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We Wanted To Join The Army, Say Car Wash Twins, The Adebayos

By Itunu Ajayi, Abuja
25 October 2015   |   2:36 am
THEIR resemblance is striking. They do not cut the picture of children from an impoverished home. At first glance, they look like products of a modest Nigerian family.
Taiwo and Kehinde at work PHOTO: ITUNU AJAYI

Taiwo and Kehinde at work PHOTO: ITUNU AJAYI

THEIR resemblance is striking. They do not cut the picture of children from an impoverished home. At first glance, they look like products of a modest Nigerian family. But it isn’t really their alikeness that is the attraction. After all, every now and then, one runs into identical twins. The question is the kind of work they do when other young boys, like them, take to crime and other social vices to get by.

Instead of looking for easy money around town, Taiwo and Kehinde Adebayo run a car wash garage where they keep themselves busy and make clean money. The place is strategically located at the Orita Obele axis of the Ondo State capital. With skill, as if they were born for the task, they clean cars, one after the other, showing no sign of fatigue.

Given the day of the week, one is tempted to conclude that they only wash vehicles on weekends. With curiosity getting the better part of this reporter, she engages them in a discussion, as they clean the car she arrived in. The first inquiry is to confirm if they are indeed twins. That settled; other questions follow.

Kehinde does not want to be in the news. He is a bit reserved, unlike his brother. Bringing him out of his shell is difficult, as he initially refuses to pose for a photograph. But when the reporter tells him how impressed she is that they can engage in a legitimate means of making money, and that such could send a right message to other youngsters, he yields reluctantly. Even at that, Taiwo does all the talking.

Born 20 years ago to Mr. and Mrs. Adebayo, Taiwo says that they took to washing cars just to get themselves busy until their dream of getting admission into The Polytechnic Ibadan becomes a reality. He adds their initial dream was to enlist in the Nigerian Army. But their hope was dashed when they couldn’t make it into the Defence Academy in Kaduna.

He says: “We attempted thrice to gain admission into the Academy. But each time we wrote the exams, we were not given admission. We were so bent on joining the Army; we wrote the exams three consecutive times! When it became clear to us that joining the Army might not be possible, we took the exams for The Polytechnic Ibadan. We want to read Computer Engineering and Computer Science, and right now we are waiting for the admission. We hope we will resume soon.

“We made up our minds on this car wash job, so that we would not be idle. It is not as if we are professionals in car washing, but it is a task we can say is simple enough for anyone who is not lazy. We believe that there is dignity in labour and that it is better to make the best of every situation a person finds himself in. We were taught from childhood to always earn whatever we own. So, having easy money has never been in vogue in our family.”

They intended to continue the job until their admission sails through, and that even as undergraduates, it will not come as a bad idea to make some cool money doing the job during holidays.

In times where youths are hired by politicians for evil purposes while their own children are tucked away in schools in Europe, America and other African countries, the Adebayo twins are determined to make a difference and build a wall around themselves; one that would make it impossible for anyone to use them for any unwholesome activity.

No politician in his/her right sense would want to introduce such ideas to the likes of these twins because the money they make a day outweighs what anybody may want to offer them for a dirty job. They open as early as 7am, charging N500 per car, and work up till 6pm. Your calculation of their take-home may be close to what they told The Guardian.

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