THE DIARY GAME||ATTENDING INVITATION FOR MY SON'S SENTFORTH AT FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY OWERRI (FUTO)||
I was invited to the sentforth ceremony of my son .I have been to FUTO in the past and appreciate everything in the school but for the stretch of the road from Naze junction through Nekede down to the school.
When we eventually left home joined the car that took us to the park . The only bus we saw chich we joined was " full" The loader hurriedly callected our fare.To make chance for my wife to have comfortable seat one 'passenger' went out . The Agberu (an acronym for agbe eru) a Yoruba word for a loader were still shouting 'one more chance ' As new passenger arrive the 'originals' were coming down indicating they were not real travellers .At a time we lost patience , but what can we do since our tickets read no refund of money after payment.One passenger even left forfeiting his money .
Eventually the driver surfaced and the journey commenced half an hour after the event we were going to should comence . The journey to Osisioma was smooth until we were accosted by the horde of boys/men claiming to represent the Local Government. They stopped and in fact were dragging the steering wheel with our driver
.If curses were anything these men will all be dead by now .We hit the expressway after settling the group only meet the big boys.
When we got to the Old toll gate the bigger boys were there in their uniforms armed would stop us for their own , this time they have their civilian errand boys who do the dirty Job for them.These would clutch a poly bag with fried plantain or groundnut not worth two hundred naira masquerading their real job of roll collector for their oga . Woe betide any driver that refuses to pay this tithe.They will signal their Oga who would pack the driver and would discharge all the passengers so that the driver will pay one or two hundred naira instead of spending the next hour or two there.
One surprising thing is that all uniformed men in the full glare of everyone who stays about 2 metre apart must follow the same ritual of posting a crowny who collects for them and awaits his clearance before allowing one to pass.
And so a journey of 40 minutes will stretch to one and half hours.We dropped at Naze junction and boarded another bus that stopped us at Ihiagwa market.Finally,we joined motor bike for the last lap of the journey to the school.
We were 4 hours from the time on ur Invitation but 2 hours late from the time of commencement of the program.
Everything went well and our son along with 13 others were sent forth after 5 years of academic work and one year shared by strike/Corona virus lock down.It was a moment of bliss and immense happiness to click the bottles.
At the heat of the Event
During the Sentforth Ceremony
The journey back to Aba was smoother and freer,it left us tired but happy.