SmokingWeed&SippingHennessy

Growing up in the ‘old Kaduna,’ and as a student of the then St. John’s College now Rimi College in the late 90s, the trend was to be as strong, bold and daring as a bull.

Boys formed gangs where they can’t hold their own. I never liked ‘operating’ in a pack- it slows down movement, gets messy, jealousy and envy may give you out and most times, only lazy idiots do gangs.

From the Kaymos Gang at Jos road, to those who followed ‘Tinkos’ aka DanAsabe to names like Basquet (late now & held sway at UniJos), Bournvita, John D, Olu Cow Boy (who was dropped at Sabi Oke in Kwara state), Chimeme, Ibrahim aka ‘Katako’, Mbarakus, Mohammed aka ‘Acid’, SweetLover, from Ungwar Rimi to Tudun Wada, Kabala Doki to Ungwar Sarki, from Sabo to Kakuri, the list is endless. They all had a story in history of Kaduna gangsterism.

At some point, break dance took over. Then hair cuts with different designs with boys showing their skills with blade and comb. We later moved to playing football, volleyball, basketball and all. Later to chasing women, preparing local rum and some to doing drugs. This is where I’m going.

Boys tried a pot pourri of drugs. A cocktail of weed, devil’s dust, punch (a mixture of drinks with everything and anything drinkable).

Some did dry pawpaw leaf, wild seeds grounded with pepper, pain killers meant for polo horses, name it. Then the retired CP then in ’93 happened.

He got an order to ‘neutralize’ the notorious ones- Tinkos fell and many others like the Okeys (Okey brocade, Okey Brazil, Okey Bangkok, etc) all fell. And everything changed.

On street corners these days, boys smoke what looked like weed openly and down a cocktail of cough syrups to get high.

The culprits these days are teenage boys and girls. Married women and some older ladies. Go to constitution road before Kigo road, there’s a hideout there. Murtala square is another joint.

Primary schools with corners or open fields, these ‘people’ hang there to smoke, drink and have sex.

I was somewhere around Malali one evening, returning from a recording session and a BMW parked close to me while I was waiting for a bike, since the area is a lonely place. A lady was in it. She would be more than 30 or 35 years. She offered to give me a ride. I thought why not. A few turns and she asked if I don’t mind she sip her drink. Its in a flask and she drank every 3 minutes. Somewhere around Abakpa turning towards Lugard roundabout, she packed and said to me, “I want you to make love to me”.

I asked, ” really? Where? Why?”

“Right here at the back of my car. I’m horny”, she said.

Her eyes, almost shut, and she wore this smile like a demon. Beautiful lady all messed up.

While still talking holding the wheel, she started to swing from side to side, her head slapped back and she started to mumble some words and then started to snore heavily as I watched in amazement.

I lifted the flask to smell the content. I could smell weed, codine, and on pouring some in the cover saw white particles and dry leaves. I left quietly after helping her wind up the glasses half way and putting on the locks.

They are everywhere now in Kaduna…

Children of the rich, drug addicts, with no body giving any care in the world.

So sad no one is looking at cleaning them up like the old CP did in the 90s.

Nobody seem to care to take these drugs off our streets and give these kids a life.

Codine is the new high…

The high way now to hell!

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I’m done, I’m gone, I’m ghost!