Kola and the Bee
A friend of mine who works as an editor for YNaija, a popular youth-oriented blog in Nigeria, recently published a list of the shapers of the next decade in the country and it reminded me of myself a decade ago and how an event put me in such category, albeit in a microcosmic setting.
I attended Obafemi Awolowo University, for all my university education so far, and the first time I got in was greeted by much fanfare. Freshers, as newly admitted students were popularly referred to then, were given elaborate enlightenment on joining OAU community. Then, there was an enviable Students’ Union Government (SUG) unlike the rather pathetic mess that the students’ union and welfare have descended into in recent times. Paul Alaje was the SUG president then and Zaynab Zee (I can’t recall her full name) was his vice.
The campus bubbled and teemed with fresh students. I met some familiar faces and we were happy to reconnect with one another, especially at such prestigious institution. Anglo-Moz, the parking lot between Angola and Mozambique halls of residence which were dedicated to freshers, became a party ground as we got ourselves acquainted with what was a new environment for majority of us. As is typical for anyone coming from a Nigerian family, virtually all of us newbies would have been given loads of advice as well as exhortation by parents and guardians alike and it was not surprising that we were raring to go, to prove ourselves on such grand stage – the most hyped but nonetheless the best learning platform in Nigeria.
We had to go through the rigour of registration as well as freshers’ familiarisation with the glorified school system. As these were ongoing, the SUG decided to organise a spelling competition for us freshers, and in a way, it might reveal the brightest ones who would take the campus by storm academically – the next shapers.
I didn’t know on time about the spelling bee for freshers nor how to obtain the form. In fact, I was the last participant to register as I raced to the office of the SUG vice-president, Zaynab Zee, that fateful night to get the form. The neat arrangement of the forms, filled and unfilled, suggested to me that they were not expecting anyone else to show interest as that night was the deadline advertised in the fliers.
Few days after, about 24 of us gathered at Anglo-Moz for the spelling bee with hundreds of spectators encircling us to witness perhaps the next set of history makers. My tag was 24 as we sat by order of form acquisition. Many brought dictionaries and Encyclopedia-looking lexicons and the manner in which they spelt and pronounced while practising was outright intimidating. At some point, as the programme organisers were setting up the arena, I thought of going back to my room. I seemed no match for the Goliaths that surrounded my David.
The contest commenced and after the first round, I could only spell correctly one out of three words. I said to myself, “you should have gone; you just want to waste your time here, perhaps disgrace yourself as my roommates, among whom I was the only one in English department, were keenly watching. The programme anchor announced that all those who scored one should step back. However, the contestants left were few and it seemed unwise to them if the much publicised programme ended after just two rounds. We were retained and I stayed.
From that moment on, I simply crushed every word, from ‘dereliction’ to ‘kryptonite’ and many more. It seemed as if I had been consulted before the spectacle. It was spectacular. While my earlier phonetic oppressors and spellers of high-sounding bombastic words were dropping, I was simply cruising. I had won before the runners-up emerged – such was the gap. Two ladies eventually emerged second and third – Olamide Ogunfeitimi and Taiwo Salami, but they were non-English students.
The throng of campus reporters, jubilant roommates and stampede of students that crowded me were indescribable. I was carried and was literally on top of the world. I was the Akeelah of the moment, only that I didn’t tap my thigh for inspiration. The following couple of weeks were surreal. Everywhere I went, it was “Oh! You are the spelling bee guy. Pleased to meet you.” It got to a point I wondered if that was what celebrities faced on a daily basis.
The prize? No, not money, it was a DVD player.
Today, I check spellings amongst other content responsibilities for a frontline national daily in the country.
Happy Birthday Kola! Keep moving…
