Plot Summary
Characters
Mr. Ahmad – Father
Ummi Ahmad – Mother
Omar – The first child and the only male child
Teemah – The second child
Jamila – The third child
Bint – The baby of the house
Mallam Salihu – Social studies Teacher
Salma Mohammed – Ummi’s school mate in the university
Salim – Salma’s fiancé
John – The cleaner in the university
Dr. Samuel Johnson – Ummi’s HOD
Hakimi – The District Head
Talle – The quiet one
Zaki – A kidnapper and thug
Dr. Dabo – A Lecturer
Tomiwa, Ngozi, Adah – Salma’s roommates
Labaran – Habib’s driver and friend
Honourable Habib – The Speaker and Tomiwa’s boyfriend
Kolawole Abdul – Salma’s classmate
Dr. Kabir Mohammed – A fake Doctor and gambler
Kartagi – Leader of the Gamblers
Gumuzu – A thug and Gambler
Natasha – Salim’s internet girlfriend
Dr. Amina – The Invigilator
Plot Summary
The Life Changer is about a family of six; Mr. Ahmad the father, Ummi Ahmad the mother, Omar the first born and the only male child, Teemah is the second born, followed by Jamila and Bint is the baby of the house.
Omar, an eighteen-years old just gets admission to study law in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He has earlier had seven credits including Mathematics and English language in WAEC examination.
He then purchased JAMB form and filled it online, he scored two hundred and thirty out of four hundred.
Omar gives the admission letter to her mother who receives it with great joy. Omar then warns that none of his sisters should break the news to his father when he comes back from work.
Omar also explains to his mother the importance of having a smartphone; while his friends checked their results from the comfort of their rooms, he had to wait for two days visiting café before he could check his results.
Her mother then promises to look into it when his father is back from the bank where he works.
His mother then asks him if he knows the implication of the admission in his life. Omar says it means he has arrived and become a member of the intelligentsia. His mother smiles at his naivety and tells him that it is a life Changer for him.
Omar asks for further explanation on the meaning of a life Changer. In explaining this to his son, Ummi cites her own personal experiences in the university as well as those of others in the university community.
Ummi expresses the carefree attitudes of the people on the campus; everybody going about their business without any care.
It is even difficult to differentiate students from teachers as there is no wearing of uniform. She later explains to him that his department has a dress code black trousers, white shirts and black neck ties.
The girls wear skirt instead of trousers. She then calls the attention of Omar to the way the girls in the university dress; this is talking about the indecent dressing of campus girls.
Their mother shares her experience with a school mate, Salma Mohammed, a tall, slim and busty campus girl. Salma puts on tight-fitting clothes to the faculty registration office.
Her dressing attracts the boys around. Salma, who comes around barely fifteen minutes starts complaining about the lecturer not attending to them. She says they are inconsiderate and heartless.
A young man tries to calm Salma down to be patient like others she met there. Salma tells the man who is later discovered to be the lecturer they are waiting for that she knows the lecturers better, that they are like policeman at the checkpoint.
She even assures the man that she could influence the lecturer with money as “money moves mountain.”
To the amazement of everybody, the man in the office comes out and tell the man who has been engaging Salma that the office is ready for use; the man is the lecturer they have been waiting for.
While everybody looks on, Salma is just shivering like a rain drenched chicken.
Ummi also shares her experience during her departmental registration in the HOD’s office. The initial response of Dr. Samuel Johnson who is the HOD makes her to be suspicious that the man has an ulterior motive about her.
To her amazement, the man is discovered to be her husband’s friend who even assisted the husband in her admission.
On that day, Mr. Ahmad the husband narrated an incident about a neighbour he referred to as the quiet one. Omar then asks his mother to tell them about the quiet one.
Before she narrates the story, she tells Omar that the story would be relevant to him as he is leaving the village for a bigger town; he is warned not to trust everybody he meets.
She says it’s not like their own small community Lafayette, where they know one another and a stranger cannot just come without the approval of the District Head called the Hakimi. In the town, everybody mixes freely.
The quiet one is Talle, a native of Lafayette. His parents had problem of childbearing several years after they were married. They later consulted a traditional medicine man this resulted in the birth of Talle. He was named Talle because his mother died after his birth.
Talle was known to be a quiet person, he was never seen engaging in arguments with anybody, hence he was seen as a responsible person in the community.
He was barely twenty years when he lost his father in a car accident. He lived alone; nobody could say anything about him.
To the surprise of the people, Talle was arrested for his involvement in kidnapping armed robbery and extortion. He was whisked away by the police.
Omar is also advised against involving in exam malpractice. His mother cites the example of Salma, who was admitted into a university, but because of her involvement in exam malpractice had to be expelled before gaining admission to Ummi’s school again.
Ummi also cites the example of Salma’s encounter with Doctor Dabo a very disciplined and no-nonsense Lecturer to illustrate how tempting and seductive the campus girls could be with their dressings.
