Dulamini's Experience

                 Dulamini's Experience

 

                      (a short story)

               

                               By

                    Lene Ododomu

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Since the birth of Dulamini, happiness has never becomes his friend because they are always like cat and rat, and then the cat who hunt the rat like a hunter hunting in the forest. This is caused by the experience  he had through the  administration of president Mustapha who has occupied the throne of presidency for more than seven years. He always asks himself these questions:

 "Am I cursed? Or is my country cursed by God because of her foolish action of removing the government from Dr. Ibediwei, the former president whose administration was said to be the worst the country ever had?" but he rests on the dining table where he was served food and abandoned it for the rumination of his experiences both the past and the ones he is yet to encounter.

Dulamini realized a fact that the problem of his country is not just bad leadership but also a problem steered by the people and the people are even the foundational cause because it is they who gave power to the leaders before they started by ruling them. He thought of how the people take advantage of every little opportunity to inflict hardship on themselves. The issue of fuel scarcity is always in his mind and what annoys him most is the fact that the people turned themselves as retailers where they buy fuel from the main filling stations and resell it in high prices. Anytime he walks down from Wuse 2 to Banex, he will be seeing these people on the roadside doing first class citizens for motorists. The motorists don't have choice but to give them honor which they claimed that is due for them because buying fuel in the main filling station is difficult except you bribe the fuel station attendant. He became more infuriated when it happens one morning that he accompanied his mother, Beatrice, to buy fuel at NIMPCO filling station opposite H-Medix  , Wuse where they waited for more than 4 hours before they were attended to but couldn't make it up to school.

Dulamini always loves Mustapha, their driver to drive him to school because he understands the language of the filling station attendants. Anytime Mustapha goes to the  fuel station and meets a queue, he will pack his car far away from the fuel station maybe with Dulamini and then walks down there. Dulamini will be watching him  like a dog eagerly watching his master to feed it the fish bones , when he approaches one of the fuel attendants. He always sees Mustapha folding something in his right hand and giving it to one of them who Mustapha named Kabiru and then he will walk back to the car and move ahead of the angry queue and fuel the car. So Dulamini was so eager to know what Mustapha always folds in his hands to give to Kabiru.

"Uncle Mustapha, please tell me the truth. What do you use to fold in your right hand and give to Kabiru and then you will be allowed like a president to fuel our car?" asked Dulamini while eagerly waiting for Mustapha's response. 

"Because we understand each other and this is beyond the understanding of an ordinary person except one who is also part of us" replied Mustapha as he was driving Dulamini to school. 

"OK make me understand please" Dulamini further pleaded. 

"You will pay then" replied Mustapha as he bursts into an uncontrollable laughter.

"No problem" replied Dulamini. 

"OK then. It's called bribe. What happens in this present Nigeria is that the people take advantage of just a little problem and use it to frustrate others. It has never happened before that there is fuel scarcity and then people will pay extra money to the fuel attendants before they will get what they want. Buying fuel from the retailers by road side is the deadly part of it. Sometimes you will not have the choice but to patronize them because of fuel scarcity and those ones have been making a lot of money. So to avoid this their evil behavior, many people love to pay the extra to the fuel attendants to supply their cars, and for me, I have a special relationship with Kabiru, and that's why I always bribe him to give me high chance of fueling your car even though I meet  a crowd of  people. Are you satisfied now?" asked Mustapha as he continues driving. "Yes, I am" replied Dulamini. He thanks Mustapha and runs to class when they parked at the school gate.

Barrister Bekewei, Dulamini's father and even his mother, Beatrice, wanted him to write his WAEC and NECO at Derimobo Model College because the main aim of founding the school is to curb examination malpractice in the Ese-Odo local government area of Ondo State. It is a school where students write exams without the helping hands from teacher. They always come out in flying colours in their results. Dulamini finished his Junior Secondary school at the school before he was transferred to Abuja because he loves staying close to his parents, especially the mother.

Dulamini was so happy when his mother announced to him the news of his going to Derimobo Model College to write his final exams because  he had already missed the school. But one thing that spoiled his mood was that he was to travel by road with Mustapha and his elder brother, Timiwei, and he has been hearing cases of kidnappings which are basically targeted at travellers. His mind is always disturbed by the gruesome attacks that happen at Kaduna road where bandits attacked the train and killed numberless of people and kidnapped the rest due to lack of insecurity by the current government. He always had this thought that one who accidentally meets with these people cannot have a complete life because they are devil’s agents who came to this world to destroy. Then to travel from Abuja to Ondo State is by passing through Kogi State and Dulamini always hears the bad news of kidnapping mainly at  Kogi roads, especially Okene road. So he started wandering if he is going to end up like those that have already become victims, if truly he follows that road on his trip. 

Dulamini blames the current government because many bad things that are happening in his time are caused by the irresponsibility of the government because he has never been told that Nigeria has had this experience before. Before, you can sleep in your house without closing your door but now you have to lock yourself in your house like a prisoner.

Dulamini is always happy with the relationship he has built with Mustapha and when he told Mustapha about this his news of traveling to Ondo State by road, Mustapha gave him an idea of how he was going to escape it. He idealized that he will lie to Dulamini's parents that he is sick and he knows very well that the trip cannot be possible without him as a good driver. 

Dulamini became so happy when he was told by his mother that he is no more traveling by road but air because Mustapha is sick. He immediately  ran to Mustapha and appreciated him with a gift of phone which he begged his elder brother, Timiwei, to buy for him. His mother brought him his flight ticket in the following day and was  booked on VP class. He was  to spend three weeks for the exams and expected to return as soon as possible so that he would sit for UTME exams.

