THE NIGHT AFTER VALENTINE

15th of February 2017 is a date that i will stick to memory for long,
sadly… For a bad reason. I was so tired that night as i spent most of it
reading, We were supposed to have two tests the following day ; PLB211 and
ANB216. I was in the class reading when the lovely thought of garri came
in. I had to pack my books and head to the hostel to quench my thirst .As
soon as i was done eating, My friend Ganiya came to check on me and we
started talking about how we could cover up the reading for the tests , i
guess we planned reading till day break or something, We were still talking
when we heard some noise in the hostel. Ganiya and I came out of the room
to know what was going on… Only for us to hear the bad news “a student
slumped at the school football field and was rushed to the school clinic
where he was confirmed dead”. But that wasn’t the only thing causing the
noise. We also heard that he died as a result of negligence of the staff
/staffs in the clinic in charge. It was indeed sorrowful but we couldn’t
help but only pray for the deceased as we headed back to the room
discussing about how the school clinic nurses were careless. I personally
had an encounter with them in my fresher days and it wasn’t too good.
Outside the hostel we heard guys crying and saying words of agony; it was
quite touching. Inside the hostel was noisy as some girls speculated what
the outcome of his death will be : a protest . Meanwhile, Gani and I were
still discussing when my other friend, Ene came in to ask for my note, she
wanted to photocopy. I took ganiya’s phone with me (i can’t remember the
reason why ) and left mine in the room while i escorted Ene to the
photocopy stand opposite my hostel.

I sensed something at the photocopy
stand, guys were rushing about, of course sad and upset and I said to
myself “they are surely up to something” . We couldn’t photocopy the note
there as the most of the people working at the stand started closing down,
i guess they sensed what i sensed. My friend suggested that we go down to
IBK photocopy stand close to DH to photocopy the note, i reluctantly
followed her after a little debate and her persistence to go there and we
started going down. By this time guys were more aggressive… I sighted
from afar, some guys smashing DH windows. It was at this moment i said to
myself “look dude, don’t gamble with your soul” (i respect my self talks a
lot , Lol). I carefully and gently bent down, took off my slippers and
started running in style back to the hostel without even notifying my
adamant friend. A guy saw me running and asked in an angry voice “why are
you running”? I giggled and replied ” am not running, am just jogging ” and
I left quickly. I ran into my friend’s hostel cause mine was a bit far from
the photocopy stand. I hurriedly entered the first room which happened to
be my friend’s room ; Salamat. Now everyone in the room was tensed and they
banged the door just after i came in . I found it funny (cause am a kinda
person that doesn’t take stuffs seriously) , trust me… The other girls
didn’t. Some girls were crying and panting while others were weeping. I
tried my best to make sure the girls were calm with my humorous talks and
stuffs like that . I called Gani to make sure she’s safe and thank
goodness, she was. Then i was like “Oh my G, where is salamat”. Her
roommates told me she went to class, i got frenzied. The reason being i
know she reads at DH Most of the times. I tried calling her line, then i
realized i wasn’t with my phone. Luckily enough, her roommates gave me her
number so i called her and she picked it. I asked where she was and she
said DH… What scared me the most was the way she was sounding, she was
crying already. She said in a touching voice “they are breaking everywhere,
please come and help me”. Well, it wasn’t funny to me anymore, now my
friend is in danger. I had to figure out a way to help her out. I headed
for the hostel door with the intention of going to DH to pick her (i still
don’t know who gave me the liver that day) but the portress wouldn’t let me
out. I was puzzled. I didn’t know what to do again. The tension was high as
the protest was becoming more serious. I went back to the room and sat
down, all i was thinking about was my friend, salamat. I kept asking
myself “what if they hurt her? What if she’s bleeding? What if she’s this,
what if she’s that?” i was in the middle of my meditation when salamat
barged into the room frightened and crying. I was relieved as i hugged her
so tightly and tried to calm her down. It took so much time for her to calm
down, she must have been really scared. I wasn’t bothered about anything
anymore as i sat with my friend and listened to the conversation of her
roommates. Suddenly we heard some voices in the hostel, it was sounding
masculine and most of the girls broke in tears. All i heard some girls
saying was that “they are in the hostel o” then i realized the guys were in
the hostel already . I quickly consulted my self talk and I said to myself
“come on mugi, you got this”. I grabbed my friend’s hand and held the cell
phone tightly ready to of course run. Our room was the first they entered
being the first room. The door was locked though so the guy kept on
chanting “open this door or i set this room ablaze”. The girls were
screaming and crying ; my friend too. I had a different mission so i was
focused on that… How i could run faster than ever before, that’s all i
was thinking. After screaming and threatening he gave the door a fierce
kick and it opened at once. He was a young guy with average height putting
on a yellow Polo and holding a big stick, that’s all i captured because it
was dark. He stood in front of us and said “who locked the door”? Out of
fear we all answered,” nobody sir “. He asked another question to which i
giggled to-” is it a spirit that lock the door? ” We all answered” no sir”
again in our trembling voices. He then threatened to burn the room if we
don’t go out and join the protest. We all shouted “we are going sir” as we
ran out of the room and out of the hostel.

I noticed that night we had an
over secretion in our emergency respect hormone, addressing all the guys
with the word “sir”. As we stepped outside the hostel, to our amazement the
school clinic was on fire ! This catalyzed the fear in some of the girls as
they started screaming and crying. I was having fun, the reason being i had
a similar experience in my boarding school when our hostel caught fire. To
me, it was like history repeating itself (Lol). My friend was so scared i
had to pet her all the way as we ran up and down not knowing where to go.
Seriously, it was enjoyable. We ran towards the bridge and finally stopped
there. There, i saw so many funny stuff like girls with boxes and Ghana
must go bags. Some where with their school bags. I looked at myself and
realized i was only holding my slippers and a cell phone. At this time my
self talk assured me that life Is more important than any bag. Almost
everyone was calm at this point as we called to confirm the safety of our
friends. I communicated with ganiya and we got to meet. We exchanged our
phones as we laughed. I guess gani and I enjoyed the “adventure” as i will
like to call it. A while after , We were asked to go back to the hostel. We
all headed for the hostel, We had to be careful going inside the hostel as
there were broken glasses everywhere. The windows were smashed and most
doors, broken. The police had taken control of the situation at that time
and we went to bed after series of consolation and assurance from the
police. It was at this point i heard the deceased name was Yeye Emmanuel.
Salamat called home so they came to pick her. I laid on her bed and after
she left and I was dizzy already. Gani also spent the night in the room on
another empty bed. My eyes were heavy already and then i remembered “Oh my
note is with Ene” as i dozed off.

12-3

Mugisat Abdulganiyyu Yusuf is a 200L student of Federal University of
Technology, Minna