By Mahdi Haliru
Five years or so in Crescent Int'l school have been the most memorable in my life. I've had plenty of good times as well as just as many bad times. It does'nt always feels good to remember bad memories. The only thing i can say is that i learned and the most important thing is not just that i learned through the books, but i learned about life and the road ahead of me... as well as having much fun.
It all began in primary 5A, later JSS 1A,
2C, 3A, and then SS1A. Well err... i'm not being egocentric here, but the 'A'
classes were always the best and most pleasant. The 5A form master - Mss
Maimuna, was one of the best teachers in the world. She stood by and encouraged
not only me, but all other students regarding issues mainly on our academic
performance. She had this cardboard chart on the wall of the class beside the
blackboard (there was no whiteboard then) on which she had the names of all the
students in the class. Beside each student's name are tiny little boxes of
which she (award) adhere tiny golden stars(stickers). These commendations were
based on academic performance, decency, among others.
She was also the one who took us to our
first ever school field trip to Dangote flour mills sharada - where we saw and
learned how the company operates. There were actually little or no dull moments
with Mss Maimuna... She was simply the best.
It was also that same academic year we had
the Alliance Francais event. "Annual day" they call it, but i guess
it never happened again ever after that same day. It was really a memorable
event and we had lots of fun.
The good moments continued in the junior
section. It was where i met the good, the bad and the bad... It was the era we
had soo much fun that i sometimes forget my main purpose in school. We make our
day bright by cracking corny jokes while teasing some of our classmates and
even teachers and other staff. oh yeahh.....that was our hobby. We also like
troubles. We don't 'look for trouble'.... we 'create troubles'.
When the classroom is quiet, we act the
funnily drama to make everyone laugh which causes noise. Though we sometimes
get caught - often by the 'friendly, outgoing and easygoing' P.H.E teacher.
Although he's friendly, but the truth of the matter really is Mr. Bada is also
very bad! He had this cane... very short and tiny, but brutal which he stroke
severely on the buttocks.
The crew then in JSS 3A were the back
benchers (dont wanna mention names). In every 'activity' we do, we always have
teamwork and this made us closer. If we become really out of ideas, we ask
anyone nearby and we just rephrase it or get ideas from their ideas. We look
smart when we do that.
Day by day we do the same thing. Annoy the
teachers with crazy, yet funny things we do. I was never short of stories. Our
driver had this tape of Malan
Lawan Kalarawi - a religious funnily preacher. So he plays it in the
car on our way to school and back. Humorous i was then, i picked many funny
quotes and often share them with the back benchers. It was the period i was
nicknamed Kalarawi.
We carried along the trend to senior school - the only difference was i was better equipped with criminals. We were in the art class. There was a teacher who took us the 'fine art' n subject and was also a strict displinarian... Mr Vitalis. He severely punished us at the expense of any irregularity; detention, sweeping classrooms after school hours... name them. This same man was a native of Jos - Plateau state and often travelled during holidays. So this time came within a day or two in the first week of resumption and Mr. Vitalis was yet to resume. There were series of violence that erupted in the city of Jos as at that time which left many people feared dead... on a fateful morning the next day, we met (with my crew of course). We hoped Vitalis was dead... killed in the crisis. Infact we planned to burst into laughter the moment Mr. James will break the sad news on the assembly ground. We sometimes tend to be evil huh?? I just hope he'll read this piece so he'll be less harsh on subsequent students.
There are actually a lot of memories -
it'll be very hard to narrate all. Another highlight was 'we' cheating in
government classwork/test. It's no new fact that Crescent sufficiently overwork
its students to make them feel they have come to the greatest school in the
world. Government material was much which required a lot of reading and
readingeverything was a great challenge. In efforts to scale through, we
summarise key points in tiny fonts in-between lines of the previous
classwork/test we wrote so that when ideas turned off, we flip to the previous
pages to get the solutions. Perhaps in cases when we get caught, there were
"Kururu Kerere" arrangements with Mr. Solomon... I don't even know
what that means.
The sad moments began after my sad exit
from Crescent. I start to miss my close friends a few days after. Although it
was temporary, we still met outside-school activities. But i did missed them
terribly - the network of friends, the atmosphere, the sight and sound and
smell, the hustle and flow, the appetising and moreish expository essay, the
never-ending jokes, the signing of eachothers shirt on the last fay of school
and many more... i could go on and on.
Everyday, i hope and pray that eachone of
us is alive in great health and wealth. The agony of not knowing someone is
living or dead is a daily torture, the uncertainty of life's future
relationships hangs in limbo. Hopes rides roller coaster - yet each day must be
lived. I just hope and pray that we meet again sometime in the near future.
Before i go, i will like to pray for the
reposed soul of 'Goggo Zubaida'.... May Allah grant her eternal mercy... Ameen
#OkBye
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