Chidimma Ugbojiaku
I grew up in Apapa, during a relatively unstable political period (late 80’s to 1999). That period was mainly marked by military dictatorial regimes. Nonetheless, this never hampered on the good times I had as a kid. There were frequent power outages and life was hard economically for the poor and lower-middle class families. But you know, a kid, you never really feel the brunt of these issues, as your priority is Play!
So as far as childhood memories go, who else was excited about Sunday evenings in their Naija home?
Well, I was always super ecstatic about Sundays. From going to Apapa Amusement park after church with my parents and siblings, then getting home at past noon to watch “Sunday Rendezvous” on NTA. Whilst my parents continued to Ikoyi club for meetings, my sisters and I would continue to Mama Sunday’s place to make the mandatory hair style for the week (usually called out by our school Head Girl on Fridays), then return to Uncle Jimi Solake’s Storyland on NTA, followed by Hot Cash (Willy-Willy) at 8pm, before my Dad takes over the TV for Frank Olize’s Newsline at 9 pm.
Now back to Willy-Willy, the sitcom everyone hated to watch but watched anyway. For all you millennials who are too young to know what willy-willy was, I will quickly explain, lol. It was a semi-horror drama series which chronicled the diabolic tale of an unfortunate young man popularly called Willi-Willy. Out of desperation, Willy-willy’s uncle sacrificed him in a money-making ritual.
Willy-Willy was the Freddie Kreuger of the early 90’s, dreaded by every child and even some adults too! Every Sunday after the show, it became nearly impossible to get any task done in the house, as my brothers would not stop terrifying us with more gory stories of Willy-Willy, and how we could get tortured by the character, if we don’t share our dinner with them. This dreaded drama series led to some of us bed wetting on Sunday nights, due to fear of being visited in the bathroom by Willy-Willy. Amidst this scary sitcom ‘wahala’, the Movie Ultimate Power (Agbaranla – Ayamatanga) premiered! Sigh… story for another day!
There were other TV series we loved to watch but two of them have stuck more than the others. One was Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – which girl didn’t have a crush on Will Smith? Argh! And then Demsey and Makepeace. (My mother ended up naming my baby brother Makepeace! *inserts tears* this happens when you have too many kids, and run out of names)
Another fond memory of growing up in my Naija home was our Saturday morning experience. Back then, Saturdays were for pap and moi-moi or akara, with Our Lady’s bread which my Grandfather never failed to send down on Friday’s from Onitsha. Saturday’s were quite stressful for me, because we were always expected to clean the entire house, do dishes and then laundry (not without my Mother in between chores dishing out prep talks to my sisters and I. “if you hug a boy, you will get pregnant!’’
We would finish our chores before 10am and then take turns to shower in preparation for Saturday TV binging. After lunch on Saturdays (we mostly had beans and yam with smoked fish for lunch) I would play a bit of football with my 4 brothers, until it was time to watch Telematch on NTA at 4pm (Telematch was a German game show on NTA). After Telematch, there would be a marathon sports review on TV stations until 6pm.
Saturdays were also compulsory movie night in our home. We would tune into DBN (after we must have adjusted our antenna for clear signals), then try our luck on calling in to the TV programme (using our defunct NITEL line) to pick our movie of the night. I never was a late-night person, and I remember how my siblings would laugh at me for picking the best movies and sleeping off 5 minutes into the movie.
As a Nigerian adult, I honestly would like to unsubscribe from this adulthood. I miss my Mother’s Friday night jollof rice with pork ribs, going to play Tennis with my Dad at the Apapa club, going for inter-house sports competition, travelling to my hometown with my Dad and listening to great hits from Abba, Osadebe, Fela, Victor Uwaifo and Jim Rex Lawson serenade the entire trip, with intermittent naps and watching kiddie vision 101 without a care in this world.
It was a potpourri of experience growing up in Naija. Now as an adult, I have to pay Lekki toll fee twice in a day, pay for DSTV subscription, I don’t even get hand-outs from my Uncle’s any more (you know how they always gave us crispy notes and Mum would request to save it for us….as per UBA!). I can’t even dance in the rain without my nieces thinking I am an overgrown aunty. My cousins “in the abroad” no longer buy me pink shoes and a matching tutu! Whoever lied to them that I am all grown now.
As an 80’s baby (yes, I am still a baby don’t argue with me), regardless of your socioeconomic status, we all saw things work as they were said and meant to work. Portable water taps gushed at almost every distance between two electric poles, there were no sachets or even bottles. There was no need as the quality was safe and world class.
What of the ritual Christmas cloth? (my parents had 7 of us, so God help you if you misbehave before Christmas. That would give my Dad enough reason to cut you off the shopping list), late Christmas shopping by my parents at Balogun market and the sound of fireworks during the Festive period.
I get nostalgic thinking of my childhood when my biggest problem was which sand in the left area of our compound would I play on, or if NEPA would restore power before 4 pm so I could watch Voltron, Sesame Street and SuperTed on NTA.
Suffice it to say then that the generation of Nigerians born and bred between 1980 and 1989 had the best childhood experiences……lol, just kidding.
What do you miss most about growing up in Naija? Please share below.
