~ Stoking the embers of remembrance in a scheming society that has run amok, lest they've forgotten....
I don't think that it's unfair to speak or write about these individuals who have been in my life beyond what I consider necessary. For the clarification of all doubts you may reach me at: ijenjoku@gmail.com. I don't have access to the internet at all times so a reply might take a few days to come back, please bear with me.
Michael I. Ajayi: I had no knowledge of Mr Ajayi until Mr Solomon Onwuka Mba, in reply to my letter referred him as a member of the church and a staff of the University of Ibadan. It was how I would write a letter to him and begin to call him on his office line, which he provided in the letter. UI, ASUU and Nigerian students were going at loggerheads and for several reasons the university was shut down on several occasions between 1998 and 1999. I waited patiently for the school to resume and for admissions for the 1998 academic session to commence. I never went to try my luck at Awka, Anambra State for the Nnamdi Azikiwe University. I haven't been to Awka till date. Eventually, I went to Ibadan in 1999 and began processing my admission into the University of Ibadan. I was keenly interested in studying Civil Law but Mr Ajayi informed me that my cut of mark wouldn't afford me such an opportunity. He thought that the Faculty of Arts could provide an alternative and I agreed with him. I didn't visit the Undergraduates Admissions Office of University of Ibadan because I had trusted a church leader. I didn't know that I should have gone on my own without relying completely on his statement. At least, it would have taken from me the problem of distrust, which I now harbour against those who didn't let me try for my choice of education. Alternatively, I would have forgone the admission into Igbo as I was meant to believe that I was being admitted into the Linguistics major. Linguistics and African Languages was divided into three units namely Linguistics, Yoruba and Igbo. After many months of waiting and another UME - University Matriculation Examination - done in 1999 I had no choice but to register for Igbo in early1999. I met him for the last time in 2005 before my journey to the USA.
Sola Ajayi: Mrs Ajayi. I found her a motherly and understanding woman on the outside. She was hospitable too. She took me in when I had to squat with them before I moved into the hostel for classes. I didn't know of her before contacting her husband. At the time and possibly till date, it was only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that connected us.That church had a way of making one gullible or should rather say naive because of its overt teachings. Those teachings on love, charity and the like make one gullible or naive. But time could tell how nice people really were. She was the head of the women's society, called Relief Society, of the place that housed the University of Ibadan and its environs. Naturally, I found her accommodating and when I moved out of her house, which was less than two weeks of moving to Ibadan, I still kept a pleasant relation with her. I refused to be a bother, anyway because it wasn't in my character to demand rights of other people. I take what I considered reasonable, which was hospitality and hardly money. A few other student members of that church used the Ajayi's family's hospitality, usually to forestall paying for hotel accommodation. I knew that the Okoro sisters (Chastmier and Ngozi) used Ajayi's home at different time while securing hostel accommodation on the University campus. Even when I moved to Old Bodija in the later months of my second year (2001), I showed my new house to Mrs Ajayi in case of those messages. These were in the days before the global systems of mobile telecommunication. Unfortunately, our rooms on Fadeyi Street were burgled shortly after her visit. Speak of contradictions? I left for Utah from her home, which they built off campus in 2005, to the mission home in Ibadan and eventually to Lagos. Hmm..... Liker her husband I met her for the last time in 2005 before my journey to the USA.
(Omo)Lara Ajayi: I would meet Ms Lara Ajayi at her parents' home at the Abadina quarters of the University of Ibadan campus. She was very reserved, I guess from being the only female child of that family, as I was told. Lara, like the other five of us, started school same year in 1999. While I put in for school, I guess others thought of the same thing or busybodies had started quite early to court trouble. She was admitted into a degree programme in the faculty of Education. She studied Educational Management, I was told. I never investigated anybody as I was very busy minding my own business. I had no reason to doubt that all was as it was presented to me. Perhaps the scheming LDS Church needed to start their own 'fellowship' akin to CASOR - Christ Ambassadors Students Outreach or Christ Embassy or whatever. That year, LDSSA - LDS Students Association was inaugurated and she was one of the vice presidents. She actively dated and married one Segun Tinubi, who studied in the faculty of Engineering of the school.I didn't think that she angry that I came to Ibadan. Luckily, we weren't in the same Hall of residence as she was allocated to Queen Elizabeth II (with the late Miss Joanne Oriabor) and I was in Queen Idia Hall with the Okoro sisters. As the daughter of the district president, Lara was pampered or deferred to in many issues. Nobody wanted to ruffle her feathers. It was only in year 2 that I did a temporary stay in Queen's Hall that I must have rattled her. Did I? She didn't squat me and I didn't bother her at all. She was gracious enough to offer her room to me for a short time the weekend I left for the USA from Ibadan en route Lagos in 2005. A few months earlier, she had come to observe her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Abia State and spent a night at my home on Omoba Road, Ogbor Hill, Aba before reporting to her place of primary assignment at St Joseph's Secondary School, Aba.
