Ok, where do i
start? I’ll not mention names where i don’t have to and chaley i’m not a
writer, and i’m not giving this to anybody to proof read. Just overlook any
gbagaun or syntax. I’ll just pour out things as i remember them and in no
particular order. I'll do my best to get my facts right and where my memory fails me, i will skip.
Early 2010, i was
getting ready to return to school – Bayero University, Kano (BUK), then got the
AIESEC call, there’ll be an election of Executive Board (EB) members and i was
like ‘ok, cool’. I returned to school to learn issues came up and plenty stories.
First AIESEC meeting, i got to the venue, Halima Abubakar (Limlim) is there, I
find a seat.
Halima talks about
the stories she had heard, and said she only came around to settle the matter.
She says there’ll be fresh EB elections but before then, she wanted to nominate
a Local Committee President (LCP). If everyone is in agreement then the person
stays. Then she says “i nominate Salisu Umar”, in my mind, i was like ‘WTF’! How
do i, an introvert stand in front of people to address them? I want to stay in
the background and pull strings, not lead from the front. But going forward and
to date, chaley i am very grateful to Limlim for that gesture. Apologies for
not giving an acceptance speech, i was too stunned, and to guys who thought the whole thing was staged, i was just as stunned as everyone else, Limlim and i never had any prior discussion. Anyway, i wouldn’t say
everyone endorsed, but i heard loud “YESs”. Now my task, unite the factions and
move us forward, maybe. I got some training/mentorship from Abdullahi Yunusa (AB2k)
because here’s the thing; AIESEC in BUK was dormant for years. I joined when i
was in 100 level, but nothing happened until i was in 300 level when Limlim
revived it.
So we had our EB in
place; Sakina, Abdullahi Idris, Abduljalal, Kay Z, Saidat then later Levelz and Aisha Danfulani. It was a
wonderful experience with ups and downs, issues with the National Committee
(NC). I remember having exchanges in a public group with the Member Committee
President (MCP),i think that was in the days of Yahoo messenger groups. I
didn’t understand why Kano should have same targets as Lagos or Port Harcourt,
knowing that Kano was just coming up and these other guys were established
already. I think i later did him a mail to apologise.
Then there was the
National University Association of Management Students (NUAMS) election coming
up. I wanted to be on board but didn’t want to have to contest with anyone.
Then a member of the election committee told me to go for Librarian because no one had picked a form. Elections came around
and truly, no one contested. Allies everywhereJ.
Let me explain how
the librarian thing works in the Department of Business Administration. The
Business library is manned by a staff of the department, then there are 2
student librarians; one should be in final year, and the other should be a 200
or 300 level student. Now the dilemma, i was not in good terms with the Head
Librarian, i damned him during one of my rare visits to the library so he bared
me from entering, but now, we have to work together. I put that incident aside,
approached him and told him to forget what happened. I didn’t apologise, just
told him to put the past behind us. I ended up being the best librarian,
according to him. I fixed torn books, and just checked the general welfare of
the library.
I remember one day
we were to have a Strategic Management lecture in the Library, the Lecturer,
Dr. Sagagi asked for the Librarian, he was surprised to see me because i had
the tag of “the most unserious student” in the class.
I was Librarian of
my department and LCP of AIESEC, and AIESEC was taking so much of my time, i
got to classes late and missed some classes. We had projects to run, partnerships
to raise, interns to receive & send, MC criteria to meet and conferences to
attend.
Now, that
conference bit is where people had issues with me. Attending conferences is a
criterion for being LCP. I attended only one – AIESEC Zaria Local Trainee
Seminar (LTS). And i attended for 2 reasons, i’m friends with the Zaria LCP and
my AIESEC mentor is from AIESEC Zaria. I remember getting there and this lady
from the MC wanted to be bossy, i gave her my piece of mind and damned her,
NaetoC said he was proud of me that day J. I went with NaetoC, Saratu and Rachael Not NaetoC the
musician oo. Another time we were to attend Global Village in Abuja, i gave the
impression i was going but on the day of the departure, i changed my mind.
Aisha Danfulani was so angry. I didn’t like travelling and still don’t like
travelling.
