Reflections Withouy Mirror
The Tragedy of Keeping a Bad Company.*
This story that I am about to share has been lingering in my heart for years but I have decided to put it in writing for 3 good reasons .
*1* . That others may learn from it and be guided accordingly.
*2* . That the true story may be known to the world and the reasons why the protagonist became who he was.
*3* . That those who perpetrated the wicked act will know that nothing is hidden under the Sun, should they come across this story (for I will share it on all social media ) that there is no peace for the wicked and nemesis will catch up with them.
*Bob Marley in one of his beautiful songs ‘ who the cap fit’ says ” Man to man is so unjust , children you don’t know whom to trust, your worst enemy could be your best friend and your best friend your worst enemy; some will eat and drink with you but behind them su su pon you ; only your friends know your secret and so only he could reveal it ; who the cap fit, let them wear it”*
*Safiu Rabiu* was a good friend and my classmate at Oke Badan High School. We became good acquaintance in Form 4c. Even though I had known him from Form 1. At that time, he was aspiring to become one of the big boys in the school. To be one of the big guys was to be ‘a man of respect’. In my school, your academic achievement will only make you famous in your class but can not qualify you as a big boy unless you combine brain with power. Though very rare but Tajudeen Adeniyi, our class captain in form one, was like that. He was amongst the big boys naturally , he defeated almost everybody in friendly wrestling contest and also very brilliant. He had learnt Judo in Lagos before coming to Ibadan. Yoursports activities can not make you one of the big boys and not even your money.
The only way to become a big boy was to make your bone through fighting, whether fair or not and you must win. Our principal then Late Mr E.M. A Layode lent credence to this when he appointed 18 wise men apart from the school prefects. The 18 wise men were those boys that had made their bones in the school and he knew them. Perhaps the principal’ s decision must have been informed by the history of how American Government inadvertently handed over the running of Italy to the Mafia after they had defeated Mussollini’ facist regime.The Mafia ran Italy with strong arms and the fear of Mafia was the beginning of wisdom. In all honesty, there was peace in the school then. There was no more internal power struggle. The 18 wise men settled minor disputes between themselves, and some of them exerted small tributes from the weaker students for protection. They also served as the soldiers for the school from external aggression like Loyola College and other schools.
Safiu first fight that I witnessed was a disaster, he picked fight with Ismaila Agboluaje in Form 1 or 2. Ismail Agboluaje, our classmate, was the son of the late musician, Alhaji Amuda Agboluaje . We both belonged to Akindeko House of Oke’ Badan Boys High School in those days. Agboluaje defeated him fairly well . Agboluaje and I even discussed the fight and reminiscent on it during our days together in Germany before I proceeded to the UK.
In another quarrel between him and another friend and our classmate ( Funsho Akinwale) Kola Gbadamosi stepped forward and did not allow Funsho to fight, he took the fight to Safiu , Safiu fought well but he was not able to connect well against Baba Koli so he lost the fight . Baba Koli was one of the top boys then. Baba Koli had strong long arms and threw hard punches , Safiu was short but quick with his hands. Kola kept him away with his long strong arms and so he had no answers to those wicked punches.
Safiu Rabiu was a good fighter but stature failed him a bit, he was short and not big and this may be one of the reasons why he sought spiritual solutions . He needed spiritual assistance to achieve his coveted status by defeating his opponents and becoming a man of respect . He never made his bone . As it was then, he was above some of us in the scheme of fighting but did not attain the big boy status . At best, he was in the middle. I give this to him, he was a Middle Weight Champion. He tried and tried but he did not reach that level. His last fight was against Adebowale Ajala, the fight took place twice on different days and it ended 1-1.
He had a very close friend bearing Taofeek . He was slim, tall and fair in complexion. They were very close indeed like twins and both of them engaged in African science, Juju) . Taofeek was not a student of our school but people who were very close to Safiu knew him very well. There was another friend of Safiu and a student of our school known as Aderemi. He was our set, too, but not the same class as us.
Safiu appeared to know a lot about some of our seniors who were big boys in the school and during our breaktime or when the teachers were not around , he would be regaling Musibau Adebiyi and myself many stories about them. Very interesting fights that probably only appeared in his imagination. He was the only one who had this information. We always listened attentively. They were our heroes who maintained the hierarchy of the school and the good name of our school, ‘ Oke Ijangbon’ The Hill of Trouble now Hill of Wisdom.
I got closer to him, and we started discussing spiritual powers, I had heard of power and Talisman from India. This was common in those days amongst young people, we were told that you can get power from India and all you need is to send some money to one of the Gurus and you will receive some things like ‘ Talisman’ from them, it may be for academic success or for love.
In fairness to those fables, a very close friend of mine now a decease sent money to one India Guru around 1985 and they sent him some things that he would chant with the names of Angels or Demons with some colourful spiritual candles that he should burn in the night . He purchased all these materials and tried it. Some strange things happened to him but that is not within the ambit of this story and I do not propose to deal with it . I will leave it for another time, another day in another story.
So, Safiu and I put our heads together and discussed then about African Juju and he promised to help me with ‘Madarikan’!!. Madarikan in Yoruba mythology is a spiritual fortification in which it was said that if you are fortified in this realm, there is no one that can harm you. if anyone plan or think evil of you , the evil will reverberate on that person . I went to visit him and for a fee of N6 ( Six naira) he fortified me with Madarikan.
I went home and boasted to my brother with pride that I have been fortified . My brother had just done his baptism and warned me seriously, why I am I inviting the agent of darkness to myself. Thank God, it was in that same year 1984 that I gave my life to Jesus and was baptised into the body of Christ and so old things have passed away.
