The boys from Naija/3

Professionally my uncle was doing relatively well and apart from his love of long words he was actually very rational in his conversations. And when he had told my dad that he could get me a scholarship to go to Russia, my dad was not in any way opposed to the idea. Obviously, for him that would be one less burden to bear since he would no longer have to be scratching his head to find the money for yet another fee or levy that the university authorities continued to impose on the students even though university education in Nigerian was supposedly free.

I was not that keen to go. When I dreamed of going abroad to study, I had dreamt of places in Canada and the USA and in England. In fact I had written to dozens of Universities in those countries and some of them had actually sent me there brochures. But I knew that my dreams would remain just dreams. You see my dad was not one of those who could afford to send me abroad not on the pittance he was paid as a Civil servant.

I had managed to get into a Nigerian University a year earlier to study Medicine. Fortunately we spent the greater part of the academic year at home because the military government was “forced“ to close down the universities. I say it was fortunate because my dad had a lot of the difficulties coming up with the money for the innumerable fees that we had been levied. To the point where there was no money to cater for things like feeding and books. But then my uncle had stepped in and helped out. And now here he was coming up with all this idea of going to Russia on scholarship. Okay I didn‘t have much of a choice…

The universities had been closed down following a nationwide students riot, which broke out several months earlier on the heels of the political killings of several students who had been on a peaceful protest at a University in the Northern Nigerian city of Zaria. The riots then spilled into other neighbouring universities until students all over the country eventually erupted in anger, staging demonstrations in all the Federal Universities. In some universities the students became very violent; as was the case in the University of Ibadan where they were said to have burnt down a police station. As a result of this chaos the then Military government subsequently closed down all the federal Universities indefinitely.

So while I was not too keen on going to Russia to study I could see some positive things in being able to escape from the problems that had now started to creep into the Nigerian University system…

The porter pushed the trolley along with me walking briskly behind him as we tried to make our way through the crowd milling around in the hall, which seemed so poorly lit that it crossed my mind that NEPA had struck at the airport. NEPA was the government parastatal charged with provided light to the country and the acronym stood for “Nigerian Electric Power Authority”, but due to their level of incompetence people would say that it stands for “Never Expect Power At all…”

“E be like say NEPA don take light again.“ The porter said, confirming my thoughts.
“So, even at the airport they take light?!” I asked surprised.
“Yes, but dem go bring am back quick”. He said and as if that had been the cue, the lights came back on. “Commot for road!” The porter shouted at a group of people blocking our way, asking them to get out of his way.

A passengers trolley had tipped over after having crashed into another one; apparently both trolleys had so much luggage piled on to them that the porters pushing them had not been able to see where they were going;
“I beg make una commot for road. Yeye people!” My porter said again, this time adding some insult to the request by using the adjective “Yeye” , which means “silly” or, if you prefer, “idiotic.”

We negotiated our way pass the people who, though had piled back their luggage on to the trolleys, were now shouting at each other over who was to blame for the incident.
As some soldiers, flanking a rather short stoutly built man in white flowing Agbada, approached from the opposite direction the arguing crowd grew silent…

Though the dictatorial government of Mohammadu Buhari, which had been famed for the “War Against Indiscipline” mantra had been overthrown barely a year earlier in a palace coup by the smiling gapped toothed General Babangida, a lot of people still were very frightened of soldiers; In the Buhari days anybody seen to be behaving in an undisciplined way in public would be humiliated with some sharp whips of the koboko’s; a very strong long whip that is made of animal skin and which was used often by the soldiers to discipline the “bloody civilians“.

These soldiers paid no attention to the now dispersing crowd as they walked by trying to keep up pace with the man in Agbada who, from the pace of his power strides, must have been in a lot of hurry .
As we approached the end of the hall, where the Aeroflot counter was located, a little girl straddled on the back of her mother with a wrapper was crying rather loudly. Her mother seemed to be searching frantically for someone as she looked from one side of the hall to the other and was calling out a name; “Olu!…Olu!…”

I was wondering whether Olu was her husband or son as we finally located the Aeroflot counter. The crowd that stood in front of the Aeroflot counter was not as large as the ones I had seen checking in to other airlines; they were a handful of Caucasian men, some people who looked like North Africans and mostly young Nigerian men and women who were probably students like me.
“Oga, make you find me sometin’ now”. the porter declared, asking me to give him a tip for his efforts after he stopped near a queue that was forming in front of the counter and started to offload my luggage. I reached into my pocket and gave him some of the coins I still had left on me.
“But Oga, as you no go use your money for where you dey go now, you for give me the Naira wey remain for your pocket now!” he said, obviously not impressed by the amount I had given him. He was now requesting that I give him the rest of the money I still had on me since I wasn’t going to use them again.
“I’m not going forever you know!…and besides I don’t have any more money on me”
“Anyway, thank you sha, and safe journey” he said.