THE JOURNEY TO DELTA STATE






"Are you sure you carried a bible" my mother asked me for the twentieth time. "Yes ma" I responded reluctantly. "I even have the soft copy on my phone"I continued. My mother has always been a religious woman. She knew how to force you to do every single thing. Finally she laid her hands on me and used two hours to pray for me. Thank God I didn't miss my bus that day. My bro got behind the steering and being the crazy man that he has always been, we reached the motor park within three minutes.
"Clear road! I say make una clear road" A man in his mid-thirties thundered as we approached the gate of the motor park. "See my star boys don arrive" He said smiling carelessly. His name was Roland. I have known Roland for three years now. He was the leader of all the agberos in Sabon Gari motor park. He had always been in charge of taking care of our tickets. All you had to do was call him and keep some change for two or more bottles and you are good to go. Roland was quite different from all the agberos I had come across in all my life. Unbelieveable as it may sound, he was a statistics graduate who had caught inside the thorned web of street life and drug abuse. "See! me no be "chop and collect" agbero oo" He will always tell us. For this park wey I dey so, if I no see money in a day na 5k, and dat na after I don drink like six bottles finish." He boasted as he gulped down a tumbler-full of chilled the Legend beer I had bought him. "Madam pass me two bazz for there" He ordered the waitress in the joint we had sat down to relax a bit. Roland didnt stop there, he invited two of his other friend who were professors in the motor park hustle. "See my starboy don dey go service" He said as he ordered two bottles each for his agbero friends. Need I say all the bill was on me. My brother had to call my attention and signal me that my bus had started moving before I realised that I should get going. I shook my brother and the melee of Sabon gari agberos in our midst whose hard palms could be used to sharpen a blunt cutlass.
That was how I found myself inside the bus and beside the luscious Precious. Precious was a fellow prospective corp member who I had met the previous day in a Whatsapp group. "Henry where have you been?" She inquired suggestively with sincere concern as the bus crawled slowly out of the park and into the road that will meander into Delta state. "I bought water for us" She said handing me a bottled water. What later happened between me and Precious that night as we sat side by side will remain a secret for now. We finally reached Delta state by 8am the next day only to realize the worst- there was no Glo network. That was the beginning of my problem!!