History of ola olu hospital (3)

Narrow Escape

At the end of June 1969, I set out for Ibadan to purchase a few much needed items in preparation for doing the first clinic in Ola-Olu Surgery on the 1st July, 1969. At Ogbomosho, I sensed that all was not well. The roads were deserted. It was at Ibadan that I learned that a disturbance had erupted at Ogbomosho in which the Oba had lost his life. I was advised to avoid the usual route home but to divert my journey through Ejigbo, which was thought would be safe. It was obvious when I got to Ejigbo that the disturbance had spread there.

The streets were deserted except for fierce looking traditional hunters in their charm-adorned regalia polished with blood. They were dripping with sweat. Dane guns, cutlasses, knives and clubs clattered in the air as the army of rioters approached my car, which I later realised was perhaps the only one out on the street on that dangerous day. In a jiffy they were on me. I begged to be spared and explained my mission. Glittering matchets danced over my head, while gun totting hunters displayed fierce and frightful war dance around my car. One elderly hunter, apparently moved by my helplessness, asked two of the fiercest warriors to sit on the bonnet of my car and pilot me through the town to safety.

Under their protection I drove through the town. When we got to the outskirts of the town my escorts alighted and wished me a safe trip. I sped like a shot. My heart was in my mouth until I got safely back to llorin.

Friends in need

Hard times are a good test of true friendship. Some of my friends rallied round even though they doubted the wisdom of the venture. Some looked at what we were doing as a mad adventure. In a review like this, it is impossible if not undesirable to attempt to catalogue the names of all the friends and relatives that helped. Our benefactors were many.

Two names however, deserve particular mention in this regard. The first is Femi Olugasa (now Reverend Femi Olugasa). I was bestman at Femi's wedding. He in turn played that same role at my own wedding. Realising my financial predicament he sent me in two monthly instalments a sum of fifty pounds. The second is also a childhood friend Olu Adegbola. He too sent me a sum of twenty five pounds as his own gesture of support and goodwill. It is needless to say that these were welcome gifts. They were large sums of money then, particularly when the recipient was fighting a swim or sink battle with his back against the wall.