We ran Project ASK
– (Answers, Solutions and Knowledge) on HIV/AIDS in 6 schools, we educated
school children about HIV/AIDS and dangers of drug abuse. I got to a Small
Business class at exactly the same time the lecturer was leaving and missed a
class test after attending 1 of the projects. I knew the test was coming on, but
Bolaji (Bj) took it for me.
One day, we had
come out from watching a game at the Students’ Centre, i was taking email and
phone numbers of my friends. I told them i needed it to do a database/photo
album of my friends. They all said it was a wonderful idea and wanted copies
when i’m done, at their cost of course.
Then one day, after
class, Aliyu Abass (optimist) approached me that his friend in History
department learnt someone in his class is doing a personal photo album, she
wanted me to extend it to the whole school 0_0. I rejected, told him its too
large and i didn’t have time. I was yet to start my final year project work and
was occupied with AIESEC activities. He talked me into it until i accepted.
Now i had to come
up with something fast because time was against us. We had holidays coming up
and then i got a mail + call from our LC coach, Femi from the AIESEC MC that he
was coming over to do a routine visit. He sent me a checklist of what was
required of the LC before his visit. Now here is someone i believed was
communicating with one of my EBs getting information on the LC instead of
calling to talk to me. I saw it as sabotage and decided now is the time to show
him who is boss in AIESEC Kano. I told him i wasn’t available to host him,
moreover, there had to be 80% of the LC available when he visits, there was
only me and Aisha Danfulani in Kano as school was on semester break.
He insisted he had
to come because he was in Zaria and wouldn’t want to go back to Lagos then come
back to Kano. Still, i said NO. He said he was coming anyway, and i told him he
was on his own (OYO). I was at my Uncle’s place in Panshekara when Aisha called
to talk to me to cool down and receive him. So i called Abu Medical aka Abu
Malanga that i had guests coming and would like to lodge them in his room. Abu
said no problem straight away, no hassle. I gave Femi directions, received him
and Dapo Akinsola, LCP of AIESEC Lagos at the time and took them to Abu’s
place. He asked me twice, “are you Salisu?” Same thing with Elema Daniel when
he was going to Katsina for a World Project and needed to spend the night in
Kano. I received the call to host Daniel for the night, as usual, Abu Malanga’s
place was there for me. I called Abu, gave directions to Daniel, received him
at night and took him to Abu’s place. The next morning before leaving, he
requested to see Salisu, Abu told him “Salisu brought you here last night”. I
don’t remember not introducing myself. I deviate, the next day, we were to have
our LC Visit meeting with Femi, i wore my “tazarce” (an extra long kaftan) with
hat to look big manish. We had a good meeting, learnt a lot. At the end, Aisha
said “abi you didn’t want to host him”.
School resumed and
work had to continue. There was 2010 Focus coming up, i got introduced to the
lady in History department who wanted the whole school captured, Amina
Mustapha. But of course we couldn’t capture the whole school, only interested
students who were willing and would pay. We had our first meeting, i was
appointed chairman organizing committee because the whole thing started with my
idea. We decided to appoint representatives in every department to bring in
their course mates. We had Ali, Bj, Fati Galadima, Amina, Khairulla, Biggie,
Suleman cashflow, Excellency, John, Williams, Auna, Shehu Sa’ad, Aminu Kushi,
Grace and Ismaila. There was 4 of us from Business department because B).
We agreed on what
details was required to collect and designed a form, then decided to add dinner
and awards to the whole show. At the time, the norm was to do dinners at
Chinese Restaurants. Every departmental dinner was held at Chinese restaurants.
We felt we didn’t want to go the same line; we wanted our event at a proper
events venue. Several venues were mentioned but we ended up with 2. The
preferred choice was quite expensive. Because i felt we wanted to do something
entirely different from the norm, i never discussed details of the event with
people. And when i had to, i was careful to say only what i think the person
needed to know. One day, i was having discussions with Victor Ijegwa, about the
event and the dilemma we were in with the venue and the other choice we had.
Victor told me the daughter of the owner of Country Mall is his course mate and
they were quite close. He’ll put in a word for us and see if they can give it
to us at a discount. We got over 50% discount, from N250,000 to N100,000. And
that was not all, there was more to come.
