[A short story]
It was my first day in school as
a language teacher. I was about introducing myself, when I began to hear the
teachers and the proprietor sounding an alarm.
“Every student…o ya…to the assembly ground!”
These teachers were with canes, just like the
warders of a prison with their riffles, parading the lobby of the classes with
enthusiasm. Some were with the impression, “God catch you today…you
guys have been doing it uncaught for long.” Before I knew what was
happening, every student was already on different straight lines, according to
their classes. The teachers too were equally ready to flog, with bunch of canes
in different shapes and sizes. Staring through the window with a gulp in my throat,
I began to imagine what must have gone wrong. Maybe one of the students has killed the proprietor’s
first son or rapped the principal’s daughter.
Or can it be that the fellow has robbed on the highway? Because all I could
picture, with the way the students were paraded like prisoners, was a deadly offense, if there is anything like that in the court of law.
The proprietor was more active in the
school, unlike the other proprietors I have met. You know what I mean? They are always acting as the stainless CEOs who would
only give instructions and orders; however, these orders never bind on them because
they gave them. But the proprietor here was very active and committed to service. The principal
was an academically ambitious woman, but passive when it comes to flogging. So
the proprietors and some teachers did
that. Just like the prison system, any student that crossed their boundary
would pay in severe torture. Pathetically, the students would be the ones to
bring the canes to be punished by. You just can’t stop laughing!
While I was still pre-constructing
the crime and the criminal, I saw the proprietor coming to the podium of the
assembly ground, with his sleeves rolled and tie loosed, just like one of the
office men summoned to push the MD’s car out of a miry part of the road, and
behind him, were selected male teachers with bunch of canes on their shoulders.
There was nothing one could do than to pity the victim(s) of the moment. He
mounted the podium and there was graveyard silence from the murmuring students.
“None of your secrets is safe, except the ones that God is not yet ready
to reveal…”He said and stared into the eyes of the students for about
thirty seconds then continued,
“Some of you think you
are so smart that you can mess around with our Intelligence. You think you can
make it by playing on the IQ of your principal and the rest of the management?
Then you must be joking.”
The words resounding in my ears,
like my pastor’s sermon. And so I got more attentive to the speech of the
proprietor, even more than the students would. While he was still talking,
there arose a rumble of murmuring from the students who were trying to ward the
directness of the accusation off their personalities.
Some were saying, in a very ‘low
key’, “Is not me o”, some others, “We are not playing on your intelligence o”.
In the course,
a girl, inconspicuously, pushed her colleague, who was timely looking back at
her and, angrily, said,
“Stop looking at me joor! Am I the one he is referring to?”
All of a sudden, a teacher
shouted, with a cracked voice,
“Silence!”
Just like court proceedings, everywhere,
immediately, became dead silent. The silence was so coordinated that one’s wink
could be heard by the nearest person. Then the proprietor continued.
“Where is Ademola John?”
The students, just as the parted
Red Sea, quickly paved way for the clear view of where Ademola John was
standing. He, like a sacrificial lamb, humbly walked through the parted way, to
the assembly podium and knelt without being ordered.
“…and Kafayat Agboola?”
The students began to look for
her amidst them but could not find her because she was with her father in the
proprietor’s office. Her father, without mercy, drew her to the assembly ground
and there ensued another “royal rumble” of murmuring from the assembly of
students. It was then I began to fathom out the possibility of the crime
committed. My intuition quickly told me, “it
takes the two to mingle” but the kind of game it was,
I did not
know.
Kafayat’s father was a driver of one of the school buses. Though a stack
illiterate, he loved education for his children and, he was obviously trying
all he could to achieve his goal.
“I have always told
you that no matter how early a child wakes to beat others to the farm, he shall
surely meet the stump ahead.” The proprietor continued.
“These two students
are into love affair, practicing immorality with each other. Haven’t I told you
not to use phone in school or at home? Maybe these two students did not hear
when I said it. They even kept their phones from their parents and sent
messages to each other until Kafayat’s father caught the phone with her. This
phone was ‘pass worded’ and after so much effort, she decided to unlock it.
Guess what we found on it? Love messages, the ones from her to Ademola and the
ones from Ademola to her.
While he was still saying this,
he took Kafayat’s phone and ran his finger through to the messages. After
searching for the worst of the messages to convince the students, he sighed
confidently and calledMr Kasali, one of the teachers to read aloud one of the
messages sent to her by Ademola.
“If the creator calls me personally to ask
for a desired thing,
I would ask for
the Garden of Eden, the second time
And convince God
not to plant any trees or beautiful roses
But allow you and
me to be together in the Garden of Love
Till death do us
apart. I miss you always.”
Mr.Kasali was the only male
teacher with the special assignment to flog disobedient students. Most times in
the school, parents would recommend him for the merciless punishment of their
wards. I might not be able to say if the proprietor paid him, specially, on
that, but he takes delight in beating students. Immediately he finished reading
the text message, there arose a noisy flattery from the assembly of students
and some teachers joined in too. One could hear that of the teachers clearly
than the students who were murmuring theirs.
“Hmmm…OSHOMO!” Mrs. Bamgbose flattered.
“…Abi now. Lover boy!” Mr. Obinna, the
Mathematics teacher also chipped in his flattery.
