Do you guys remember the saying about seven friends…
Well, the saying is not true cos last night at the decrepit but expansive grounds of the Yaba College of Technology, the homies met.
The homies are a group of friends who have been friends for over 50 years and who grew up around the Myoung Military Barracks in Yaba but migrated into Shomolu and have stayed friends till today
Last night, Lambert, our natural leader, led me, Ette, Chris, James, Omo, Anyebe and Obote into a night of reverie, mischief and reminiscence of a beautiful youth.
I joined late, coming from Chief Emeka Anyaoku’s 90th, and by that time, they had all finished the first round of fish and were mostly on their second round of beer.
Ben Uche, whose elder brother Simon was a key member and who had passed early, called in.
He is a top-notch at the NDLEA and obviously could not make it.
Chidi an emigre also called in from London in almost tears as he witnessed us laugh and laugh and laugh at the stories of our youth
Oh, my God, the prostitutes. We would gather in a group and match towards a brothel in Bariga, Lambert our leader would share the condoms and we would fan out and reconvene at ground zero like a fire drill and match back to Simons place to share the experience
Simons Place was a chemist shop located at Folami Street off Abiodun Street in Shomolu, where we all met daily.
Simon was the son of a military nurse and he was Bens elder brother who sadly passed on in South Africa
We assembled there every day, playing, Scrabble, fighting, laughing, planning coups, sleeping with girls and just generally being rascally.
Okey, had a room at the back. He was older than us and worked at the fisheries in VI.
His room was a slaughterhouse, many grandmothers of today had their legs opened in that room, and Okey was king.
He was named ‘Obo’ as a result of his almost daily penchant for women. Idong was his 2ic. Idong was tall and handsome and slept with anything he could find, and there were plenty.
We would all gather in front of the shop, and a nubile young lass, usually with no bra, would move in, and we would all do like we don’t know what is happening and be revelling in the sounds of sex.
At times, the girl’s parents would come into the chemist to buy stuff, and we would all keep straight faces as the person’s daughter is being explored either by Obo or Idong.
The stories elicited so much laughter as we all almost choked on our drinks and fish
Stories of ‘Kiri’ abounded. Kiri was the Yoruba word for street hawking
We all hawked to go to school from me with bread, to James with ‘minerals’ to Ette who had to go work in a restaurant from way early on in life to Chris
Lambert escaped. He was a silver spoon and used to just be doing big boy all around the place
The full list of homies included Umoh who is now a pilot, Idong Igbobi my cousin, Idong, Buju, Uche, doc who died, Ben Suit who was neither here nor there, Donnie and some others i cant really remember now.
Sadly, we have lost some of our crew – doc died really early while we were still in Shomolu, Uche, my best man, died early, and idong died.
Buju, Uches cousin, didn’t die but is dead to us. He has been funny and we have alienated him. We think he is in the US but that is his business
The Duchess was the only real integral female member of the homies.
Lambert’s wife, who we later heard was Chidi’s cousin, was a peripheral member.
Ope Foluke’s elder sister was a sometimes member, while Ibukun Foluke’s other elder sister ignored us, and then Yetunde was also an associate member.
We were the ones who being inspired by Lambert did the Scorpio party at the Lekki beach
The Scorpio party changed the social landscape of Shomolu as the whole of Shomolu emptied into the beach.
We moved hundreds of people from as far as Bariga and Akoka and the whole of Shomolu to a day of fun and reverie
Duchess earned her stripes as a bonafide member of the group when, as a just finished secondary school girl, she stood my father in the face who had come to arrest me for going to a night party.
We are now old. In our 50s with different circumstances and spotting different signs of our age- Omo with full beards, Lambert still with his big chest – the chest that made him create history by sparring with Bash Ali, who was then a Heavyweight world champion-me still looking very handsome and Chris with his grey beards.
It was a beautiful night. We had remained friends for over five decades, and even though life had hit us with its positives and its negatives, we drank, laughed, cried and held each other as we looked towards the next 50 years, hopefully in good health, more drinks and no more prostitutes.
Na wa
Duke of Shomolu
