Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Coltech, Now Federal Polytechnic, Nekede




The program at the School of Business and Public Administration lasted for academic years. I spent most of that period traveling with bands or recording albums for different artists. I was out of town almost every weekend on tour with one group or another. I was also performing live shows in different cities during that four-year period. I will hold off on exactly how many days that I spent on that campus. I want to recollect, though that one day, someone had a party in the Old Market Road Hostel where I lived as a student. Girls were trooping in there for that party, and the porters did not stop them. It did not really matter to me, but one day two girls came to visit me and four of my class mates living in the hostel, but the porters said to me that it was past the time for visits. I referred them to the night that girls were trooping into the hostel, but the porters said that the party was organized by the hotel governor. I shouted 'Hostel Governor!!!!' I imagined me as a star musician, but a student in a higher institution. I did not believe in obstacles. I told them that I was going to become the hostel governor and have parties in the hostel in just that same way. They knew me. They loved my music. They respected me, and did not have any problem with my ambition. The next hostel governor was me! I chose the largest room (which I was entitled to, of course). I moved my closest classmates into that room called Governor's room. They were Dyke, Ugonna, Solo Petrus and Chyma. Whenever I traveled out of town to play music, I would first of all keep for them a crate of minerals, a carton of beer and every textbook needed for the courses. Whenever I returned from my music tour or recording sessions, I would copy notes from them - the notes that they made while attending lectures in my absence. I lived in a mansion. I had parties. I had guests any time of the day or any time of the night. I did not like the Ikenegbu Hostel. I did not even like the on-campus hostels. They felt like a joke to me whenever I went there to visit my classmates. I went for gyrations in town and out of town. I nominated Dyke for Chief and follow through until the night Dyke became the Chief of the Keggites as I had already become the Metuselah. My friends knew that I was behind it because I brought Dyke into the Keggite Club. When I graduated, I became the MetuFellow. My stay in Owerri was made possible, easy and enjoyable by Chief Dr. Nnamdi Olebara who was with the Imo Broadcasting Service at that time. He also gave me the first exposure to radio broadcasting, and people began to hear my voice on radio.

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