Tuesday, May 18, 2021 broke like every other normal day, and I had set my alarm to wake me up at 4:30am. It was the day scheduled by the Rivers State Chapter of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) to embark on a road trip to Bauchi State for its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and elections.

As an Associate member of the institute, it is obligatory for me to attend AGMs and other routine activities of NIPR as part of the ways of demonstrating commitment and relevance.

By the time I arrived at the departure venue for the trip that day, it was already few minutes past 7am and nobody was at the venue apart from Ebuka. We exchanged pleasantries and got engrossed in discussion, giving room for a little more wait. But at 7:26 am, I opted to call NIPR State Chairman, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, who responded by calling me by my first name and assuring that the bus will be there in a short while.

True to his words, the tinted Toyota Hiace bus arrived in less than ten minutes time after the call which was arranged by Apiambo Abbey; Secretary of the State AGM Planning Committee. Just about that period, Oluomachukwu Cas-Osuji, Queen Elemelu, Precious Daminabo and Madam Clarice Azuatalam had arrived. Apiambo declined joining for the journey, so it was left with Clarice, Ebuka, Casca, Queen, Precious and I that would go by road.

At this point, apprehension and palpable palpitation started mounting, I was wondering why an entire State would be represented by only six persons or thereabout. The size of the bus showed that some ten to fourteen persons were speculated to be on the road trip, so why the scanty number? Why the silence and lack of enthusiasm for the 2021 AGM? I have been following up events in NIPR and I know how forthcoming Professional Colleagues (PCs) could be with regards to AGM, election and national conference affairs, so what changed? What am I oblivious of?

To be frank, I had self-imposed answers to my puzzles, I was lost in deep thoughts. I answered myself that the security situation in Northern Nigeria as represented by the Media may not be unconnected to the low turnout for the trip. But then, if that was anything to go by, how do Corpers manage to go up North and return unhurt? How come people go for Nigerian Law School in Kano and return? In all of this back and forth soliloquy, I was determined to have the experience irrespective of fears of the unknown.

At this time it was already 8am and the bus was already bound for Bauchi State, cruising across the prestigious Rebisi Flyover. I am one of those still struggling to change from the former Garrison junction nomenclature to the new Rebisi appellation of the area as renamed by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

While on the bus, I got to familiarize with the delegation, with struggles to hide my fear for the trip. Ebuka was the funny guy that kept us going with jokes, I learnt a lot from Clarice, our big aunty, and, of course, why shouldn’t I learn from a journalist that has traversed through Newswatch Magazine, the Nation Newspaper and now a Public Relation consultant. Cas, Queen and Precious are student members of NIPR from the University of Port Harcourt, Choba, but in the journey, we all laughed, played, made jest, and interacted as a family.

More fears began to mount when we got to Eleme junction, and the driver, Usman slowed down to interact with a fellow driver. After the interaction, the intruder started giving us reasons why we should go straight to Bauchi against PCs’ advice of breaking the journey at Benue State and continuing the following day. The idea of breaking the journey was not to take the chances of driving in the lonely and unfamiliar Northern roads of Nigeria at night.

The driver zoomed off after a mild argument where we collectively insisted on breaking the journey at Benue State. Usman stopped communicating with us, in fact, he appeared not to understand English as every serious inquiry of ours was replied with Hausa or Fulani language which made me a little more petrified.

Seconds turned to minutes which in turn birthed hours upon hours, and the self-confined Usman was firing from all cylinders of the Toyota Hiace bus. On a velocity of about 140 to 160 kilometers per hour, Usman became the king of the road. No vehicle overtook us and Usman overtook all vehicles, trucks and SUVs, making the journey assume a Formula One dimension.

At exactly 4pm we were at a part of River Benue that had major ongoing constructions and Usman cleared the bus at a local spot where snacks were being sold. It was our collective thinking that Usman had contemplated on the need for us to have some respite after some eight hours of speedy galloping. It would be my first time to taste anything. I usually exercise restraints in eating during long journeys over fears of procuring stomach upsets as a result of irregular meals, so I opted for a plastic bottle of coke and drank it in fury like a hungry lion would devour its prey.