Now we had
projected the number of students that would subscribe and did our budget and
projected what we would get from sponsors then set the amount at N3,500. N1,500
for photo album and N2,000 for dinner. Unfortunately, the sponsorship didn’t
come through because everywhere we went; we were requested to bring an
introduction letter from the Dean of Student Affairs. We had sent out proposals
to MTN, Freedom radio, 7-up bottling company, Intercontinental bank, UBA,
Starcomms, Sterling bank and Indomie. We requested products and cash in
exchange for their presence at the dinner event to reach out to final year
students and ad space in the photo album.
I went to the Dean
with i think Bolaji to talk him into giving us an introduction letter to the
sponsors. He declined, threatened to seize my certificate if any report came to
him from any student that we had swindled them. In the course of discussion
AIESEC came up, i told him i’m the LCP for AIESEC. Apparently we had not
completed our registration process to carry out activities in the school. I
told him we would regularise then left.
The lack of
introduction from the school meant our sponsors couldn’t come in and then we
were potentially going to be short of cash for printing the photo album and
organizing the dinner.
A similar thing was
organized by the graduating class of the previous year, when i learnt the
chairman of the committee – Babaji – was in school to collect his certificate,
i met up with him to discuss how they pulled theirs off and challenges they
faced. Theirs was named “Best of Friends”. We decided to call
ours 2010 “Focus”, appointed Ismail who had a printer to start discussions on
the cost of printing of the album. I gave him sample of what we wanted. It had
to be personalized with names on it too.
2010 Focus was
beginning to take my time off AIESEC. We had an intern coming from Germany and
i fell sick the day of her arrival. On one of the rare days that i was walking
alone, I was weak and dizzy, and went to a corner to try to regain strength. A
course mate, Umar Abba, was passing by and saw my condition. He picked me up
(as i no heavy), put me on a bike and rushed me to the school clinic, i was
admitted and immediately, drip followed. I was beginning to come around when my
roommate, Awwal Tilde, sighted me. He was surprised he had seen me very healthy
before i left for class but here i was in the clinic. Word went out that i had
been admitted at the clinic. Within minutes, guys had come in to visit me.
AIESEC work also had to go on. I remember i had to make a call and didn’t have airtime;
i gave Abduljalal N400 to buy me MTN. From my sick bed, i had to make calls to
organize things. The AIESEC intern came to school and visited me at the clinic,
we discussed with my EB her internship placement and then they left to do what
had to be done. Droves and droves of people came in to see me, Bj said the drip
was moving too slow and increased it. Williams said no, the nurses knew how
they wanted it so he put it back to how it was. Williams and Bj took turns
playing around with the thing until Nike, who had brought me fruits stopped them.
A crowd was forming at the clinic so i had to be discharge because the clinic
was getting noisy and other patients were being disturbed.
AIESEC activity was
going on, we had recruited new members and had to induct them. I remember
Yayaha Usman (Oppycy) and Razaq Suleman (Razzy), Musa Mashi, Imagine attended one of our weekly AIESEC meetings and
were surprised to see me in an entirely different element while presiding the
meeting. They were so amazed that they were encouraged to join. I appointed
Auna as Disciplinary Chair to enforce discipline, and he surely didn’t
disappoint.
I remember our
first Project ASK at BUK Staff School, Auna narrated a story to the kids about
how he and a friend were addicted to drugs and how the friend lost his life. We
were all so moved by the story that some of the kids shed tears. After the
program we went to console him, only for him to tell us it was a framed story
to get to the kids.
One time, Sule and
i had to go to Kaduna to supervise the printing of the dinner albums. Our trip
there was at our own expense. Sule secured accommodation at his friend’s place
and for me, it was an opportunity to visit KD. One time we were at the mosque
with our host, praying Zuhr when his phone ringed during prayer. He checked the
phone, and cut the prayer short then left. When we caught up with him later and
asked what the emergency was that he had to cut short his prayer, he said his
girl came around so he had to go see her. O_0
When we were done
with our mission, we returned to Kano to continue preparations for 2010 Focus.
We wanted to bring in some known faces on campus to help promote the event as
subscription number was quite low. I was reliably informed that some guys
discouraged their friends from participating because the chairman of the
organising committee is not known to attend parties. I said i never attended
those parties because they were all below standard. As a Lagos boy, no party in
Kano moves me.
