The second part of this discourse was published in  the Friday edition of Vanguard
By Ogbemi O. Omatete
SHORTLY after the move, I received a letter through my elementary school that I was invited to Government College Ughelli for “a short list examination and interview.”

I told Aunt Oleghenju and showed her the letter, which she took but said very little. A couple of weeks before the scheduled date for the examination and interview at Ughelli, my aunt reminded me about it.

Instead of showing some excitement, I remained indifferent, saying that I had forgotten about it and so was not prepared to go. Aunt must have been taken aback, although she did not show it. Later that evening, I was summoned before an elderly man, Mr. Arayi, in the next compound. I was scared but I knew I had committed no mischiefs lately.

When I arrived, my aunt and other adults were there. Mr. Arayi looked at me and asked, “Youngman, did I hear that you don’t want to go for interview at Ughelli?” I said nothing. “Do you know how many parents are praying for their sons to get this opportunity? Tell me young man, why don’t you want to go?” “I have only my brown khaki school uniform and no other clothes to wear when I go,” I muttered.

Aunt interjected, “So if I bought you new white short and white shirt, you will go?” “Yes,” I said nodding and smiling. “I will buy you the white and white tomorrow. You go and study for the exam and interview,” Aunt continued. That was it.

Common  entrance

I ran home ahead of aunt and picked up the book I bought months earlier for the common entrance. My preparation for the short list examination and interview into Government College Ughelli had commenced.

On the penultimate day to the interview at Ughelli, all excited, I took my bath very early and wore my new white short and shirt and was ready to go to the motor park. When Aunt saw me in my white and white as she handed me my transport fares, she suggested that it would be better to travel in the brown khaki since the white would be easily be soiled. But nothing was going to separate me from my new white and white, so I left for the motor park in it.

I met many boys there travelling to Ughelli, too. We paid our fares and boarded lorries where we sat on un-demarcated wooden planks laid across the lorry, tightly packed like cattle. We rode facing backwards, opposite the direction in which the lorry moved. Our first stop was in Warri where we disembarked at the motor park.

Then we moved to the Ughelli section of the park. Here, there were more young boys milling around trying to travel to Ughelli.  Just like in Sapele, there were no parents with us, unlike nowadays.

Nevertheless, we all took our turns boarding the Ughelli bound lorries. Riding over rugged dirt roads, just like the Sapele to Warri trip, we arrived in Ughelli. With little or no luggage, we walked all the way from the Ughelli motor park to GovernmentCollege premises.

There, in front of me was Government College Ughelli (GCU), magnificent beyond the imagination of a thirteen year-old boy; gorgeously painted buildings everywhere, long two-storey blocks and even longer bungalows, with several large “U” shaped houses and simpler ones behind them, all neatly separated by well-laid out roads and surrounded by beautiful flower hedges and lush green lawns.

The only other place that I thought would compare with it was the European quarters that surrounded the famous African Timber and Plywood (AT&P) Company in Sapele. But then I had never been inside the quarters. Young adults, school prefects, met us and took us to the various buildings (dormitories) where we were accommodated. We ate in the dinning hall, and went to bed. Early the next morning we were awoken and taken on a jogging trip round the campus.

Then, we went to the shower area.  At the back were four showers where you turned a tap and water flowed on you; to the right was a large white enamel urinary, where water flowed regularly to washed it out; and next to them were white enamel wash basins.