She dressed provocatively holding her registration files and walked into Dr. Dabo’s office. It has never happened to him to look at the girls twice, talk less of having a thought about them.
Dr. Dabo could not explain what goes on inside his body when he cites Salma that day. He couldn’t resist the temptation to that made him created interest in Salma. He told Salma that he wanted them to be friends.
Salma declined the offer and Dr. Dabo hated himself immediately. He then tendered his apologies. He was then praying to God to forgive him and not to put him in shame.
He prayed that the doesn’t go beyond his office. Salma on her part didn’t even give it any thought; she considered Dr. Dabo as no match for her.
The hostel accommodation is another experience shared by Ummi, Omar’s mother for the children. She also uses Salma’s experiences in the hostel.
Salma does not initially like the room allocation as she is to stay with roommates from different part of the country. She later finds them friendly and do things in common. They are in the famous Queen Amina Hall.
Salma is from the north, Tomiwa from the west, Ngozi from Imo State and Ada from Benue State. They live together in harmony, but an incident nearly marred the relationship between Salma and Tomiwa.
Salma was going back to the school from home one late evening. Two men in a Mercedes Benz car offer to give her a lift. The two men are Habib and Labaran who are childhood friends. Habib is the speaker of the House and Labaran is his driver.
Habib showed interest in Salma, but Salma was not interested, she then gave Habib Tomiwa’s number.
In the evening of the next day, Tomiwa’s phone rang. She was hesitating, but Salma encouraged her to go that they may not know the difference between them. Tomiwa met the two men inside the car parked in front of the hostel.
Habib noticed the difference between the girl of yesterday and the one of today, but he remained calm.
They later agreed to go to a restaurant and Labaran was sent to go and get them some things. After Labaran left, Habib told Tomiwa that she was not the girl he picked yesterday. This annoyed Tomiwa a bit but they later resolved it after an apology from Habib.
It was there Habib told Tomiwa that Labaran was his driver.
Labaran later came with many provisions and beverages that Tomiwa thought that the goods were purchased for their children. The goods were handed over to Tomiwa and Habib told her that they were for her and her roommates.
He also gave her fifty thousand naira; she was to take twenty thousand naira and ten thousand for each of the roommates.
The room was enveloped with joy when Tomiwa arrived the room especially when they saw the provisions and beverages she brought. Salma was not happy with the turn of events, she said she should be appreciated that she was the one that started everything.
This nearly caused division among them but was amicably resolved and they became more united. They all live in harmony till the final year. The final exam timetable came out and they all prepared well for the exam.
The events that led to the expulsion of Salma from the University are explained here and Omar is asked to learn from it.
The final exam was on and it remained the very last paper which was Moral Philosophy. It was one of the easiest subjects because the course content contained the teachings of the parents and the religious leaders.
Surprisingly, Salma found the course very difficult; she never attended the class because she believed that she could pass the course without attending the class like most students.
She also relied on the recycling of the questions for the past three years. She attended the tutorials with other students.
On the day of the exam, Salma dressed more gorgeous and appears more beautiful than the other days. She was in the exam hall, the moment the paper was given to her, she knew there was a problem. None of the topics discussed came out.
She looked round and saw that her course mates were busy writing.
Kolawole Abdul, who was the brightest student sat next to her. He has already written pages upon pages. The invigilator, who was a female discovered that Salma was the only one not writing.
She has already created hatred toward Salma as a result of her provocative dressing.
Salma gave Kola a signal, but the latter doesn’t want anything to implicate him. Kola used the opportunity of the invigilator not paying attention to writes some answers and give it to Salma.
Salma was later discovered by the invigilator because, someone that had not been writing anything was now busy writing. She was caught and persuaded to feel the EMAL form. Kọ̀là and a female student sitting beside Salma were asked to sign the witness forms.
Salma was summoned by the EMEC (Exams Malpractice and Ethics committee) but tried all possible means of evading justice.
She confided in Tomiwa on the case and suggested telling Labaran to see Habib on her behalf who could help talk to the Chairman of the committee, the Vice Chancellor or the people in the higher position.
Salma met Habib in his office and suggested that the chairman of EMEC could be bribed with two or three hundred thousand naira, as he was known to be corrupt. Habib then asked her what would she give him in return if he gave her such amount of money.
Salma reminded Habib that he knew the money was not for her, should also remember her relationship with Labaran and Tomiwa his girlfriend.
Habib told her not to join issues with Labaran and Tomiwa and urged her to cooperate. She later succumbed and was surprised that the office door was already locked.
Unfortunately for Salma, the money got to the wrong hands because, she couldn’t give it directly to the chairman directly.
Salma later honoured the invitation of the EMAL committee where she implicated Kola that he was the one that gave it to her.
She was however surprised that she didn’t see Dr. Kabir Mohammed she gave one hundred thousand to. Salma along with Kolawole Abdul were expelled from the University. Salma afterwards said Dr. Kabir would pay for it.
