That Man From Istanbul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPyNQB9ZjZk

ED�s Note: More than 40years after leaving GCI, one would have thought that the Stature of Limitations on all matters that occurred during our tenure in GCI would have expired. Apparently, not so: on some matters, piecing together the information on what really happened had been guarded and sketchy. �That Man from Istanbul� is obviously one of them. Why this is so is unclear. Nonetheless, the picture is a wee bit clearer, from this testimony and other sources:

�In my second year at GCI, I �bolted� (that is, broke bounds at night) and went to watch a movie titled �That Man from Istanbul� with 15 other mates (tagged �The 16 men from Istanbul�). One of us got caught, and he squealed on the rest of us. That night we all got roused from our fake sleeps and caned by the school�s cane master, Mr. Emordi; in addition, we were set to be suspended for 2 weeks as was typical for such acts in GCI at the time. To our surprise, Chief Ojo decided not to send us out of the Boarding house but had us cut grass for 2 straight weeks. My hands were littered with blisters at the end of the first week. Then, out-of-the-blues, my dad showed up. Apparently, Chiefy had informed him about my misadventure. Dad met me with a heavy knock on my head as I prostrated to greet him. The surprise of the knock and my dehydrated state found me dusting the floor with my bum, right there, on the roadside. Clearly, dad was really upset - as he had never done this to me before! However, his next utterance blew me away.

He indicated that he was upset at my stupidity; despite his concerted efforts to make me street-smart since my primary school days. It turned out that dad wasn�t opposed to my bolting but expected me to have known that the likelihood of noticing 16 missing people was too high a risk to take! Dad�s practical advice to me was that, next time, I shouldn�t embark on such an adventure with more than 1 or 2 people. Lesson well learnt: I went on to have many other escapades in GCI usually with 1 or 2 others. More importantly, he taught me at an early age to be discreet and selective with the people I do things with especially if the action is radical or unconventional�.

Deji Otegbeye (�69 � Grier House).