We made steady
progress department by department, and because in each department, we had
appointed people whose judgement was trusted by their course mates, guys
gradually liked the idea and were subscribing. We made our deposit for the
photo album and started discussing how we were going to hold the dinner. We
scrapped the awards because there was no basis for awarding people.
We sometimes held
impromptu meetings at the school market – Coke Village – but our main meeting
place was Business department Green park. During one of such meetings, Auna
came with a friend who he said could get us sponsorship. We accepted him even
though we were not comfortable. We had our meeting and at the end of the
meeting that day, i told those present that was all they needed to know. That
day, we talked about having an after party after the dinner.
Auna’s friend never
came back but one day i was with Auna, he told me his friend actually attended
our meeting to pick ideas so he could use in their department. Auna was very
livid. I didn’t mind because i knew the information he had was sketchy. Let me
add that i am Auna’s boss at AIESEC and 2010 Focus J. After a few weeks, the one and only Guzeh called me
that the commander at Janguza military barracks received a request from
students of a department to use a venue in the barracks for their dinner after
party. The commander wanted to know if Guzeh can vouch for them and whether the
venue should be hired to them. GUZEH CALLED TO ASK ME IF HE SHOULD GIVE
PERMISSION because he had heard i was also planning an after party for 2010
Focus. I told him to give permission. So people of that department that did an
after party in Janguza, you have me to thank, then Guzeh second J.
Some friends wanted
free access to the album and dinner but i declined because i felt we would be
short of funds. I didn’t want to take chances. However, i think i subsidized
for 2 or 3 and i paid fully for one, name withheld. I actually took out cash
and made the payment.
Being in a position
of leadership is time and financially consuming. Between February and October
2010, i had to sell off 4,000 units of Dangote Sugar and 4,400 units of Flour
Mill. I’m not saying i put everything into AIESEC or any of those activities
but i had to be on the move always, and had to have cash on me always. Running
a project with very little cash gives you very small room for manoeuvre.
As students too, we
had to take advantage of opportunities to rake in money. One of such was when a
serving Governor that time visited BUK to honour the Vice Chancellor, Professor
Attahiru Jega’s invite to chair a convocation. When i got wind, i called to
find out if truly he was coming to Kano. I was told by my source that he’ll let
me know. During 2nd semester exams of 300 level, he called me to
respond affirmative. I approached the president of the Student association of
the Governor’s state that i could get the association to see him personally but
he declined, saying someone from the state secretariat was doing that already.
I approached the Student Union also but they declined. Then Bolaji, Guzeh and I
decided to take care of things. We decided to arrange students to welcome him
at the airport. I felt, if “big daddy” is coming to Kano and i am in Kano, i
had to get guys to welcome him as a Very
Very Very VIP that he is.
We hired Jigawa
students’ association bus and printed a banner. While inspecting the banner, a
Political Science Student came saw we had written “Federation of Yoruba Students”
and decided to educate us on what federation, confederation and all other
fallacies. We told him to park well and let us be. On the day of his arrival,
the guys dispatched to receive him at the airport. Imagine was standing outside
while guys were entering the bus. I asked him why he didn’t join and he said he
wasn’t Yoruba. Shey me i be Yoruba? I asked him to go with them. I didn’t go
with them because i wanted to organise the guys in school to welcome him to the
school when he arrived. Unfortunately he came in early so they missed him at
the airport. I called my source and was told he was meeting the governor of
Kano at the State House. I told the guys to go there. They arrived there and
were denied entry. I put a call through to request they be allowed access and
they were allowed to enter. They met him and were introduced as Salisu’s
friends. He shaked bodyJ. When he was leaving State House for the
BUK function, the guys entered the convoy and followed him to school. I
remember the school’s head of security seized Guzeh’s ID card saying he had
hijacked the VC’s guest, lol. It took Pilot 1 to get back the card. For about 3
days after Big Daddy left, i had to stay indoors because everyone i came across
was “taxing” me. Everyone felt i had hammered money from his visit, lol.
We did this
manoeuvre twice again when the former speaker of the House of Representatives,
Dimeji Bankole visited and when the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuade visited BUK.
