It was my first time in Abuja in 2008, I had waited for this day since my mum started travelling interstate for conferences. This time she was to travel as usual and I was bored from waiting for admission and just doing the regular routines daily so I approached her with faith, pleaded with her that I needed to see this city she always spoke about in her last 4-5 trips and she agreed. You needed to see how happy I was, so elated that I called my friends, told them I will be off for 1 week and I was visiting Abuja and will fill them in with my experience when I return.
We set off on Sunday and got to abuja just in time, checked into the apartment in Wuse 2 which is in the heart of town.I was even more excited when I realised it was an apartment, yayyyyy!!! I was going to have the time of my life and not get bored at least. It had a living room, kitchen and everywhere seemed cozy. We decided to take a walk that evening to get a glimpse of the area, get some provisions and probably eat Edikiakong soup if we found a good restaurant. The roads where so clean and everyone seemed friendly. As we took a stroll, we asked a Hausa man down the road for directions and he cheerfully showed us the way to go and when we couldn’t find the location, we asked another and he took us down the lane to show us where we were going. I was surprised, Mum is this how friendly they are in this town I asked? And She replied in the affirmative and I recall she always spoke highly of the Hausa’s whenever she got back and would tell us of her experience at the market when she went to shop jewelries. We got back to the apartment and everyday seemed even better than the previous.
Every morning before mum leaves for her training, she would drop some money for lunch-i had refused eating from the apartment’s kitchen from the next day (monday), I had told my mum that I sensed the food would be expensive:
so in a bid to help her save up on some cash I would rather take a walk down the road and get food from a restaurant and she agreed. The area was quite safe so she was ok with me taking a walk around the area while she was away but made it a point of duty to check on me with calls every now and then. But in truth, I had other plans with the money I got daily; I wanted to save up and have something tangible from this trip, so each time my mum dropped my daily meal fee, I will save it in a compartment in my box and whenever we went out and got some loose change I’ll add to it and my money kept increasing while I would eat the provision we bought when we arrived.
There was always bread in the apartment as well so there was something to munch on to keep me full till the evening when my mum would return and we will have a proper meal together. Everything seemed good until the Friday before we left the town. My Aunty who worked in a Non-Governmental Organisation in Abuja had come to visit, she hadn’t had the time to see us since we got into town due to work so she came in straight from work and she was to spend the night with us. It was a long night as there was a lot of catching up to do but while she was having a chat with my mum my eyes couldn’t get off her bag. It was an XYZ bag I can never forget! It had a wet-loosed skin and was so beautiful. I gave my compliments and told her of how much I will love to own one and that was when my mum noticed the bag for the first time since it was lying on the couch and asked where she got it and she responded. It was a popular market in Benin City so I took note of that, how dare I, an undergraduate drooling over a bag that was beyond my pocket and wanting to live a worker’s life lol. The chat continued but i had my heart in New Benin market, i couldn’t wait to get home, and let’s say what happened when i got home changed my perspective in life forever.
See You in my next Article when i spill the beans. Sometimes; it be our own mistakes that shapes our lives forever. #MEMBA11
Living In Nigeria is becoming Scary