I'd like to define the word cabal before I continue with my narrative or exposition. A cabal is a secret political clique or faction. It used to mean a secret intrigue. It's a secret plot to gain political power or advantage. I think that my experiences at Air Force Comprehensive School, Ile Igbon/Iyana Offa straddled these two meanings. I wasn't always present on the compound having gone out to learn a tailoring skill at the nearby Lalupon village after school each day. I took permission to do this and even got a sponsorship from the Head of School called a commandant for this exercise. But what took place in my presence and absence must have birthed the junior cabal or this cabal, before, during and/or after my NYSC experience. I would later discover that there were many vested interests in my affairs as far as my place of primary assignment was concerned. Many people were unduly paranoid as to why or how I got posted to this place. I had in the last post explained that I had no active responsibility for sending myself to this place. However, I suspect that the University had a relationship with the group that I'm about to mention and what that relationship represented was beyond me. Why I was selected to work there was also beyond me. Being a federal establishment it wasn't out of place for my education to be found useful to them. Igbo was a national and official language, though not of Oyo State. However, I had trained for a Bachelor of Arts and not a Bachelor of Education, which was right for teaching. There was always discrimination in civil service between the artists and the educationists in Nigeria.
Why wasn't I sent to a place where I could hit the ground running instead of having to do the burden of a crossover career? There was broadcasting and all of communication arts in Igbo to do with my BA. I wasn't a trained teacher. The University of Ibadan had a Faculty of Education that would have featured a graduate to handle my subject instead of me. Perhaps there was a dearth of competent hands in the faculty of education. Anyway, I guess as stated in the NYSC objectives in the last post, the NYSC was more than an extension of pedagogy. It became a power play especially by Theresa Agbugui (called Tessy), who claimed that a member of the cabal needed her to work with him and not to teach in the classroom. It's to my disappointment that I was to discover an unhealthy clique was brought together by whomever to what purpose I knew not from the Orientation Camp at Iseyin. A spy group had formed but who was their sponsor(s) or what was their antecedent? Why would they have some of those people follow me to the USA? I don't assume that they have come to mind their own business especially if they have returned from abroad just because I was in Nigeria too? Do you get my point? Somebody is messing up with me and it's not funny. No sensible person makes himself ready concierge or errand boy to leave all behind and go wherever they are sent by another without personal plans or lure. I had showcased this junior cabal, my contemporaries, who were probably jobless Nigerians who needed a place to spend a whole year away from home. You may learn more about them here.
I'm going to leave out the ranks and titles of the military officers from this post because some of them may have retired from service and have since changed ranks as is the norm of military service. I feel this is a necessary exercise because I see presages of their whereabouts and their women lovers in my neighbourhood. I didn't sign a pact with anybody to stalk me at all or forever nor did I agree to any sort of representation of me by anybody. I don't know why anybody went to school to depend on another individual for validity. This means two things, the senior cabal, hereafter The Cabal, has brought criminals to watch me or has been hired by my alma mater to keep watch of my activities. Who and why? If the former, why them, the group comprising, Pidgin speakers, over-aged mothers and possibly almajiri? If the latter, why would the University of Ibadan hire an alleged graduate of the University of Port Harcourt to watch and judge its own graduate in Ibadan? There was no agreement to any sort of piety to be done by me while harlotry was to be the lot of another. Double standard Nigeria seems to have come to stay. Besides, as far as I was concerned university education wasn't transferable and it wasn't the job of the NYSC to bequeath education or sell such to another individual. What's really wrong with Nigerians? Mrs E.O Williams, the NYSC state director at the time, had not in her letter told me to look out for corps members. Was Character and Learning to follow me around for life? That should be criminal. I wasn't called to spy on any other corps member nor my place of primary assignment. Ha! It must be the norm for the pot to call the kettle black in Oyo State.
