Today, Saturday, July 6, 2019, I was badly scared as I was going about my normal walking exercise. I thought I was going to be kidnapped!
This morning as I walked briskly along the deserted road, I was very much alert and ready, mentally, for any sign of trouble.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a motorcycle halted near me. Atop were two people; the rider was a slim built, fair young man wearing a shabby kaftan with no cap. He was handsome and had a long nose; the exact feature of a Fulani young chap. The other guy he was carrying was his exact opposite: He was a huge guy, dark, ugly, wearing a bushy beard and sideburns. He wore a dark jacket. On his back, he was carrying a bag that could be holding anything.
I took one look at them and my heart skipped a bit. I said to myself, this was it. I’m about to be kidnapped. Every fiber of my being became rigidly alert. My fingers hooked into claws, ready to pluck out any eyes, if the situation arises, my feet slightly apart and dug into the ground, ready to hit out or to spring into a run. I was just waiting for any slight move that’ll suggest any of them was going for a weapon. And I was ready to push them down with the motorcycle and run for dear life.
I had mentally made up my mind I wasn’t going to make it easy for them. I’d rather die struggling than go meekly with them like sheep to the slaughter. After all, I’d die a martyr. I wasn’t scared of dying, anyway. What I feared most was to be maimed.
Just at that moment, the rider smiled and said, “Good morning, sir”. I looked at him blankly and said, “Morning”. The disarming smile made me have another thought. May be they wanted to ask for direction. Seeing my blank stare, the guy said, “Don’t you recognize me, sir?”. I said I didn’t. He said he was my late elder sister’s houseboy, Bello. Then I remembered. I recalled the face. Phew! I was so tensed up that it never occurred to me that it could be him. Besides, he was a small “Almajiri” at the time who used to do their chores in exchange for food and some stipends.
He said he sometimes saw me pass by his drycleaning shop. And whenever he was free he ran a commercial motorcycle.
So, this is how the country has turned into. Everybody is so tensed up and scared. Nobody is relaxed, thinking he could be kidnapped any time, anywhere; at home, in the town or on the road. May Allah bring an end to this situation.