A chat with my in-law made me see what I should write. Jokingly he had asked what I was up to and if I had any plans for the day. I had not responded when he asked “is there a cinema in Ibadan?” I laughed so really hard without responding, I just kept laughing so hard. I laughed so much because that was the exact question I had asked around 3 years ago when my office in Lagos requested my colleague and I to open a branch of the Legal Department in Ibadan, I was to be in Ibadan for a period of 3 months before returning. My immediate answer was “NO” because I thought they were sending me to a “dead town”. I had once attended a camp meeting when I was 10 years old, the vivid picture of Ibadan displayed in my head was that of a very big town with lots of brown dirty roofs, old looking houses, lots of hawkers and mad men living on the streets, and all that. My colleague was willing to explore and try something new but I didn’t want to, so my answer was still NO.
After much contemplation, I said to myself, “Ibadan might be as local and boring as I pictured but all I really need is a nice hotel to lodge or a good service apartment, a good church, somewhere like a mall to get stuff I need and I guess movies”. So I decided to Google “is there a cinema in Ibadan”, “are there malls in Ibadan”, “is there shoprite in Ibadan” “best place to live in Ibadan” “hotels in Ibadan” “pictures of Ibadan” . . . and a lot more. . . how so hilarious. When I eventually accepted to come to Ibadan I told some of my friends and they also had lots of questions like I did and it always ended with “how will you cope or survive in that town”, “would you come to Lagos for weekends?”, “how will you have fun?” “I hope you would not come back acting like those local people?” and it goes on and on.
As we drove to Ibadan to resume work I kept trying to talk myself into accepting what my new life might be for the next 3 months. Later in the week, we hooked up with an old friend who took us to the movies at Ventura and I was flabbergasted that Ibadan had something of such interest and excitement. In the course of the week, we visited a few other places and drove around a bit. Ibadan has 3 malls with cinemas, bowling section, Chinese restaurants, lounges, cold stone ice cream, perfumery, lovely shops and much more. So I had to take back all the not so pleasant things I had said about Ibadan. Ibadan is not what I thought it was. Now let me tell you the untold story of Ibadan . . . To be continued
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