Please can we get settled down while I tell you one of the stories of my life? YES my own life!!!

I had and still have this friend Gbenga Jolayemi who had ‘upgraded or rather was upgrading’ me. He was the first person to tell me about Emails and Arsenal in 2000. He had just spent a term in secondary school when he started giving me gist about life in secondary school. The only problem with this is, G-benga did not know that was my first time hearing about Emails and Arsenal (I felt I had to play along to be seen as a big boy).

Let’s move quickly to 2008 when Gbenga gained admission into the greatest citadel of learning (OAU). After spending his first semester, he filled my ears with lots of gist about the school; her beauty, Aluta, Angola hall (his hostel) and how secondary school could not be compared to the university. According to him, ss3 to part 1(100 Level) was like promoting a primary 3/4 pupil to ss1 (lol) he did not forget to show me the slippers (palm) he bought from Aluta market (he had a thing for the little details).

Now shall we fast forward to a few months later? August 2008 to be precise (so get on the bus!) I attended a youth programme at Emmanuel Baptist Church Ilorin and as part of the procedure, we were required to register our names, level of education and institution. scanning through the sheet quickly, i realised everybody but me was an undergraduate most being students of Unilorin. So i decided not to be left out (i could not carry last abeg) I sharply filled in my name, stated I was an undergraduate of OAU (afterall Jamb and post UME results were out so i was going to end up there anywaiz). ‘it wasn’t all a lie’ I said to myself. Just as I was about to get a seat for myself, someone approached me and greeted me the ‘great ife way’ unfortunately, it wasn’t just anybody. it was one of the youth ‘leaders’ from 1st Baptist Church (see gobe!). He did not just greet me and move on (extra gobe!) he decided to know more. He asked for my department, level and hostel. Still feeling like a sharp guy (‘kunle,you got this!’ i said to myself) i told him the course I filled in Jamb as my department and South Africa as my hall of residence. South Africa?!?? I said yes (boldly). The only fucked up thing with this story is OAU only had and still have 4 undergraduate male hostels; Angola, ETF, Fajuyi and Awolowo halls (Self help? yimu). Thanksfully the man left probably because he felt pity for me but don’t entirely blame me. Angola had denied us the 2006 World Cup ticket so I hated the country so much that i did not want to associate myself with her. so I thought if OAU had Angola as an hostel maybe they had other countries as hostels. Thinking of it now, I honestly wish this man did not greet me at all!

Am sorry i know we have been into a lot of time travelling rides but can I take you back to how feeling like a ‘sharp guy’ started? ok, lets go back to December 97/8. within that time frame I was a pupil of P.N.P.S O/A.  In a ‘group discussion’ with friends/classsmates. Those days it was a common thing to have pupils form groups at different location after exams (playing all day of course).  One of those locations was my desk. Our themes ranged from; Music { Shina Peters, KSA, MJ etc}, Money {to us Abiola, Tejumola,Nziegwu ‘King of Money’ were the richest people on earth} and Football {Kanu, Okocha,Oliseh, Yekini}…

It was a monday i remember. still debating on what type of discussion we would have a girl from B class rushed into the conversation saying ‘I Drink Coke, Maltina and Many Rice Yesterday. Trying to understand what just happened everyone’s attention focused on her but surprisingly she looked set to take the shine this fateful day. it was her DAD’s 40th birthday that weekend and she couldn’t help but tell us how much she enjoyed herself. ’40 sounded too young to be somebody’s daddy’s age’ I thought within but i decided to keep quiet and observe (not ready to lose my shine of course). A boy sitting next to me quickly added that his mom was 40 last year December and of course ‘all daddies are older than mummies’. That little piece of information brushed off her ego. From nowhere my voice sounded louder than it was in my head. so loud i could hear it spread across the class. I heard myself saying MY DADDY IS 70 YEARS OLD! i had no idea how old my DAD was but i felt he was older than most DADdies because many people including some peoples’ DADdies and mummies would come to the house/office asking if Baba/DADDY was around so i thought 70 was quite appropriate. My friends did not even doubt me because I was known to be the judge of most cases.

For the last time let’s fast forward to today 13th August 2016 which is my DADdy’s 70th birthday. I stopped feeling like a sharp guy a long time ago!.

Happy birthday  Otunba J.F Ogunrinde a.k.a my DADdy. May this birthday mark the beginning of bountiful harvest from your past labour.