HOME AWAY
By: Taiwo Obe
Tags: Sports, Hospitality, Culture, Travelogue, Tourism

HOME AWAY

I wanted a backwater to spend about 10 days to tighten up the screws on a job I had started sometime in May 2020 when COVID-19 forced almost everyone around the world to work from home.

I sought a place where only the chirping of birds would be the dominant environmental sounds.

Where is the internet?

I booked a resort in a village about an hour’s drive from Ibadan, Nigeria’s third most populous city and formerly Africa’s second most populous city, behind Egypt’s Cairo; with the assurance from the resort’s contact person that the internet connection was stable and considerably fast.

But, my first night was a disaster: I got connections without internet. Much less a stable or fast one.

I did not find that amusing.

Selfie: me, on my first night, at the resort’s Front Desk, furious and brooding about a no-internet situation

I registered my displeasure with the resort’s contact who I interacted with days earlier after going through their Facebook page.

I checked out

I decided that I would check out the next day, Saturday, 17 April.

After breakfast, I concluded check-out formalities and got a refund of my unspent deposit.

As soon I stepped into the cavernous car park, a casually-dressed gentleman who was with a lady asked if there were no complaints. I moved near the couple and told them my mission at the resort and how I had been let down — on the first night.

He apologised profusely for all the inconveniences and narrated the length the resort had gone to ensure that such a situation would not occur. However, things had not always worked out their way. He indicated that a thunderstorm the previous night may be the cause.

The lady said one or two things along the same lines.

Why did they defend the facility? Who were they?

I left with the driver, anyway.

It was the driver who revealed their identities. The gentleman is the owner of the establishment. His name: Dotun Jubril Sanusi. The lady, his wife: Joy Bellema Sanusi.

Dotun Jubril Sanusi: ” We have done everything to ensure stable, fast internet on the resort, but….”

We had not gone for five minutes when I told the driver to turn back. I seemed soothed by Sanusi’s words — and his wife’s. I felt that they were genuinely sorry about the situation.

I checked back in

We had not gone for five minutes when I told the driver to turn back to the resort. I seemed soothed by Sanusi’s words — and his wife’s. I felt that they were genuinely sorry about the situation.

The driver made a U-turn and we were back at the facility.

Welcomed by the fountain.

Warm welcome, a promise and an invitation

Coincidentally, Mrs Sanusi was by the entrance into the car park when we arrived. She was excited and appeared relieved that Ilaji Hotel and Sports Resort had not lost a customer.

Soon after, the husband was standing by the door of my new room, to welcome and promise me an exciting stay. He was now dressed in a blue Yoruba buba and sokoto. (For the rest of my stay at the resort, he appeared in various shades of blue).

The promise, I can report, was fulfilled.

It is the reason I am inviting you to see what’s in store for you if, and when, you decide to be a guest at the resort.

And, invite you also to find out how I travelled from Lagos to Ibadan before arriving at Oloyo Village.

Eagles eyes

Security at Ilaji — which, by the way, means “half” in Yoruba language, and was the trading name of Sanusi’s late mother, Abegbe — is, to quote Hazeez Ayansola, the resort’s corporate affairs and media manager, “top-notch” and it starts from the gate where vehicles, individuals and luggage pass through stringent screening.

In addition to a nearby police post, cops in uniform and in plain clothes and community security guards keep keen watch on the vast facility, around-the-clock.

There are also surveillance cameras in strategic places.

Ademola Alabi, Ilaji’s PRO: “We ensure that everyone is properly screened before making their way in.”

A moneybag and his mission

How was Sanusi able to set up this place?

A graduate of petroleum engineering from Nigeria’s premier university — University of Ibadan — he told me his “financial breakthrough” came after his company, TNL Drilling Services, executed “a major contract with Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) to drill high pressure, high temperature wells at Obiafun in the Niger Delta,” adding that, “its success attracted other jobs from Addax, Chevron, Seplat, Sahara Energy, the oil majors; making us one of the biggest indigenous drilling companies in Nigeria and we later went into partnership with Sinopec Services.”

When Sanusi decided to “put back into the society” he intentionally searched for the most backward area in his native Oyo State.

That was what took him to Ona-Ara Local Government Area, which had suffered governmental neglect due to it being, in the late 1960s, the hub of a farmers’ group agitation against high taxation in Nigeria’s old western region.

About six and half years ago, Sanusi acquired 350 hectares in Oloyo Village in Akanran town, Ona-Ara LGA’s headquarters, and began with an extensive farm. Two years ago, he began the resort on what was left, and while there I noticed the construction of more facilities.

To conserve the ecosystem, he built around the trees, and later invited a mate in the university, who is a forestry scholar, to identify the trees by their botanical names, history and uses. This would ensure that you spend some quality time with the trees.

Clusters of trees on the resort are a special attraction on their own.

Art, culture, history on display

And more quality time learning about the history of Ibadan; with the portraits of every individual who has ruled the town, from its founding until today, mounted within the Children Arena. It is a case of charity beginning from home: Sanusi is Mogaji of the Olugbade Compound in Oja’ba, Ibadan. Mogaji is the traditional head of a family compound in Ibadan. It is the first step on the promotional ladder to the Olubadan throne. There is a showcase of the stages of promotion to the throne in this arena.

