CHRONICLES OF TSLOW ~ CHAPTER 2. THE EARLY DAYS.

“Life is full of twist and turns.” That short sentence best describes my sojourn through life from the time of my birth to this very moment that I type this piece on my second hand laptop. Now I probably got you wondering; “what’s he trying to say?”




Alright, the fact is I can say with a smirk on my face that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth though along the way it seems the spoon was replaced with a wooden ladle. Hmmm, I wouldn’t say that’s a shame because overtime I came to the realization that everything that happens to a man (I use the word man as a general term for humans before all you women liberation and equality preachers breathe hot fire down my neck), is all a preparation for something greater in life. So whichever side of the divide of rich and poor that you find yourself, just do your best to live through it as much as you can.

Anyway back to me, where was I even?  Ah, oh yes!  And that’s how I was brought up in a family with the best things at my feet. My dad was a very pertinent character who played a huge role in how I view life and existence. Mr. Kolawole Ojo aka BAFET was a successful building contractor whose name was known to the ears of virtually all those who “mattered” in kano in the early 80’s to the mid 90’s.

I remember my dad having a fleet of about 5 cars at a time, we lived in a mansion with a compound space so large you could build an Olympic size swimming pool in there. We had the latest toys and clothes, always went to the fanciest fun spots in town. Damn, those were the times. It couldn’t be better or worse, so I thought but I guess fate was reading a different script all from the start.

Towards the mid-90’s, around 1995 I think, things started taking a turn for my dad and us. All of a sudden we had to relocate from  the mansion I had always thought was my dad’s to another smaller yet decent crib somewhere within the tarauni area of kano?! Then as if that wasn’t enough,  gradually the cars started “vanishing” right before my eyes till we were left with just 2 cars. Even the house helps whom I took for granted all of a sudden  where nowhere to be found and we had to get down to doing most of the domestic chores by ourselves with the help of mum of course . I guess some of you might be wondering why haven’t I said a thing about my mum, that’s because she’s special, so I’ll give you the gist about her later, for now let’s focus on pops man.

And so it was that within a space of 5 years we had relocated from 3 different houses in kano, all because times were hard and my dad probably didn’t want to admit to his kids that things were going down the drain faster than you can flush shit down the toilet. As in, things were so bad that my mum “abandoned” ship and left us with our dad, my twin sister had to go live with a paternal aunt of mine who my dad had earlier taken under his roof when the going was good. My elder brother and I tagged along with dad for the duration of the time he could take care of us, but I think they came a time when he knew he had to send us down to go live with our paternal grand mum who stayed in jos at that time. Before you knew it, I had my bags all packed and that was how I zoomed my black ass to the great city of Jos to continue my secondary school education.