no bell was to ring…hardly did we know…
…my dear Shutians,when i left UI bookshop i was not happy…not because of the students who bumped into me but because my travel budget did not accommodate my usual propensity for buying books…as i moved from one shelf to another i wanted to let go but partnerships do have their limitations…so i decided to let go on my next trip for which i will duly prepare as i used to for Glendora Bookshop and Jazz Hole…both on awolowo road,ikoyi…and for those interested there is another bookshop at apapa club from where i have bought books…very excellent books…since the 80’s… unilag bookshop and abiola bookshop were also agood spots for me…this is not to forget odusote bookshop down herbert macaulay…if anyone knows of new ones please let me know to pay a visit…thank u…
…so i left the bookshop for the offices of the two professors i came to see…when i saw the dept for theatre arts i marveled…in my days what was theatre arts?…but today it seems many students see it as la creme…even the university has made sure that the department is no longer the joke it used to be…new building with a theatre and everybody looking so busy and businesslike…so i approached a group of students…obviously discussing a character in a play…asking for direction to the offices of the professors…at this time it was almost closing time so i was directed to the staff club for one of them while a lady i met in the dept volunteered to take me to the home of the second one after meeting the first at the staff club…i noticed that the fact that i wanted scripting for a story already written was very helpful but i did not know that there was more to it…in any case, to the staff club i went!…
…getting to the premises of the staff club u notice some parts of it are modern while other parts look
aged needing some care…even inside the main building u’ll notice facilities that have seen better days that might need some money for renovations here and there…in my mind the reason why i did not stay back to lecture in a university sprang back to mind…on entering the main sitting section i saw 5 men huddled together chatting and i did not need anyone to tell me that they were professors!…then from no where a lady appeared to offer me a seat and to ask me what i wanted…when i mentioned the person i wanted she said he was not around but that his close friend was…and the friend turned out to be the second one i was to go to his house later!!!…but she told me to sit down close to where the professors were…waiting,so i ordered for a bottle of star from the bar…when it came it was so criminally cold and so efficiently dealt with as if i never took beer before…then the lady re-appeared first to offer me bread which was being baked by the U.I. Ventures…i bought two loaves…but again she came back…would i like to know the menu?…i said okay…so i eventually settled down for two wraps of amala,three pieces of goat meat served with okro mixed with ewedu!!!…when i finished,very contented with the battle, i asked for another bottle of star!!…i was getting starry-eyed while the man i was to meet was said to be upstairs at a meeting…when the person who served the food came with the bill i could not believe what i saw…N280!…i gave it back to her thinking and getting ready to pay N2800..but she said it was correct…so i brought out N500 and told her to keep the change…and that was when i got the next shock…she almost knelt to thank me!!!…there and then the difference between lagos and the hinterland became clear…what is a tip of N220 in lagos?…even if u give a beggar their thanks might be muffled…but i noticed it was the same when i got to ekiti…a tip of N400 being change from what i bought gave me mighty prayers and thanksgiving!!!…
…eventually the person i was waiting for came!!…and what a fantastic meeting it was…from there we called the other professor and it was like a tripartite meeting which ended with them telling me that it would take them nothing less than 6months to conclude…and that was okay by me…after all the story itself took me almost 8 yrs to write using at some point newspaper clips of almost 22 yrs ago!!!…if i tell u what/whom the story is about u will exclaim as the two professors did!!!…after the meeting i stayed around a bit listening to the professors discussing and two things caught my attention!…the first was that somebody broke into the car of one of them parked at the club and stole it with his laptop inside!…he did not mind the car being kept by the thief… but his laptop?…that was his life!…the second was that one of them just returned from delta state where he went for election into the federal house of representatives…he lost decidedly but was telling the other professors how he was rigged out!…sipping my beer where i was i kept thanking God that i took a firm decision not to come with my personal laptop…i could use those of other people anyway and my host had his own too…i then called the lady to ask her whether the professor borrowed money for the elections…she laughed and asked me whether i knew many of those professors were now on salaries close to N1m a month…she said it was not going to be difficult for them to raise N5m now without any form of security other than a guaranty signed by their place of work…that is the university!!!…i nodded understanding her every word meaning that everything good have finally come to our professors(extracted from sefi atta’s novel EVERYTHING GOOD WILL COME)…good for them o…and hopefully for their students too!
…i paid for the beer and bread…then i bade the professors goodbye more for the unintended entertainment i had than anything else!!!…i then called my cousin…also professor at NISER…he told me he was already waiting for me at home…
…the following day i paid a short visit to the government secretariat very early in the morning and afterwards got on my way to ado-ekiti through ife,to ilesha and akure…but on my way to ife a policeman got in front of the car and threatened to blow my head off if i moved…this will come up another day…
POSTED BY NAIJANINJA ON 23/5/2011
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