On my first day in Kuru, a particular calm, dark gentleman was very helpful while my father was going through the registration process for me. His name was Obediah Angbaku. I would later learn he was the Assistant House Captain of Oriye Rindre (OR) house.

My father was so impressed with his calm, respectful and disciplined demeanor that he simply handed me over to Obediah Angbaku when he was leaving.

That was how I became a member of the greatest House in Kuru.
OR house colour was blue. And with OR, the sky was always blue. I would proceed to develop lifelong relationships in OR house. Men like Ricky S Macharm (then Ricky Sambo), Alex Akor, Lucky Izang, Celestine Obodo, etc became close friends.

OR house master was Mr. Pat. Akulity was our House Captain. I forget now the name of our House Prefect.
I had the Honour of being Angbaku’s boy so until when I rebelled and became a room 18 boy, nothing like morning work for me.
OR house was truly the best.
Our house song during morning jogging went:
OR House, House, OR House! Mr. Pat the House Master. Akulity, Akulity! Angbaku, Angbaku. Da safen nan, da safen nan, Muna gudu don sanyi ya kare. OR house the only best!

We had other OR house patented songs for jogging also. One of the most popular was ‘woo woo meh meh!’ It was a song that even all the other houses copied and loved. It was even more exciting because as we jogged and sang, the song was also choroegraphed. Beautiful synchronized choreography. Oh, the beauty of those blessed, crisp, cold morning jogs!

The song is an Akulity song. Conceived and produced by the great Akulity. God bless him wherever he is.
The song essentially was about a dog that caught a goat and found a spot by the river to feast on his catch. The song went:
‘I say woo-woo catch am the meh-meh, I say gangara the rafi dey chop-chop!’

Just this simple one line song defined the high point of our morning jogs in OR house and no jog was ever complete without Akulity’s trademark song.
We would sing and choreograph in unison stumping our feet to the rhythm and with a slight pause, an emphatic brief foot-drag to punctuate and the song would resume with war-like hollering. What a memory!

We had many other songs during jogging which I will share at some later date. I remember that Sati of the 93 set used to mostly lead the chanting of our songs during those mornings. He was good with songs that fired us up as we jogged to kill the blistering cold of Kuru before our day proper began.
OR House was indeed the best at everything. Discipline, sports, academics (remember Suleiman Yero?) Neatness, and toughness. Our room 18 was the baddest. Produced some of Kuru’s toughest and craziest, like yours truly.
I’m proud to have been from the best stock a legendary institution produced. The best of the best!
Did your house ever beat OR house at anything? I doubt it.

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#WaniYaro: Govt Science School Kuru “the Only Best” – Babatunde Awe