Godwin Adindu
You might never know that there is life after the day until you have dared to step out into the night. Apapa promised and offered a life in the dark.
One night, after the SUNDAY PAPER had gone to bed, we decided to launch into the dark, into an adventure that revealed another world outside of the Newsroom. Call it a journey of discovery! Our Editor, Ndaeyo Uko, had made some provision.
Here we were, at a SPOT called WAZOBIA, with Muyiwa Akintunde, Deputy Editor, leading the way. I remember Yemisi Fadairo , Gboyega Bello, Sola Lawal, the ever restless creative writer and Edo-born Joseph ( I can’t remember his surname now) and others, were willing souls that night. Joseph had served in the ARMY and used to regale us with stories of his escapades in the military and his belief in the awesome powers of Prophet TB Joshua of blessed memory.
WAZOBIA was a land of freedom, a place that accommodated the fallen nature of man, where morality was outlawed. It was a circle surrounded by bars and casinos. Here, the carnal instinct took preeminence over the spiritual and the strength of self-control broke down like an ice in a furnace. Something inside conquered the self.
Under the glowing red light of that night was a large specimen of art exhibition of mother nature. They lined the streets in short spaces, female types of all shapes and sizes in stiff competition to capture a prey. They flaunted their unique selling points and their special endowments. I shivered as my eyes caught a ripe-mango-like breast popping out of the chest of a young, slender girl and glittering with the red light on the streets. Another flagged open her short, skimpy skirt to show us her pantless inside. She glanced at us steadily as she raised up her dress for us to have a good view and savour the joy that could be ours. At another corner close to me was a huge, imposing one, with a basin waist and a face that has seen many moons of pancake. I supposed she meant to pounce at me, so my heart skipped. I could feel my heartbeat drumming. I didn’t need any premonition that I was in a danger zone. But, the night Angels of WAZOBIA were essentially harmless
I would soon affirm their innocence as we took our seat round a table in one of the bars. A loud music was blaring and the Angels were on the floor. One wriggled her body, swang her waist, kicked her legs, shrugged her shoulders and twisted herself to the rhythm of the soul-lifting music and mistakenly (so I thought) lost her motion and collapsed on my laps. Everybody was aghast but her colleagues laughed and continued in their dancing as if nothing happened. I had expected one of them to offer a helping hand to their friend and pull her out of my laps. They ignored us and watched me wrenched under her weight and under a burning emotion.
I looked in the direction of my boss, the Deputy Editor, and he smiled and said to me: ” Godwin, that is a story for next week. I want you to file in that story by Wednesday ” Then, another Angel that was sitting at a corner walked boldly to Joseph and begged for the cola nut in his hands. Joe tore the kola into two and gave her one. Was it really the kola she wanted? “Joe you have to submit your own story on Thursday”, the Editor hollered from his corner.