The day we met Oba Sijuade was the first day i saw a Bentley in person. The
late Emir of Kano, Dr. Ado Bayero was driven in one to meet the Ooni. The
irony, his followers were conveyed in a Peugeut 504 station wagon.
My AIESEC work was
a bit easy for me towards the end of my final year because there had to be a
new EB so we were to hold elections so i and my EB could step down. Things were
a bit easy for me too because of Sakina Fari. Sakina was VP Finance and Admin,
so she was like my secretary ;). In fact, someone said whenever he sees me; he
knows Sakina is somewhere around and vice versa. I didn’t understand how that
could be because Nike once asked why i never walked alone. I was always with
company. It could be Imagine, Bolaji, Abu Malanga, Williams, JJ, anybody, but
never alone. But i am their chairman, chairman never walks alone.
We were getting
close to the date of the dinner, we had to pay for the venue, had to get
someone to do the decor, food, drinks, bouncers, DJ, etc. Grace brought a
police officer to be the bouncer; i met with him at Ramat car park. We
negotiated with him for N20,000. But at the end, we didn’t need his services.
Ali Abass, Amina and
i met with the manager of Country Mall, the venue of the event, to discuss the
program of the day. She told us there was going to be an event at the hall a
day before ours, she would talk to the interior decor person to leave the decor
on as it was similar to our colours so we wouldn’t have to pay for another
decor and it was going to be as a compliment to her. In my head i knew we had
saved some heavy money there. We talked about having bouncers at the venue to
check that only invited guests were allowed in but she declined. She said she
had her own security because they had to check dress code to ensure decency. We
only had to give her samples of the ticket so the securities know what to look
out for. We discussed food and other things. We made a deposit and promised to
balance before the day of the event.
Because we needed
to have the photo albums ready on time, we stopped collecting forms and
payments for the album so the printer could start production. We then charged
N2,000 for anyone who would want to attend the dinner only. Within the week of
our meeting with the manager of the venue, Suleman called me that someone
wanted to see me at Ramat car park. I met the guy; he wanted free tickets to
the dinner. He told me he was the interior decor the manager of the venue
talked about. I told him, not possible. At the end, we reached a compromise. He
promised to give us a live band at the venue to welcome guests as they arrived
in exchange for 3 tickets. I accepted the live band offer but negotiated ticket.
He rejected and i ended up giving him 2 tickets. He kept his word; there was a
live band at the entrance of the venue that night playing non-stop. It gave the
event an extra touch of class.
But before the
dinner, we had in-house issues with ticketing for the dinner. Grace had
travelled to Abuja and came back with a novel idea for tickets. Something she
had designed using a cardboard which looked lovely. But i felt this was easy to
reproduce so i rejected it. Maybe i did not do it in a good manner because she was
offended. I told the meeting that day that i was going to design something then
we can have 2 people sign, me and any other person. The securities at the venue
will look out for the 2 signatures before admitting.
Meanwhile at
AIESEC, i felt time was running out, we had to meet MC criteria to return to
full membership. I would later be told that we didn’t have to fulfil 100% the
criteria; we could do our part and the next EB does it part.
There was the small
issue of printing of shirts and induction of new members which the MC didn’t
want to recognize as LTS. Arin Izang of AIESEC Zaria who was our LC Mentor was
crucial in organising the Induction. Chaley Arin can bash me eh, herh! We got a
venue i forgotten by kind courtesy of who and held the induction there to
welcome the new members into AIESEC. Some members had issue with the organising
of the induction, partly because they felt Levelz, LCVP Talent Management was
not transparent and didn’t carry them along.
The same LCVP TM
was in the middle of the T shirt row. We were to produce a shirt for the LC. We
had different designs come up but i felt as LCVP TM, Levelz should handle it. I
liked the concept of the shirt but felt bad about the quality. A few guys
bought the shirt; i bought one myself and only recently gave it out.
Who said “I’m
standing in the middle of the centre, Levelz?”
We inducted the new members and i was
gradually phasing out of AIESEC, 2010 Focus loomed and the photo album was
running behind schedule. The first printing had issues, Ismail brought the
samples, and we were not happy with what we had. He had to take it back to
Kaduna on his next trip for corrections. Also despite setting a deadline for
subscription to the event, we were still accepting some others that came in
after the deadline. This affected production as we had to send new information
to the printer through Ismail who goes to Kaduna nearly every other weekend.
