Oya Hold Your Neighbor

Disclaimer: The following narration might be fictional or not.

The year is 2017, and I am sitting on the pavement of my university’s grey-colored entrance gate.

The time is 12:08 am. 8 minutes after the start of general school curfew hours, which means I can neither get into my hostel nor get out of the school. I am not alone, however. I am surrounded by at least 50 other students — males and females from other halls in the school.

How did we get here?

It is the last day of hall week activities for Queens Hall and today was the variety night. There had been a merger between Queens and Zik Hall for the events. 9ice and Skibii had given an amazing performance earlier in the hall. One would wonder how we could afford these artistes’ performance? No idea.

My roommates and I had a grand view of the whole event, as our room in C block was located just above the hall grounds where the event happened. Although the performance was short, it was just enough for us. When 9ice performed ‘Living Things’, the whole hall was in an uproar. Asides the performances, a pageant had happened too. The event ended quite late.

We were at the school gate because an after-party was meant to happen overnight at some club in town. Mind you, this is not the first time we’re leaving school to go club. It is however the first we’d be locked out.

All 50+ of us had assumed the security guards would be gracious to bend the rules because it was socials week. The security guards known as “Abefele” to the students, had told us to go back to our halls before they drove away in the security truck, with the keys to the school gate in one of the guards’ pocket.

We were dressed in white and the babes had makeup on. Clearly with plans to go all out and have a grand ending to our variety night. Some of the boys already had tables waiting for them at the club and they weren’t about to let their spendings go to waste.

Eventually, most of the guys settled for scaling the low portion of the gate. But this would not work for the women who had on dresses and the shortest skirts. The other guys decided to call the guards back and settle them. This worked unsurprisingly. The guards directed us to a portion of the gate where the security cameras couldn’t see us. On opening the gate, we had 15 seconds to run, 10 people at a time.

It was an odd sight, almost like a dash for freedom. Soon enough, we were all outside. I was shocked to see how lively the streets of Agbowo were. Ibadan used to snooze from 9 pm. Almost like it stayed awake for this one night of youthful exuberance. If this wasn’t a sign, what else could be?

We were 7 in my group. Unfortunately, we couldn’t all go together. We had to split into two groups, planning to meet up at the club.

I’m in the front seat, the breeze blew in through the window. I brushed my bob braids to the side and smiled at the side mirror. I had gone through small trouble doing my makeup, as I was still learning how to perfect drawing my brows. This was after all final year and the last chance to experience whatever else the university had to offer.

We sped through Sango, then Mokola, and soon enough we were at Ring Road. The guy driving slowly made his way into the parking lot. I could hear the music from inside. We alighted and some of the girls started adjusting their dresses and makeup. We waited for the other car to arrive.

Fifteen minutes passed and I reached for my phone to call M. She said they passed a longer route. My worry grew a little.

I wanted them to be safe. We could not endanger ourselves on this night out. From the one girl whose parents were in Osogbo, the other one who just got out of psychiatry, the one who didn’t think she was good enough for most things, the one who didn’t have a mind of her own, the pastor’s daughter and then there’s me, the one who likes to live life on the edge.

But hey, who cares? We only get to be this young at this time of our lives. We’ll drink and at dawn, make our way back to our rooms to knock out. But tonight, we’ll have one heck of a night without thinking of our parents’ expectations.

Spotted the other car driving in, and I heaved a sigh of relief. We all gleefully made our way inside.

The final warriors of a weird ass education system.

We got into the club and found a table near the DJ. He was dropping some mad tunes. I brought my phone out to make videos and the club red lights made this nearly impossible. I gave up and thought we might as well live in the moment.

A bottle of Hennessy and mixer with ice to go with it was ordered. Everyone started to ease into the vibes in the space.

“Celo momo, le momo de fek la fete.” Falz screamed from the speaker.

“Oya hold your neighbor, gbe sunmo ko magnet.”

We formed a line, each holding the waist of the person in front of them and we pretended to be magnets. Laughter erupts within our group because we didn’t plan the dance move, and yet we were in sync.

I sat on a leather plush to catch my breath and watched the other girls dance. A satisfactory smile formed on my lips.

12:55am. July 11th.