Voyage to Kano Series 2: LAMENTATION FOR NIGERIA

I still remembered the first time I travelled by air in my entire life. It was March 2006. I was not anymore fresh out of Secondary School (it was almost 2 years already). However, the admission into the university just seemed not to be coming forth. A door seemed to be opening at the University of Ibadan but I was required to appear at the university in less than 24 hours. The only alternative then was to take the first flight out of Kano the next day.

Voyage to Kano Series 1: UNPATRIOTIC ME

It’s 4:30 pm Sunday and I had just dropped from the bus that conveyed me to the tarmac for my Arik Air flight to Kano. I was particularly glad considering my flight had been rescheduled twice on that day already and I could have missed the flight but for my Uncle’s insistence on dropping me earlier at the airport. I was more ecstatic that I was making a trip back to my “Home” after 8 months. I was clearly in Cloud 9.

As we proceeded for the final security screening before boarding the plane, I noticed the overwhelming presence of some officials and players of the Kano Pillars Football Club also waiting to board. The man just in front of me on the queue turned to a man on a Kano Pillars jacket saying @ “Congratulations”. I cut into the conversation that, “what are you congratulating them for?” The fellow with the massive build, who probably is the coach, chipped in, “We won”. I enquired from him on what they won. “The league”, he replied, albeit uninterestingly. Unknown to me, the Kano Pillars had just won the Nigerian Premier League for the 2011/2012 Season.

He must have felt embarrassed that after a momentous feat as winning the Nigerian Premier League, a fellow Nigerian man could still ask, “Won what?”

For the rest of my flight to Kano, which was routed through Jos,