Kemi Filani's Experience With 3 ABOKIs.

Kemi Filani's Experience With 3 ABOKIs.

Blogger - Kemi Filani

I had this funny not-so-funny unpleasant experience with three Hausa dudes - Abokis - several hours ago and decided to share it here to know if any of you feel the same way whenever you are in a bus or anywhere else with them.

Truth be told, all the recent stories on the boko haram and crisis in the North has changed my orientation about the HAUSAS...forget my 'sweet' experience with them, right now I find it hard to relate with any of them!

So here is the story!

While I was travelling for a friend's wedding hours ago (Friday evening), I arrived at the garage and lucky me, I was the last passenger to board the bus.

I smiled at the woman next to me, paid my fares and settled in my seat....everything seemed fine until the driver started the engine and drove a few meters.

I realized that three abokis were seated behind me, they had beards, unkempt hair, rumpled attires and sacks on their laps...very scary!

I probably wouldn't have noticed but for the native song they were singing and then their bags/sacks looked odd...I was like 'ah'...bokoharam...bomb!'

My heart sank!

So many negative thoughts ran through my mind 'what if these guys actually have bombs in the sacks...: and then images of the victims from the Nyanya and Jos bomb blast flashed through mind, I was SCARED...all through the 45minutes or so journey, I couldn't think straight.

 I wasn't the only one that was uncomfortable with their presence, almost all the passengers were, as a matter of fact the woman beside me called her husband "My dear, mi o mo iru motto timo wo yii o (I don't know the kind of bus I boarded o)..awon aboki meta kan pelu irugbon joko si eyin mi (three hausa dudes are seated right behind me)....won korin ede wan (they are singing in their language)...n ba ti bole ninu motto sugbon atikuro ni garage, mo de ti san owo ( I would have gotten down but we have left the garage and I have paid already)....e gbadura ooo (pray o).

Another woman seated two rows from mine further led a general prayer for journey mercies and specifically prayed against every evil plan cooked up by Boko haram against the bus...everyone (mostly igbo and yoruba passengers) chorused Amen...you know that kind of "God have mercy for I have sinned, but just save me from this disaster' kind of amen....yeah!

Whenever those guys untied or zipped down their bags to either take money to buy stuffs from hawkers or do 'God knows what', passengers would be at alert and fidget.

One of the passengers seated close had to ask the driver why he let the guys in "These people are dangerous, they should not made to hang around us at all" he conversed in Yoruba and the driver said "I didn't want to carry them too but you know how long it took for the bus to get filled up, if i didn't carry them, we would still be waiting for three more passengers to fill in at the garage now"

All the while, my mind wasn't at rest until two of the Abokis slept off... all I could do was pray in my heart and plead the Blood of Jesus. Anyway we arrived our destination safely and even while we were alighting from the bus, no one wanted to move close to them...obviously they meant no harm but the seed of hatred against Hausas has been planted in our hearts all because of the crisis in the North.

I know there are good Hausas but with the everyday crisis here and there in the North resulting in loss of innocent lives, loving them becomes hard, hard for me, hard for Lagosians with a conscience. #okbye!