CHAPTER TWELVE         On the day we were to leave the orientation camp. Everyone woke up as early as 4 oclock in the morning. We joyfully packed our luggage and arranged our property. The air was thick with tension that one could virtually feel it because our postings would be disclosed on that day. Everyone had prayed for a place very comfortable and suitable. A place where he or she would enjoy his or her service year and probably be retained by the organisation he or she served in after the service year.             No one wanted the rural areas which had numerous service opportunities but most of them had no communication network, no electricity, no potable water, no banking system and no good roads. Things that would make life easy were non-existent there. It was a very scary option.   All the regular activities of the camp had come to an end. The dramas, the drills, the parade, the lectu

                       CHAPTER  FOURTEEN  One fateful Sunday morning while I was still in Church in the the ancient city of Kano, when it started boiling again. There was a big pandemonium; people ran helter skelter as they scampered for safety because it was reported that there was a blasphemy against the Muslim holy prophet by a media personality who wrote on a Miss World beauty pageant already going on in the country.               It was said that while he was writing about the beauty of the pretty models contesting for the Miss World crown, he wrote that if the holy prophet were to be alive, he would have added one of these girls to his wives or concubines. That was more than enough to set the entire city on fire. Protests  erupted all over city and beyond. Some media houses feasted on the news as if it was a delicious meal while some

                    CHAPTER SIXTEEN...A year laterAt the end of our service year, Aisha and I needed to travel to our respective regions to continue what we had started; we had grown our organisation to a certain stage. So we elected successors to continue from where we stopped. Though we plan on setting up a branch in our state of origin.We had other plans; each of us was to convince our parents about our relationship.     "Well, my father may not really mind, but my mother could prove a bit difficult for I am her only daughter," Aisha told me during one of our discussions. True, she was an only girl among six boys, as her parents had seven children. Aisha's father, though now a Christian, was a prominent leader among his people, and he was well-respected.        Aisha had exchanged letters with her siblings as well as their father over a period of time, telli