A toast to my brother at 68, By Kehinde Bamigbetan

Former Ambassador to Cuba, Senator Segun Bamigbetan Baju is 68 today. This occasion brings so many memories of growing up under his tutelage that I will have to select the most profound if this piece is not to end up as a book.

My earliest recollection took me back to the room. In the one storey building that our father, Mr. ( yes Mister because he did not like Chieftaincy titles) Gabriel Olaobaju Bamigbetan built at 35 Ojoyin Street, Ile-Ife In 1955, the ground floor had three rooms to the right as you walked in. One of the rooms was a parlour which opened into the bedroom. The last room was the pantry where you had everything that had to do with dining- utensils, water pots and pots and pots of meals and soups. The kind of operations that took place here, inspired by the slightest feeling of hunger, will be a story for another day.
What I remember, is that to the left, as you walk in, are three other rooms. The first was let out as a shop. Yet it still opened into another bedroom as decided by the tenants who it seemed to have been allocated to serve. The tenants- Ababa Ade, Bonny Photos- were always jolly good fellows.
Then there remained the room, opposite the pantry. Indeed, once you passed the room and the pantry, it was fairly okay to believe that you had left the main building and entered, by descending the concrete steps, into the backyard.

I was enjoying VIP treatment as the only child appointed to sleep on Daddy’s bed upstairs every night until when Brother Segun returned from Lagos and moved into the room. And before I knew it, I was posted to be with him. Brother Segun worked as a teacher in one of the secondary schools in town. This would not have been difficult at all. As the Full Time Member of the Ife/Ijesha Central Schools Board, Daddy was one of those responsible for employing and posting teachers. He was convinced that, Teaching was the most responsible starting point for anyone who wanted the best of life.

Brother Segun took my “posting” as the opportunity to brush me up and improve my civilisation. Our father was a disciplinarian who was liberal with canes. Brother Segun liked to knock my big head to make his point.

He would always forewarn me before the inevitable error and penalty. For instance, he would show me how to hang a shirt and explain why the shirts should face the same direction on the wooden hanger. Either out of playfulness or absent -mindedness, I always mixed it up. And paid with knocks on the head.

There were many things to learn from our brother who had just returned from Lagos-personal hygiene, comportment in public, dressing confidently. I later learnt that even before he travelled, he had defined his taste for good things so much that my mum, being the junior wife who was traditionally barred from calling the children she met in the family by their names, had given him “Ajisafe” ( the one who wakes up to make merry).
Brother Segun did not disappoint. His fair, handsome, youthful face wowed women. Though not known to be regular at any gym till date, he is divinely blessed with slim, spry stature that disguises his age.
When he moved back to Lagos and began a thriving career in Insurance, it was only logical that the bond in the room would find room in the new destination. Moving from Ife to Lagos to spend my holidays became a regular pattern and he showed me how to survive in Lagos by giving me holiday jobs as clerical assistant at his company, S.Talbot Insurance Brokers (later STC Insurance Brokers). Other times, I supplied file cabinets to offices on the island. I learnt how to spot business opportunities and work to make money on the side.

In 1981,I took JAMB for the first time. I applied to study History, scored 295 and was admitted. He was very excited. He got a Subaru and promised that I would resume with it. I was already developing the swagger of an oppressor when WAEC struck. A few subjects were not released and I could not make the 5 credits that year. And so I lost the chance.

Later, I gained admission to the university to study the same History. He took every opportunity to spoil me. He would often be upset that I was not asking for enough money. So I would wait for the book fairs and request for money. And then, the showers of rain would come. Then, with some swagger, I would pick as many as 20 books and cart them home to read.

When I graduated and was deployed to Cross River State to serve, I made enquiries on the cost of travel by car. But trust my brother, he would not hear of it. He got me a ticket to travel by air from Lagos to Calabar. It was my first time on the big bird.

I can go on and on to count the good that my brother has done and continues to do to support my struggles.

Let me stop here to thank him for his generosity and love. To pray for long life in greater prosperity and to assure him, as the Lord that he serves, lives, the best is yet to come.

Happy birthday, my brother, my friend!

-Bamigbetan is a former Lagos State Commissioner of Information & Strategy