They were two of a kind, as far as other students were concerned. It was not a new deduction. It had been with them right from their first year at Abeokuta Grammar School. This deduction did not take into consideration their physical appearance. Segun was bean-stalk tall while Gboyega was small, with well-rounded buttocks. Yet they were seen as two of a kind. No doubt, this was premised on their shared love for reading, movies (then popularly referred to as films) and spinning yarns! The last definitely was a product of the first two, which they both had in abundance. Strangely, they do not rival or compete. They give time to each other! Enjoyed each other’s session and on many occasions present joint performance to the delight of their schoolmates. School mates, yes, because they do not segregate who they entertain, juniors, seniors or classmates. Segun and Gboyega were Day students. But you find it hard to really notice.
They were always in school from dawn to dusk for extra curriculum activities. Be it sports or literary and debating activities, they had noticeable presence. Noticeable, despite lacking sporting abilities because they had made sure they knew “from a little to everything” about the popular sports in schools then. Mention it and they gave the history and its famous stars. Soccer originated in the ancient Chinese Dynasties, was modernized into an organized game in the United Kingdom. It’s famous stars include the Brazilian teenage World Cup wonder, PELE, Eusebio from Portugal, Frenec Puskas; star goal keepers included Lev Yashin of Russia (as they continued to refer to USSR in the late sixties and early seventies) and Gordon Banks of England. They will do the same for Table Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Hockey, Netball, Baseball, Athletics and even Lacrosse! The information they gave was always more than the school Sports Coach, Mr. Eboda had taught them in theories of sports! People and Places was their forte! And the richly stocked Library of Abeokuta Grammar School in the “New” science complex was their resource centre. It was little wonder that Segun and Gboyega were most intrigued and excited when rumours had it that the school was planning an excursion to Kainji Electricity Power Generating Plant in New Bussa, Northern Nigeria in the coming year, 1971. Their immediate concern was whether they would be lucky to qualify for the trip i.e. if it was going to be an open one and not restricted to science students (being Electricity generation) only. They were not really concerned about restriction to senior classes as they were in form four.
They were seniors in their own rights and by the third term that year, some of them will be appointed Acting Prefects alongside HSC I students, to run the school while the final year students will be taking their examinations. So, whether open or restricted, they and their classmates will qualify for the excursion trip. However, the latter was the case. The trip was restricted to students from form three upwards and it was not restricted to science Prince Adegboyega Toyin Gbadebo2 “The whole bus was first aghast, then, they scrambled to hug him Segun who was suddenly a “star” for daring a greater “dare” than those who walked the Niger bridge!” 24 students. The sound reasoning of the school authorities was that “although the Kainji Dam Electricity Power Generating Plant was all about Science and Engineering, its impact on the society was of tremendous value to development and progress, the management of which rests on squarely on the shoulders of the social scholars”. The day of the trip finally came and take-off point was the old site main gate at Isale-Igbein. Take-off time was at dawn which only presented challenge for Day students coming for different parts of the town. The parents were up to the task. Many of them ensured their wards slept in the homes of relatives not far from the old site, while others contracted taxi-owner friends to convey theirs wards to the school in time for the trip. In the grey dawn of the morning, the students took their appointed seats with their travelling bags (all sorts, cloth, leather and portmanteau) under their seats. Baba Iyabo, the trusted and tested school Head driver, was ready. So one of the accompanying teachers said the prayers. At this point one of the students raised his voice seeking attention of the teacher. It was Gboyega and he reported that he has not seen Segun, his friend who was to sit beside him! The teacher was blunt as he was stern-faced. “We are not waiting for any student that is not here by now (15 minutes after expected take-off time). Such as student is deemed no longer interested in the trip and his or her money is forfeited”. And with that, Baba Iyabo hit the road with a long blast of the horns. The journey to New Bussa has started with buzz of excitement pervading the bus; everybody talking at the same time. Gboyega, feeling the absence of his buddy, Segun, was a little bit uncomfortable wondering what could have gone wrong. Finding no plausible answer in his ruminations, he remembered the teachings at church and asked God to guide Segun wherever he might be! Raising his bowed head after the prayer a little later, he noticed that the bus was no longer buzzing with chatter but was in a smooth slumber that sways to the weaving of the bus as it ploughs the early dawn towards Ibadan the first stop for mineral water and refreshments.
