The Trip to Saki!
It was a cold Saturday morning in the Rock city, where I had passed the night, far away from Lagos. When I decided to embark on a road trip with few of my friends to another friend’s wedding ceremony in far away Saki, Oyo state.
We planned for the wedding day like we were making less arrangements. I could have easily passed as the 'Groom's man', but I had to decline because I trust my tight schedule to take it toll on me. My friend since Junior Secondary school is about to wed, the first marriage of the clan (Great Men Squad, G.M.S). Nurudeen joined the Nigerian Air-Force to our surprises. He used to be the one with less vigour and zero tolerance to 'wahala'. Who would have thought he will be a soldier? He had always said he will be an Aeronautic Engineer or at worst Mechanical Engineer. To fulfill this dream of his, he joined the force as an Aerospace engineer, without informing the team. After months of going AWOL on us, he called to tell us he was in Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna, that he had put in to be a soldier and at the same time, study. It was sounding like a joke. Does he even look like he's a joke to us? He actually looked like a joke, not until we saw him in uniform. This is our third classmate and second clan member to join the military.
Like his involvement with the military sounded like a joke, the news of his wedding ceremony sounded like one, too. For the first time in my life, I'll be going to Saki, one of the popular places in South-West Nigeria that I've not been to. We all believed within 3-4 hours we should be in Saki. But we decided we leave Lagos for Abeokuta on Friday, so we leave for Saki on Saturday morning.
We embarked on the journey to Saki, but met what we didn't bargained for. We spent six-hours on the road, I never expected it. Along the road, Abeokuta-Iseyin road, to be precise, there were many check-points, that I can't even remember their numbers, but one of the check-points stands out and one that I'll not forget in a while.
For the very first time in my life, I had my fair share of Nigerian youths menace, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (S.A.R.S). I have always read about experiences, so I always believed I had it in me, to deal with the situation when faced with one. We were the three youngest guys in the car, without any further observations, one of the officers shouted at Ifeanyi, " come down!" As he was about getting down, another said, "Drop this two boys". And we were lead to the back of their van, their usual way. And he started asking for our I.D card, who we are, what we do and finally, our phones. After observing Ifeanyi, he let him be. I was just standing there, trying to build confidence, I am one that grows into confidence, so, I was already praying my way to it and try as much as possible not to look afraid, but bold as a lion, lol! He turned to Afeez, my other friend, and he asked for his phone, thoroughly searching his phone for close to fifteen minutes. We were going with a female friend, Peace. She could not take the wait anymore, so she came to meet us, probably to plead.
What was she thinking? To bail us with her 'female power'? I smiled within me. The officer said, " Yes, I call you? I'll call you later, go and wait for them" I couldn't help but let out a fake laugh, because I was getting angry for the time wasting. Peace left angrily, which made the phone search more intense. Then I got the shocker of my life, when he asked Afeez to put forward his palms. I even thought he was talking about his slippers, he meant his HAND! his damn Hand! Then he place his index fingers on the two palm, tapping it, like the Nollywood kinda herbalist method. He eventually asked us to go, after finishing this process. He didn't bother checking my phone. Why? Probably because of my cracked screen Infinix Hot 5 is not worthy of a 'Yahoo-Boy'.
If this had happened in December, probably he would have asked us to give him something more than we did, at the end of the day. Because by that time, I should definitely be using my IPhone, lol!
Nonetheless, the journey did not leave me without a story to put out for you. I'll like to conclude next week, with another shocking tale along the road.