Ummi then tells Omar her son not to break any rule made; he should learn from Kolawole Abdul’s fate at the Exam Malpractice Committee judgements.
Dr. Kabir that collected money from Salma was not a medical doctor; it was a nickname given to him in the secondary school and he was popular with the name. He was only employed as a Laboratory Technologist in the university.
After Salma left the committee, she cried to Labaran and explained her ordeals; how she was duped by Dr. Kabir.
Labaran carried out some investigations on him and he got the information about him. He was also said to be a gambler. Labaran planned how to deal with him.
Labaran suggested to Habib that Zaki could be given the assignment of dealing with Dr. Kabir and he was eventually given the job. Zaki trailed Kabir to the gambling joint.
After Kabir won three hundred thousand naira, he stood up to leave the joint to the surprise of the gamblers there.
Kartagi, the leader of the gambling group then signalled one of the thugs named Gumuzu to follow Kabir and teach him a lesson for leaving the joint against the rule of the joint that nobody leaves while winning.
When Kabir got to a dark place, Gumuzu pounced on him. It was then that Zaki knew that somebody else was pursuing Kabir. He also jumped on the two.
Gumuzu’s thought was that Kartagi didn’t trust him, that was why he sent another thug after him and promised to deal with his boss.
Zaki overpowered the two of them, dealt seriously with Kabir, collected three hundred thousand naira from him and asked him whether he knew Salma. She answered in the affirmative.
He then told Kabir that the money he collected from him was for Salma. Zaki kicked Kabir again and he gave up the ghost.
Zaki handed the money to Labaran and he was given fifty thousand naira. Labaran kept the rest with himself. He decided not to give the money to Habib because he was the speaker of the House, hence did not need such a small amount of money.
Habib did not also know the amount collected from Kabir if at all he collected anything. He also believed that the money would not be given to Salma freely without Habib having something in return.
Omar comments that there is no justice on earth, his mother then tells him that there is justice in the hereafter. Omar responds that he isn’t in a hurry to go there. Bint also says the same thing.
This reminds their mother the incident that happened when Salma lost her father while in the university.
Salma came back to the school eighth day after the funeral looking haggard as a result of mourning. Her friends and roommates had gone to commiserate with her. Ngozi then asked her why they were always in a hurry to bury their dead.
It was Tomiwa that responded to the question being a Muslim also.
She explained that they don’t bury people but corpse. As soon as the person is dead, his personality ceases. She also said they weren’t eager to bury their dead, but anxious to let them get well when ill.
And when they died, they would not want to delay their meetings with their creator in which they believed they were anxious of. Lastly, they don’t delay burial to lessen the grief of the family and friends of the corpse.
There were much arguments on this as Ngozi argued that burial should be delayed for the children and relations to come around and pay the last respect. Tommy also replied that the more the delay in the burial, the more the family and friends are tormented.
They later agreed that none of them loved their dead ones less with the way they were buried. They all slept quietly that night.
Omar’s comments that he loved the story elicited a response from Teemah that annoyed Omar. Teemah then said she would tell their father that Omar would be using the smartphone to pursue girls when bought for him.
Ummi then tries to cool the tension that is gathering momentum. She explains the advantages and the disadvantages of owning a smartphone. She narrates the sour experience of Salma’s boyfriend, Salim with smartphone.
After the death of Salma’s father, she decided to become decent, she hooked up with Salim as her fiancé. Salim discovered several dating sites and downloaded the applications. He also belonged to almost all the social media networks.
Salim went to a friend of his named Lawal and told him that he had a new girlfriend. Salim met the purported girl on one of the dating sites and fell for her. He told Lawal to accompany him to meet the girl.
The latter declined that he would not want to betray Salma and also the girl in question might turn out to be different from what they thought.
Salim went alone to meet the girl and came back to tell Lawal that the girl really used another person’s picture as her DP to deceive him as earlier said by Lawal. He said the girl looked unpresentable.
Lawal burst into uncontrollable laughter. He said Salim was even lucky that the girl did not chat him up to dupe him by making demands from him. Or she might turn out to be a man and end up being kidnapped.
Salim then remembered a similar experience he had a month earlier. He had met Natasha who lived in the university town near Lafayette on the internet. Salim was more attracted to Natasha because of the pictures sent to him in which some were nude pictures.
She one day invited Salim to visit her and he set off to honour the invitation. He drove his father’s SUV to the place. He later realized that Natasha was used as a bait to hook him. On getting there, Salim fell into the trap of two men who were with Natasha.
The plan was to forcefully snatch the car from him but was able to escape from them by the whiskers.
Shortly after the incident, Salim was engaged to Salma. Omar was advised by their mother to make good use of the smartphone and avoid the negative effects of social media. She then suggests that they inform their father in unison when he comes back that Omar has gotten an admission.