ON MY WEDDING DAY

What I read in a newpaper some minutes ago prompted me to write this short piece about my experience. It was a caption in allAfrica.com about nigerian PDP's scheduled rally in Ondo state: "Nigeria: Sambo, Obasanjo, Others to Storm Ondo for PDP Rally Tuesday" The day was on Saturday, the 3rd day of February 2007. We were returning from my wedding ceremony which took place at Ekpoma, Edo state at the Ambrose Alli Hall opposite the Esan West Local Govt office. The ceremony was great and had many people in attendance. After the wedding, we proceeded to Ile-Ife using the short-cut, passing through Sabongida-Ora, Ifon, Owo, Akure etc. We then got to Akure and there was this long traffic jam (hold-up). We were stagnated for more than four hours and the reason was because the then President, Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo was in town. He was in town in the company of Oyo state Governor. Everything and everybody stood still. What a suppression! What Yoruba will call "Aye familete ntuto" (i.e living at the expense of others. As you can imagine, we were there and reports were filtering to us how many people had been mutilated that day alone. They came with several hundreds of hooligans. In the name of politics, several individuals are being killed, not occassionally, but daily. You might think those killed are matyrs but I beg to disagree. They are those who think their existence depends on following the likes of Baba Sege. It is another independence anniversary. Nigeria is 52 today with little to nothing to show for it yet Nigerians are not tired of their task-masters. As I was say, it got to a stage my brother came out of the bus he was to pilot the newly-wedded out of the jam-packed traffic. As soon as he was out of the car people recognized him. Being a reknowned artist, he was quickly accorded the status of a big man and road was cleared for us to pass. Unfortunately, as we came out, we landed in the company of Governor Alao Akala with hundreds of those hooligans brandishing matchets and guns. We were alarmed and afraid to death. Guns and other weapons! No wonder many died on the said day. We quickly packed our cars and allowed them to pass. Meanwhile, their entourage were on something around 140mph with people sitting on cars and vans. Should anything happen, those guys are not going to make it home. So, today's headline tells me similar things might happen on Tuesday in Ondo State. If you are travelling through or living around the state, you should probably be concerned and plan your journey well in advance.