THE FEAR-FEAR WARRI BOY

 

I was thinking this morning.... Growing up in Warri was tough and rough but it never really made me a man of steel. Yes, I grew up in the rugged neighbourhood of Ogboru and Father Healy streets, occassionally mingling with 'jagudas' and 'boma boys,' yet I couldn't pick up the jaguda gene. I participated in all the rough plays and even danced ulaga, but I remained a fear-fear, because in the face of trouble, or like we say, when yawa gas, I was one of the first to flee.

Years went by, and I had to leave Warri for University in Benin City. On arrival in Uniben, I identified with other Warri boys, but that was only with regards to hailings. When it came to playing tough and rough, the fear-fear boy would not be there. My liver dey cut me. My roommates in Hall 2 hostel knew me as a Warri boy, but they also knew that I was only Warri by mouth and had no liver. They knew that the jaguda Spirit Warri boys were known for had no accommodation in me.

With that knowledge, they looked down on me, taunted me, and downright disrespected me. When that happened, I would talk tough and sometimes threaten them, like a typical Warri boy would've done. But then, my words amounted to nothing because, like we say in Warri, 'threaten na water, action dey blood.'

This continued for a whole year. I kept threatening them but never backed my words with action. Until one fateful day, the bulies took their insolence to a new high. They broke into my locker and plundered my Cabin biscuit and butter. When I asked why they did that, they laughed at me and said I should do my worst. All they saw before them was the fear-fear Warri boy.

As they laughed at me, I fumed, but still my muscles remained weak. Suddenly, it seemed the spirit of jaguda and boma combined, had rushed into me. I moved towards one of them and, like someone possessed by strange spirits, gave him a blinding, brain re-setting slap. Everyone one of them was in shock. They couldn't believe that the fear-fear Warri boy truly had jaguda in him. I walked away that day fully satisfied that my 'Warri-ness' was not a fluke.

My bullies, on the other hand, learnt a hard lesson. In the face of danger, oppression, or adversity, people become what they never knew they were. Don't push people to the wall with your evil. You might get an unexpected wotowoto. On the flip side, if you don't challenge yourself, you will never realise what you can achieve. Romans 5: 3-5.

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey