We first met sixteen years ago and within five months of our first meeting, we were married.
I still remember the day clearly. It was on Monday, March 8, 2004. One of those days that proved to be a busy day for me in the office.
I was the General Manager, GM, Katsina State Television, KTTV, and she was a primary school teacher. She, together with two other teachers, brought some pupils for excursion. Because of the frequency of such visits by students, I had given a standing order to the Director Programs, Sada Rumah (now Ɗanwairen Ƙatsina), that an officer be assigned to be conducting the students round, without necessarily seeing me first. That was the practice.
As fate would have it, when they came on that fateful day, the director programs was out, so they were brought directly to my office. And I was up to my eyes in work. They were asked to wait in the outer office while I was contacted. When I was told that students had come for excursion, I immediately shouted angrily and asked why they were brought to my office after I had given a standing instruction that they should be taken to the director programs. I didn't know that the door was partially open and they had overheard me shouting to the messenger who came in to tell me.
I was later to learn that they were, naturally, angry at my refusal to see them. So, they were assigned to the officer in charge, who conducted them round the premises and showed them around without seeing me. As I was busy, soon I forgot about the whole incidence.
Several hours later when I had reduced the work load on my desk, I came out of the balcony outside my office for a breath of fresh air, leaning over the rails on the balcony and staring at the activities downstairs.
To my left was the way downstairs and to the exit down to the car park. And to my right, along the corridor at the far end was the library. It was when I turned to look towards the library that I saw her... Standing just outside the library and looking directly at me... I don't know how long she had been there looking at me. Of course, she didn't know who I was as she wasn't allowed into my office... I hadn't the faintest idea who she was, either. Our eyes locked as we stared at each other, perhaps for not more than a few seconds and I looked away. Then I turned again and looked at her. Again, our eyes locked a little longer than the first time. Impulsively and without meaning to, I felt myself beckon to her to come. Surprised, she pointed at herself and asked, "I?". I nodded. And she came.
As she came towards me, I suddenly remembered and wondered whether she was part of the excursion team. When she came, I asked what she was doing in front of the library. She said she was waiting for the pupils she brought for excursion to come out. I asked her name and she told me. She had an unusual name. When she mentioned the name, because it was an unusual name, I remembered having heard that name for the first time way back in 1999 (five years ago). I asked where she came from and she told me...then I remembered.
It so happened that my friend, Kabir Abasaya, and I had once attended a wedding ceremony in the girl's home town. From there, we then proceeded to Funtua. While we were coming back to Katsina, a bus overtook us along the way. In the bus were women returning from Zaria after attending a wedding. As the bus passed us, a girl sitting at the back seat was waving at us and smiling. Surprised, I asked my friend whether he knew her. He said yes, and told me it was a girl he knew who had once taken pupils to Katsina State Radio for excursion. When he mentioned her name (that unusual name again), I immediately recalled the visit.
It was in 1999 and I had just been transferred from Katsina State Television to Katsina State Radio. And it was the same girl I found myself staring at now. All these flashed through my mind in staccato of successive recollections within seconds. There and then something clicked in my mind that gave me a premonition that somehow my destiny was linked with hers.
So we talked. And during the course of our talk, we discovered that she was related to my elder sister's husband. My sister had also taught her in the primary school! Wow!
From then on, we continued to see each other and before you could say Jack Robinson, were married...
And she's added another year today. HBD to you, my First Lady (2)!
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