Chapter Four
This chapter is on the encounter of Salma with Doctor Dabo, the 100 Level coordinator, a no-nonsense Lecturer. Salma is in the prime of her youth and barely twenty years old. She is busty and elegant.
She dresses in tight-fitting trousers and body hugs. She is always the cynosure of the opposite sex wherever she passes. Salma doesn’t see anything wrong in the way she dresses on the campus.
Doctor Dabo on his own is a highly disciplined Lecturer who doesn’t condone nonsense especially with the female students. He has been in the university for more than ten years and many students have passed through him.
He treats all his students equally and justly. He is punctual to lectures and never allows any student to come in after he has entered the lecture room. The students understand and know him for this.
Salma enters his office with her registration file to sign her forms. Salma’s physique and posture make him feel a lump in his throat. He puts himself together not to disgrace himself and not put his reputation on the line as he is already having some feelings in his body on sighting seductive Salma right in front of him.
Despite the cold weather, Dabo is sweating. He then decides to attend to the girl as soon as possible so as not to involve himself in something he would regret for the rest of his life.
Dr. Dabo asks for her mission in his office. Salma then responds confidently that she is there to sign her registration forms as the level coordinator. Dr. Dabo is amazed by the confidence of a 100-level girl standing before him.
He says in his mind that Salma must be bold. Salma responds further that she has been screened and directed to Dr. Dabo’s office. Dr. Dabo collects the firm and certifies it complete. He then signs the appropriate column on the form and returns it to Salma reluctantly.
Salma collects the forms and hesitatingly stands up, walks towards the door. At this instance, Dr. Dabo could not explain what prompts him to tell Salma to wait and sit down as she is about to leave the office.
He asks Salma where she comes from, the latter says she is from the north. With his heart still beating, he requests to know Salma. She responds that she is a student. Dr. Dabo requests further that he wishes to know her more intimately.
Salma expects this to come but does not expect it from the haggard looking lecturer like Dr. Dabo who has nothing to offer according to her. This overture from Dr. Dabo greatly annoys her. She remembers the comments of the students about Dr. Dabo that he is highly disciplined and does not tolerate nonsense, especially when it comes to dealing with female students.
Salma asks for further explanation of “intimately.” Dr. Dabo says he just wants them to be friends.
Salma responds “no sir, with all due respect, that’s not what my parents sent me here to do. In fact, you should be ashamed of yourself asking me out. You are old enough to be my father. So what kind of morality are you guys inculcating in your students when you cannot see a beautiful girl pass by without making advances at her?”
Dr. Dabo instantly hates himself and apologizes. Salma then responds that if men are even scarce in the world, she would never go out with someone like Dr. Dabo that he does not worth her. She dashes out of the office immediately.
Dr. Dabo is confused and he is left in deep thoughts long after Salma leaves. He thinks over the temptation that he has been overcoming for more than ten years he has been on the campus that just came over him. He begs God to let the problem ease off and to let the girl spread the news around the campus.
He then says that luckily, he didn’t do anything that could warrant serious punishment, he only requested to be her friend and there is nothing wrong in it. He judges himself again that it is wrong and begs again that the misbehavior should not have an impact in his life.
He promises to God to be more dedicated and pious in the discharge of his duties as a moral custodian of the students on campus if he scales through the hurdle.
Salma on her own after leaving the office does not even have a re-think over the encounter with a man that couldn’t express himself confidently while asking him out. She considers Dr. Dabo as not matching her status. She goes straight to the hostel to complete her accommodation registration.
…….
There are three other girls with Salma in the room alloted to her in Queen Amina Hall of the university. She is from the North, Tomiwa from Ibadan in the West, Ngozi from Umunze in Imo state and Ada from Benue State in the middle Belt region.
The hall is a famous and prestigious female hall on the campus. It is the dream of every female student to be in the hall, especially the “Happening babes” on the campus.
Salma likes the hall but initially doesn’t like the room because of the co-occupants. She doesn’t like the composition of her roommates. Though she understands the procedure of the room’s allocation that it’s not somebody’s making. They make the payment online and then indicate their chosen hostel and room depending on availability of space. They then click the yes button on the chosen room.
