THE NOSE CONSTRUCTION

When i was told to make a speech about my brother on his birthday, I chose to say little. One because my beloved nephews and niece were there. I did not want them to think I was an ogre, always beating up their father. Hahaha, I also did not want them to think their father was a victim instead of my co gladiator. You see it took them years to believe that I was older than their Father was. I could move from beloved big mummy to a troll and wicked big mummy. Ayam donfor!

As I said in Nose construction that my brother and I were gladiators. Our fights were legendary. The battleground was the NOSE. We drew sword over mundane things, we were both stubborn, resolute, and unyielding, we do not back down. Slow reading caused confiscation of novels. He wanted everyone to read in supersonic speed like him. I withheld books while he seized books. Reading a book in his presence was dangling a carrot before a hare. However, as we grew older we fought less, buried our heads more in books and he became a raconteur of mind-boggling anecdotes.

My brother Gbenga was in space age ahead of his peers. He invented convincing stories we believed! We lapped up the stories wide eyed. He was so convincing we had no reason to doubt him, even me his squaring partner in the ring. His imagination was so generative that he used us as audience to write verbal scripts.

He told us incredible stories that were as astonishing as they were surreal. He delved into areas we were nonprofessionals and regale us with believable stories that overwhelmed us! He always had serious expression on his face that did not display any suspicion of multiplicity! His inventive stories were actually space age. For example, he could tell us that a ship had been invented to fly. He could tell us that the ship used a device to stay on air by using a scientific mumbo jumbo to describe the device to confuse us! He used his microbiology knowledge to pull Guitar strings with our brains. We were not science inclined so we swallowed them hook, line and sinker. Hahaha.

He was busted one day while telling us his mind-blowing stories as usual. My other brother Mekafiye Klem whom we refer to as compendium of knowledge walked in just in the middle of his believable space-age stories. That day Gbenga was demystified!

You would think he would care that he was busted but instead Gbenga just collapsed on the floor laughing uproariously, holding his sides.

I was gobsmacked! Chai, so this guy has been playing Ping-Pong with our brain? Sometimes I think it was a little bit of payback for those years I tormented his nose. hahahaha

If someone else had done the busting and not my brother Mekafiye, I would have sworn with all I had that the stories were true! Ever since then if Gbenga told me something, always ever so convincing, I went searching for my other brother to ask “ngbo Klem….” Therefore, each time I said “ Ngbo klem” my other brother would say “Gbenga tun ti so story fun e abi? (Gbenga has told you some space-age stories again abi?). Hahahaha.

It became a habit for me to verify whatever Gbenga told us because you never knew if he was serious or he was writing a verbal script from his head again.

Dan’iska as the Hausa folks would say. He was never fazed when contradicted. He would just laugh, pick his books and walk away with a gait that taunted that gave you options, to be angry or laugh depending on your mood!

Looking back today, I think Gbenga was just having a kick exhibiting his witty and humorous nature. He was confident in his mischief. That prolific imagination has translated into wonderful fiction and non- fiction narratives in newspapers and magazine.

Self-confidence is one of his outstanding attribute, a wrong perception people always see as arrogance. You find humour in his gait; it dances around his eyes when he walks that is also often mistaken for pride. He did not acquire that walk; he had always walked that way as a baby learning to walk. He approaches issues with self –assuredness.

Today, my brother has become someone I also say “ngbo Gbenga” when I want to verify issues. No more spinning tales for me.

However, watch out for 50 shades of X!