The don port oooooo! All good things must end, and everything that has a beginning must have an end. Some have a sense of an ending and some don’t. And so to the plush and magically enchanting Oriental Hotel this last penultimate Friday for an evening of songs and reception for Obiageli Anubi who turned sixty and retired as the General Manager (Legal Services) of the Nigerian Ports Authority after decades of exemplary and dedicated services to her fatherland.
After the cold blizzards of Christmas in dreary England, and after ventilating on the dire plight of Nigeria for hours on end, snooper decided that a fresh breath of air was in order and in fact imperative. It surely takes a glutton for punishment to continue ruminating at the keyboard for hours on end about the woes and woe-betide misfortunes of Nigeria. If one does not want to go mad and start attacking the computer in misdirected anger, there must be a backup escape plan.
And so the exquisite pile of Oriental Hotel beckoned on a cool and pleasant evening after a church service at TBS which snooper avoidably skipped. There was class and what the French called élan. It was a long time yours sincerely heard such beautiful and sonorous singing. The orchestra was as accomplished as it was sophisticated, switching fluidly and seamlessly from jazz, local music to the classical music of the haute couture. And yet it was an entirely Nigerian cast. Will good music eventually save Nigeria? A beautiful lady sitting next to snooper whose identity must remain a secret casually remarked that the enraptured pianist looked like he was about to have what the French discreetly and elegantly describe as la petite mort. Ou la la!!!!
The National Youth Service is arguably the military’s greatest legacy to modern Nigeria. It all looks like yesterday, but it is almost forty years ago in Uwani, Enugu and the old East Central state that it all began. As usual, the ubiquitously urban snooper was drinking and philosophizing away at a nearby joint chillingly called Mess 87 when intelligence report came that a group of female undergraduates had arrived for a party at the youth corps quarters nearby.
Yours sincerely, reeking of alcohol and cheap tobacco , rushed posthaste to the scene only to find that he had been comprehensively out-generalled by the duo of Jide Anubi and Sola Alabi a.k.a Shaft. One thing led to the other and Oby, one of the undergraduates from the Enugu law Campus of the UNN, eventually became Mrs Anubi.
Almost forty years after, the sleek and elegant lawyer in training has transformed into the matriarch of the Anubi family and a proud and steely-looking grandmother to boot. Last Friday, Engineer Anubi, trying to rub salt in an old wound, cheekily reminded snooper of his mortal loss. Get off my back, young man.
Perhaps the most pleasing and value-laden remark of the night came from a friend of the Anubis who noted that the celebrant radiated happiness and fulfillment because she left office with her integrity and reputation intact, unlike many of her predecessors in the same office. It will be hard to beat that as a testimonial. Here is wishing Mrs Anubi a great time in retirement.