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Minutes later, we were all ready to leave, but Usman was nowhere to be found; where is he, has he abandoned us? Little findings and I realized he went for prayers, he is a Muslim by religion and is required to pray five times a day irrespective of location. He actually stopped to pray after all, and not for our relief.

Moments later, he materialized and continued the journey like an ambulance driver, rushing an amputee to a specialist hospital. Worsening was the fact that the succeeding road was in a state of disrepair which did not deter Usman from his hurrying pace. From 5PM to 5:55PM, the journey continued with screams, shakes and dust bath.

Finally, we got out of the failed portion of the road and the journey continued seamlessly, bypassing the outskirts of FCT Abuja into Nasarawa State. Nasarawa took us three hours to scale through before Kaduna and Jos, the capital of Plateau State where he stopped for another prayer at a fuel station called AY Shafa. The fuel station appeared popular around the Northern states because I had seen them in some other states before Plateau.  May I add that Jos was so beautiful and cold, with broad and smooth roads, street lights, flyover and high rise structures. I hope to visit the city on a sooner than later.

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At this time, it was already 11pm and it was obvious that we were bound for either Bauchi or to remain on road till morning. Usman appeared determined despite our pleas. Given the situation at hand, we gave up contesting the decision of breaking the journey and prepared our minds for the worst. We were to journey in the desert roads leading to Bauchi at midnight. Our Northern brother, Usman won the argument with two votes (himself and his conductor) against six votes on whether or not to break the journey by two days. I started praying, not out of fear, but in pursuance of the Scripture that says “men ought always to pray and not to faint.”

Midnight and Usman was still firing on 150 kilometers per hour, although the road was dark, I noticed it was not lonely as there were other travelers in their numbers, including public and private vehicles. This calmed me down a little, more so, I noticed we had become three buses in total making way to Bauchi.

Created in 1976, Bauchi State is located in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria and prides itself as the pearl of Tourism, giving it out as one of the preferred destinations of fun seekers. I saw a welcoming signage to Bauchi, Usman spoke Nigerian English for the first time, “una don reach Bauchi oo.” There was joy and visible excitement in the air, it was victory at last. We defeated fears and apprehension, could this be Bauchi? I was appointed to lead prayers of gratitude, I sang songs of thanksgiving, it was refreshing, so reassuring. Minutes later we were at Larema International Hotel that had been reserved for Rivers’ delegates. It was already past 1am when we checked in and rested.

By morning, I woke up around 8am and made way for breakfast, got dressed up for any possible movement since the AGM was to begin the following day. After a few inquiries, one Abdulkareem Shehu, who turned out to be a noble man, was commissioned to pick up Rivers’ delegates to join Council Members of NIPR for a tour of the ancient city of Bauchi.

Of particular interest to me during the tour was the tomb of the celebrated Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Belewa. The tomb was built as a monument to the man who was often referred to as the golden voice of Africa. The streets of Bauchi was found to be clean, hardly did I find greeneries, save few trees in the new GRA axis of the city. Traffic and hold up situations does not occur in Bauchi one bit. I noticed that the state has lots of housing projects numbering more than 3000 low cost apartments, all thanks to the visionary Government of Senator Bala Mohammed.

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Several road constructions were seen to be ongoing as the Governor appeared to be on the same policy mandate of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike with regards to urban renewal drive.

We visited the Bauchi water works project at Gubi Dam which I learnt was a collaboration between the World Bank and Bauchi State Government to the tune of $65million. This multi-billion naira project is gigantic and can solve the water needs of the entire North-East region of Nigeria. To find that it is primarily meant to attend to the water needs of Bauchi State was a feat worth eulogizing. We ended the tour and got dropped off at Larema.

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Before night fall, Shehu, who was Secretary of the Transport and Logistics sub-committee for the 2021 NIPR AGM, reached out to me again announcing that the bus will be coming to pick us at 8am the following day, Thursday, May 21, 2021. Morning broke; we prepared and joined the driver who had come earlier than 8am.

We were on our way to accomplish the main purpose for the Bauchi trip, just as it presented another opportunity to take a view of the predominantly Civil Service and farmers’ state. With my all white Senator, non-surgical nose mask and polished black sandals, I alighted from the coaster bus and made way to the, TY Burutai Hall, Command Guest Inn, Bauchi where the AGM was billed to hold.

