The Story of us

Chapter 1

29th May, 2001.

I stirred in my sleep as I felt something ticklish behind my ear, I was almost settling back into sleep again when I felt the same thing again. I fluttered my eyes open, trying to settle it to the bright sun peeking through the curtain.

"Wakey wakey" a light chocolate brown skinned 5year old boy held a little feather in his right hand and smiled down at me.

"Wamadan ttop" I whined which made him laugh evilly.

"Manal you're 5 today but you still can't pronounce R and S correctly, I'm disappointed" he shook his head. I was always teased by my friends for replacing my Rs with a W and my Ss with a T, I always cried anytime I was teased. That was until my mother told me that speaking like that was cute, she said whenever I spoke, it felt like music to the ear. That made me happy and I never bothered again.

"Just leave me alone, I want to sleep"

"But you know you can't sleep now, Ammi sent me to wake you up, it's already 9 o'clock, the photographer will come soon" I sprang up and ran to get my Dora the explorer towel. "Turn awound, I want to wemove my clothe" he obliged and I quickly tired my towel then ran into the bathroom.

"Manal, won't you wait for Ammi to come and bath you?"

"She taid I can bath by myself when I turn five" I answered from the bathroom. I turned on the shower and let the water run down my body, luckily enough, I had my shower cap on, I came out minutes later and ran to the sitting, Ammi and Abii were watching the rebroadcast of president Olusegun Obasanjo's democracy speech, she gasped when she saw me, she held my hands and took me to the toilet to have a proper bath. Minutes later, we came back to the sitting room, me dressed in my beautiful birthday outfit. Black blouse with white polka dots, pink skirt and black sandals. Ammi wore a black abaya.

Everyone gathered around us and sang birthday songs for us. It was mine and Ammi's birthday. I turned 5 while she turned 28. 29th May was also Democracy day. Ammi once corrected me when I said I was born on democracy day. She said democracy was born on our birthday and not the other way around, since we're older than it. I was 3years older than democracy and her 26years older. I always looked forward to our birthdays because it was a public holiday, Ammi said Nigeria celebrated us.

My name's khadeejah Manal Yusuf Gana, I named after my late grandmother, my mother's mother. I was the only child born to Major Yusuf Modu Gana and Barrister Amira Kabir Santuraki. My father hailed from Maiduguri, Borno State, Kanuri by tribe, the eldest in a family of eight children. He was born on the 14th of December, 1960, attended Primary School in Maiduguri, King's College Lagos for his Secondary school and University Of Maiduguri were he read English Literature. He didn't go to Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA), he got into the Army through short service of 9 months.

Their love story with my mother was one I never got tired of listening to. He was her crush back then in the late 80's in secondary school, Federal Government College Wukari of the then Gongola, now Taraba State. He came to their school for his primary assignment as a youth corper doing his National Youth Service (NYSC), Ammi told me that he thought them Literature in English then, she made sure she was the best in literature because of him, she mastered all the lines in Julius Caesar and imagined herself as Juliet, him as Romeo. By the time he was going back to Maiduguri after his service, he went away with her heart without even knowing that he did.

My mother on the other hand was an indigene of Adamawa State, born on the 29th of May 1973. She attended Command Primary School Yola, FGC Wukari and went ahead to study Common and Islamic Law at Bayero University Kano. Ammi told me she went to BUK in October 1989, by then Law was still a four-year course in Nigerian Universities, she graduated in March 1993 and went to Nigerian Law School Lagos, which was then the only Law School in Nigeria, she always talked about Boni Camp, where she mostly lived during her stay in Lagos with nostalgia. She was called to the Bar in June 1994 few weeks after she turned 21, and as fate had it, she met Abii in NYSC Camp when she went for her 3weeks orientation in Edo State in November 1994, few months after her call to bar, not as a fellow corper but as their camp commander. There she found out that Abii had always been in love with her, but was hesitant to tell her because of the teacher student relationship that existed between them then. There in the Camp they rekindled their love, he was a Captain then and the following year 1995 in August, exactly 9 months after they met again, they got married, Abii was 35 and Ammi 22. On Ammi's insistence on wanting to base in Adamawa, Abii secured a transfer to Adamawa where we now live in the Military Cantonment of Yola.

Ammi worked for the State judiciary, she was a magistrate as at then. She told me that when she first got her appointment with the judiciary in February 1996, she was posted to upper Area Court where she worked for 3 months, till she gave birth to me on May 29, 1996. I was born on her 23rd birthday, their joy knew no bound and then Abii named me after her mother. She told me that she refused the maternity leave they gave her, and resumed work when I was 2 months old, she was then appointed to work for Tax Force. She became a hot cake in Adamawa then, as she moved around town with a convoy of Army officer's cars in lead, while police officer's cars at the back, her own car in the middle. She moved around town catching black market sellers, those who sold petrol illegally, on the roadsides. When she caught those type of people, she arrested them and ceased their Jerry cans of petrol, then took them to the head quarters. Abii told me her was proud of Ammi, that she was an upright woman who stood by her words and was never involved in any act of dishonesty. He said she kept the kegs of oil she ceased at home in the garage before taking them to the headquarters in the morning, but she never for once even as much as spared them a glance, not to talk of using some, not even when there was fuel scarcity for about 3 days, in the then Abacha administration. He said the big men called her to talk to her against arresting the black market boys, even offered her hug amounts of money to release the ones she already arrested, but Ammi vehemently refused, she didn't as much as shudder, she wasn't afraid even for the slightest, she looked them in the face and boldly refused, and instead of them to be furious, they were fascinated by the boldness of a breastfeeding young lawyer in her early 20s who wasn't moved by the movers and shakers of the State, but then they weren't surprised, after all she was the daughter of Alhaji Kabir Santuraki, a one time veteran politician in the old Gongola and Late Justice Hadiza Kabir Santuraki, the first female judge years back. And so they let her be.

