Reflections Without Mirror
The Register
“And I saw the dead, small and great; and the books were opened: and another book was opened , which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. …….. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire’. Revelation 20 v 12-15
It was a Thursday afternoon, the Sun was at its peak, the classroom was unusually quiet, we were all on our seats in class 4c. From the open windows, we can see birds scavenging for foods in the football field outside. I can see that animals also toils to eat as well and the curse upon man affects the animals too. They, however, need not worry about education and problems associated with it. Their only problems are the predators in form of humans.
Mrs Osunleke was our class teacher and Kola Gbadamosi ( Baba Kolly) was* our Class Captain. Baba Kolly was a mature man even then and we were all pleased that he was our captain. He was saddled with the responsibility of keeping the class register, which he guarded jealously under his always padlocked locker. No one dared to approach his locker or even considered breaking into it. He commanded the respect of everyone. He was among the big boys in the school.
Principal Layode for whatever reasons was moving from class to class on that fateful day and came to our classroom with the School Register . Perhaps he had intelligence reports or an intuition that something was not just right, I couldn’t say. He was determined to fish out the weeds from the vine.
Our classroom was very close to his office upstairs. His movement always strikes terrors in our hearts , no one wants to get on the wrong side of the principal. He was feared by all students to the extent that even some hardened boys in the school vowed that their path would never cross his. They vowed that as ‘ *Day and Night cannot meet’* they cannot meet him face to face. Crossing his path may spell danger, so to avoid him is the beginning of wisdom. I have never seen a man who inspired fear like Baba Layode.
*Baba Layode* entered and took his seat in the front. Dread fell not only on the children of disobedience but even on the children of obedience too. We knew there would be problem that day.
He asked all those who recently joined the school to stand up. Some few guys stood up, amongst those who stood up was *Ola Olugbade ,* *Sikiru* and others that I cannot recollect their names. Baba asked Ola how and who brought him to the school , he mentioned *Mr Kayode ,* our Economics teacher , others mentioned names of other teachers. He checked his own register to verify and it matched his record but when it came to our friend, *Sikiru* , his name did not match the register of Baba Layode , in other words, his name was not in the register. Baba asked him , how did he join the school? Sikiru first looked at Baba Koli, he met with a stoned grim face and quickly changed his mind, his oracle did not speak well that day. He thereby mentioned ‘ *KING* ‘ King was the alias of *Ismaila* *Morakinyo* another student in Class 4D. The principal was gobsmacked, who is ‘ *King* ‘ in his school, who installed the king, he demanded that king should be brought to him for questioning and to hear his side of the story. When ‘King’ made his appearance in our class, the atmosphere was tense, it appeared King was in serious trouble that day. However, King’s face remained impassive, Baba Layode asked Sikiru to repeat his story , he pointed to ‘ *King* ‘ and identified him as the one that gave him admission.
*king* did not wait for *Sikiru* to finish his statement before giving him the hottest and dirty slap that I had ever seen in my life even in front of *Baba* *Layode* , it was a theateric and tactical move , a pretense of the highest order before Baba Layode to show that he, King was annoyed for the false allegation made against him and that made him to lose his cool. Sikiru did not attempt to reply because in a fair fight , King would kill him and so he behaved himself, kept quiet and King stayed his hand . *Sikiru* was thereby derobed immediately , our school uniform was taken off him leaving him with his short and was asked to vacate the school premises with immediate effect.
‘ *King* ‘ returned to his class triumphantly . It was a resounding victory for him. He had overcome the greatest threat of his life. No further action was taken against him. Not only that , he secured his position amongst the toughest guy in the school, he had the audacity to slap someone in front of the most feared man in the school, Baba Layode himself . He made his bone that day and he was one of the 18 wise men that baba Layode later picked to protect the school
In parenthesis, *Sikiru* had approached ‘ *King* ‘ on how he can gain admission to the school , King conferred with his good friend, Baba Koli, our class captain. They named their price to Sikiru and after some bargaining, they struck a deal, he made the payment , ( I know not how much) Baba Koli was in charge of our register, he included his name in the register but he cannot infiltrate the superior register with Baba Layode. So Sikiru procured uniform and joined us in Class 4 c. We did not question him on anything , it was not for us to ask how he joined the school. Sikiru had the desire to have education but lacked the opportunity and the connection to do so, hence his crude style of gaining admission.
From that day, Sikiru was unable to proceed with his education and later became a bus driver as I met him later in life. At the time I met him, he was driving Urvan passenger Bus from Ibadan to lagos. I boarded his Bus from Ibadan to Lagos. He was a good driver to be honest. I always ponder, may be his life would have been different if he was not discovered and finished the school with us, if he was not sent out that day and if we could have pleaded with Baba Layode to allow him to stay; if we had tried to help him or take his case to some caring teachers ; certainly it was his thirst for education that drove him to do what he did as he lacked powerful connection to do proper enrolment , perhaps his life may have been different . ‘If,’ there are so many ‘If’s in this world.
” *King* ‘ later migrated to Idi Ito High school having failed his promotional exam to class 5. Those were the days when *Dele Tanimomo* lived in campus with Baba Layode as a boarding student . He had access to Baba Layode office and for a small fees, he can provide you with a good report sheet to be taken to the less city like *Igbo Elerin, Iroko , Lalupon or Idi Ito high school for* admission. There were no mobile phones in those days to confirm anything. Only God knows how many people have done what Mmesoma of Anambra did in those days when there was no way to check and got away with it. It was the social media that exposed her since she was so confident of what she did and started parading herself around as the best student with the highest score in Jamb. Imagine 40 years ago when there was no social media, and all you need is just to produce your results. Mmesoma succeded in manipulating her results but was unable to manipulate the Jamb register itself as uploaded in their portals. She was disgraced and hummliated. Yoruba will say ‘ (Puro ki n niyi ete ni mu wa’.) To lie in order to gain honour would eventually make one dishonourable.
King made the payment to Dele and collected a good report sheet, which enabled him to gain admission to Idi Ito Erunmu High School* and started in class 4 again. It would have been a shame for him to have repeated class 4 in Oke badan. My immediate senior brother attended Idi Ito and was King’s senior , they all had good time together as many days they all gathered to drink palm wine and devoured Bush meat after school instead of reading their books. King regaled them with Fuji music as he tried his hand in Fuji music then. He even dedicated a song to my senior brother. He told them he was from Oke badan High School. My brother informed me, and I testified that King was one of the big boys at Oke badan High School then. Perhaps his admission to Idi Ito did not also follow due process, but he was not discovered.
However, the most important thing from the above story is to ask a simple question. Is your name in the register? A day of reckoning is coming. To those who are doing good, keep on doing good, to the wicked , I entreat you to change your ways, to the thief, stop stealing and to all who engages in dark things, please change your ways…….
Behold, I am coming soon and my reward is with me to give everyone according to the work of his hands.
Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer, human rights activists and an Historian.