Anyway, Safiu continued in these trends and got deeper into it . He was living around Oremeji Agugu Ibadan, and we used to exchange visits as friends and classmates .
There was a caption at the door of his room ” *Alasco International ; Destiny can never Change*( *Alasco* was his alias). In one of my visits there , my friend had a female visitor and that was where I first saw how to entertain a woman. The visit of the lady was facilitated by Aderemi. I had never seen anything like that , the lady was treated like a Queen and what was put in front of her alone was sufficient to satisfy 12 people. I was not even offered a cup of water. So I left quickly because it appeared that I had overstayed my welcome . When we met the following day, he apologised, and we laughed over it. He told me that was the first time the lady was visiting him and he must impress her. I told him I understood
We finished and passed out of school but our friendship continued. He told me that his parents lived in Lagos but none of us actually knew who his parents were for all the 5 years we sojourned in the School. He moved out of the place where he lived after we left school; He and Taofeek moved together to the same house as good friends. We saw them together often.
One day , Safiu came to me and I noticed some strange behaviour, he was not himself anymore , I questioned him of what happened . He was still with his sense, but one can sense something amiss , what it was, I did not know.
He opened up by first praying for me that may evil not befall me and may I not be attacked by the wicked people of the world. He admitted that something was wrong but that he was on top of it. He said one night in the house, there was an herbalist where he and Taofeek lived and the Herbalist and ‘Taofeek woke him up in the dead of the night, according to him they tried to force him to carry something like a spiritual basket on his head for rituals. He resisted them, and there was a kind of scuffle and they exchanged some words of incantation. He said he did not carry that spiritual basket but he had not been normal since. I had no reason to doubt his story as his narration of it was coherent, and he even repeated it afterwards before it became ‘ *dark* ‘. He said the same things to some of our colleagues , he was consistent in the story.
He was deteriorating gradually into madness, he knew and we all knew that something was wrong, we were all young and don’t know what to do. If his parents were alive, they would have been able to help him but no one knew where they were and whether they were alive or not. The roles that parents can play in the lives of their children cannot be underestimated. It looked like there was no one to help him. He was left alone to fight for his life and sanity. The struggle was his life.
Funsho Akinwale can bear me witness and so was Aderemi because we all met separately to discuss the issue . SAFIU would visit me in my Studio for I was an Artist then, and though he was still trying to shake off the inevitable but it appeared the enemy were successful in their venture. My friend had been used for MONEY RITUALS. His situation was getting worse and Funsho was the first to stop him from visiting him and he warned me also that he could be dangerous, though he had never exhibited any dangerous attitude, but he was losing it. I found it difficult to stop him from visiting me , though I was helpless, but he was not violent .
It was in this state of Safiu mental illness that I left for Germany and his matter disappeared from my heart, I was facing my own problems, the struggle to survive in a foreign land.
I came home on holiday from Germany 2 years after I had left and I was with my girlfriend and a friend inside the vehicle when I peeped from the back of the car and I saw my old friend in rags . I saw him in Bus- stop, Gate Ibadan, Safiu had turned full Mad, picking things around. The sight was too much for me, I was overwhelmed and I wept. I considered coming down out of the car to talk to him but I had a second thought, he was not the same person anymore and he may not even recognise me again and the people out there may be thinking of another things. I told my friends inside the car how close I was with the guy in filthy rags picking things around. How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished. Safiu, our middle weight champion.
Safiu, my good friend, I do not know any of his parents , I intended to see them and if we could all do some things to restore his sanity. I found Funsho Akinwale to see whether we can find his people but no one knows his family. I still have his picture etched in my memory and I remember how we used to sit in the upstairs classroom 4C and 5C and how we sat round him listening to his story and gesticulation with his hands, very passionate in speech.
I reflected on the popular songs of Doris Day ” when I was just a little girl, I asked my mother what will I be; will I be pretty; will I be rich, here is what she said to me, Que Sera, Sera; whatever will be will be, the future is not for us to see ; Que Sera Sera” . I then asked myself this question: Can we change it ? Can we change destiny by prayer or other means?
None of us knew what the future holds or what we befall us then and even now , only God knows what the future holds. None of us knew that things would turn out for Safiu like that. I pray, may our tomorrow be better than today.
I returned to Germany after the 4 weeks holiday and on my next trip to Nigeria , Funsho told me that our friend had gone to rest . He had passed away in his state of madness. He was a good friend . May his soul rest in peace and as for those who changed his destiny, may they never have rest, may they never know peace, may Safiu spirit continue to haunt them until they also depart to where they sent him.
Immediately after the incident , when Safiu had revealed the secret and vacated the house, Taofeek and the herbalist had disappeared, and no one had seen them to date . Perhaps their money rituals were successful and our old friend was their victim. Perhaps the more he was going deep in madness the more they were getting richer.
I have thought over it after many years , this was certainly the tragedy of a bad company , the person he considered his best friend and trusted with his life betrayed him because of money. The love of money is the root of all evils. However, contrary to Safiu belief, it appears Destiny can be changed after all or how can we explain what happened to him. Or was it his destiny? I doubt it, I believed his destiny was altered by the bad company he kept for bad company corrupts good manner.
Rest In Peace my friend, Safiu AKA *Alasco* *International*. You had sunk into the waters of the Earth, we cannot meet again in this world, sleep on our old comrade.
Until I see you next week, may the forces of darkness have no dominion over you and may your good destiny be firmly established to the glory of God
Niyi Aborisade is a Lawyer, Human Right Activist and an Historian.