When the teachers realized the
noise was becoming overwhelming, they quickly cautioned the students and
immediately, there was silence. So the proprietor continued.
“The teachers, you see
behind me and I will give these students the beating of their entire lives and
that will serve as a lesson for you all.”
Then he called students to hinder the criminals from running,
in order that their backs and buttocks be convenient for chastening. Before the
teachers started, I painstakingly counted the canes assigned for this
assignment and to my shock; they were up to twenty five, evenly distributed by
the five disciplinarians, including the proprietor. Before everyone realised,
the trousers of the boy was torn from the to and fro movement of the canes. The
girl too was just run up and down the assembly ground, shouting,
“Tutor pl…ea…se, I beg
you in the name of God!”
And with those words, as a young
graduate, I just found it difficult to believe the fact that our secondary
schools, both private and public, still employ primitive or traditional method
of instructing and teaching their students. I can remember, vividly, how I was
mercilessly beaten by Mr. Ibrahim, our History teacher, because I had not paid my
P.T.A fee. You can imagine! Why would a student be beaten for some school fees,
when the teachers know, quite well, that his parents are responsible for such.
It is never in the power of the student owing to pay. Pathetically, students
are no longer sent home with letters of reminder, but scars to remind their
parents that they still owe their schools. The latter is not the subject matter
here, but something to hammer on later.
Now, if you ask my point of view,
I would tell you that the proprietor and his ‘traditional’ school management are just being somewhat primitive.
The issue of relationships or love affairs cannot be handled with cane or thorough
punishment. It worsens it and even makes the hearts of the illicit lovers
hardened. These children are so naïve and new to the world of affections.
However, the law of anatomy demands that when a child is fifteen , he/she
begins to relate what they have seen in the relationship between their parents,in
movies, stories, novels, such as Romeo and Juliet, etc. with the relationship
between them and their classmates, neighbourhood friends, church/mosque peers,
and so on. If his/her parents have made it a tradition to always peck each
other’s forehead before dinner and when departing for work places, the child
will roger that signal and would not want to wait in practicing it with his/her
selected friend. At this growing stage, a child only has to assume he/she is
already in a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship with his/her preferred friend. No wonder, if you could
recollect from you teenage hood, we fight our close friends because they have
started talking or playing with another person that we did not trust, and when
we were asked, maybe by an elderly person, the cause of our malice, we would
not be able to give reasonable reasons, why.
Do not let us forget also that it
is at this age, and older, that every
child realizes how wicked their parents are. They would complain more on how their
parents usually beat them without letting them give explanation to justify their
actions. They are not allowed to solicit for their cause, and so, they will
begin to find a way to emancipate from this so called ‘parental slavery’. That
is why; if you have not forgot your teenage hood, a child would be very happy
to spend his/her holidays with his/her liberal aunties or uncles because they
just want to be free! I remember crying when I was denied a visit to my uncle’s
place after my Junior WAEC. They just want to be away from home. They would not
want to be with someone who has the right to punish them without explanation.
So, coupled with this fact, every
child would like to have a special friend, mostly opposite sex, in whom their
solace is found whenever they are not given food as a punishment at night, or
lunch pocket money at break time in school, maybe because some had broken plates
in the morning, and so on. In this kind of a relationship, they only assume
they are in love. None of them will be able to come out blunt with the words,
“Will
you be my girl?” or “I’m in love with
you”.
Unlike the adults’. They sometimes, indirectly
express their feelings in messages and complimentary cards. You find concluding
words like,
“…To the
one my heart longs” Or “…success to
my rose”, etc.
The word, LOVE will be too heavy for them to use, except they are quoting
from love notes, movies or literatures. At this point in time, some parents,
guidance, and teachers apparently commit the mistake of extinguishing a fire
outbreak with pure petrol. They would rather impose than hear their children
out, at least for once. They see their children as ones trying to grow wings
beyond parental guide. They dogmatically impose the kind of friendship they
want their children to keep without giving any reason, because they believe
their children are nobodies to ask, “daddy
why?” or “mummy please, listen to
what I have to say.”
Funny enough, these kids cannot
be dogmatically corrected by this kind of parents, guidance or teachers. They
only worsen the situation. In a situation like this, no cane is better than the
WORD: I mean advice. Where is the place for counselling and guidance in our
secondary schools these days? Pitiably, we no longer have offices for counsellors
in our modern day schools. How hilarious! There is nobody to advise the
students on career in our secondary schools. No wonder every student from the
department of Arts would say, “I want to
study law”; the ones from Science department would say, “I want to study Medicine” while
Commercials would only “want to study Business
admin.”Please tell me; are those the only courses in the University? But
because, the idea of counselling and guidance has gone into extinction to catch
a grenade, we no longer have that teacher who a student can walk up to for
things bothering him/her as concerns academics, relationship, career, etc. No
teacher would want to give the students a listening ear, all they take delight
in doing is batter, flog and inflict more pain on the injuries of the students.
A child that claims to be in a relationship should be told the facts he/she
needs to know about the decision he/she is about to make. Counsellors should be
able to advise students about how our choices in life, as humans, later sum up
to make or mar our future. Let every secondary school restore the office of
counsellors and stop using canes where brain is needed.
