Ugo! Ugo!! Ugo eh!! “u don warm d
soup wey dey 4 pot?” dat question
brought me back to reality from
dreamland. “chei mama i never warm am oh”
dats d price i had to pay for being
the only child of my parents. Mama was off to her early morning
routine watering of our vegetable
farmland. Farming was not only
mama’s own quota to support d
family, but it was the trend for
barracks women as they assume it as their own “white collar job”. I gradually roll off from bed so as
not to feel d pains in my right knee
gotten from a ferocious tackle
courtesy of Cosmos my hausa
friend, well, maybe he wasn’t
happy i was his opponent in yesterdays match as it is a rear
occurance for us as close friends
to play against each other, i
thought as i dragged my feet to d
kitchen to warm d ogbono soup as
mama instructed. Today the cloud is bright, i could
feel d cool breeze of the morning
on my hairy skin. It rained heavily
last night, with water gathered
everywhere on d floor, the
drainage in d barracks is very poor as the d gutters were blocked and
grass infested. UP NEPA! UP NEPA!! The children
on their way to school shouted,
what came to my mind first was
the T.V, “oboy e don tey wey man
pekin watch tv oh” i said to my self
as i put on the tv, ehn Nigeria 2- algeria 0, a local station was giving
highlights of yesterday’s match, i
was happy 4 nigeria as it’s been
long we won a friendly match. I glanced at d wall clock, it was 9
already, when suddenly i
percieved something, it was as if
something was burning, maybe our
old fridge was burning again, i
thought.Aaaaah! D soup dey burn After d meal of hot ogbono soup
and fufu, i as off to the farm to join
mama, helping her fetch water
from d well while she did d
watering, i was wondering how she
coped with the farm work when i was still in school. Well, she said she hired labourers
but i doubt because mama was so
hard working that she could handle
all the farm work by herself, so i
thought. The evening comes with d thought
of “sokoto-the place of smoke”, so
i took my bath and i was on my
way to sokoto-the place where the
neighbourhood boys gather to take
a smoke of weed. On my way i met Femi, a friend
that was enlisted in d army last
year, due to d stress of JAMB, he
opted for recruitment in d army.
Since he joined d force he has
been of useful value to us “bloody civilians” as whenever we get into
trouble, he bails us out easily, we
also use his house as charlet to
have fun with our girlfriends. “femi, how far u dey go sokoto?” “fanta i dey go sokoto oh, e don
tay na” (u will get to know how i got d
nickname “fanta”) “me sef dey go
there”, i said. We shook hands and walk slowly
to the bush path called sokoto. We
got there at d nick of time when
boys haven’t finished their first
“jumbo”. Cosmos was already
there. We shook hands with everybody
while chanting “in sokoto we stand”
as was the custom. I finished rapping up my jumbo
when Olu started playing tupac “do
for love” from his “china phone”, he
was far from me as i was in sokoto
5(seat number) and he was in
sokoto 1, but i could hear the tupac song as if d speakers were inside
of my head, so i whispered d lyrics
word for word. Cosmos was telling d house how
he asked an army lady out and the
lady told him to come see her in
her duty post in d barracks. Everybody laughed, but i laughed
more, maybe i laughed more
because i was on my third jumbo
and was on top of the world,
maybe. Suddenly my phone rang… “Who b
this?” “Chei na papa oh” i said as i
recieved d call. He wanted me to
come home immediately. I took my last ki*ss of weed with
so much excitement, i told Cosmos
i was leaving and he pleaded 4 me
to wait for him while he rushed his
last jumbo. On my way i bought tom-tom and
took it inorder to prevent papa from
knowing i smoke; (a secret i kept
from him for long now) On our way home cosmos
informed me of an interview he
was to attend d next day. Me and
Cosmos had applied for jobs and
attended interviews together, but
this time i sense betrayal on his part as he refused informing me
earlier to apply for d job in a
telecommunication company. I wished him well as i walked
through d narrow road to my
house. I saw papa’s jalopy toyota
car parked outside. “wetin dis man wan tell me sef?” i
thought as i greeted mama outside
and rushed in to meet my dad. He told me he will take me to a
General friend of his the next day
to introduce me to him. Sometimes
i wondered how he got so friendly
with Generals since he was only a
staff sergeant in the army. I went to the kitchen to assist
mama with the kitchen chores,
“why i no get sister sef” i said to
myself as i finished slicing the
“ugwu” leaf. It was morning devotion, and i
promised God to stop visiting
sokoto, a promise i had made more
than hundred times. I was dressed
with my green long sleeve and
black fitted trousers, ready to go see “the General” .”see fine boy” i
said as i looked at the mirror image
of myself. We got to my dad’s place of work
but the General wasn’t there yet,
so my dad called him and he said
we should come straight to the his
house because he wouldn’t be in
the office that day as he had a seminar to attend. That was to be
the third General i had visited, and
the most memorable. We arrived the General’s house in
no time. I instantly noticed that
everywhere was interlocked (e
remain small dem for interlock
outside d compound sef). “so this kin house dey dis
barracks?” i said to myself as we
walked in. Shun sir, my father saluted d
general in attention, d general
responded d salute and gestured
us to seat down. “staff sergeant Okonkwo, dis is ur
son ehn?” he said. Yes sir, My dad introduced me as
a fresh graduate still in search of
job and that i was his only son. General Adebayo listened keenly, i
saw his name from d name tag in
his glamorous army uniform. “Well, staff sergeant u can go to
work now leave me and this young
man here to gist”, he said “gist wetin?” i pondered as my dad
saluted and left. “Well young man u said ur name
is?” I almost forgot my name as i could
feel cold shivers running gradually
down my spine. Peter, i said “peter
okonkwo”. I used peter as my
name on such formal scenerio,
albeit my full name is Okonkwo Ugochukwu Peter. “Peter ehn” “yes sir” i said, before i finished
saying dat i saw dis drop dead
delectable girl walking towards d
living room. She was as beautiful
as my Onyinye, but my onyinye
was taller. My jaw droped as such ebony
queen. I smiled at her revealing my
beautiful set of teeth dat made
Onyinye fall for me. “Fanta bobo, today na ur day” i
said to myself… ________________ ________
[hr]
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7 