Suffice it to say that the AGM was innovatively held simultaneously with the elections which made activities for the day hit full swing in time at about 5PM and we found our way to our various hotel rooms.

The following day was Friday, May 22, 2021, mission had been accomplished, it was time to leave and with nostalgic feelings everywhere, I pondered on whether Usman would come again? The answer was no, as the Transport company sent another person who gave his name as P. Daddy. He appeared full of life, jovial and importantly, could speak English language, making communication easier and the journey seamless.

We left Bauchi at 7:30am, heading for Port Harcourt. A pretty fair trip, the return journey made me find that there was hardly bushy areas along highways of various states we passed through in the North. We came across more of vast lands without seeing their ends, in shock, I saw children below 10 years of age rearing cows alone in lonely highways. We travelled not so fast like Usman, but steadily.

By the time we got to the highway adjourning Otukpo in Benue State and Enugu State, we found that a fatal accident had just happen, showing no sign of survival. A bus apparently chartered to convey people for a burial had run into the bush colliding headlong with a tree. The location was crowded, but focused P. Daddy (our driver) maneuvered his way out and zoomed off, noting that such scenario could be avenues for robbery operations.

We entered the coal city of Enugu at about 7pm to meet a traffic gridlock that kept us for some 50 minutes, before we found our way to a place to stay the night. We had unanimously agreed to break the journey into two days, with the first part terminating in Enugu and the rest to Port Harcourt. So we opted to stay over at Modotel, located just opposite Enugu Sports Club, around Okpara Avenue, Enugu.

Modotel, as I learnt used to be a celebrated five star hotel in Southern Nigeria with branches in Enugu and Owerri, the Imo State capital. It was founded by Nigeria’s first executive Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme in the 70s and has gone through the product life circle of introduction, growth, maturity and decline stages.

The Owerri branch of the hotel was said to have been sold and now hosts Rock View Hotel, while half part of the Enugu branch was sold by the late Ekwueme before his demise. He was said to have been begged not to sell the entire property by his children. When I inquired on why the business was no longer in its state of glory, a staff that did not want to be identified said it had no owner as the death will of late Dr Ekwueme was yet to be interpreted for inheritance to occur amongst his children. Hence, Modotel was being run and monies acquired lodged in a consolidated account. The hotel is now a shadow of its former aesthetic state and should be revived once possible.

By the time we settled into Modotel, all that mattered to everyone was how to eat as hunger had dealt mercilessly with us. While a nearby restaurant was okay with the ladies, Ebuka, Cas and I, went out for some kind of exploration of the former capital of Nigeria’s Eastern Region. We found ourselves at Shoprite where varieties of meals looked us in the face, except swallow. Though a little disappointed, I opted for porridge beans, rice and cowhead, a combination that later came hunting.  Ebuka left Cas and me for other purchases, while we both made our way back to Club Road.

I took my order to Room 510 and not long had I started relishing than Ebuka ran in, announcing the death of Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Attahiru Ibrahim. He said the streets were uneasy, so he had to run back to avoid “do you know me?”

We set out for the last lap of our journey around 8am, and had a smooth ride to Port Harcourt. On entering Etche, a rumble started in my tommy. It was a call to evacuate; Mother Nature had her way of taking her pound of flesh. All efforts to suppress the feeling proved abortive. I stopped conversing, my face hardened and I was in profuse perspiration. It was time to give in, announce my ordeal and beg for a stop in the nearest bush.

I so pleaded and was obliged, with an assistance of tissue from Clarice, I ran into a nearby bush with the speed of light where I discharged the beans I ate the previous night. It reinforced the lesson of not eating carelessly during long journeys. But how could I have known that a sumptuous porridge beans meal from a prestigious mall like Shoprite would be that catastrophic?

Howbeit, lesson learnt. I joined the crew, and we continued to Port Harcourt, arriving at 12noon. I was the first to drop off at Tank junction, East West Road and found my way to my destination with luggage of experiences.

The journey had thought me not to judge a book by its cover. I was convinced that the North, especially, Bauchi could be a fascinating place to be too. I learnt that travelling is part of Education and not just tertiary institutions or its equivalent. I learnt to give people the benefit of doubt and to desist from the pogrom of ethnic profiling. I learnt that I could marry a Bauchi daughter if I find one.