It was a cool Monday morning when i walked into the school’s grand lobby, passing through the glass doors at the entrance. On the instructions of a Turkish technician, a few workers were making some final touches to the new edifice that will eventually become the nucleus of my Alma matter, the Nigerian Turkish Nile University.
There was music coming from one of the TVs hung on the far left corner of the hall. It was the video of the song Replay by Iyaz. I can still hear that song as I think back, walking through those halls. Turning my head to the left, I saw the staircase leading to the higher floors of the building. Just beyond it, there were a few round tables with 3 chairs on each so I moved there and sat on one. After a while, I caught glimpse of several students taking seat at the other side of the hall. On campus students, I presumed. From the hall way that lead to the temporary dorms, a fair guy with a tie neatly knotted as though he was a fresh graduate going for a job interview moved from table to table, shaking hands with everyone. He was cracking jokes as he walked towards where I was seated. Lo and behold, it was someone I had first met a few years before and again sometime after; the day I was interviewed for admission to this university. It was Halifa Baba-ahmed whom I only knew as Huba. From then on, I had a friend, a loyal one, a confidant and a brother.
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| AK & Huba - 2011 |
Although I was a year ahead of him, classes were never a barrier as our friendship grew and as time passed, I came to have one of my best friends and a trustee in him. In school, Huba was at the forefront of every social activity with his zeal and enthusiasm. An eloquent speaker with a very good command of the English language, he anchored or MC-ed most of the school’s social events. Subsequently, he became popular amongst both the students and staff. He was one of the few that agitated the forming of the first Student Representative Council (SUG as it’s popularly known). Halifa’s life as a student was noteworthy and exemplary. In his first two years in the university, he struggled in both his personal and academic life but he didn't let go. He persevered and it not only paid off but he earned himself the status of a valedictorian, graduating as one of the best graduating students in the University. It is time for the world to know what Halifa has in store for it.
An entrepreneur with the zeal to succeed more than anything, Huba is now the Editor-in-Chief of Capital City Magazine. It is on that note that I will end, with congratulations to this great friend and brother, the Editor-in-Chief of Capital City Magazine, on his graduation from Nigerian Turkish Nile University.