How I powered the 1st Twins Festival in Nigeria
Between THE USELESS AND WORTHLESS OGUNTOYE TWINS ?
Twins ?
Yes . These set of children God uses to punish their parents who are forced or condemned by tradition to always cook special food for and parade on the streets begging for food.
Twins , mysterious set of weird children who you should not praise and who you should not not curse because causing them is an invitation for them to be your next set of children.
A set of children who demads equal attention , treatment and service from their parents.
Troublesome duo who you Must and Have to replicate , photocopy , photostat and design the same things for them .
Terrible twosome who forced their parents to undergo double tenure of harrowing and excruciating pains at birth.
Useless set of beings who must be fed always with beans Wahala ponbele set of kids who you have no alternative than to apply the same rule to the other.
I hate them with a gush of bile
I hate them with a passion
Twins, never my kind of children and never my kind of people.
And thank to almighty God I had none
And as they sauntered into the Imalefalafia Head office of the Nigerian Tribune around 2008, my bile against the twins rose I stoutly.
Here come the beggars!
Always looking for cheap obligations,
I remember seeing two women.
Rearing two sets of miserable twins
Under the Molete bridge that morning
while the traffic was slow
thought I would be kind enough
to spare just a part of the money.
which I spend on Johnnie Walker, that is Red Label or St Remmy ( not Remmy Martins ) in exotic places
where they reap us off
To cater or buy breakfast or a kongo of Ewa.
to feed these set of twins
whose nobody knows
under proper tutelage
Can be great products
Asset to the nation.
But nobody told them to flee my side
To look elsewhere for help
As my hard, stone face like that of a cunnilingus fellow.
Must have informed them
That this man should be a hater of Twins
, As they planted themselves before me I was expecting the usual.
‘We are the Oguntoye’s Twins”
And so what’s?.
‘We have ideas ”
We want you to help us in crystallising our ideas.
we have dreams
we believe you can be the instrument of turning our dreams into reality
We have a vision.
we believe you will give us the focus
I was dazed
I was happy
I was impressed
I waited patiently for them to tell me their stories
I looked intensely into their eyes
I saw seriousness
I saw determination
I saw hope.
I relayed to them my impression about twins
They realised that I did not dislike the twins as a gift from god
but some obvious traditional practices
There and then
We decided to embark on many projects
to inaugurate the twin’s Tourism Project
To convoke the first Twins Conference in Nigeria.
I summoned a colleague on the desk, Taiwo Olanrewaju
Who was happy with them
l asked an IT student on my desk then, Wale Olapade
who later won an NMA Tourism Award on my desk ( I assigned him the article and planned the page which won him the Award )
to do an interview for them
And I later personally took over the branding and mentoring of these two wonderful sets of twins
They were students
Got no job. No money
But they have ideas
We set for the first Twins Conference and Summit in Nigeria
They have no money
God on my side
I called the Late Twins 77
who was a friend of my Uncle, Sherry Leke Fowowe
we had a meeting with him
He agreed to support
And the twins had meetings
They agreed to sacrifice
I provided the sum of N 100,000
For them to realise their vision
We got the Cultural centre
I got them, notable twins
Special thank to Dr Tai Sikiru
Lawal, who was the Deputy Governor in Ekiti state then
Dr Lawal came with a large entourage of Twins from Ekiti
Since then
The Conference was a huge success
about 4000 Twins converged on Ibadan
They made a pilgrimage to the.
And I introduced them to the tourism sector
Mrs Margaret Fabiyi, WEBSITE, Kitty Pope, USA,
Dr Babs Onabanjo of Martin Luther Centre, Atlanta Georgia
Since the Oguntoye Twins has turned to be a pride of Nigeria
Gathering honours and accolades all over the world
Kenya, China, US, and others
Giving a new name to Twins Tourism
Giving Twins a new set of hope
And making some of us praying to have Twins
But for me, it is too late
However, the OguntoyeTwins,
Has done me the honour
By their robust sense of gratitude to God
For telling people that I was one of those
God has used to stoke their passion
The Oguntoye Tourism Twins are wonderful
Pride of Nigeria’s Twins
The hope of World Twins
I am proud of them
Never worthless
Never Useless
jewel of the Twins
God bless you!.
First Published 24 May 2017!
By Wale Ojo-Lanre