The computer would then show transactions completed if the room is secured or cancelled if the room is occupied. None of the occupants is able to influence the allocation to the room. The computer operation picks those that stay in a room for the next two semesters.
When Salma finally packs her things into the hostel, she then realizes that her roommates are friendly. Tomiwa is the cleanest and the brightest both in the room and her class. Her ambition is to become a singer; hence she is current with the information on music and entertainment industry.
She is also conversant with the latest craziest fashion outfit in town; Salma is close to her as a result of this. Ngozi is well reserved; she appears to have never left her village. She is so generous that she would never cook food for herself alone. While having dinner, she would invite her roommates to come and join her.
They sometimes join her and at times decline. This single attitude of Ngozi makes them cook as one small family and their relationship becomes stronger. They then take turns to cook.
When it is Adah’s turn to cook, Salma says she would like to see the ingredients she would use for the indomie jollof she wants to cook. The indomie jollof is the favorite of students because it is simple and fast to prepare.
Adah responds that there’s nothing special that is required in cooking the indomie and adds jokingly that they would not want to find a leg of rat in the food. Salma is being teased here because rats are a delicacy of her people. They all laughed it off here.
Tomiwa also asks if they would like snails, which she says is her village food for the kings. This surprises Salma that Tomiwa people are eating snails. Tomiwa explains that snails grow very big in the west and are a special delicacy.
Ngozi also says they eat snails where she comes from. Salma then says nobody eats snails in the room and suggests that any day any one feels like eating her people’s delicacy, the person could inform them ahead, so that each person would prepare her food that day and they all agree.
As time goes on, they become used to their foods except rats which is not available on the campus. They are all used to snails whenever Tomiwa’s parents visit, though not frequently because of the distance; Oyo State is eight hours drive from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
Salma introduces them to a special delicacy of the Hausa up-landers, Danwake. It is delicious and easy to prepare. To prepare it, one needs wheat or maize flour. The flour is mashed into paste and mixed with ground baobab leaves.
It is then dropped into the boiling water in small balls until it turns hard a few minutes later. It is then ready to be eaten with groundnut oil or stew.
The process of the preparation looks strange to the roommates until Salma prepares it for them one day. It is then they believe that the taste of the pudding is in the eating. There is a big difference between what they heard Salma describing and what they eat. Food becomes a common factor that unites them; they forget about their diversity.
Salma and Tomiwa are Muslims while Ada and Ngozi are Christians; this is not a problem for them at all, they do things in common. There is an issue that nearly mar the relationship between Salma and Tomiwa, but the intervention of Ada and Ngozi resolve it.
…….
Salma is coming back from home one late night around eight o’ clock and there are no vehicles. A black Mercedes Benz just stops by her and a man ask whether she is going there. Salma is not comfortable with the two men in the car, though they appear decent and affluent. She would have preferred a man in the car.
She then decides to follow them since the distance to the school is not far; they couldn’t do anything unwholesome. She doesn’t even answer them, she just opens the door behind the passenger seat and enters and closes the door gently.
Salma greets them and tells them that she is going to Ahmadu Bello University. The man driving responds that Salma is going their way and introduces himself as Labaran. She requests for Salma’s name and the latter says she would tell them when she alights. After about a ten minutes drive, the car reaches the university main gate.
Labaran asks her if they should take her in, she responds in affirmative. Habib, the second man, also agrees to that. Salma instantly decides that Habib, who talks less, is likely the owner of the car if any of them owns the car.
It’s not that Salma is thrilled by being asked out by a Benz owner, but it would be more thrilling and historic to say that a certain man in a big car asks her out and she turns it down.
It is now clear that she would turn down the offer from any of Labaran and Habib. She says to hell with their flashy car; because they give her a ride, they are now looking for a life-long relationship. Do they think she is a cheap girl?
The Benz stops outside Queen Amina Hall. The men stay put in the car, none steps out to open the door for Salma as done by gentlemen in Europe. Salma opens the door and steps out of the car by herself.