The Custodian



  The Custodian

  By John Ishola Olafenwa

  Copyright 2013 John Ishola Olafenwa

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  CHAPTER 1

  Six years had passed since Mr Solanke became the principal of Waterfall High School. Before then, he had been a poor church rat as a principal in a government school located in a village. After spending years in the village, he bribed his way through to get a transfer to another government school located in a very populous city called Destiny Valley. He came to Destiny Valley with the intention of exploiting the students to make money. On the eve of his travel to Destiny Valley to resume his duty, he promised his wife and children that in no time, the family would be free from all forms of financial difficulties and then they would realize how kind he could be as a husband and father. With great joy, the family moved to a new apartment in Destiny Valley. Then, the government required students to pay school fees, but the fees were lesser than those of the private schools. The collection of fees from students of government schools afforded some corrupt school principals the opportunity to divert some of the funds accrued from the school fees into their private accounts, a practice that was becoming increasingly popular among principals of populous government schools in the city. Six years after becoming the principal of Waterfall High School, life had changed in so many ways for Mr Solanke and his family. He had built a house, bought an expensive car and his children attended the most expensive school in the city. However, one thing that was lacking in his family was peace and happiness. Every single day was characterised by constant fights between him and his wife. The wealth he acquired through corrupt practices had been the main cause of his problems. Rather than take good care of his wife and two children, he was always running after married women, young ladies and even female students, acts which had become known to his wife. Their neighbours were already fed up with the nuisance they constituted in the neighbourhood. They could not understand why a school principal, who was supposed to be a role model in the society, became an irresponsible man causing disturbances in the neighbourhood. His students had already nick-named him “The Drunkard”, due to his excessive consumption of local palm wine. While everyone viewed him as one that was not in his right senses, Mr Solanke believed he was simply enjoying his life to the fullest. On two occasions, his drunkenness had earned him weeks of suspension from duty. One sunny afternoon, he sat in front of his office, observing the students as they played on the field at break time. He called a young girl among them, who was in her final year and asked her to buy a bottle of Palm wine for him. The girl did not bother to ask for the money with which she would buy the palm wine. Everyone knew how things were done in Waterfall High School. Students bought things for teachers with their own money and any student who refused to do so, might be failed in his/her examination. Within a few moments, Jane returned with a bottle of palm wine. Mr Solanke thanked her and instructed her to take it to his office. As she headed to his office, he followed behind. Jane put the bottle of palm wine on his table and wanted to leave but he told her to take a seat. He headed for his chair and took a seat as well. After five minutes, Mrs Sarah, the vice principal knocked on his closed door to instruct him that the Zonal Education officer was around. He told her from behind that he was very busy. She insisted she had something important to tell him, yet, the drunkard refused to heed her call. Soon after she left the office entrance, wondering why he had refused to open the door, the Zonal Education Officer headed for the Principal’s office, barged into his office without knocking the door and he was astounded by what he saw. On Mr Solanke’s laps sat Jane, with the bottle of palm wine on his desk. The officer was shocked to the bone marrow. In a flash, he turned back in anger. Mr Solanke followed after him to plead for mercy, but the officer simply went into his car and zoomed off. The Drunkard was handed 5 weeks of suspension after pleads with the Zonal Education Officer who was initially determined to get him sacked.

  Ever since then, Mr Solanke had been more careful about his conduct in school, as he decided to keep his immoral acts and drunkenness out of the four walls of the school. Life continued for him and he became richer by the day. At about 10 am one morning, he was busy in his office, sorting out some documents. Mrs Sarah rushed in to his office without knocking the door with a newspaper in her hands. Mr Solanke, so surprised of her mood, demanded to know what had gone wrong. She did not utter a word in reply, she simply put the newspaper on his desk, he took it and carefully observed the headlines. “It can’t be!!!!”, he exclaimed and fainted. Immediately, Mrs Sarah ran outside to call other teachers and he was rushed to the hospital. The newspaper had reported that the governor of the state had declared free education in all government high schools. The whole town went agog that day as they received the news. It was a great relief for parents who often found it difficult to pay their children’s school fees. On the part of the corrupt principals, it was a total devastation. On the day the news was announced, about ten high school principals were reported to have suffered heart attacks. Mr Solanke was not an exception, although, he recuperated fast. The announcement meant that they would no longer have anything to divert to their private accounts. The loot was over, and they would have to rely solely on their salaries. The governor announced an increase in the salary of the teachers too, but this was nothing compared to the amount they stole every single term. Mr Solanke was discharged after spending a week in hospital. He came home in a very sober mood. That day, he could hardly sleep at night. With every single tick of the clock, he felt he was moving closer to poverty, and the thought that, with the latest decision of the governor, he would have to sell some of ERROR/his/ properties he had bought for many years he had been living a life that was expensive to maintain made his head ache. He thought about his two children who attended Trinity High School, the most expensive private school in Destiny Valley. He would have to move them to another school. After 5 hours of deep thinking, he decided he would do whatever it would take him, to make sure he maintained his flamboyant style of living.