Ammi was a quiet person, she smiled more than she talked, the only time you could find Ammi talking much was if a person's right had been infringed, women and children most especially. Another time you could also find Ammi talking was when she intimidated Abii and I with her legal terms and Law jargons, and she loved doing that alot, it was her hobby. Once I asked Abii why he doesn't reply her in soldier language also, he said soldier language was too strong, it could make Ammi cry and Ammi crying meant she was angry and her anger meant not cooking and food was something Abii and I wouldn't play with. So we let her be.

"Happy Birthday Manal" A young woman of 23, middle height, dark chocolate brown skinned with long natural full hair, clutching a six month old baby and wearing a brown shadda boubou, the headtie tied around her hair in the trending style handed me a teddy bear and a Mickey Mouse school bag as birthday gift. Her hair always reminded me of Oumo Sangare's hair, a Senegalese singer of that time. She was Ramadan's mother. A Fulani Cameroonian from Bamenda. Kaltume Souleiyman was her name. She got married to his father, Major Shittu Chuckwunonso about six years ago too. His father was Ibo from Enugu State, he married his wife when he went for an official assignment in Cameroon. Ramadan called his mother Maa and his father, Baa.

Maa was a very good friend of Ammi's. They were our neighbours,their house next to ours by the right. In the first years of their marriage, Maa could not speak any language other than Fulfulde and French. Ammi found it very hard communicating with her, as the only French she knew was the one she was thought in far back primary school, that too only greetings and few simple sentences. And about Fulfulde, Ammi couldn't even speak the Adamawa Fulfulde, talk more of Cameroon's which had a different dialect. But gradually with time, she started learning Hausa and English and the Cameroon Fulfulde dialect was almost lost.

Maa had four children, Ramadan being the first. The second born was a girl, Fadila, a little above three years. Shureim was two and the six months old baby Adeel.

I thanked and hugged her then heard Ammi screamed and ran out, we all followed her out only to see her jumping in the front seat of a brand new deep red Carina II. It was Abii's birthday gift to her. We all ran into the car except Abii and she gave us a ride around the house and came back. She walked towards Abii and disappeared into his arms.

Ammi was tall, very tall and fat. But I didn't know how she managed to maintain the almost hourglass slim waist with an almost not visible tummy which only showed when she wore really tied clothes, that too an evidence that a child once took abode in there. Abii liked calling her 'hot' or 'hot cake', whenever he said that, I imagined Ammi being a cake, like the hot steaming cupcakes she baked every Sunday morning and drew either a smiling or winking smiley on each. Later on in life, she told me that while her friends wished for a very tall husband, she only prayed for a husband that was taller than her at least and luckily for her, Abii was a giant, he always hovered over her with his height.

The photographer came minutes later and the picture session begun. We had one group picture, then me and everyone that came except my parents, Ramadan and I, my parents and I, Ammi and Abii alone, then about five single ones. Abii chose two pictures for him to enlarge, the one he snapped with Ammi and one I snapped alone.

I knew exactly where the new enlargements were going to be kept. They were going to be hanged on the left wall of our sitting room, were Abii's and Ammi's awards were. Coming down, there was a picture of Abii in Army uniform and another of a smiling Ammi in wig and gown. Hers was snapped on her call to bar while Abii's was taken on the day he was sworn in as an Army officer, with the inscription Y.M.Gana instilled on his left breast pocket and the rank of one star above his shoulders, one star was the sign of Second Lieutenant rank, the next after that is the rank of lieutenant, two stars. Three stars was for rank of Captain and the next rank was Major, a bird and one star and that was the sign on his uniform in the third enlargement. A bird and a star, Ammi was decorating him on the day he was promoted to the rank of Major two year back when the picture was taken. She wore a white buba and wrapper lace with purple and silver coloured ashoeke and matching shoes and bag. The next picture was their wedding picture. 15th August 1995. The day of their crossing of the sword event. Abii wore his three stars ranked uniform and Ammi wore a cream coloured gown and held a bunch of flowers. My older cousins were the little bride, and page boy.

In the other picture they were smiling while cutting their cake with a sword.

The next picture was a picture Ammi took with her colleagues during a conference they attended in Owerri Imo state, in August 1996. They weren't wearing suits as they did in most of their pictures I always dug out from her wardrobe and went through whenever I was bored. The Chief Justice wore a black palmarer over a white kaftan and red cap. Some of the men in the picture were Justices, others magistrates. Ammi who wore a navy blue and white stripes maxi gown and a red big veil, was the only female in the picture. I was three months then, and so Ammi went with a nanny. Whenever I counted places I have been to in Nigeria, I counted Owerri among and she always told me to keep dreaming and never wake up.

The last picture was mine, it was taken on my first birthday, it showed evidence that I had always been chubby right from birth. I looked happy as I wore a toothless smile.