Toluwani Obayan - A Part Of My Story #100DaysOfGrowth

Entry 20 by Toluwani Obayan

In the year 1999 my family and I moved back to Nigeria from the United Kingdom in obedience to an instruction God had given. He also told us that upon our return we would encounter stormy times, we took stormy to mean bad electricity and bad water supply (lol), but those were by far the least of our problems. My sharing here is not going to be about what my family went through but about a personal experience which I very well considered to be a storm as young as I was then.

After we had been back in Nigeria for about two years, I all of a sudden had a strong desire to go to boarding school. One of my friends was attending Federal Government College Ilorin (F.G.C.I) and from the outside it looked like so much fun. My Dad was also a pioneer student of the same school and from all gist he gave me about his fun times etc. I knew I had to go there. Well one thing I did learn after I officially became a student there was that the F.G.C my dad attended was definitely not the same one I was in (lol).

As a girl who still had a British accent and a lot of British expectations, F.G.C initially was not a piece of cake for me. The transitioning into that phase of my life began when I had to cut my hair which had never been cut before (even when I was a baby) truth is that part was fun because it felt like an adventure. Anyway, when I resumed there was something they did called “Period of Grace” During that time I wasn’t given any chores to do, seniors couldn’t send me, and I also found myself hanging with my friend’s friends who where 2 years ahead of me. I was literally living in boarding house bliss. However in the midst of the bliss I saw how my mates suffered. How they were lashed with rubber belts when they did something fundamentally wrong or something that was only wrong in the eyes of a particular senior and towards the end of the period of grace I started getting a taste of the same treatment.  I  would get sent on petty errands (in comparison to my mates) but those petty things were a big deal to me (the chores one does at home can never really be compared to things you get asked to do in boarding school) and several  of my mates in their suffering would tell me that it would be in my best interest not to return after Mid-term. Long story short I got home for the Midterm break and told my mum about my experiences which ended in me weeping profusely and begging not to go back. I cried cried..even when I got tired of crying I refused to stop because I could not allow my parents think for one second that I could cope with it. My mum felt really emotional about the situation but told me that my Dad would have to make the final decision so I went to my Dad with the same tears and he told me after petting me “Toluwani, you do not run away from situations, you face them” and that was it. At that moment my Dad was not my favorite person in the world, but deep down inside I knew what he said was true and after Mid-term there I was resuming with the rest for school. Yes I washed toilets with Maggots (Mum gave me gloves so they called me “Aso Toilet Worker”) Yes I carried metal buckets on my head and in my hand simultaneously when I was sent by seniors, yes I was lashed with painful rubber belts (Learnt how to deal with it by wearing a baggy uniform anytime I sensed a lashing coming my way).  There were times I had to cry out to God and had to console myself with “at least I am alive”, I also lost quite a lot of weight thanks to food conditions, plus hard labor etc.  But by the end of my stay F.G.C.I I had found my way around most things and even learnt how to sincerely love and appreciate my time there.

“You don’t run away from situations, you face them” has been one of the philosophies that have enabled me to grow and overcome in life. When things get hard and I want to give up, it echoes in my head. Truth is the foundation of what my dad told me then stems from the Bible…from verses like “…ye shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and cast into the sea”(Mark11:23), “If I perish I perish” (Esther4:16), Oh king we will not be careful to answer you on this (Dan3:16), “thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lords of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied” (1Sam17:16).

Attempting to face situations alone could give a certain level of victory, but knowing that the battle is the Lord’s will ALWAYS guarantee you victory in the end. I believe that F.G.C.I is a place that God wanted me to go through so I could practically learn the lessons I learnt. 

 I now spend most of my time in Lagos because of work and all. Well I once  told a friend about some of my Lagos experiences, he was  surprised and asked “Who taught you how to hustle like this” after giving it some thought  I replied “I went to F.G.C.I for a bit I guess that has a lot to do with it”.