 His flight was Benin and a driver was arranged from Ore to pick him at  Benin airport and take him down to Derimobo camp.  When his planne touched ground at the Benin airport, he met Adebayo, at the arrivals entrance waiting for him. Though he does not know Adebayo until he saw his name written by him on a paper, he waited for him at the arrivals entrance before he knew that he was the driver. Due to the weather, his first flight was cancelled and rescheduled for 2: pm. So his arrival to Benin was around 2:45pm and that made them got to the school camp very late in the night.

Dulamini enjoyed the time he spent at the school camp, so, to return to Abuja was a difficult thing for him but he had no choice but to return in order to meet up with his UTME examination, though he would have written the exams at the same school because it has CBT center but he was already posted to another center in Maitama, Abuja. SASCON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CBT CENTER, NO. 19 YESERDAM STREET , MAITAMA, ABUJA , FCT (that's the description of the center where he was  to write the UTME exams) and this is favourable to him because his house is very close to the center.

He returns to Abuja two days to his UTME exams and he is a kind of student that is always serious with his studies because the foundation was already built by the first school, Derimobo Model College which he completed his junior secondary school. So he was not worried about the exams because he had already prepared himself. 

On the day of the exams, Mustapha was the one who took him to the center and waited for him until he comes out after the exams. He came out  smiling, so Mustapha already knew that he broke a bone, 

"No one cames out of exams hall without squeezing his or her face because exams have no friend except one who satisfies them. So what's this smile all about? Because I know you......you......you broke a bone" asked Mustapha as he opens the door for him in the car.

"Yea. I killed the exams!" replied Dulamini.

"Oh, that's interesting. I trust you" said Mustapha.

"Thank you" Dulamini replied.

Dulamini surprised to see his results; both WAEC, NECO and UTME which he had first grades in all; dropped on his bed by his mother. Also, few months later he got an SMS from his first choice of institution, University of Abuja where he was offered admission to study B.A English. He became so happy because English was his dream course because he was always aspired to be a successful writer.

After Dulamini successfully became a student on campus, and was also lucky to be made the class rep. through the massive support of his course mates.  He built a very reputable relationship with all his lecturers and he has never being queried by them for any unconscious mistake because he always follows every instruction given to him. But one day when he fixed 8:am class with one of his well respected lecturer and a very senior  Professor in the institution called Prof. Olusegun, he couldn't get to school on time and it was his responsibility to arrange the class before the lecturer. Twenty minutes to the class, the lecturer called him on phone to know how he  has made arrangement for the class but  because he was  still struggle to get to school. He lied to Prof that he was still looking for venue not knowing that the lecturer was already outside waiting for him.

The cause of his  lateness was because of the change of the old naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN). It has now created a new business for the people as usual where you will buy your own money. Most times, even with begging,  one will still end up not getting it. That very day for the class, he had old naira note of 1,000 which he had budgeted to transport himself to school but it happened that both bike riders and motorists refused to collect it. He was struggling to convince them but none of them listened to him and even the withdrawal he wanted to make to get new notes disappointed him. Worse still, he wished to transfer money to whoever drives him to school just to meet up with his arrangement for the class, but he was instead slapped by one of the bike riders at Iddo junction. A thought came to his mind to call one of his course mates called Mohammed, who is very supportive to help arrange the class on his behalf but still lied to the lecturer that he was looking for venue in another location at ETF.

Before he was met by his departmental president, Comrade Chubuzo, who supported his transportation to school, the lecturer was already in class with his mates because the time for the class was already passed. He apologized to the lecturer and he was lucky that Prof showed understanding  as a man who is not just a lecturer but a father to all his students. Though the lecturer insisted to know the cause  of his lateness. Dulamini eventually opened up to him that it was caused by the issue of changing of the old naira notes and the scarcity of cash and that day the class was very scanty because many of the students could not make it up to school due to this the same issue of  cash scarcity.

"I know Nigerians but before then I will blame the irresponsible government of today who is making everything difficult for us. This was not how this country was if we take a trip back to the previous administrations. As it is now, even military government is far better than it and its actions clearly showed that it lacked the power to fix this country, instead, it break the nation into pieces the more.  This particular current government promised us during campaigns that, if elected, they will make us have handshake with God and by this I mean that we were to get whatever good thing we needed in this country, whereas, they made us to have handshake with the devil who is using every little thing to frustrate us. We have had many bad experiences which I will only name few like End-Sars protest that almost took the lives of all the youths in this country because of this irresponsible government and many more, which I don't want mention again because of the pain it causes my heart.  Then for the  people, they are part of the problems of this country and that's why we don't need to blame  our leaders that much because they didn't make themselves what they are today. We gave power to president, senators, governors and other offices. Instead of us to make things easier for ourselves we’ll rather make it more difficult. Take for instance, if we (the ordinary people) don't take advantage of maybe fuel scarcity, selling of money and other things, we wouldn't have suffered to this extent. So I won't blame you for what happened today because I am not a  stranger or alien of this country" said the lecturer who additionally postponed all his physical classes until this issue is resolved, but promises to be taking them virtual classes.

All the students in the class became so happy and prayed for new elevation for the lecturer for showing understanding for their plights. Then Dulamini with this bitter experience promised himself to keep this history for the new generation that is yet to come.