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| ZUBA |
Zuba! Zuba!! Zuba!!! Oga you no dey go?
A man alighted a cab at the junction where I stood waiting for a cab and as I looked into the car, I saw the three unfriendly faces – they reminded me of the kind of faces we saw way back when we begged to be dropped at Dutse junction after we had scaled fences to return home without due permission from the school authority – this is a familiar story of students of GSS Kuduru, as it is called.
I was already late for work that day, and to make those faces the reason not to board the cab, I didn’t consider. I greeted them with a pretentious smile and as expected, they whispered something that sounded more of a treat than a greeting – affirming my dread for their faces. No one spoke a word while we journeyed. Not too long, another passenger, a broad shouldered man, with beard that almost made him look like one of those people, he wore a cap that half-covered his head, ‘attire’ that revealed no skin and shoes that announced his belief in every piece that was revealed.
“You dey go Zuba?” The driver asked, the man hopped in, half-stepping on me and instead of an apology, he smiled and greeted everyone in the cab in a language that sounded familiar to them alone.
If you have been in such a situation, you would probably guess the thoughts that went through my mind. I thought for a moment about the promises of God. Yeah!! I didn’t hesitate. “There shall be no loss” I affirmed with every sense of belief. I spoke in tongues that sounded unfamiliar to me – tongues that now comfort me in situations as this. I didn’t want to sound scared at the moment as is what is expected of anyone in such a situation as this. They gave me every reason to believe I was being kidnapped and as I scavenged through the details: the stinking breathe, bushy beard, haggard looking caps and clothes that they wore, signifies their brotherhood. The driver played an unusual song – the kind that would not be the choice of the average Nigerian driver. As I tried to rescue myself from being afraid, fear gripped me; it stared me in the face as every word of the song hit me: “A-bu-ja ain’t a place for a boy like you” the rhythm sounded like a song I have heard before and for a moment I stopped to ask the artist that did the song but with these faces, any attempt would mean disrespect – I wouldn’t dare.
Halfway through, I wasn’t going to be on this journey till the final bus stop – I thought – even if my destination was Zuba, with all the strain that now drowns my mind, I wouldn’t stay long in this vehicle for the journey. I would have to stop half way through, to board another cab but conveying this sudden change in plan to the driver was another venture I was scared to pursue.
I tried to find my way through the wordings of the song. “You can’t eat your cake and still have it all too”. “What kind of song is this” – I thought, “who plays such a song in situations as this?” I knew no one was going to answer me seeing that the questions were only asked in my mind and not to these ‘bunch of scary dudes’ as (Tolu), my weird friend now calls them.
“Oga I go stop for this junction” I could hear the resounding beats of my heart.
“I think say na Zuba you dey go?” he left me half-thinking whether or not it was a question I was supposed to answer – it sounded like a statement to me so I didn’t answer. At that point, it would be reasonable to give such an excuse as to not answering the supposed question because it sounded like a statement but the truth is that I didn’t find any strength or boldness to answer him by.
As I came off the cab, my heart played rhythmically as my feet hurried through the bushy path of Deidei.
I now remembered the song they played. As usual some guys had gone to pirate Blessing Tangban’s ‘Nowhere Girl’. It sounded like one of those pirated songs. I reached into my bag and soon I nodded my head to Blessing Tangban’s ‘Nowhere Girl’. “New Orleans ain’t a place for girl like you” trying to reconcile the lyrics with that of the pirated version “A-bu-ja ain’t a place for a boy like you” “you don’t each red beans and you don’t sing the blues” “You can’t eat your cake and still have it all too”.
Download ‘Nowhere Girl’ by Blessing Tangban
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