FEMI TAIWO @ 30: Lessons in Selflessness (i)

Suraj ‘Jarus’ Oyewale

INTRODUCTION

One writer, his name I can’t remember, identified five people that are critical to a man’s success. One of such people is who he called ‘The Instigator’. The Instigator, the author writes, is one who pushes a man, who literally sets him up, and gives the motivation in his life race. Reading that article few months back, I juxtaposed the writer’s five characters into my modest academic attainments (the precursor to my career), and two people came to mind as I filled the instigator character: a brother, Akeem Oyewale, and a friend and one of my blog’s columnists, Michael Oluwafemi Taiwo. But I will be discussing the latter’s role in my academic run in my column this week.

Femi

IN THE BEGINNING……

Tomorrow, July 27, Femi clocks 30 and I think there is no more auspicious time to celebrate him, trumpet his role on me and highlight the lessons we can learn, than now. I have known Femi for 23 out of the 30 years he has lived, having known him when I crossed over from a public primary school, Wesley school, to a private one, Adeola Model School, both in Offa, Kwara state, in 1990. I was in primary 2A and Femi was in another arm of primary 2, but we got to be in same class, briefly I think, when we moved to primary 3 and there was some reshuffling.  His seat was directly behind mine and sharing seat with him was another classmate of ours, Grace. I was one of the roughest pupils in class, always biting pencil.  We started using biro that year (primary 3) and I struggled to use it, with ink always staining my hands, desk and books. In me Femi had someone to taunt every day. That was 1990/91 and that was my first memory of Michael Oluwafemi Taiwo, who is now a columnist on my blog.

Adeola Model School – where the journey started

Primary school wasn’t that eventful, especially given the fact that we were not in same classes for most part of the 5 years I spent in that school, but I can still recall a couple of other encounters with Femi. One that stuck most was the day we wrestled under the grape tree around the school farm. That should be in primary 3 or 4.

As is traditional for pupils of that primary school we attended, about 70% of us still found ourselves in same Secondary School, Offa Grammar School. Femi was in JSS 1C, I in B-class. Femi’s Mum (of blessed memory), it should be noted, was one of the Vice-Principals of the School.  Like an academic avatar that he was, Femi never came 2^nd throughout his 6 years stay at Offa Grammar School. He was always topping not his only his class, but the entire arms. Trust students, at a time we were gossiping that his academic feat was because his Mum was the VP who showed him questions in all subjects before exams. Poor pupil’s excuse. Awon olodo rabata.

THE OGS DAYS…

Now moving close to how Femi personally influenced me. In January 1998, I had moved from Science Class to Commercial Class, and I was a bit shy, because Science was believed – and rightly so – to be for the best brains and how can Suraj, who was the second best student in one of the arms (B-class) in our JSS days, not be a Science student. The decision was guided by the fact that I was so poor in Mathematics and I knew Math was the background of Sciences. It was a tough decision for me. I was so shy to be a commercial student that I used to sneak to class in my first term there. But one afternoon, I remember meeting Femi along the walkway and, knowing Femi as a no-holds-barred talker, I was expecting to be dressed down.  ‘Suraj, you are too good for commercial class, you disappointed me’, I expected Femi to say. I felt like being swallowed by the ground that afternoon, but to my surprise, Femi just told me that he heard I had crossed to commercial class and wished me the best. Discovering my strength early enough in life remains one of the Top 3 academic decisions I have ever taken in my life (the two others are, choosing to study in Ife and opting for Economics). The Math I dreaded and ran away from would later become my best subject, making a B2 in WASSCE just 2 years later, and only 3 Science Students (Femi predictably, Folake Olatinwo and Majeed Soladoye) dusted me with A1. That was the first learning point: Femi did not look down on me for crossing over to commercial class when even less talented Science students looked down on me as running away from the ‘Science war’.

OGS gate

Still in secondary school, when I crossed over to commercial class, I still wasn’t an academic star, although topping my class (what’s the big deal in topping commercial class, the real competition was in Science classes). It was Femi that actually brought me into academic stardom. By SSS2, I had shed the initial shyness that came with my moving to commercial class, and I had become a local champion of sorts. The newfound local championship got into my head and I wasn’t the most obedient of pupils in school – one week, one trouble. By that time, Femi Taiwo had become an academic superstar, not only in our school but throughout the more than 15 schools in Offa community and beyond. God help any school that faced us in quiz competition, as our quiz team, led by Femi, and supported by Majeed Soladoye and my humble self, demolished all our opponents and even dared the international Adesoye College to a quiz competition (but it never happened). That was when I began to gain confidence and self-belief.

***Continued in part 2