Portraits of Ibadan rulers, from Lagelu, the warrior who founded the city, to the present Olubadan of Ibadan

Don’t be envious of Ibadan. In the nearby Ilaji Hotel Art Gallery are exhibits of icons of various ethnic nationalities and historical places.

A symbolic representation of Olumo Rock (Abeokuta’s fortress during inter-tribal war in the 19th Century)

There are not many animals there now but there is a Mini Zoo where, during my visit, one ostrich and the zoo keeper were playing a hide and seek game. The other inhabitants included a camel, donkeys, a tortoise and goats.

Fun to watch the zoo keeper playing hide-and-seek game with the only ostrich in the zoo

What do you want to eat — and drink?

“Food is the symbol of love when words are inadequate,” proclaims the sign at the entrance of one of the two restaurants at Ilaji: one within the hotel, with meals priced between two thousand five hundred Naira and three thousand. At the other one, called “Local Kitchen” at another corner, meals are sold for a minimum of one thousand Naira. One evening, though, I spent four hundred Naira for two pieces of moimoi, and it was delicious, thank you.

If you are on a special diet, you can bring in your foodstuff, and you can have your meals prepared to your specifications.

Chef Kwasi, born to a Ghanaian mother and Beninoise father, was on hand to prepare my meals to my specs

You could as well settle for some snacks sold at the Mini Mart or grab a chicken or beef shawarma or suya or fish barbecue with chips (yam or potato, I did not find out) sold at the periphery of the large open space surrounded by trees where you can enjoy your grub with your favourite (non)alcoholic beverage. Or take them away to enjoy in the comfort of your room. Life is good.

Vendors and buyers of shawarma and fish barbecue & chips converge on the periphery of an expansive foyer

With the trees more prevalent here, I expected that the setting or much of the paraphernalia of the “Bush Bar” would have been more traditional. For instance, wood stump furniture, raffia serving trays or wicker baskets and the like. And: local food and drinks.

I expected that the “Bush Bar” should have had more traditional accessories and local delicacies

Oh well…

But, palm wine or “palmy” is sold at another end.

Perhaps, because it is near the “Convergence” or “Shrine” of the “Kegites Club International”. For the uninitiated, this club was founded, coincidentally in Ibadan, in 1962, by a set of students who converged to celebrate with palmy on learning that the following morning, their institution — Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology — would be folded and merged with the then University of Ife. Today, the Kegites Club has branches or ilyas, as they are called, in many of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The Convergence at the resort, according to its Public Relations Officer Ademola Alabi, is “adjudged as the best in Nigeria by Prof. Kolawole Kazeem (A.K.A. Ara Kay), the Provost, Osun State College of Education, Ilesa, Nigeria & World Chief (1983–1984) who dedicated (it).”

Bushmeat is also sold at this bar.

During my visit, a litre of the white stuff went for two hundred Naira while a piece of the bushmeat in pepper sauce was three hundred Naira.

So, for five hundred Naira, you can eat, drink and be merry, or as the Kegites would say, jollificate.

Electricity supply is uninterrupted, or put differently, you would hardly know when there is any outage from the public power supply and a switch over to alternative sources.

There is a well-managed mix of power supply: solar, public-power and stand-by diesel generators

Burning the calories

To burn the calories amassed from all the food, snacks and drinks, you either take a walk around or work out at the Mini Gym. Or dive into the swimming pool — one for VIPs was under construction during my visit. There are also courts for tennis, volleyball, handball and basketball, if you have sparring partners.

My nearly two-hour walk in the morning, when I had a guided tour of the facility, was exhausting — really because I was also doing the shoots — but it was revitalising. At some point, though, I thought aloud that a golf cart would have served a good purpose for the tour. Later, my guide, Alabi, said he mentioned that to Sanusi, who told him that would defeat the purpose of walking to keep fit. Valid point, don’t you think?

The resort’s motto is: “…home of hospitality and fitness.”

Working out at the Mini Gym is recommended for burning the calories amassed from food and drinks

If you love football, then it is one good reason to be at the resort. You would definitely find individuals to play with on a pitch in a stadium that many a professional club in Nigeria would dream of.

Intentional about raising football talents in Oyo State and reviving football competitions among secondary schools, Sanusi had in 2019, supported by all the state’s traditional rulers, developed and sponsored a tournament called Ilaji Football League among all the local government areas. The Ilaji Football Club was also created to be an independent team. The Club would end up winning the league, fair and square, according to Tunde Odubola, better known as Coach Zico, an ex-international player/coach and the Resident Coach who is also responsible for the sports section of Ilaji Hotel and Sports Resort. He is assisted by Sesan Ogundele, in this video with the lads of the football academy — yes, the resort is in partnership with Malagar CF of Spain and SWIEQI FC of Malta to develop/spot football talents — and Ilaji Football Club.

In case of any emergency…

There is probably little or no chance that you would fall ill when you are getting quality hospitality and fitness but, in case you do, there is a well-equipped Sick Bay with a resident nurse and an ambulance to ferry you to a hospital, in case it is a bit more serious.

A section of the Sick Bay at the resort. There is one other bed, a dispensary and an oxygen cylinder

This adventure started on a rough, edgy note but it ended splendidly.

That is life.

Thorns.

Roses.

Downs.

Ups.

All pictures and videos are mine.