J.A Ogunbiyi: The commandant of the compound. He was a Yoruba man. He it was who told us that he didn't have the capacity to keep seven (7) corps members. He was also able to reconsider and asked us to share rooms for the one year duration of the programme. I hadn't heard that the NYSC exceeded the one year mandated for Nigerian graduates. I hadn't met him ever in my cognitive life. I did attend the University of Ibadan in Oyo State but I wasn't in the habit of loitering or looking everywhere for married men. I mined my school activities. As a matter of fact, I hadn't heard of the existence of the school all through school until I got my place of primary assignment letter at Iseyin. It was really with wonder that I endured his rather 'Samanja' attitude towards my affairs on the compound. He indulged Theresa's activities on the compound, turning a blind eye to all her activities especially with not teaching as the other corps members. He also supported Isa Abubakar, the Hausa teacher, when the corps member was vexed that I had touched a Quran. The book was left in a student's locker during examinations and it wasn't supposed to be left there. Ogunbiyi, then a wing commander, was raised in Jos and was versed with the attitudes of the North towards Igbo Christians. He also refused Uche Ohagwu and me the opportunity to carry out the UNICEF and NYSC sponsored peer education training of the students on HIV/AIDS prevention, probably allowing Theresa to carry out her own activities. Ogunbiyi aided my tailoring skill acquisition with a N5,000 fee requested by the trainer. I did that to keep away from gossip and wasting my time after teaching Igbo during the day. The devil, they say, makes work for idle hands. He made an issue of my relationships with men on the compound while he had no eyes for the other women who openly dated and flirted with men on the compound. I wondered if he was asked to make a mountain of every mole hill that concerned me. He was married and his family lived in Jos, Plateau State. I had no sexual relationship with him. He allowed one of his airmen to give me a ride to my convocation at the University of Ibadan, that October 2004. His style was hypocritical, entertained gossip and he practised double standard. He allowed other corps members great freedoms especially Nanzing Wuyep who was either not a bona fide corps member or was allowed to do as it pleased him. Nanzing was accorded a prince's privilege and came to the compound once in a while. While all this had to happen, I wasn't to know. I refrained from reporting myself because it seemed that the nearby University of Ibadan would like to hear hints of my activities; reporting to the NYSC secretariat would be a waste of my time. As far as I was concerned, the incident over the Quran was a confirmation that I wasn't being represented well. He's from Ogbomosho, Oyo State.
GOC Oyekale: This officer was who took our letters from us and assigned us to our various staff rooms and supervisors. He was better known to me as Ms Theresa Agbugui's boyfriend than her supervisor. He initially worked as the administrative officer and later the OC (officer in charge) of some assignment. Theresa alleged that he asked her to stay with him in the office than in the staff room where she could have taught Government. She claimed that she studied Political Science from the University of Port Harcourt. How true her claim turned out to be was no prerogative of The Cabal. They rather aided and abetted her questionable presence and activities on the AFCS, Ibadan compound. I had no knowledge of the workings of the armed forces of the country but I thought it came in various colours and attitudes. I thought that there was a lot of paganism associated with working in the offices. I didn't understand many attitudes exhibited by this man. One of such was his love of stirring a storm in a teacup. Once an officer associate of mine had travelled to Jos for his examinations and I went in to plead with the commandant to let Uche and I handle the HIV/AIDS training. While in the office, the door was accessible and visitors were coming in and out. I waited to have a word with the leader but this had to take a long time, over an hour. Oyekale would later tell my man that I was in with the oga for a very long time. I didn't appreciate that no respect from him. Theresa, his alleged girlfriend, would spend long sessions with the commandant every week without eliciting any gossip from him. How much that affected my relationship with the other officer, Peter Garba, I wasn't to know. I didn't think that was a cool Yoruba culture to emulate, that of being a spoiler. Oyekale gave no money to me besides the N5,000 monthly allowance that we all received from the Air Force. I knew that he gave a lot of money to Theresa Agbugui and the other lady who also went by Ijeoma (Iwuchukwu).No NYSC officer visited us from the secretariat and it was probably because he didn't let it happen. While nobody is readily the epitome of corruption, Oyekale would pass as the epitome of conspiracy. He was vocal about his reservations about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since I was an active member of that church, and considered the only member in my group, I didn't like his insistence that it was a rogue religion. He dissuaded Peter Garba from taking the church seriously citing personal knowledge of its occult origin as his excuse. He seemed to have brought Theresa to entertain him and later Peter Garba in their office. When I misplaced my note of lesson, I asked if it got missing in his office. He replied in the affirmative. Till this day, I suspect him, Peter Garba and Mabel Ezeobi (the corps member who taught French) of having knowledge of what became of the notebook. At this time of my life, I'm convinced that these people were in a conspiracy against me even if the commandant were at the head. I didn't go to school to learn or practise witchcraft and from an over-aged and wicked woman! He made sure Theresa Agbugui had nothing to worry about and like Nanzing, carried on her activities with their blessing and acknowledgement. He too is Yoruba, though, I wasn't sure of his state of origin.
