The Boli connection in Alibaba’s comedy

LAGOS, Nigeria – The grandmaster of Nigerian comedy, Atunyota Alleluyah Akpobome better known as Alibaba at the weekend went down memory lane to recall some funny but insightful incident that took place almost 30 years ago, the relationship between Mama Boli, the USIS and comedy which defines his personality today.

That was way back in 1990 when it was as though comedy was hopeless. He made it a duty to visit two libraries, that of the USIS and the British Council Library, all in the Island, where he found resources to build a formidable career in comedy.

“The humour, I found in many books at the #BritishCouncil were rather too French for me”, Alibaba confessed. But as he puts it, the post is about the woman, he called Mama Boli who was intrigued by his regular visit to the library. Mama Boli was the woman that supplied the regular lunch after spending hours combing books at the USIS.

“On arrival, I would book lunch with Mama. Lunch being, boli and groundnut. After like 2 weeks of the same order, Mama interrogated me. She wanted to know what I do with the books and why liked books so much. I told her I just graduated and didnt want to go for NYSC… blah blah blah.

“When I arrived the next day, she told the customers to wait and took me to one #iyaAmala. “Alhaja, Whenever this young man comes here, give him food and come collect the money from me.” This went for a very long time… before I decided to go serve in Abuja. That was my 0-1-0 location for a loooooong time”, he said and he decided to celebrate her at the weekend on the social media

“alibabagcfr #MamaBoli… angel on earth. In 1990… when the comedy space was full of void and devoid of hope, I frequented the #USIS library and #BritishCouncil library.

“#USIS became a more resourceful place to build my comedy career. Thanks to #AuntieMarie, who was intrigued by how regular I was in the library. And she made sure I was issued a library card few days later.

“The humour, I found in many books at the #BritishCouncil were rather too French for me.

“Anyway, this post is not about the two libraries. It’s about the wonderful woman, in this picture… #MamaBoli. Never got to know her name. Called her Mama for over 30yrs now.

“So, after being a bookworm, at #USIS, I would come to CMS and comb through all the second hand books in the area, all the way to Tinubu Square.

“On arrival, I would book lunch with Mama. Lunch being, boli and groundnut. After like 2 weeks of the same order, Mama interrogated me.

“She wanted to know what I do with the books and why liked books so much. I told her I just graduated and didnt want to go for NYSC… blah blah blah.

“When I arrived the next day, she told the customers to wait and took me to one #iyaAmala. “Alhaja, Whenever this young man comes here, give him food and come collect the money from me.”

“This went for a very long time… before I decided to go serve in Abuja. That was my 0-1-0 location for a loooooong time.

“And I remember sometimes, back then, she will give me cash or boli… _
I celebrate her today because for a long time, as often as I would go show her gratitude, she would make it look like she was undeserving.

“So, please, whenever you see #MamaBoli selling boli, help me say “Thank you for Ali Baba”. She didn’t have to, but she did”.