By Lechi Eke
The campus seemed somehow swept clean now that many of the known cultists had been rounded up and taken away by the Nigerian Army. As time raced by, the memory of the quelled cult war began to wane. Time’s healing virtue erased pains and strengthened the ability to forget.
Some lecturers had disappeared from the campus especially those engaged in sexual aggravation of female students. Many of them were named as cultists in personal vendettas; some were implicated for their wickedness. But Dr. Wilson was not taken, not many people offered Russian Language, and his lechery was in that enclave contained. The Nigerian Army had gone from the campus, their armoured tanks glaringly absent from Moremi hall, Baluba kingdom and the main gate, but not before they took BJ, Mr Unilag 1999. And the grapevine had it that Kemi indicted him as a cultist in vendetta. “Let’s see how many babes he’d be sleeping with from NA guardroom,” she was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Bisi had stumbled on some hunch about Ulari. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was. She became agitated, but prayerfully calmed herself enough to be vigilant. Her hunches were always correct. So she continued to be observant. There was some business going on between Ulari and the soldier which she had not understood. It made her eyes ‘dart-active’ as she constantly glanced from one to the other. Whatever it was seemed inimical to the relationship between the soldier and Bukky. And it did not take long before her suspicion was confirmed.
One day, Bisi caught the soldier off guard transmitting something (sensuous?) to Ulari. When she stole a glance at Ulari, she wore her usual wide-eyed indifferent mien, her long hair hanging lifeless behind her in a ponytail. But Bisi’s inner eye narrowed into slits scrutinizing the two.
In fact, the period had been most trying for Bisi, what with being the girls’ leader of the Anglican Communion Campus Fellowship, coupled with their final year academics, the soldier’s problem was the last thing she needed to add to her worries, and now, Ulari? Bisi had had worries about Bukky and the soldier.
The girls went out a couple of times to ritzy restaurants in plush cars. The soldier’s affluent lifestyle posed a problem to Bisi. She doubted if his soldier’s salary could afford him his lifestyle. He dressed fabulously and moved in high cycle. They had run into his friends a couple of times and they were ostentatious like him – flashy, chrome-designed rides, designer clothes, expensive shoes, upmarket places, etc. Bisi had never come in contact with such people – are they peddling drugs or what? She sought the opinion of the ACCF general leader, Bro. Francis, about the whole situation. He suggested that J might be a general’s son yet he admitted that no general he knew bore the name Nguuma which was the surname J gave the girls. But the most worrisome of all was that J was not saying anything as for his mission. For amidst all the talk, laughter, and food only one thing mattered, and that was that he came to ask for Bukky’s hand in marriage. Bisi had neither time nor the patience to continue the camaraderie for nothing!
At the moment, Bisi went along to uphold holiness since all her efforts to dissuade Bukky fell on deaf ears. However, to all intent and purpose, Ulari was dragged. She and the soldier were almost not on talking terms. In fact, it got so embarrassing that Bisi had to call the Igbo girl to order. She cautioned her to be more sociable when the soldier was around, after all, Bukky was their friend, and seeing the soldier was what she wanted to do at the moment, and they had to help her and protect her to overcome this rough period of her life as she dealt with the temptation of fancying a man. They had to make sure she didn’t slip and lose her maidenhead.
Ulari’s silences during their outings were rather rude, and Bisi had found occasions to excuse her rude behaviour from the soldier saying that that was her nature. She was a silent listener to conversations, and Bukky had joked, “Just like the Holy Ghost.” They all laughed. Bisi was forced to do this because, sometimes, the soldier would just stare at Ulari when she was supposed to say something and she kept mute.
Bisi knew all Ulari’s silly notions about marriage. It seemed that Bisi’s insinuations about J’s mission repelled Ulari. Well, if she hated marriage as she had voiced out a couple of times in conversation with her friends, they all would not hate it too just to humour her, Bisi decided.
Bukky and Ulari were Bisi’s spiritual children. She knew how much prayer and work she had put in to bring them where they were spiritually. When she first met them, they were all JAMBites, just arrived in school. The first time they were received in ACCF meeting, she assigned herself the job of following them up. Within few days they had become friends, and stood out in the campus like sore fingers for three of them were very tall girls hovering above some guys at six feet and six one. Bisi showed them the proper way of the Lord Jesus. She took pride in how they turned out – No Scandal of any sort for five years now because they lost a year to cult troubles. Together, they had gone through a lot, but nothing had shaken them like the new entrant, J! She often asked Bukky pointed questions like, ‘Has he tried to kiss you? Has he asked you to sleep with him?’ – to which Bukky would give her a shouting No, and looked at her like she had lost her mind, but those were usually what guys come for when they date girls. She didn’t know why Bukky chose to be silly about it. Anyway she, Bisi, had decided that not under her watch would her friends miss it in the area of relationship.
However, as if those were not enough headaches, Bisi also noticed something queer about J. He wasn’t chatty. Bukky, since J started coming had turned into a chatterbox which was quite unfortunate. This behaviour confounded Bisi for Bukky was never this person she exhibited now. Bisi noticed that while Bukky talked non-stop as if she was afraid of silence, J usually sat still listening to her. He had this capacity to sit like one cast in bronze! As time went on, Bisi began to suspect that he was not listening to her at all. He appeared to be in trouble of some sort, and was trying to hide his agitation. And sometimes, when J’s friend, Pastor Marfi, whom J jokingly introduced as a deserter (of the Nigerian Army), joined them for dinner, Bisi observed that they two would sit as if they were waiting for something to happen. Bisi had discernment. J worried about something, and he and his friend were also waiting for something to happen. But she knew not what it was. Sometimes, J would laugh at Bukky’s stories, not in an amused manner, but as if he found them rather silly! The whole J business was putting too much pressure on Bisi.
Bisi began to wonder at the relationship between the two since he kept coming despite his mind not being there half of the time. Why is he coming? Only once did Bisi see him laugh heartily at Bukky’s story, and that was when she shared how she and Bisi found Ulari singing When I Kissed the Teacher at the Students Union Building (SUB) when Ularii was a baby Christian. J had held his chest and spluttered with laughter. Thus, Bisi concluded him a carnal Christian and told Ulari.
But now, among all these worries for Bisi, J’s attention shifting to Ulari had made nonsense of all that she had grips of and had been working hard on. And that devastated her!
- Culled from The Girls are not to Blame by Lechi Eke