P. A. Garba: He came to the compound when we were half way into the NYSC exercise in February or March 2005. He drove his BMW from Jos and lived with Nanzing Wuyep, the absent corps member. Peter asked me out a few days on that compound. After a few months we got into a relationship to the chagrin of most residents of the compound whom he later dated too. He got most of my attention after work and it didn't sit well with the Yoruba although nobody complained to me except the commandant. Our boss was only after my reputation being soiled with what he considered promiscuity on my part. I wasn't dating any other individual but Peter so I didn't understand his definition of promiscuity. That word was for Theresa who was believed to be dating his colleagues, perhaps including him and Nanzing Wuyep. That didn't include the other corps member she befriended in the Orientation Camp and her fiance in Jos, Plateau State. Me promiscuous? No way. My school boyfriend had gone to Law School and hadn't ventured to be in touch nor had he shown any affection worthy of waiting for him. He was the user and enjoyed being a miser. He had given me no promises, no promise/engagement ring nor any financial support. He left no phone number for contact and wouldn't let me know his relatives in Lagos. So, how much was that a boyfriend? Abeg.
Peter wasn't friendly to me after a while choosing to safeguard his career than getting into trouble on my account. Eventually, he began to bring women from outside the compound to his bedroom, enjoined me to stop going to the Redeemed Christian Church I was attending with Mabel Ezeobi because we (he and I) were committing sin. I accused him of dating one Kehinde from that Redeemed Church and that was reason for stopping me from attending church at Iyana Offa. I enjoined him to drive out to town since he owned a car but he refused vehemently. I repented of my relationship with him and went the extra mile to attend the LDS Church services at Agodi Gate. Madam Ezeobi began her weekly trips into Ibadan when we no longer could attend the Redeemed Church together due to Peter Garba's temerity. It was from Peter Garba that I learnt that Ms Theresa Agbugui was carrying out nefarious activities on the school compound. I didn't know what those activities and he refused to give me details. What Jazz that woman gave to all the men of The Cabal, I knew not. She was the only corps member who couldn't address the students during morning assembly, probably because she was non tutorial or they were under injunction to do her bidding. I will later find out that he has made himself the ringleader of the corps member group. H alienated me from my colleagues and I now suspect that he did so to favour Nanzing Wuyep and Theresa Agbugui. Why? I wouldn't know. I cooked for him and spent time with him. Nobody had given any rules to me to read and as far as I was concerned my activities were responsible and patriotic. I hadn't gone to the gate to learn the ethos of the compound as I had considered such savage and below my status. Peter came to me as a single man, how true that was I didn't find out from his colleagues, the grapevine nor his mother. He told me that he hailed from Kebbi State.
A.A Ogbonda: He was the medical doctor of the establishment. He worked out of the Sick Bay. He hails from Rivers State. I spoke least to him of all the men because I didn't think it cool to bother a busy man. I suspect that he was the convener of the group, how I wouldn't know. For one, he was resident in Ibadan and how much he knew members of the NYSC group that I belonged to, I'm yet to know. He was a married man and hailed from Rivers State.
Olufemi: He was the French master and was my boss as far as languages were concerned. He was the head of department. He introduced me to the tailor at Lalupon. He was also present when I 'graduated' the skill programme, which was short timed. He supervised Ms Mabel Ezeobi and me in our teaching exercises. He also supervised Ms Bose and Madam Tina. He probably started the trouble for me when I refused to go out with him before Garba arrived in Ibadan but I didn't care. It was he who told me that Nanzing wasn't Wuyep's biological son but a ward of his. I told this to Theresa who then used the information to befriend Nanzing, a man younger than her by many years. It didn't seem that she had any reservations towards her promiscuity. She would have sex with anybody, often visiting men outside the AFCS, Ibadan compound and spend days with them. There was the corps member from the orientation camp and Nanzing Wuyep that she went out to seen in Lagos. I didn't know why even Mr Olufemi would join the cabal. They all seemed poised and ready to steal from me in order to empower somebody else who wasn't necessarily Theresa. Perhaps people outside the compound called them to insult me, perhaps disgruntled people from the Linguistics department who weren't as lucky as me, I wouldn't know. I had graduated school without any sort of aid from any of them. So? What did I owe them? I didn't use an informant and I didn't want to be anybody's prey too. Those praying and preying have made sport of my life and career because of this AFCS, Ibadan cabal. Mr Olufemi was the go-to person on the compound, the commandant relied too much on him.
I didn't suspect these men of homosexuality. As far as my naive mind was concerned they were straight men. But they have proven easy tools for harlots, charlatan and all sorts of merchants. Perhaps I didn't have the necessary skills to have excelled on the compound beyond my pedagogic skills. It was one year too troublesome.
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