Chapter Eight
Dr. Mohammed Kabir, who collected money under false pretence, is not a medical doctor or holds a PhD but popularly called a doctor. “Doctor” is the nickname he earned since his secondary school days.
When he got employed as a Laboratory Technologist in the university, he was popularly called “doctor.” Even the HOD welcomes him as Dr. Kabir, though he introduced himself as Mohammed Kabir. Since then, he is popularly called Dr. Kabir. He also resembles a genuine doctor whenever he puts on his oversized lab coat.
Mohammed Kabir is a very friendly person and an expert in associating quickly with people. He has intimate relationships with the important people in the school like the Vice Chancellor, the Dean’s and the HODs. His friendship has no barriers. The only stain he has is that he can do anything for cheap money, but many people do not know this.
Kabir, though friendly, is at the same time emotional. He is also a perpetual gambler; no matter any amount he has, he would squander it playing games hence, he is always penniless. This makes him always withdraw to himself, but when he sights the people, he would pretend and wear a cheerful look.
It is Labaran that divulges this information about Dr. Kabir to Honourable Habib; this really amuses Habib. He even tries to confirm from Labaran that Dr. Kabir is an ordinary lab attendant. In response to Honourable Habib’s question, he narrates how he got the information about him.
He says after Salma left the committee, she ran to him crying. He then told her that Habib was the only one to help. Through some informants on the campus, they were able to trace the person who introduced Salma to Kabir.
When the person was discovered, they threatened to expose him to the school authority for the dastardly act. He says the person opened up and narrated everything in toto. Habib then asks Labaran how he would deal with the situation and he says Zaki would be given the assignment.
Honourable Habib feels somehow about Zaki mentioned by Labaran because he failed when he was given the assignment to deal with Alhaji Adamu by kidnapping his son. He says Zaki engages an inexperienced villager named Talle in the operation that failed, though he didn’t mention his name then.
He explains further that the police requested for over a million naira, but it eventually cost him over a quarter of a million naira to secure their release so as to protect his name.
Talle was then asked to go and settle in a far away village from Lafayette. The police took him there and promised never to step foot in Lafayette again. They threatened to open the case of kidnapping against him if he was said to be seen in Lafayette.
Talle promises to abide by all that was said. Habib says he heard that Talle has been boasting that he was a successful farmer in his new village that is between Nigeria and Niger. But it is reliably gathered that he is into smuggling.
Habib says Talle’s issues do not concern him, but that of Zaki. Though, he may not be straight forward but has his own usefulness. Zaki is known to be an importer and exporter of car spare parts.
At times also engages in dirty jobs for people for additional income without finding out whether the job given to him is legal or not. Habib eventually agrees with Labaran that Zaki is needed for the assignment to deal with “Dr. Kabir.”
Zaki is given the assignment as agreed by the duo of Labaran and Honourable Habib. He tails Kabir to one of his gambling joints. He waits in the rowdy, smoky gambling hall till late in the night. He entertains himself by singing in his mind the chorus from the song of late Kenny Rogers titled, “The Gambler. “
The lyrics of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler is about leaving a place and not counting money as there would be enough time to do that. It’s as if Kabir is in the know of the lyrics of this song.
It is the tradition of gamblers not to leave the table after winning; they leave after losing or the game is off. After Kabir had a major win, he decided to leave, that he had had enough for the night. He said he came there with less than fifty thousand naira and now three hundred thousand richer. This also surprises other gamblers as they watch him leaving.
Kartagi was the leader of the gambling group; he is known to be wicked and merciless. He gave a thug, Gumuzu, a signal to do something as Kabir was leaving the hall. The thug also nodded and started trailing Kabir.
Zaki did not know that another person was following Kabir, likewise the thug, he didn’t know that Zaki was following Kabir. This indicates that Kabir doesn’t have as many friends in the gambling group as in the school and that he has won plenty of money to warrant being followed.
Zaki later discovered that somebody else was following Kabir when they got to a dark street as the thug made use of the darkness to launch his attack on Kabir. He didn’t have the opportunity of recognizing the identity of the person that hit him. Before he could settle for the thug, Zaki jumped on them.
