FRESHERS TRAVAILS Chapter 2 (JJC on Great IFE Soil)

On campus after dropping at the bus stop due to the recalcitrant act of the Town gboro driver. I looked left and right lost in a school almost with a land mass of a country. Great ife is a state within a State, arguably a better State in Nigeria than Lagos state in my dreams. The walls of great Ife stand tall like the walls of Babylon accommodating various intellectuals.

At the bus stop looking more like an Aiyetoro boy who just came to Lagos for the first time and seeing an  Oshodi like crowd on campus, I was bit bewildered but had to get to my hall of residence as I was very tired. I looked inside my bag to confirm the name of the Hostel to Avoid a "JJC" situation amongst colleagues. Mounting shoulders high like I have arrived like Jenifa, I walked up to a student inquiring for directions to the Hostel. Behold he was also a fresher but a fresher with bush under his Chin; I was like Egbon thank You.

In OAU, it might be quite difficult to differentiate a fresher from a stalite because the snail like academic calendar has made Young boys to grow old and small girls to look marriage ripe. Though Great ife is worth the 40days and 40nights like Isreali sojourn in the wilderness because Great ife isn’t just the most beautiful in Africa but the most outstanding in terms of “pali” saluatation. I have heard numerous stories about how advantageous it is to possess a Great ife certificate. Laugh, if you no go OAU na lesson you go!

In a bid to locate my hostel and settle down since I wasn’t so lucky to have a father that benefitted from the generosity of Dasuki…I stared a bit at the array of cars that passed with Children wearing enthusiastic smiles, I decided to show off a little by calling a bike (I mean Okada) rather than trekking to the hall with my box. “Okada…Angola Hall” and he told me 500 naira. Chai! My heart skipped but I was determined to form big boy because Pride was in me like Peak Milk.

I was brutally “maga-ed” as the bike man merry-go-rounded the campus passing through academics, first bank before heading for Angola. Chisos, Angola now looked like the Journey to Sambisa forest in search of Chibok girls of Mozambique Hall at Anglomoz Carpark. I paid the price for show off and today am still looking for the bike man that “maga-ed” me on Great Ife soil.

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FRESHERS TRAVAILS -Chapter 1 (The Journey to Great IFE)

By Damilola Towobola (Toblan SPICE)

The news of my admission to Obafemi Awolowo University was greeted with a skelewu dance step as I gave my testimony in church. I was just handling the microphone for the first time so I fidgeted like the Students’ Union which has power administrators like PHCN in its kitty. The union was a toy in their hands.

Journeying down to ife was a bit nervous as I was leaving home for a place I don’t know people; a new world entirely and completely new faces. The bus boarded was synonymous to the Buhari Train of Change but it reached its destination; hopefully Nigeria also will reach Canaan land with its snail like economy.

Balls of sweat covered my face coupled with the heat as a result of the overcrowded bus with various perfumes, names which I cannot fathom. I compensated myself with the sign post of over-speeding can lead to death and hung on to fate. Fast asleep in a bus that seems like a journey to Kano, the scream of Campus woke me from my Jonah like gesture.

Highlighting from the bus was a great joy in my heart but my bit skipped for a seconds and my bones cracked like Pako biscuit of those days; Great ife was typically beautiful and comparable with Harvard university. No wonder it is said to be Africa’s most beautiful campus though am tempted to say it is most beautiful campus in the world because I have not travelled off my small community of Dalemo before. My education was a chain-like structure with me attending Kogboregbe Primary School and Kogboregbe Secondary, I was the best student in the school no doubt and I have made it to Ife to study so we are on the same pedestrian.

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I boarded the bread like bus called "town igboro" which refused to take us down to the hall as his business was moving so fast like Seun Risky’s Toast.