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“Grrrrrr!!!” Came the unexpected noise. Still groggy from being woken up by the sound, it took a while to register that it was my phone somewhere beside me that was ringing. With my face still buried in my pillow, I stretched my hands across the bed trying to locate the annoying object which now seemed like an impossible task. Viewing the name of the caller with my blurry vision was even harder but I finally recognized the identity of the caller as someone whose call I can never ignore. It was my best friend, Ibrahim.
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“What’s up bro, are you still asleep?” came Ibrahim’s questions immediately I picked up.
“I don wake" I replied in pidgin English.
“Oya na, I just wanted to know if you were still going to drop by at my place this morning to play table tennis” Ibrahim responded.
“I don’t think so since I have some repairs to make around the house but I’ll surely come over by evening to watch the football match” I told him.
“Alright bro, no problem” came his response and he disconnected the call.
It was a Saturday morning and I was supposed to go to Ibrahim’s place to play table tennis which had become a weekend ritual for us but I had to take a rain check since I had so many piled up chores to do.
Now let me backtrack and tell you a bit about how I met my best friend Ibrahim and how the friendship grew into brotherhood. I actually met him in my first year of attending Bayero University, Kano. I was in dire need of accommodation and needed someone I could share a room with so as to ease the expenses and luckily he came along having the same issue.
Ibrahim was a tall, lanky and handsome young who got along with everyone due to his friendly demeanor. We bonded quickly as we shared our foodstuffs, clothes and rode to school on his scooter. It turned out we were both in Petroleum engineering which enabled us to study together. He was brighter than me academically so I had to meet him after lectures for tutorials on courses I had issues with. I on the other hand, excelled more in sports and video games so I usually schooled him in those fields.
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We both came from middle class families so we agreed to look for part-time jobs to do alongside our studies in order to reduce the burden on our parents. Ibrahim secured a job at a cyber café while I got employed at a library. The salaries were not much but we could use them to sort out problems like foodstuffs and other little expenses we encountered in school.
The last two years in school was really bad for me as my dad had a financial crisis which led to him becoming jobless and unable to cater for my school upkeeps effectively. Mum had to use the little she was earning to support the family’s feeding as well as my siblings school fees hence I was left to fend for myself most of the time. The salary from the library job was barely enough to cover my feeding and other expenses in school so it was usually Ibrahim that took care of my feeding especially when I ran out of money.
Things got worse during our final year when we had to write a research project as a requirement before graduation. The salary from the library job I was still retained at was not enough to cover the cost of procuring the project materials. Ibrahim on the other hand was able to sort out his project materials with the funds he got from his parents which he added to his salary.
The deadline for the project submission was fast approaching and my lack of progress due to financial constraint became a source of constant headache to not just me but Ibrahim as well as he was feeling bad that he could not offer any assistance that period. We tried every means to secure a loan but it always turned out futile as everyone we knew had challenges to sort out too.
One faithful day which was two days till the deadline, I stepped out again to see if luck will shine upon me in securing money for the project but all to no avail. On getting back, I didn’t meet Ibrahim in the room so I assumed he went to get something. I laid on the bed while awaiting his return from wherever he went to.
He got back about an hour later and surprisingly handed me some money. I counted the money and it was enough to purchase the project materials.
“Where did you get the money?” I asked in shock.
“I sold the scooter jare" he replied.
I didn’t even realize when tears began rolling down my cheeks as I moved to hug him tightly. He was the angel that saved me from missing out on my research project thus facilitating my graduation which is why I can’t trade this friendship for anything in the world no matter the trouble we gave each other.