10. JS1 way of life

We gradually got used to our new ways of life, we knew how to dodge and where to dodge, at the big black tank, at the communications centre, military wing, field, gym downschool, everywhere you will not like see a senior, we learnt how to sleep anywhere, so long as you are safe from seniors, it could be on your bed, in the bush, under the big black tank, inside a locker in class etc, somehow we survived as the days went by.

Weekends were really very bad, there was usually fatigue for the whole school, and you would cut grasses till you had blisters, serve job in the process etc. I remember when we are in the hostel and the usual chattering of voices can be heard, when the provost marshal, Alfa steps into JS1 hostel, he only needed to say one sentence ‘skies skies I’m getting noise’ and the JS1 block will turn to a grave yard, infact if you are in the toilet doing number 2, you will hang it midway because you fear he might hear the sound of it dropping, that was how much we feared him, we were too small for him anyway, he was the ss3 provost marshal and had more important culprits like ss2 boys to deal with.

There are 3 events that are tattooed in my mind from JS1, the deputy Junior RSM(assistant headboy) (RSM means Regimental sergeant major), was staying in JS1 block, his name is Buhari, nickname Brazo, but he never talked to us, he also had bigger culprits like SS1 and 2 boys to deal with, but one fateful morning the JS1 hostel wasn’t properly cleaned and one of the officers spoke rudely to him, he asked them to march us to the hostel during breakfast, he was holding a branch (yes, it was a tree branch), Brazo was huge, and the branch was so big he couldn’t hold it with one hand, he wrapped it round with a pillow case and held it with two hands and gave us 2 strokes each, I don’t think anybody in my set can forget that day, Brazo lived in Ilorin like me and I knew him from home, so I expected my own strokes to be light, his younger brother was in JS1 too and was about 10 spaces ahead of me, I expected him to let his brother pass and not cane him or maybe make it light for him, to my greatest surprise he gave his brother 4 extremely heavy strokes, instead of 2, I immediately wiped away the thoughts in my mind that my strokes will be lighter, he gave me 3 strokes, that is one extra stroke, so those of us he knew from home got a bigger punishment than the others, welcome to AFMS.

Second event was a constant one, one of my mates Mbakara Enang was a very funny guy, we knew JS2 boys could not enter our hostel because they wouldn’t want the trouble of the deputy JRSM, one of the rooms in our block was just near a room in the JS2 block, the JS2 boys in that room could hear whatever we say in our room if we shouted loud enough, and we would converge there, Mbakara formed a song ‘JS2 boys are lousy, du pa, pa, pa du pa’, making the ‘du pa, pa, pa, du pa’ sounds with our mouths, singing and drumming we would taunt the JS2 boys, they tried asking some JS1 boys they knew for the names of people who slept in that room but we had learnt not to give each other away, so we actually got away with that, it was fun looking for trouble when you know there is a low risk of being caught.

Third event involved my lovely aunt, I have an aunt who lived in Jos then, we weren’t allowed to receive visitors, but we attended the church for the whole air force base, so many people from outside the school also attended, she would come on Sundays and pretend to attend the church service, she would have cooked rice and chicken for me, imagine this kind of life, I would see my aunt but cannot talk to her, she would stylishly drop the cooler of food under a flower shrub, I will stylishly go and pick it, I and my friends, Ayo Adams and Wole Popoola would hide somewhere and eat it, then drop the cooler back, she will pick the cooler and go home after service, this was extremely risky for her, if she was ever caught she would have been banged into the guardroom straight away, she brought provisions for me and dropped it the same way, after a while my French teacher, Miss Ogbozien Isagua became my guardian and we stopped using the flower shrub method, she would wait for us at the corper’s lodge where Miss Ogbozien lived, and we would have to sneak into her room to eat the food and take our provisions, my aunt did this every week, bringing me food, provisions and money on a weekly basis, she only missed it if she wasn’t in Jos, I will never forget this act of kindness, went a long way in keeping me in AFMS, thank you Aunty Lolly.