By Chief Olori Magege
When one talks of street experience I know what is being discussed, because I grew up in the street. I grew up in Warri in the mid-60s. I attended and graduated from Urhobo College, Effurun the citadel of street training. Yes, Urhobo College fondly referred to as UCE {pronounced U Say} was the Centre for guy man training, the College where ‘aje pakos’ were prepared to take on the world of risks and uncertainties.
And not just Urhobo College, nearly all the Schools of that time were guy-man centres. To be a guy man was to be street-wise, to be rugged, and street-tough. In other words, you were sufficiently equipped to survive, within the norms and regulations, in the rough terrain of crushing poverty and uncertainties. And we have our rules if you were to become one of us; Group Loyalty, Group Discipline and Group Love was the rule. We were one big family with a common denominator: born into abject poverty.
Our world was a microcosm of the larger society of Wafi {Warri}, Safi {Sapele} and indeed of the Midwest Region of the yore time; a society steeped in the tradition of ‘your words being your bonds’. That was the era when men were men. And it was the era Sheriff Oborevwori was born into in the early sixties.
The nostalgia of that time for us the ‘Aje Pakos’ was palpable. It was the era of Rex Lawson the high-life crooner, Victor Uwaifo the guitar boy and Sunny Ade the juju music maestro; of Jimmy Cliff and Sunny Okosun; of Delta Cinema and New Rex Cinema; of Ginuwa Street and Okoye Quarters; boy-o-boy, where we all lost our virginity and got doses of STD and procaine penicillin jabs.
Sheriff grew up in that environment; of poor but proud parenting, amidst loving brothers and sisters. During that time words like uncles, aunts, cousins were alien to our culture. Anybody not too older than you was your brother or sister, those of your parent’s age were either father or mother. There were no fences, no gates no guard dogs. Indeed where the night met you was home.
It was a harsh environment but we were each others’ keepers. Groups stayed together literally doing everything as a team. We trust each other with our lives and secrets. Betrayals were punished most severely often by group beating followed by ex-communication. And once you were ostracized from your group words would go round quickly to other groups that you were unreliable, untrustworthy, and dishonest. You were pretty well on your own.
So you learned quickly to conform to group values as deviant behavior could spell expulsion, not just from your group but from your community. That was how street discipline was enforced and street values were inculcated.
So to men and women like Sheriff born into the street in that era, there were dos and don’ts that helped shape their formative years to become responsible members of society. When Sheriff says he is street-wise he is talking of the lessons he learned from the baptism of fire he went through as he grew up in the slums of the Warri-Uvwie metropolis; the totality of his experiences of individual survival within peer group; the wisdom he learned as he maneuvered through the uncertainties of life in the jungles of Warri- Uvwie City life.
Ovie Omo-Agege was born into comfort and luxury. He is a son of a great jurist. He didn’t have to ask before he was given. Served by a retinue of house servants, he didn’t know what was called a broom not until he got to Secondary School. Even at Secondary School, he escaped the freshman bully because words got around very quickly that he is a son of a man who could send you to prison. He had money to throw around and he ate foreign biscuits. He also wore jeans and a cowboy hat and boot. His teachers and seniors ran errands for him just to take a bite of the cakes and cookies he had in abundance. That was how he developed the superiority complex, the better-than-thou character trait, and snobbish shoulder-carrying. He became a demi-god who demanded servitude from all and sundry. And he could do no wrong. So when he found himself practicing law in the United States he thought his client’s funds were his to spend at will. He got burnt and convicted. He escaped to Nigeria and changed his name. And that has been the life of Augustine Ovie Omo Agege.
And why is this tale of significance? You see both Sheriff and Ovie are contesting for the highest position of the State and the voting public need to know what each is carrying to the office, how much of society they know, and their disposition to empathy.
When Sheriff hears a child crying of hunger in the night, he knows what the child is going through because many a night, indeed too many a night, he went to bed with nothing in his stomach. Too often he went to School with garri in his pocket and palm kernel nuts to soak at break time.
For Ovie who was served a three-course meal in bed while growing up, such a story is Nollywood make belief. It is pure fiction.
When a child dies of malaria Sheriff knows the pain to the family because he had suffered such losses in his family too. And mama cried un-consolably for weeks. And Sheriff cried too. Malaria was their lot because papa couldn’t afford mosquito nets. But there were no mosquitoes in Senior Service Quarters.
So the tale is there for you to make your choice. It is a choice between day versus night; empathy versus lack of concern, humility versus pride, honesty versus deceit, between loyalty and betrayal. It is your choice for your life and your future generations.
– Magege wrote from Asaba Delta State.