The thug was surprised as he thought that it was his boss that sent the third person after him. He took it that Kartagi, his boss, did not trust him by sending another person after him; he then vowed to deal with his boss after he was done with Kabir.
Kabir later recognized the thug and shouted “Gumuzu?” He said he had never won any substantial amount like that in his life and he wasn’t allowed to keep it. He asked whether it was Gumuzu or Kartagi that planned it.
It was Zaki that responded and told him that it is her mother. He then gave Kabir a deadly blow. Gumuzu then sees that Zaki was more powerful, so he decided to leave but was not successful. Zaki gave him a heavy karate kick that landed in his groin. He shouted very loudly and escaped from the scene.
Zaki then tried to choke Kabir with his hand around his neck. He relaxed his hand when he saw that Kabir had gotten the message. He then asked him where the money was. He pointed to his pocket and begged not to be killed.
He believed that the message was from Kartagi, he said Zaki should tell him that he would never visit the gambling hall again. He said he thought they were good people, not knowing that they are very bad and a crooked set of people.
Kabir claimed to be a decent employee of the university when Zaki asked him who he was after retrieving money from him. This is followed by a dirty slap, he spat on him and asked him if he knew Salma.
After much pressure, he said he knew her. Zaki then told him that the money was for her; the money he collected from her under false pretence and gambled with the money. He said for all the girls he had deceived by impersonating the officers of the university.
He told him that Salma had the recordings of their conversations and it would be made available to the school authority at the appropriate time.
Zaki kicked him and told him that it’s a message from Kartagi. He said if that’s the type of gambler he was, it means he was not fit to be one. He continued that Kartagi warned that he should be careful when next he met him or his boys, he kicked him again and said, “that’s my comeuppance.” This means his judgments. That’s the last statement heard by Kabir before he died.
…….
The recovered money from Kabir is taken to Labaran by Zaki. The money amounted to three hundred thousand naira when Labaran counted the money. He gave fifty thousand to Zaki and kept two fifty thousand for himself as he didn’t have the intention of handing it over to Habib.
Labaran justified this as not being a betrayal because of the following three reasons. That Habib as the speaker of the house did not need such a small amount of money as three hundred thousand naira.
Also, Habib would not know the amount recovered from Kabir or if any amount was collected at all; no one would expect a gambler like Kabir to have a kobo on him. Thirdly, Labaran knows that the money given to Salma by Habib was a payment for a service rendered by Salma which they are all aware of; it isn’t a free gift.
He later concluded that it wasn’t a betrayal and if the non-remittal of the money to Habib was a betrayal, it would be as a leveling up; do me I do you. Since he didn’t view what transpired between Habib and Salma as a betrayal, he was content with it.
Ummi, their mother pauses for the refill of her zobo drink. She observes that Omar wants to ask questions and she urges him to ask his questions. Omar asks to know how Honourable Habib ended. The mother responds that Salma did not tell her how he ended up. Omar then comments that there is no justice on the earth.
Ummi knows that Omar is right but doesn’t agree with him. As a mother, she does not want to underscore his feelings of hopelessness on the affairs of the world or lack of interest in the social set up as a whole. She agrees with Omar that there is no justice in the world. It is frozen until people make it dissolve.
But Ummi tells Omar that there is justice in the hereafter. Omar tells his mum that the journey to the hereafter is long and tedious; he is not in a hurry to go there. Binta also says she doesn’t want to go there since her brother also said so. Ummi at that juncture remembers the incident that happened when Salma’s father died while in the university. Teemah requests to know what happened.
…….
Salma came back to the hostel on the eighth day after the funeral looking haggard. It showed to the people that she was in mourning. Her roommates had gone to condole with her. It still showed in her appearance that she is in mourning; they commiserate with her more.
Ngozi asked Salma a question agitating her mind; she asked her why they were always in a hurry to bury their dead. Salma did not even respond, it was Tomiwa that faced Ngozi and answered the question. She pointed out three things that were wrong with Ngozi’s question. She explained that they don’t bury people, but corpses.
