I just watched a movie – Spare Parts and I can vividly relate with the story.
It reminds me of the days when we struggled to set up a University of Ibadan chapter of SIFE (now ENACTUS).
I remember the politics around registration with the students’ affairs, the recruitment process and boy, the participation in the National competition for the first time.
Initially, my cofounder and I had a disagreement on whether to participate or not. While I believed the debut would entrench the team within the University and in SIFE Nigeria, my partner felt we should wait another year as we were barely few months old.
I insisted and together with a few disciples, we set out to implement some projects that could be presented at the nationals. My sense was that the feedback, success and challenges would prepare us for the bigger stage in the coming years. I remember going to visit my grandfather whose house is within the hilly Oke Aare area of Ibadan. While I was willing to say hello to grandpa, I actually needed the shots from his balcony to introduce our presentation from the premier university located in the brown roof city of Ibadan.
The next hurdle was to secure the university’s permission to participate in the competition. We needed a travel permit and a waiver for the participants who would miss their examinations scheduled for the same dates of the competition. After long negotiations in the DSA’s office, none of our requests were granted. By this time, it was almost 4pm, the even of a competition that was to commence in Abuja by 8am the next day. Not even the intervention of the Country Director would change Prof’s mind.
Thankfully at 5:30pm, we left NNPC mega station in Ibadan having filled the tank of a students’ bus which I secured with a strong face (ogboju) and we were headed for Abuja. Let me add that I’m the only one on the bus who has been to Abuja before (just once though).
Some minutes before midnight, we got to a dead end within what I believed to be Kogi State. The only set of ‘creatures’ (who appeared to be human beings) we saw could neither speak English nor Yoruba. How then do we retrace our steps to the road? The bus was drenched in rain and the leaky roof was already exposing some occupants to the cold temperature of rain water.
As though I had a map in my head, I requested that we make a detour and in no time, we were in Obajana- a more familiar terrain. Sitting in the front passenger seat, I observed that the fuel gauge blinked the first orange light. Fuel don enter reserve!
All through this, I tried not to imagine that our co-competitors would either be enjoying sound sleep in their hotel rooms or rehearsing their presentations. How do I wake people who have almost twist their necks in a bid to catch some sleep in the cold rain to rehearse their scripts? On an empty stomach? No way! The urgent task at hand was to get some fuel to continue the journey so I chose to focus on that. Meanwhile, I instructed the driver to park by the roadside so we don’t exhaust the fuel before securing more.
After wandering for a long time in the ‘wilderness’, luck shone on us as we were directed to a black market where we bought 30 litres for some ridiculous amount(about 5 times the normal price). We resumed the journey at about 3 am and by 6 o clock (2 hours) to the kick-off time, we were at the venue.
Did we participate in the competition? Yes
Did we win? No
Were we fulfilled? Yes
Did we die? No
Are we better for it? Yes
PS: the picture might not do justice to how we felt being at the SIFE Nationals. The look might betray the joy in our hearts. However, the joy, the smiles, the laughter and jubilations of any UI ENACTUS team member that stands on the podium at the National competition is the reason we endured that pain.
I recently received a notification that this year’s competition would be held online and I just smiled, filled with the nostalgia of our sojourn, 12 years ago.