I would speak to her again after my first trip to the USA, which was in 2007. She married her campus boyfriend Segun and later relocated to the USA to join him in Utah in 2008. I saw Segun Tinubu for the last time in 2007 in Port Harcourt after my mission to Utah. He was serving his own LDS Church mission and was the assistant president to late President Loveday Nwankpa. I had come to visit Mr Nwankpa who came visiting Temple Square earlier that year (2007) before he assumed duty as mission president of Port Harcourt of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was to my chagrin that some elements in that church claimed that I never returned to the country after that missionary experience. Na wah! I was seen in Lagos, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Okigwe, etc. Yet anybody who didn't see me in Ibadan had been to all parts of Nigeria and I was found missing. Why presenting untrue facts remains a cherished tenet of Mormonism beats my imagination. Wonders shall never end. Well, I didn't return to Ibadan, which was my point of departure and a natural point of return. But I did indicate in Utah before departure my desire to make Aba my point of return as I didn't want to be an inconvenience to anybody in Ibadan. I had no home and yes, it was uncomfortable being in other people's homes. My home was the least comfortable and truly I had no reason to have returned to Aba, in retrospect.
(Omo)Laide Ajayi: Laide was Lara's younger brother who was quite taciturn but would be categorized as a cool kid. I didn't interact much with him because he like his younger brothers, Femi and Tayo, were younger than me. I would learn many years later that he studied Law at the University of Ibadan. I had no idea anybody could own a city and the federal (government) university located in it.
Was I denied Law because of Laide's future ambition to study the course/programme? I had nobody tell me that the Ajayis had children whose names or nicknames started with the English Letter L, nor would I think that a problem. I'm not given to paganism or Heathenry. What's in a name? Except for imposture or impersonation I don't give much heed to names and their pagan uses.
I have never understood why people quarreled over sex. I have never had a sexual relation with ANY member of the Ajayi family, male or female. There were unsubstantiated rumours of scandals with some LDS Church members before I came to Ibadan. So, it made sense to me not to join in the drama. What was going on?
Was I involved in Christianity or Idolatry/Heresy/Harlotry/Voodoo/Sorcery/Paganism? What exactly was taking place at the University of Ibadan? It was truly an Alice in Wonderland. Did I say that I never paid a penny for my admission into UI and whether this could be a bone of contention I was never told. Nigerians think that INTEGRITY belongs to the dogs.
I do hate that the LDS Church seemed very concerned or fastidious about returned missionaries from Temple Square than those from other missions. Of course, it was the official primary offices of the establishment. However, I didn't understand why anybody thought it was a jamboree. I didn't receive any special training that set me apart from other people who did a mission elsewhere. And truly, it was on that mission that I began to understand the critics of that church. I saw after going to the temple that people were just in that church to be used for all sorts of diabolical endeavours. I didn't understand why a people would rather be telling unfounded stories than the truth. I wasn't taught any special skills in witchcraft or such. It was only a lesson on DIVERSITY. Yes, as there were over forty countries represented in that place. Many languages were spoken but there was English Language as the lingua franca and rules to either teach you the blessings or perils of obedience.
So, back to UI. While other people were settling into jobs and perhaps marriages after school or perhaps the NYSC in September 2005, I signed off my life to go to the USA to open doors for schemers of all kinds. Any wonder Karl Marx would call religion the opium of the people?
To be continued....
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