05/11/2016
I know not why I'm excited to be in Maiduguri again after 34 years. The last and only time I ever visited was in 1982, during my NYSC! But there it is, excited I am, all the same...
No, don't get me wrong, I did not serve in Borno State during my service year. It was a visit to escort my friend, Lawal Dauda Mani, who was serving in Borno State.
I was serving in the old Imo State and I had returned home for the first term holiday after I had been posted to teach English Language and Literature in a community secondary school in Umuaku Isuochi, Okigwe Local Government Area when, Lawal Dauda Mani, asked me to accompany him to Maiduguri to get his salary.
When I entered Maiduguri again, I was greeted by the news on the local radio station, which was being read in Kanuri! Wow! I don't think I had ever heard the language spoken at length and so extensively. It sounded as if it had too many r's or was it my ears? It sounded exciting, anyway, and very different from the languages I'm used to hearing. Whether I'll be able to learn the language remains to be seen...😂
I look forward to seeing my secondary school classmate, Shettima Kolo, an indigene of Maiduguri and a Kanuri, who should teach me the language. Come to think of it, Shettima Kolo, himself, had lived in Katsina as a child and attended primary and secondary schools there.