Ten-year-Old Siju Olawepo has this uncanny love for the calendar. He collects plenty of plain sheets from his parents at home and in school; only to write days and dates. His parents thought he was just being playful. They had discouraged him several times and wondered what he was writing.
They never knew he belongs to a class of people called calendrical savants. These are people who can tell you the weekdays corresponding to dates without resorting to external aids such as calendars or computers
In other climes, Siju who attends Carol School, Agidingbi, Lagos perhaps would have become a state-sponsored student and his unusual gifting harnessed. His ability to match dates with days is faster than the search engine. He matches the date with the day or the day with the date.
If you ask for instance, what day of the month is October 20 1944, he tells you the day without blinking an eye. If you turn it around and ask what date is the third Monday in October 1944, he tells you in less than 30 seconds. This writer put him to the test and asked several dates and days from him. He did not fail.
How talent was discovered
Incidentally, his ICT teacher in school, David Ugomah was the first person to identify this unique ability in him. He just found out that he was always coming to ask for plain sheets and each time he asked for those sheets, he would construct the calendar of several years on them. He soon discovered that he could tell the dates and days effortlessly.
With Siju around, you don’t need a calendar. When the class teacher discovered this trait, he alerted the head of the school, Mrs. Bola Adeaga who put a call to his parents to tell them of the findings. His parents were simply shocked. His mother Funke Olawepo in a 15-minute Television Continental documentary on Siju said she never knew her son had such incredible ability.
“All along I thought he was playing with sheets of paper and copying out old calendars. I never knew he was actually writing out calendars of future years by heart.”
But for his teacher in school who discovered the genius in him in June 2019, his parents would not know they are living with a calendrical savant.
His father, Wale Olawepo, a Baptist deacon said he too was unaware of this unique ability in his son. He said in the TVC documentary that his son’s ability is simply befuddling.
In a later interview with Church Times, Olawepo said his son has since become a great asset at home. “He reminds us of dates of births of family friends and tells us the days they fall. He reminds us of the events we had planned to go and tells us the days they fall. If you are still cracking your brain to recall the day of a particular date in history, he tells you without recourse to any aid”.
Siju: I just know it
Ironically, Siju a young man of few words cannot explain how he came about this ability. He tells you “I just know it.” When this writer pressed on insisting there must be a formula to his ability to get obscure dates and days, he simply said again, “I just know it.” Does a spirit tell you? “No” he responded adding, “I just know it”
What then could be responsible for a young man giving days of dates and as well dates of days without recourse to the computer or the calendar? That is the question that keeps rattling pundits.
It is believed that people in his category are very rare. They are perhaps less than five in the whole world. Science has not been able to explain this bizarre trait.
His ability inexplicable
A psychologist, Oni Fagbohungbe explains there are people of Siju’s ilk who break the rule of science. “it is simply inexplicable” Fagbohungbe said, adding however that he probably “took the trait from one of his great grandparents who though may not have been lettered had the ability to recall date and days.”
Bola Adeaga head-teacher of Carol School, Agidingbi, where Siju is a primary 5 pupil, says the school has developed a special curriculum for him to groom him and harness some other abilities that he may possess.
Siju says he would like to be a medical doctor. On why he wants to be a medical doctor, he says, “I just don’t like to see people suffer from ill-health.” Adding that he would love to be treating people.
Already, he is well known in school. Adeaga had described him in an interview as a go-getter. “The boy does not forget things, no matter how long. He does not like sitting in one place at a stretch for a long time. He would just want to stand up and do something else. He is bold and confident. He also identifies almost every student and staff by name.” said Adeaga.
His other abilities
Apart from his penchant for calendar, Siju is noted for his love for Mathematics and anything that has to do with calculation. His class teacher, Mr. Godwin Ikechukwu confirms that he does a lot of drawing and loves singing. He is reputed to have all the tracks of some of Tope Alabi albums in his brain. He also has the unusual ability to record the dates of births of people he meets for the first time in his brain.
His grandmother, Mrs. Lydia Ojo who runs a school where Siju attended till his basic four before joining Carol School said she used to shun him when he was doing the calendar thing. She never knew Siju was a calendar genius.
For now, it’s a watch and wait game for the Olawepos who hail from Iludun-Oro, Kwara State. His father, an accountant by profession says, “We are happy at the development. But we are also watching and waiting. We don’t want to dictate anything in terms of his career. We will allow him to flow in the direction that comes from his mind while we keep praying for him. I also hope that this discovery will interest the government and it will be properly harnessed.”
Story by Gbenga Osinaike
1 comment