Only one

Rahila, as their friend was called; lived with her aged mother. The aged mother received us well into her house and continued with what she was doing: cleaning the room. Toma explained to her the purpose of our visit in a language which I was hearing for the first time.

What language is this?" I asked. I heard that the language was Shuwa and that the people of Gomboru were predominantly Shuwa Arabs. The aged woman responded in the

same language.

I asked Toma to explain to me what the old

woman said. She told me that the old woman said the Rahila was not going to go with us to the town for any job, and that the matter was made worse by Rahila who herself was not keen.

Rahila understood English so I came into the matter. I explained to her that the company where I wanted her to work was the largest in Maiduguri, that it paid the highest amount of money to its workers, that frugal workers in the company could build their own fortune after working there for a year;

that many people wanted to work there but could not find the opportunity. . .'

I was merely wasting my saliva. Rahila had already started to shake her head in rejection. The other girls cut in to convince her. 'I say I'm not going to Maidugurii' she screamed.

The aged mother started to address Toma in Shuwa. When she finished I asked for a translation. I heard that the woman said I

should be given a proper warning not to lure her daughter into town. The aged woman, I heard, was opposed to all urban areas and their inhabitants. She had been to Maiduguri before, she said, and found out that urban people had no regards for their fellow human beings and did not know the ways of Allah.

Any urban man struggles for himself and cares less for the welfare of the others. I was told that the old woman said that in urban areas brothers do not know brothers and sisters do not know sisters.

Old women, she said, were highly disrespect- ed in urban areas.

There, I heard, old age was indeed considered an offence. According to what I was told, the old woman believed that people in urban areas have no ambition because you could see them moving about in the streets doing nothing. The urban area is populated by idle people, I heard.

This was why, I was told, she would never

allow Rahila to go and live the evil and ungodly life of the urban people.

I was about to explain to Rahila that her mother's view of urban people was an extreme one when she cut me short 'I am

not going to Maiduguri!'

The girls I came with stood up and told me we should go. The old woman spoke Shuwa again. I saw she looked angry as she spoke. I asked for interpretation and I heard that she was warning them never to bring any corrupt man from town to come and collect Rahila Again.

We left. On our way I asked them if they had any other reasonable friend whom I could recruit. They told me they had no other reasonable friend apart from Rahila. I was

desperate to complete this assignment.

'Even if your friends are unreasonable, take me to them,' I demanded. This was because I

was prepared to recruit anybody at all to meet the target. The girls were not prepared to take me to their unreasonable friend so we drove off from Gomboru on our way to Maiduguri. By the time I dropped them in Bulabulin ward in Maiduguri, the time was 9.40 p.m. I was completely worn out.

My head was empty of ideas about how to get the remaining female personnel to complete the required number. I drove to my house without any definite plans about how to get the remaining personnel. In my house I used a tin of sardine to consume a loaf of bread. Then the phone in my room rang wildly. I ran to it and picked it. It was Mohamed Ali.

'Have you completed the assignment'? he asked without the protocol of saying 'Hello' I replied that I had about completed it and that it remained only one more person whom I was sure of getting tonight.

This was a lie because I was not sure of getting any person that night. I had looked for

people to employ all these four days and it wouldn't be the last night that I would get one. If you do not get the remaining one person, do not show your face in my office tomorrow,' I heard.

I have lost over a million naira because of lack of workers.

'If you do not get the remaining person, go to Palma Vehicles and drop the car there. Give the key to the manager. The car ceases to be your own from that moment. If you do not complete the required number, pack out of the flat 29 Residence first thing in the morning. It would cease to be your house from then on.

If you do not complete the required number, do not consider yourself my employee again.' Before I could say a thing, Mohamed Ali hung up.