By
Obododimma Oha
One day, I was on my way to Benin Republic for a conference. I could have taken a flight but I just wanted to go by road and to have some fun.
I had the fun I was looking for in excess and wished that I had the opportunity to do video clips of them. Well, my mind is a kind of video recorder. It recorded this one and can play it back after many years.
I arrived at Seme Border Post in the afternoon and was glad that the long journey was coming to an end. I submitted my passport as others did at the Immigration Counter and waited to be attended to. But I was to wait in vain and forever. At a stage, my passport simply disappeared and couldn't be located. I was alarmed and those sitting nearby nugged me to wake up before it was too late to do so.
But as I was consulting to know how I was to do "something," one lady who turned out to be a savior arrived. A very senior Immigration officer! Salutation everywhere. Salutation was flying around. Some could have even entered my pockets. All the Immigration officials at the counter stood up and at attention, as if electrified.
But this lady greeted me. Even called me "sir." She said loudly that I was her teacher at University of Calabar in those days! She added that I taught her one course and that she passed. But I did not know her. She said that I would not know her for they were very many in enrollment. Yes, a very large class. I remember how the grading of the scripts tortured me and gave me stomach ulcer!
She grabbed my hand and was visibly happy.
That passport that disappeared without any trace resurfaced, was very quickly stamped and was anxiously waiting for me at the Benin end. Who was talking of "something" again? Did that person want to be roasted?
The lady - - I don't still remember her name - - escorted me a bit to the Benin Republic end. People were just looking at me as if I was a strange creature from another planet. "So he was a big man? Thank God I didn't insult or annoy him," I could hear some people saying.
If she had said that I was mean, maybe I would have been declared a terrorist there and then, a terrorist trying to escape, after attacking the police! She would have told those that saluted her to salute me also as a mockery!
That afternoon at Seme Border deserves special attention in an archive. It was an afternoon that one should not forget so easily. The past and the present will always hold hands.
Yes. That was some fun. Was I not the one looking for fun on the road? Was I looking for fun or was fun looking for me? You decide from this experience.
I continued on my journey, which would have ended suddenly. That lady was my past which was following me. Of course, she was the road or the fun of the road.
She was also my passport which emerged when she emerged. She came because I needed her.
Indeed, she was my journey . I traveled to her.
Comments