In 1962, Nigerian politician Anthony Enahoro was accused of plotting to overthrow his government. He fled through Ghana to the UK, where he sought asylum.
Nigeria demanded his return under the Fugitive Offenders Act of 1881, sparking a six-month legal and political battle in Britain.
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Despite protests and fierce debate in Parliament, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s government approved his extradition, and in May 1963 Enahoro was forcibly flown back to Lagos.
At the famous Vandal City (Commonwealth Hall), students reimagined Enahoro’s forced deportation in their own way.
When a roommate is kicked out of his own room because a lady guest has arrived, he is said to have been “Enahoroed.” A weighty political saga, remixed into campus slang!
Here are my Top 10 Dating Words in Vandal City:
- Baboon – A guy who only escorts a girl but never goes further.
- Chewer-on – A guy with no girl at all.
- Enahoro – Getting deported from your room by your roommate hosting a female guest.
- Exter – One whose date is from outside the university.
- Inter – One whose date is from within the university.
- Agya Koo – The “good behaviour” police, who use the Echo (the Hall newspaper) to call out misbehaviour, especially towards females, in public.
- Baboon Square – Volta Hall Junction; the last stop for a Baboon—he can’t cross into “the Lake.”
- Lake – Volta Hall, the famous women’s hall.
- POP – “Mouth silencer.” For guys who run out of words when speaking to women (named after plaster of Paris). e.g., POP dey him mouth.
- Fish – A Volta Hall girl.
The Vandal lexicon is a reminder of how language evolves as a living record of culture and gets embedded in everyday life.
No matter who made it or where it was made, the bottled fried pepper we all took to secondary school was simply called shito.
PS: Yɛde post no bɛto hɔ. Yɛnyɛ comprehension consultants.