She explained further that once a person is pronounced dead, his personality ends with his last breath. Secondly; they were not eager to bury their dead, but anxious that they get well when ill. That when they died, their own anxiety ends while that of the dead begins.
They are anxious to meet their creator which they would not want to delay. Religiously, the burial is not also to be delayed so as to lessen the grief of the family; the more the delay, the more the grief and anguish on the family of the dead.
Thirdly, she explained that delaying burial does not have any advantages on either side. The body would be decomposing after sometime no matter how well it is preserved. While the bereaved family would also be in grief for more time.
Ngozi seeked for more clarification from Tomiwa that they rush to bury somebody like a nobody, that there are no last rites, no lying-in state or waiting for his children and relations to give the last respect.
Tomiwa explained that if the children were around, they would pray for him there and when he gets to the thereafter. She stressed that children pray for their parents and God answers their prayers and pity the souls of the dead.
Ngozi then explained that on their own, when somebody is dead, all the good deeds and the bad deeds cease. In response to Tomiwa’s question, she said that they don’t pray for the dead, they believe that such prayers would not have any effect on the dead; a medicine after death.
Tomiwa then asked her the meaning of RIP. Ngozi didn’t understand why the question was asked, she answered that it means, rest in peace. She explained further that they were not praying for the dead, but for the repose of the soul of the dead. She at the end seemed not convinced again when Tomiwa asked her whose soul was being prayed for to be reposted.
Tomiwa asked Ngozi again to tell her why they delay burial. The latter explained that it is delayed to make sure that their relations were not buried alive. Tomiwa expressed that the dead are kept in the mogue to ensure they are alive.
Ngozi stealthily evade the question to pave ways for a vital defence. She then explained that the more the funeral is delayed, the more the relatives and friends living far away have the opportunity of paying their last respect so that they would not be tormented after the body is buried.
Tomiwa explained to Ngozi whom she referred to as NG that the family and friends are tormented three times with such arrangement; when the person died, when the body leaves for the mortuary and thirdly, on the day of the burial. It is like extending the periods of sadness and the level of torment.
Ngozi told Tomiwa that it’s their culture and accepted that it is expensive as said by Tomiwa. She added that they were used to it and not complaining. Tomiwa also responded that they also like theirs.
She expressed further that Ngozi used to bury their dead with much funfare after a long period, while they bury their own with less funfare immediately the person is confirmed dead. She concludes that it does not mean that the two of them didn’t love their dead.
As the discussion went on, they heard a silent sobbing. It was Salma crying all along. They felt sorry for their insensitivity. Ada held her by the shoulder. They all milled around her feeling sad till they slept that day. They lived together more like sisters than roommates.
Omar expresses his interest in the story to his mum, but for the death part. He comments that the relationship of the girls is interesting.
Teemah responds that Omar finds it interesting because it is about girls. Omar threatens to beat Teemah and the latter also responds that Omar would not get his smart phone. She is already by her mother after the statement.
Omar seeks for explanation from Teemah on her statements. She said when their father comes, she would rush to him and be the one to tell him first about Omar’s admission and the phone he promised to buy for him and what he intends to do with the phone.
Omar angrily asks Teemah to explain how he said he would use the phone. Teemah said he would be using it to pursue girl on campus. Omar looks at the mother in a way to tell her to do something before he deals with Teemah or leave the house.
Ummi does not want the comic atmosphere disrupted, she then uses the opportunity to educate the children on the advantages and disadvantages in owning a smartphone. She tells them that it depends on how it is used. She then narrates the ugly experience of Salma’s boyfriend with smartphone.
She said after the death of Salma’s father, she decided to change for the better; she became decent and serious. She met Salim who promised to marry her. Ummi says she became closer to Salma when she saw the level of her seriousness and she always advised her on good moral conduct.
She says she just observed one day that Salma was no longer chatting frequently as she normally did on her flashy phone. She asked Salma and she explained that the ugly experience her fiancé had on account of chatting made her to become a changed person.