My first ever trip to Abuja

by Zakariyau Ajia (Nigeria)

A leap into the unknown Nigeria

I was on my way home from the Farm around 5pm when I received the call. It ended with a mixture of excitement, shock and most notably disappointment. The excitement and shock evaporated almost immediately while the disappointment lingered. At that point, getting to Abuja before 8am felt more like the latest and grandest edition of mission Impossible!!! Some minutes after 7pm my dad called and we analysed the situation, coming to the conclusion that going by road was too big a risk. Every normal flight to Abuja was booked already. If I tried to go to Lagos that night I might be stranded all through the night, and with no concrete assurance that I'd get a very early flight, all the stress might just go in vain. But I wasn't gonna let this one be a "what if" scenario. And so, I headed to Ibadan via the fearful Oyo-Ogbomoso road around 8pm. An alarmingly narrow, valley-like express road riddled with potholes and death traps usually serviced mostly heavy duty vehicles during daylight. One would think the road would be as free as a bird at night, Alas, trailers were swarming everywhere like a fish pond that just got it's food supply for the day. A usual one hour journey suddenly threatened to become three. Not tonight please, Abuja is still 544.5km away!!! I arrived Ibadan around 11:00pm only because the bus driver was more madder than sane. All through the journey to Ibadan, I was in deep conversation with Tunde who was trying to help book a flight to Abuja via a travel agent. Eventually we got a costly 6:45am flight to Abuja from Lagos which meant I had to proceed to Lagos that night. Asking Tunde who's friend had a car to drop me off at the Lagos park in Ibadan was enough to ask already owing to the fact that they had their final Msc in engineering Exam by 8am the next morning. On getting to there, we met a park full of emptiness!!! Heads dropped. And so, there and then, Tunde and his friend had to make a decision on whether to help me chase my dream or chase their own future and safety. Guess what? They chose the former!!! I was short of words for most part of the journey to Lagos as I couldn't believe what was happening. They (my friends) tried to lift my spirits by informing me they were excited to be featuring in one of the scenes of my mission impossible lastest Edition. I had lost all sense of humour by then in all honesty. We breezed through the usually busy Lagos-Ibadan express way. They dropped me off in Lagos around 2am and headed back to Ibadan to round off the nothingness they had read for their exams. I headed towards the airport in an Uber with the hope that I'd pass the night at the airport but upon getting there, the place was under lock and key. The hotel infront of the airport which seemed the most reasonable place to lodge for just the remaining 3hours was way too expensive for my pocket. And so, I sort for a cheaper one in the dreaded and dangerous heart of ikeja, COMPUTER VILLAGE!!! I got one for a reduced price and settled in there trying to catch some sleep. But it eluded me as I tried to prepare myself for what I knew was going to be a keenly contested contest. I kept visualizing how I'd present my business idea to the revered Tony elumelu foundation's panel of judges. I was by my judgement inappropriately dressed, But that was the least of my worries. 3 hours later, I found my way to the airport and off we flew to Abuja. The first timer experiences like temporary deafness during takeoff and landing, air turbulence and nauseous feeling flew by unnoticed because all I had on my mind was getting to the International Conference Center, Abuja by 8am. At 7:30am we arrived Abuja and I immediately ordered an Uber to Nitro drive me to ICC. 8am on the dot, with a smile on my face, I walked into the venue solely to win hearts!!!