Now we may be asked
why we couldn’t print in Kano and had to go all the way to Kaduna when there
are printers in Kano where we were and could easily supervise production. We
felt we wouldn’t get quality photo albums as we wanted if we had to print in
Kano given the previous works we had seen. We thought it fortunate that a
member of the committee had a good printer in Kaduna so we felt we should let
him handle it, and if we were to take back the hands of time, we would print outside
Kano again.
In my first
semester, we were assigned our project supervisor, mine was Dr. Mukhtar
Halliru. Project was to start in the 2nd semester so time dey. When
my course mates saw who my supervisor was, they said i’m finished.
While we were going
on with 2010 Focus, my Class Representative, Shuaibu Abubakar aka Maigogul
approached me that he wanted me on our graduating class’ photo album and dinner
committee because he felt i could bring some ideas to my department given what
we were doing with 2010 Focus. I told him i am also running a photo album and
there could be conflict of interest. Maigogul insisted, so i accepted. I
attended the first meeting, held at the conference hall of the Business
department. As usual i did the listening and said very little. I am a good
listener by the way, i scored 8.0 in the IELTS test i took in 2012. That, was
the only meeting i attended. I felt if i couldn’t give 100% and that would be
unfair.
We had proposed a
date, but then examinations timetable came out. We had to get the photo albums
for distribution, and then hold the dinner because after the exams, we wouldn’t
have anyone around in school.
We had chosen 21st January for the dinner and after party, but had to move the date
to 17th January 2017 and stopped collecting subscriptions for
the photo album. We then focused on the dinner. We set the gate fee for the
dinner at N2,000 for final year students and N1,500 for invited guests and put
a deadline of 12th January 2011.
We had done our
programme of events for the dinner but didn’t have an MC. Grace spoke to Fat
Mike to MC the event, in exchange we had him in the photo album and offered him
a free album, plus i think a free ticket. Excellency negotiated with the DJ,
who at that time was said to be the 2nd best DJ in Kano. He was to
perform at the dinner and the after party.
While all this was
going on, i attempted to start my project work in January using a sample
project supplied to me by my project supervisor. I did the first draft and
submitted, i like things short and straight to the point so i did just 20 pages
with no references. There was red ink on every other page and on the last page,
what Dr. Halliru wrote verbatim was “Check the sample. You are yet to begin a
serious project work. 20/ 01 2011”. I don’t have the hard copy of my original
project but i still have that first draft with me as i type.
Few days to the
event, Ismail brought the photo albums. We went to his place to inspect and
were quite disappointed it hadn’t come out as planned. Some were just perfect,
others were poor and the exact number we wanted didn’t come. Distribution
became a problem because all the photo albums were personalised. Even though
the plan was to distribute a day to the event or at the dinner venue, Ali
suggested we do not distribute the album because it may discourage
participation for the dinner, and that is exactly what we did. Ismail suggested
adding a CD to each album so we had him get empty CDs to burn and insert in
each album.
We had printed
tickets, tags for the organisers and even had a tag “paparazzi” for
photographers and had to borrow a red carpet from Ismail to use for the
evening. Each rep was given tickets according to the number of students brought
plus a few extras and we had a guest list that was to be used for admittance at
the gate. We invited Head of Department of Sociology, Dr Sagagi, and Mr. Adams
Adeiza, my Level Coordinator and Malam Aminu who took us Cost Accounting in 200
level.
The morning of the
dinner, we still owed N20,000 for hiring of the venue. Suleman, Amina and Grace
had gone to the venue to make sure everything was ready for the evening.
Suleman called to inform me the manager of the venue said she was not allowing
us start if we didn’t bring the balance. As at that time, we were out of cash,
we didn’t have that N20,000 and had not even secured a venue for the after
party.
Then like a messiah
was sent down, things began to fall into place. My phone started to ring
non-stop. Students were calling me to purchase tickets because the excess
tickets were with me. You know when a programme is coming up and you hear a
couple of your friends attending and then you feel like, mehn i must also go,
that was kind of what happened that day. From the tickets sold, we raised the N20,000
to balance for the venue so the program could start and i gave to Sule to take
to the manager.
