BIBA (The fulani girl)

Chapter twelve

Upon my return home after graduation, my father treated me as an equal; I was involved in every decision making and my advice was always sought after in regards to the well being of the cattle.

As for my brothers, they had each taken a portion of the cattle and headed in different directions to carve a niche for themselves. All three of my sisters had gotten married in the nearby homesteads, as such  the household had thinned out and I came back to a small nucleated family consisting of my parents, my infant brother, and two temporarily adopted teenage boys.

It is normal to find such boys in every nomad's household. They are hired to rear the cattle at an agreed price or terms.

I spent most mornings taking a walk around the bushes. That was mainly to familiarise myself with the area. My evenings was spent in the company of Bayero, who had surprisingly taken interest in what I had learned concerning the cows. He will bombard me with questions , some of which are ridiculous and others quite meaningful.

Both he and my father had no idea of my intentions to lead a modern life in the city for I gave them not the slightest hint.

I made some contact in town and when I was sure everything was in place, I decided to make my move.

On that faithful morning, I had walked up to my father and made a request. I told him I wanted to take the cows out to pasture. He however declined, telling me he thinks school had made me soft and I can't bear the burden of herding anymore. I told him I might look a little modern from the outside, but I was a still a herdsman on the inside. With so much pride in his eyes, he relieved one of the teenage boys of his duties for the day and I took charge.

I led the cattle through the thickets of the bushes to the plains ahead and in no time, we were headed towards the newly constructed Saminaka road where as planned, I had some men waiting for me.

They were merchants who dealt in the transportation of cattle to the southern parts of the country for meat production. As Agreed, they all had their monies ready and the transaction was done as quickly as any shady transaction of its kind is carried out. They had readied their lorries and loaded all forty-six of my fathers cattle as soon as we were done.

I held so much money as I had never seen in my life in a brown jute bag. The highest denomination at that time being twenty naira. So I had wads of cash filling half a jute bag as I tucked it fearfully under my arm.

I couldn't hitch a ride with my business partners because they were going towards the direction of kafanchan from where they will take the road to Abuja and then drive all the way south. I, on the other hand was headed West to Kano. So I waited by the dusty road clinging the jute bag like my life depended on it.

I finally got on a lorry headed for Saminaka where I will get a car to Kano. I clung tightly to my bag which made the conductor a bit suspicious as his eyes kept wondering from my face to the bag all through the journey. Finally, we arrived the motor park where I boarded another lorry to Kano.