Love Story Of A Unilag Babe And Bus Conductor

Love Story Of A Unilag Babe And Bus Conductor.
Something interesting happened on my way to Oshodi this
morning. At the park this rough mean-looking conductor also
known as “agbero” in Yoruba was screaming for passengers,
his vernacular oscillating between Yoruba and pidgin English.
“Oshod! Oshod!” He shouted angrily as I along with some
other passengers scuttled for seats. There was this beautiful
young lady who couldn’t throw caution and decorum to the
wind but waited patiently until the bus was almost filled. Then
she pleaded to sit by the agbero until somebody came down
then she would pay for a proper seat.
The agbero didn’t even look at her pretty face, he hissed and
shouted to the driver to move that why didn’t she rush when
others were rushing. The girl started pleading in Yoruba and
clean ‘oyinbo’ english; “please, ejó, help me out sir, I know you
are a good man, never mind all this shout you have been
shouting (people burst into laughter). Let me sit by your side
please”.
Finally with much squeezing of face the agbero relented and
she sat beside him. It was a tight squeeze but she didn’t
complain but rather started praising the agbero. He in turn
started teasing her, speaking (and sometimes spitting by
mistake) into her face but the girl never looked away, she never
let the smile leave her face. He asked her where she worked
and she replied that she was a student in the University of
Lagos (UNILAG) studying accounting. He teased her in Yoruba
about her boyfriend and car (maybe asking why her boyfriend
didn’t drop her at her destination…she laughed it off and
continued to gist with the guy in Yoruba.
When she reached her junction the agbero alighted the bus for
her to come down. She did and paid her transport fare, then
the agbero told her to give him a peck on the cheek for being
so ‘gentlemanly’. At this point some of us became indignant,
haba! He had been teasing her since, he should let her go.
Another argument almost ensued between the agbero and the
passengers although it was not as if the agbero was really
serious, he told her to go. Then it happened! She jumped
forward and gave him a peck on the cheek! We all shouted, the
agbero was quiet out of surprise. She then waved bye and ran
down to her street.
The driver and other people started to hail the agbero, see
hailing! The guy was just forming boss, saying he knew he was
irresistible etc and others were yabbing (taunting) him, some
were yabbing the girl and we moved on and suddenly the bus
was quiet, show over. Then the agbero put his head down and
became uncharacteristically quiet. The driver soon asked the
guy why he wasn’t calling out bus-stop abi the girl don do am
jazz (cast a spell on him). The agbero said something in Yoruba
I didn’t get and then his voice became emotional and believe it
or not HE STARTED CRYING. Others were now consoling him in
Yoruba. When I asked what the problem was, the lady beside
me explained that the agbero said he just realised he would
never be able to get a girl like that in his life because he’s an
uneducated bus conductor and she was going to be a
graduate. He was weeping because he knew no girl of her class
might ever do to him what that girl just did, to touch a dirty
person like himself; that the girl is nice and well brought-up
and if he had money he would have chased after her. So the
passengers were consoling him in Yoruba that he would go
higher in life and be able to marry a girl like that. He should not
cry because itwas not the end of the road for him.
That really touched me.
For a moment in that agbero’s life, his facade of a street thug
fell away and he was a vulnerable emotional aspiring young
man, just like everybody else.