As at 6pm or so, i
was still on campus, Sule kept calling “chairman where you dey”? I told them to
go ahead with the moves. We still had to raise money for the after party.
Remember we didn’t even have a venue yet. Alex Gberikon came to school for his
ticket so i rode with him in his car to the venue. We got there about 7 pm. I
alighted the car before he drove to the car park because students were packed
there. Apparently, a lot of those wanted tickets. Diqsa cornered me where i was
to buy a couple of tickets for guests. Grace also came to give me what she had
realised from ticket sales she had with her, Ali and Biggie were with her. We
discussed the after party predicament, then Biggie said he knew a place.
Immediately, Ali, myself and Biggie climbed Okada and left for the place.
We got there but
couldn’t pay for the amount requested. Then i remembered where we had our
business department dinner, a restaurant. We climbed okada again, straight
there. We got there and were told by the attendant that we couldn’t get the
place because they didn’t operate overnight and the owner had left. We took her
number and called to speak to her. We pleaded and promised we were going to be
done before midnight, we negotiated N30,000 and gave the money to the attendant
then returned to Country Mall.
When we got there,
at the entrance, Dr. Sagagi and Mr. Adeiza were leaving. I remember Mr. Adeiza
saying he was proud of me and Dr. Sagagi asked twice “you organised this?” As
being the supposed “most unserious student in the class”, i’m sure he wasn’t
expecting what he saw. Neither did i.
We got to the hall
and had the MC announce the venue of the after party. The programme was over
but i took pictures with some guys. I was so hungry so i went to the caterers
to arrange me and Biggie some food but they said it was finished. Someone told
them to do something because i am chairman, lol. Maigogul had done the
unthinkable; he had commandeered the Student Union bus to convey students to
the dinner and the bus was still available to take them to the venue of the
after party and then back to campus.
Before leaving for
the after party venue, i met the manager of the venue. She said she was looking
for me all over because a lot of students had come with some willing to pay at
the gate to enter but because she didn’t see me, she allowed them entry without
tickets because she didn’t want anyone else taking the money and disappearing.
I got to the car
park to get lift to the venue and met guys drifting their cars. We had some fun
there then i don’t quite remember but i think it was Salman’s car i joined with
Diqsa. We got to the venue of the after party and partied till about 3am. Yes,
we broke the 12 midnight promise.
The next day, we
gave the photo albums to each departmental head to share to every owner.
Unfortunately some guys didn’t get theirs which was a very low point for us. Although we had a
low point with the photo albums, we felt within ourselves that we had done very
well.
The next day after
the dinner, i had gone to the department library to begin work on my project,
my tenure as Librarian was exhausted already. Then Grace called me, i told her
i was at the library. Next thing, school security had come to pick me up for
questioning at their office. The 2nd time i had been invited to
security. The first time, i was almost locked up and it took Maigogul’s
intervention via the Student Union to get me out.
The security men
who had come with me put me on a bike and rode me to their office. The Head
Librarian had challenged them but i told him not to worry. I called Williams,
Bolaji and Ali. When we got to the security office, i was told i had been
accused of embezzlement. It was laughable, but we settled the matter there.
I had been as open
as possible with the committee. I moved every kobo from my Diamond Express
account to my Disa account with the same bank and deposited the monies collected
into the Express account. We knew what we had in account because everyone knew
what payments were made and what was left at every meeting. I believe the
embezzlement accusation came about as a result of the turnout of the dinner.
But like i said, we settled the matter there at the security office.
The project came
off by the skin of our teeth. We had banked on getting sponsorship to subsidize
the cost of the project and had even subsidized before going out to look for
sponsorship. But one person i am ever grateful to was Victor Ijegwa who got us
the big discount for the venue. That singular act came with free decor, free
security and subsidy on catering. Chaley, i didn’t even give him a free ticket
to attend the dinner. Even though he had graduated at the time of the dinner, i
could have invited him, or given him a proxy ticket or two.
