His real name was V. C. Brown but students had nicknamed him V. C. Bobus. He was a blond, tall and fat bachelor usually dressed in white short-sleeve shirt on khaki shorts. He taught us Latin and was generally disliked by the students. I simply did not like Latin and Mr. Brown knew that and probably took a dislike to me because of that. And the feeling was mutual. And on at least two occasions he ordered me to his house for punishment. And it was really pathetic as he huffed and puffed using his canvas shoes on my buttocks. It did not really have much effect on me and sometimes I felt like laughing at his exertions. But all the same I felt humiliated at being invited to his house for punishment, something which other students obviously noticed. But a few other students suffered the same humiliation. I was then in my third year in secondary school.
As they say, something that has a beginning must have an end. And V. C. Brown took an action that led to the end of his term in Nigeria. As I said before he was generally unpopular among the students but on that fateful day in the assembly hall V. C. Brown made a statement that generally shocked the students. This led to a general murmur of unrest and discontent. V. C. Brown was infuriated. He said, `all this while I have been treating you students as gentlemen but I now realise my mistake. I now know that you are nothing but savages!’
Well, news travelled fast, especially bad news of a foreigner, an Englishman, calling us black African boys savages. And almost immediately Mr V. C. Brown was on the plane back to England. Simply put, he was deported. And as far as the students were concerned that was good riddance. And that was the end of Latin in the school.