CHAPTER TWO

I PROGRESSED

W e really did not deliberate about our secondary school neither was there a rigorous search on it unlike my primary school; we automatically knew it would be the school where mum taught.

And so in 1996, I got admission into secondary school. I became the glorified ‘omo teacher’ (teacher’s child). In no time, my friends comprised fellow teachers’ kids. More often at break time, we would go to the house of some of them whose parents lived in the school staff quarters to learn and catch up on some students’ gist. We soon became the cynosure of all eyes. Everyone wanted to be addressed by a title to their names and would not stop wishing to enjoy some benefits we enjoyed. I was also exposed to several extra lessons with private tutors in almost all subjects. I remembered having different mathematics teachers.

Mum and I would leave for school daily so I was never late. There were days when mum would send me back when she saw how dirty my school uniform was; “you want to follow me to school this way, NO way! How do you except people to look at me?” She would query. I had no choice than to be of best behavior in school because of mum and others teachers who were ever ready to beat students to pulp should they misbehave. I remembered one of my fellow teacher’s kids who misbehaved one time, he was badly beaten, he was brought into the classroom and about five different teachers took rounds to beat him. That event made me more careful, as I was sure mum would never spare me if I committed such error.

I learnt entrepreneurship from mum; she always screamed “multiple stream of income,” to anyone who cared to listen. She went to school with just anything that could translate to money from her colleagues; from soap, to matches, cutleries, fabrics etc. As a result, we always had extra luggage to school daily, so dad dropped us off in school in the mornings and picked us at times in the evenings after my many lessons.

I had a friend who loved mathematics so much and enjoyed visiting the hospital and when asked her reason for having keen interest for both, she responded that she loved the hospital environment and the elegance with which doctors, especially female ones went about their duties. So, she made up her mind to become a doctor. We were six friends from junior secondary school and by the time we ascended the ladder to senior secondary school, choice of career had separated us.

I wanted to be a lawyer or a journalist so I knew science class was a no for me but my other friend, the one whose love for doctors was above board knew she wanted to be one and she opted for science class. Then, I would not know if some people still think like that these days, many regarded students who opted for art class as unserious and intellectually low people, so most teachers’ kids were not expected to be found there. Therefore, I opted for commercial class since I could choose from either geography or literature.

I started developing my likeness for fashion since my first year in secondary school. I would observe clothes and wonder how the many parts were fixed together to make full clothes. I would sketch styles and cut papers. Interestingly, dad in his early bachelor years was a tailor, he had a butterfly sewing machine which till date remains my favorite in my workshop. So, on free days (weekend), he would have me sit closely to watch him sew or amend clothes. I loved the art, I knew I could do it, and that prompted me to begin a search for where I could learn but discouragement like; “read your book, so that you could come out in flying colours and gain admission into a University.” impeded my desire to explore fashion designing then. So, instead of fashion, I started learning trade unconsciously from mum who now had a shop where she sold baby items and households gifts items and on free days, I learned fashion from dad. I remember the first lesson he taught me was how to make ‘Iro and Buba’(the popular top and wrapper worn by the Yorubas).Thirty years back, many never knew entrepreneurship was the future, though my mum had this inclination. It is however imperative that parents of today master how to be eagle eyed enough to see what is obtainable in the future beyond acquiring education.

Sometime in JSS 3, dad travelled out of town to work for two days, my mum had not mastered driving well, so we couldn’t go to school with the car. I was sluggish and didn’t get dressed for school in time, she hurried me up several times, still I was sluggish, then, she left me and gave me transport fare to join her in school later. We were on the assembly ground some hours later and she was the one addressing pupils at the time. Honestly, I couldn’t remember what I was talking about with another classmate on the assembly ground, all I knew was that we were both engrossed in talking that we didn’t know our voices had gone up, so much that it could be clearly heard on a silent assembly, then the girl said something funny which made me laugh out so much, the laughter caught everyone’s attention, particularly my mum who was addressing the assembly. I was summoned to come out to the podium, and then she called on another teacher to help beat me. This teacher beat me so much, but mum was not satisfied with the whip so she collected the cane and beat me seriously. I felt so bad and at the same time embarrassed that a whole teacher’s child like me could be beaten that much. That incident further shaped my composure and carefulness and that was the last time I did anything worthy of being beaten.

I love singing and I write songs too, in fact, I’m looking forward to the day I will sing commercially. Dad was also a great music lover. I was barely nine years old when I started leading praise and worship in our local assembly where dad was also a pastor.

By my third term in SS3, my parents agreed that I should go live in the school premises (in the staff quarters) with one of my mum’s colleague, so, I could concentrate squarely on preparing for the Senior School Certificate Exams. This development made me move from one teacher’s house to the other, attending lessons on different subjects.

At this time, my love for the media had grown even more and I had decided to be a TV presenter and not a lawyer anymore. This new decision was informed by the fear I developed when people told me that lawyers were easily killed in their pursuit of justice. I would mimic on air personalities and was often excited to tell my parents and all who cared to listen they would soon be watching me on TV and listening to me on radio. Dad, seeing my unwavering interest would take me on excursion to media houses to see what they looked like. Most times, we were only able to take a tour of the premises as we never got access into the media houses since we did not have contacts there.

As at that time, the popular belief was that Polytechnics were better with technical professions than universities, so we enquired around and found Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta to be the best school offering quality Mass Communication at the time. I sat for polytechnic Jamb examination, passed and got admission into the school.