Rattibha

I followed my friend to his family house yesterday. His dad passed away some years ago, but his room & belongings were left untouched. My friend was searching for an important document that led us into his dad's room. The stuff we found in there took me back in time. THREAD.

Before yesterday, I had NEVER seen Biafran notes before and some other old Nigerian currencies before. I saw 1Kobo coins, and some other coins that holes in the middle.

I saw old passbooks from UBA & Access Bank dating back into the early 80's. See how large these things are.

- Sunday Concord newspaper from 1985.
- 1979 Constitution of Nigeria (Purchased for One naira).
- Map of Nigeria as at 1985 (Containing Old Imo state, Bendel State & Gongola State)
- Federal highway code of Nigeria (1972).

I saw the first ever yearbook of the Uni-Ilorin Medical Students Association (ILUMSA), Class of 1987/88. Their Dean of Faculty was a Prof O. Ogunbode. Wonder where he and the students are now.

Newswatch and Citizen were the anchors for many in the military era. They were unbiased reports of truth found by dilligent investigative reporting. These are from 1992. The one with Gen. Abdulsalami on the cover is from 1998.

My friend's dad kept all his Nigerian passports from his very first.
These two are from 1977 and 1989.

This is what the driver's licence & Pay slips looked like back then. These ones are dated 1986. All of them are booklets. It would have killed me. I like electronic documents too much. Seeing booklets upandan will just be giving me headache.

Found one of Rev. @sam_adeyemi's books from 1999 in the bookshelf where my friend's dad kept his most precious ones. I attend @DaystarNG. Seeing this made me smile.

Back when sim cards cost tens of thousands! My mom bought her MTN sim card for 25k in 2000 or 2001. My memory is hazy about the details.

Praise be to the God of flash drives & Airdrop. These diskettes were ugly plis. Kai, we have used things in this life.
Video cassettes nko. Destiny resetting slaps were distributed over these things. All those people that would leave food cooking and go watch commando next door.

This typewriter reminded me of Business Studies in secondary school. I saw some shorthand textbooks and notepads in the room where this was found. My friends mum had some older typewriters that her kids asked her to throw away. I've adopted this one for safekeeping.

This calculator was another thing that threw me aback. Kileleyi?

Three generations of cameras.
Wow.
Just wow.

How time flies. That's all this picture brings to mind.
My friend's dad kept many old gramophone records. It's mind boggling.

Gramophone records of Fela's albums. The story of how Lemi Gariokwu became his offical album artwork designer is material for another thread entirely.
My friend's mom says she has no use for these things, so I took them home.

Music is powerful. For every single record I found, my friend would tell me what phase they were in their lives, what his dad was up to, landmark events that happened around that time. His mum is also one of those who assert that rain fell whenever Majek sang his famous tune.

Jim Reeves. Can't hear his name without remembering my own grandfather. Imam Shittu Alabi Kotun, an astute Islamic scholar who loved Him Reeves music. I should ask my mom where grandpa's gramophone is tho.

Gramophone records of Chief Osita Osadebe (I hear he was a priest in his village), & Ogbuefi Olive de Coque. Hallowed names in Nigera's Musical history.