The tour left Ibadan just a few minutes before 8:00am and travelled through familiar sights of schools, villages and farmlands up to Oyo town. That was about 10:00am, and the students had proper breakfast of “Amala Isu” (to Egba people who have the cassava flour amala known as Lafun) and goat meat and choice mineral water such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola, Miranda, Fanta and Seven-Up were called in those days. They were done in about fifty minutes and boarded the bus continuing still in the morning sun, towards Ogbomosho and Ilorin. And right before their eyes the scenery started changing just like Mr. Olanipekun, the Senior Geography teacher had taught. The rainforest started giving way to Sahel Savannah as they left Oyo. There were large expanses of grass plains with trees dotting them! The architecture was also changing, thatched-roof huts were gradually being replaced by funny looking bungalows with crooked wooden pillars in front and surprisingly, they were covered with Aluminum Roofing sheets. The farm products, visible on the roadside, had also changed from yam tubers, cassava, citrus and others fruits to mainly tobacco leaves, hung out to dry! There was also a noticeable absence of people except in villages markets by the roadside.
This was the scenery up until we reached Ilorin where they stopped again to ease themselves and have refreshments. It was time to leave Ilorin at 1:15pm and the trip continued towards Jebba. The famous town of Jebba, where Scottish Explorer, Mungo Park breathed his last, after supposedly discovering the source of River Niger. The tour group were going to have their Did You know? …that the Guinness World Records for the family with the highest number of Chartered Accountants is held by Senator David Dafinone, DA and his family? 25 proper lunch there and talks and yarns centered around types of fishes and their sizes. But nothing prepared the uninitiated from the shock of Jebba. By the time they arrived landed Jebba, it was as hot as the afternoon could be and the heat seared all the way through their tennis to soles of their feet But the mighty fishes on display and expanse of River Niger was unbelievable. A fish said to be tilapia, was as huge as a normal size kitchen refrigerator! As a matter of fact it’s head was being hacked off with an axe instead of cutlass. It was as big as that. After much wandering about the market, the teachers chose a food shop retailing, Eba, Fufu, Amala, Rice and Beans, for the student’s lunch. The students were getting exhausted.
Their excitement waning with many of them wishing something can just drop them at New Bussa. Then came more demoralizing news. The bridge was being closed for the next hour because a train needed to pass. This meant they were going to be in Jebba for another two hours which it will take to empty the gathering pools of vehicles on both sides of the bridge while the train is doing its thing. More wanderings and more boredom. They had waited about thirty to forty minutes when somebody brought the idea of walking across the bridge to the other side. At least they thought they can explore the Northern side of Jebba with ease. What this group of daring students did not plan for was the length of that bridge at Jebba – just a little over half a kilometer! They were on the bridge in an instant and started walking. Then the walk turned into a trek! Then the long expected train mounted the bridge from the receding end with a tumultuous roar like they had never heard before. The whole length of the bridge was shaking as if was going to collapse. The daring students were frozen solid! And they never knew for how long they remained like that. They later reported running without stopping until they reached the river banks in neardeath exhaustion. Close to an hour and a half later, the tour resumed with a departure for New Bussa at about size o’clock in the evening. It was then someone noticed the extremely tall anthills lining the roadside.
This was a new one. Anthills down South, rarely rise beyond an adults waist. But here they were at the heights of storey buildings. The students resorted to counting as many anthills they could as the journey progressed and were so engrossed they never knew when they entered Kainji Dam. They were still on the bus when they noticed, a student in white trousers and Abeokuta Grammar School’s blue-stripped yellow school shirt. It was Segun, the student who missed the take-off that morning at Abeokuta. Determined not to miss this trip, he had embarked on the journey to New Bussa, alone, by pubic transport. What a dare! The whole bus was first aghast, then, they scrambled to hug him Segun who was suddenly a “star” for daring a greater “dare” than those who walked the Niger bridge! And he reached destination well before the school trip. He said he travelled by public transport from Abeokuta to Gate in Ibadan where he joined another commercial vehicle to Jebba and from Jebba to New Bussa. He was not sure the money he was holding would take him to destination, but his school uniform paved way for him as the transporters accepted less than the prescribed rate for different parts of the journey. And that was how Segun’s dare outstripped the dare of crossing the Niger bridge alongside a roaring train. So, the students surmised that when one has not yet visited “someone else father’s farm one would think his father’s farm is the biggest.” N.B.: Segun is now Segun Obadimu D.A., Retired Principal, Senior School of Abeokuta Grammar School. Gboyega is now Prince Adegboyega Toyin Gbadebo, D.A. retired Deputy General Manager, OGBC, Abeokuta.
