The Whipping

“Onyi it’s almost 2pm, are we not going to supervise the J.S 1 students washing the toilets today?” I asked my friend. She was the school health prefect and her duties included overseeing the daily washing of the school toilets which was usually done by the J.S 1 students.
“Oh that’s true, thanks for reminding me. Lets go then” She said as she got up from her seat.
I loved to go with her on these daily supervisions. It was cool to be a senior girl and deal with those silly J.S1 kids who didn’t realise that this was no longer primary school where they could behave as they liked. Here, there were seniors and we ruled!

So we headed to the back of the school where the toilets were located to discharge the day’s responsibility.

We were seated some distance from the toilets. God! The stench that came from that direction was something else! We loved to exercise our power over the juniors but we hated the stench more so we would do our bullying from a distance.

“Hey you! Junior girl…what’s that you’re doing? You call that washing toilet abi? Oya come on…brush it very well…see how she’s holding the brush sef…as if you don’t go to toilet and you over there, you are holding ur nose abi? So its smelly enh?? Is it not your shit that that is causing all the stench…you want to deny…enh?? Nonsense…you better wash it properly o…if not…no going home for you kids today!”
We laughed at them. It was fun to be seniors. After all we had done our share during our time and now it was their turn.

As we sat there gisting away. I saw something gleaming on the grass. It was a small gold hoop earring. I picked it up and showed it to Onyi. It was a fine one…someone had probably lost her earring. We admired it and then i suddenly thought it would make a nice nose ring, Onyi agreed too. So I wore it on my nose and she complimented me saying I looked like a Fulani maiden. We agreed to take turns at wearing it. I would wear it for a while then it would be her turn to try the Fulani maiden look. Just then, the bell signifying Closing parade (assembly) rang.

My school was a military school and we held parades every morning before classes began and in the afternoons before school dismissed. The parades were compulsory, you dared not miss it. Every soldier (we were taught by soldiers) and student must be present at the parade ground. Any student caught in the classroom during parade was dealt with severely and in my school they definitely knew how to deal severely with students. The parade was usually headed by the school commandant and in his absence the A.O took charge. Now, our A.O was a terrible man. He was a sadist and he particularly loved dealing with female students especially the fine ones! Rumours had it then that he was jilted by his fiancée and because of that, he took out his frustrations on the girls. I was fortunate not to have fallen into his trap yet and I prayed never to. Unfortunately for me, it was only a matter of time before I did.

There we were standing at the parade ground. We usually lined up according to our classes from the Juniors to the Seniors and the A.O was leading the parade that day. He stood there at the front of the parade ground addressing us students. As usual he was making threats and talking about how he’d deal with any student who misbehaved. As he talked, he walked from row to row till he stopped at the seniors end.
“Ah..ha! Yes I have seen a scapegoat today…You there…come out!” he was pointing to our row. We all looked at each other wondering who the unfortunate person was.
“You wearing the nose ring…I said come out!”
I was jolted. I had completely forgotten I was still wearing the nose ring. My God…I was in real hot okro soup!
My friends whispered “princesa its you”
I nodded and slowly stepped out to the front of the parade ground.
The wicked man smiled. He was very happy. He had found a scape goat to take out his sadistic tendencies on. I wanted to just die. The shame of being publicly flogged on the parade ground was just too much. The WHOLE school was going to watch me being disgraced. Senior like me…ha!

“You there, come!” He gestured in the direction of a group of soldiers standing nearby. He was pointing directly at one of them. I looked up. It was my further maths teacher. He was my friend. Maybe things won’t be as terrible as I thought.
“I want you to teach this girl a proper lesson” The A.O handed over his koboko(horse whip) to my teacher.
My Further maths teacher looked very uneasy. How was he going to deal with me? I was his friend, in fact the closest to him in my class. I used to help him record exam scores. It wasn’t fair for him to be the one to carry out this task of dealing with me.
Anyway, an order is an order especially if it was coming from your superior. He had to obey.
“Lie down!” he barked at me.
I was scared. The koboko looked really menacing! I hated to be flogged. Hell! Who likes to be flogged??
So I laid down flat on the ground.
Twai! The first lash landed on my back.
I squirmed.
Twai! The second one.
I noticed he wasn’t lashing very hard but even at that, koboko na koboko and I was in pain!
Twai! The third lash.
“Stop!” It was the A.O. What?! Did the evil man have a change of heart??
“What do you think you are doing?” he was looking at my further maths teacher.
“You want me to show you how to flog…enh? Okay watch me”
The next lash cut into my skin. My back was on fire. It felt as if a knife had been used to cut my flesh. Twai!! It landed again. I screamed.
The A.O went on lashing at me with the koboko. Now I was sure I was going to die. The pain was crazy!
Then he stopped and handed over the horsewhip to my friend, the further maths teacher.
“I hope you saw how i did it, now deal with her properly!”
That day i saw hell. My further maths teacher went at it like his life was at stake. He really dealt with me. By the time he was through my blouse was stained with blood. The skin on my back had being torn by the tortous whipping.

That wasn’t even the hardest part. Parade over and School dismissed. I still had to face the glares of the other students. All eyes were on me. Every one was talking about the girl that was flogged on the parade ground. It wasn’t funny at all. I tried to keep a straight face and pretend i wasnt hurting but when the “Eh ya...sorry o” started pouring from my friends, i couldn’t hold it back. I broke down and cried like i had never done before. What i had gone through was too much. Just because of nose ring, i had been flogged like a thief. I felt sorry for myself.

When i got home that day. My parents were livid. The welts on my back were horrendous. My mum cursed the devil that did this to her daughter. She swore that she was going with me to the school the next day to confront the A.O but my Dad dissuaded her. He told her she would only end up being flogged out of the school premises if she tried to make any trouble with the A.O and i would be sent out of the school. He was right too.
My parents were only bloody civilians...they could do nothing. If my dad were a major-general or something senior officer in the army, he could get the A.O dealt with seriously. He could even cause him to be demoted in rank. He could do so much! But unfortunately he wasn’t, i could only lick my wounds and pray i never fall into the devil’s trap again...ever!


My Further maths teacher later apologised to me but things were never the same with us again till i left school.

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