Must Read: Ade

Episode 7 years ago

Must Read: Ade

Sleep overcame me due to weariness from
the activities of the last seventeen hours or
so. My alarm never woke me up much to
Rotimi’s relief. He never set alarms, I was
his alarm. Hence we both slept like wood
logs till a knock woke us around six thirty
five. It was Shola. She came in with
breakfast and told us that Dr. Tanimowo
was ready to hit the streets. It came as a
surprise to us because I wondered if he
slept at all. We rushed the breakfast of toast
and tea and rushed to get set for school.



At 7:05 a.m, we stepped out of the house
after convincing Dr to leave his brother’s
car at home. We trekked and chatted all the
way to school asking if he slept at all. Shola
said that she too had wondered because
she had thought that we would all get to
school late but she was surprised when Dr
knocked on her door at six already dressed
and asking for a spare toothbrush. We all
laughed but he said it wasn’t his fault
because life as an academic usually robbed
him of sleep once in a while till he got used
to it. All our conversation that morning was
in pidgin.



We got to school and headed for his office
but it was from the gate that we noticed
lots of cars parked. Parents were around.



The principal came in some minutes after
us and told the Dr that parents had come to
see him and thank him for the
spontaneous changes noticed in their
wards under twenty four hours. He told the
principal to gather them all in the school
hall for a brief session before the assembly.



The brief session lasted an hour and all the
parents who were there never remained
the same. They all got imparted one way or
the other.



After they left, Dr. Tanimowo attended to
the students I sent home the previous day
before attending to any other person. His
rule was ‘first come first served.’


He then requested the presence of the
remaining of Shola’s casualties. Folake and
Ronke, then Kunle, Remi, and Dolapo.


He spent an hour each with them and at the
end of the sessions like those before them,
their eyes and faces told the tale of what
went on in the office.


He attended to other students who kept
trooping in in their multitudes. I still think
till date that the advice and attention he
gave them that day made the students
come as they did. He was nothing but a
father and a mentor.


He ended the day that friday around eight
p.m. The school generator had to be put on
because some students had left earlier to
call their parents at his request. Also, he
had told all Shola’s victims to stay behind till
he finished. What he wanted to do he never
told us till everyone had left and it remained
them (Shola’s victims) and Rotimi and I.


There in front of his office, he told Shola to
apologise to them one after the other.


Tears flowed again ceaselessly from each of
them as they all forgave her and themselves
for the kind of life they had lived prior to
that day. Rotimi and I looked at ourselves
and gave ourselves a ‘hi five’ because right
before us was our solved problems. We
were gay and ecstatic; happy was not the
right word for what we felt that night.



After the tears session, they all left and we
once again headed home after the principal
had profusely thanked Dr. Tanimowo and
offered him a cheque of fifty thousand
naira which he vehemently refused. He had
said that the principal should use the
money to set up a counselling clinic as he
had described in the manual he left with
him (the principal). He said also that we,
Rotimi and I, are his boys and we are not
rich enough to pay for his services, so
taking the money, to him, is like collecting
money from his poor students. He,
however, told the principal to feel free to
call on him for consultancy services and
training for the counsellor who the school
will employ and he jokingly added that by
then, he would ‘charge’ the school for the
service. He then rounded off by saying that
the standard he had set in the school,
should not allow to fall and any parent who
needed his help should be given his
number to call him anytime, anywhere.


With that we left the school and happily
went back to Shola’s house who stuck to
my side like a leech calling me her life’s
saviour.


She prepared a dinner of rice and stew-
which was very palatable, even better than
‘Dara’s cooking of same- with ice cold
bottles of J&W sparkling non-alcoholic
wine.


By ten p.m, we sent Dr to bed because he
has a nine o’clock flight to catch and has to
drop his brother’s car at home. After the
headlines, we all slept like babies till the
cockcrow woke us.



We left Shola’s house by 7:30a.m and
headed to Dr’s brother’s house. We
dropped the Camry and got a cab which
took us to the local wing of the MMA. After
he had checked in and his flight confirmed,
we all thanked him immensely and chatted
till his flight was announced and we waved
him goodbye with tears in our eyes
promising to call him in about two hours
when we were sure his plane would have
landed safely.


On the way home, Shola dialled a number..