Departure and ‘Dream Count’ (1993, IBADAN)
The Ojehs left Nigeria for the U.S in 1993. At that time, Uche and I were in our second year in secondary school. We had heard rumours that something was in the offing, but we chose not to believe our ears. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to leave Ibadan, O.B.C., University of Ibadan. What could be more important in life than rolling tires on Sankore road or playing soccer on fields in Kurunmi?
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Since we didn’t see Uche’s dad for a while, we suspected that he was the one responsible for the sudden departure of the family. Why did the Ojeh parents want to stop their kids from having all the fun that we were having? Eventually, it dawned on me that the rumours were true. A huge part of our existence was going to change. The Ojehs were …… disappearing. “Disappearing” was what it looked like to my feeble mind because “relocation” was not yet in my lexicon.
Our worst fears were confirmed when they left. Between Kunle, Bola, Tominiyi and me, the dreams started. Someone mentioned that they had a dream in which the Ojehs came back to Nigeria. The dreaming became contagious when another person had the same dream. The frequency of the same dream would have made a casual observer wonder if we were training to become priests of the Celestial Church of Christ. Eventually, the dreams subsided, and our lives had to go on. Bola stepped up to play the piano in place of Emeka while Remi and I continued with our lives.