If i had to turn back
the hands of time, would i have done things differently? Yes. I will work with
the same set of guys and we will print outside Kano, maybe as far as Lagos. I
will still treat information on a need to know basis. But, i will
approach issues of finance differently. I would be a bit more open. Maybe 95%
open from 90%. For instance, as head of operations, i couldn’t come out to tell
my guys that we were short of cash, it may cause panic. I believe Williams, Bj
and Sule knew what was going on. Now it wasn’t a divide and rule approach of
doing things but it is the way i choose to do things and i still do to date.
I share very little information not because i dont trust my guys but because sometimes in
conversation, we may inadvertently say something we shouldn’t say. If students
knew we hadn’t finished paying for use of the dinner venue, i am not sure they
would have come for tickets. Some may think there are more things we had not
finished paying for.
Same thing with my
approach to AIESEC. Sometimes, i talk to my EBs individually before bringing a
matter up for discussion or debate. That way i soften my landing and i know
what to expect. There was a lot of bad talk and backbiting but i treated that
like i never heard anything, i only had to adjust my relationship with such a
person and know when someone has outlived his/her usefulness. It’s like being
at war and having allies within the enemy’s camp. After all, no one is paid to
do jack, it is just a passion we have.
I remember the
incident of an EB who had not attended meetings and wasn’t present at an EB
meeting we were having at a hut in front of the Student Centre. I immediately
appointed the assistant to replace the EB. Of course this didn’t go down well
with everybody, i was told EBs are elected not appointed. Even when i was
admonished that i couldn’t “fire” an EB just like that, I stood my ground
because in my territory, i am king. If a law or compendium doesn’t favour my
reality, i’ll put it in the bin and apply my own law. Oga Arin i greet oo.
It was great having
the friends i made in BUK. JJ who after classes won’t go back home but will be
hanging around Ramat car park, Malanga my INEC proxy, (he didn’t like the name Malanga
but who cares). Abu Malanga took my place as Salisu Umar when i changed my mind
about the INEC job. JP who gave me the name ‘virgin’, Baba Gambo the “Doctor”, Edward,
who i kept malice or was it he kept malice with me, but anyhow, it was malice
for a full academic session because of Destiny.
Super Honourable
mention to Destiny and Nike ☺☺☺
I used to have the
class list on my laptop so when there was to be group assignment, Maigogul
would come to me so we divided the class into groups. But it was kind of a
waste of time because we all knew who will fall into what group. Shuaibu, Bj, JJ
and I were always in same group, and then Shuaibu also had people who had to be
in his group. I then would add my friends who were carrying or spilling a
course. Even if we were to group serially, we would always manipulate. One of
such manipulation is how i got to know Nike. I always saw her in class but
never spoke to her, my mindset was she had to be the one to approach me. So we
had this group assignment at twin theatre, the lecturer asked that we created
groups. I immediately put her in my group so i could have a reason to interact
with her. Alas! Our first interaction was thunder plus tsunami, herh! A woman won’t
dictate to me and she also couldn’t afford to lose marks in the assignment so
she wanted to be heavily involved. After that, Destiny gave me a very
soft landing.
Destiny whom i
never spoke to in 200 level when she first joined, Eddy then told me he was not
happy that i wasn’t even saying “hi” to
her. I told him i’ll change. We had end of session break, during that period i
communicated so much with her, almost daily. In the days of SMS, no Whatsapp.
When we returned to school, my man saw the messages and wasn’t ok with what was
coming so we scattered. But we didn’t stop communicating. It wasn’t until our
final year that Nike brokered peace between us.
Plenty people dey
chaley, 330 clan aka Ocean view. We find trouble together then you all run
leave me to face school security. Thank God for Honourable Speaker Maigogul.
Sk, Femi, Williams, Bolaji and Mashi, i forget oo, was Monday slow motion there
that day? I dont remember.
The
day i had that life threatening hernia incident, my sister, Aisha called me and
was crying begging me to come to Lagos for the operation. I was crying in
return saying i could die before i got to Lagos. Williams put me in a taxi and
rushed me to Panshekara where my late uncle took charge. May Allah grant him
Jannatul Firdaus. Panshekara was my home chaley. After the
operation, about a week to exams, Maigogul called me to inform me he was coming
over with a few friends to pay me a visit. Few friends turned out to be a bus
full of students and there were even more guys left behind because the
vehicle couldn’t take them all.
I went to BUK to study Business Administration, but ended up getting life lessons and experiences that continue to guide me today.
