their lil sister as my School Daughter. I felt the need to shield someone else and this my forever school daughter was one of those. I am not sure I did as much as I got from my School Mothers for Tope as teh COMLAG terrain had changed in my time but I tried.