** THE JOURNEY...

Hannatu was a final year student of Architecture and was already feeling the pressure of settling down. Her education didn’t pick up early, so by some unwritten standards she was due. She had her fair share of dating haggles – and a little extra on it – from dating her school mate who was a serial cheat, to Mr. know-all-family friend and to the highly recommended “friend” of a friend. Finally she decided to keep her final year date free. 

In the course of the semester while working on her project she had a very difficult supervisor and the stress was weighing her down. This fateful morning she was having her quiet time and she prayed seriously about her supervisor and she was happy and felt she should go see him with her project work as she got dressed she heard a whisper say, “Today seems like a good day to meet your husband.” She shrugged it off as she picked her books, laptop and bag and off to his office, she met her supervisor in a good mood and he attended to her work patiently, by the time he was done it was about 3pm.

She left, only to meet her classmates along the way informing her that her roommates have been looking for her. She hurried to the room and met no one but in five minutes Binta entered and said, “Where have you been Hannatu, you have a visitor.” 

She went out to see who it was, only to find a long-time family friend, Adediji Briggs, whom she had lost contact with. They chatted and she realized he came all the way from Port-Harcourt where he was working to visit her in Zaria.

Evening came and he had to leave, they kept in touch all the while till she graduated and a relationship blossomed though she was skeptical of long distance relationships. She returned home to Abuja after graduating and he soon became a regular visitor at their home and he later proposed to her while she was serving, but her parents were opposed to him because of his background and tribal sentiments, she was sure he was the “special man” for her, hence the relationship continued and with much persuasion from her siblings and aunts her parents finally consented.

With time they fixed the wedding date and started the plan for the wedding – the stress of the wedding counseling and all that accompanies wedding planning was evident. The shopping was on-going, visitors coming to the house to pray and give gift to the family, etc. With the date in sight and all the pressures that attend to a wedding, the relationship between them was experiencing a strain, until little disagreements ballooned into big quarrels.

They tried to resolve the issues amongst themselves through calls, which was their means of communication, but it got worse. Hannatu was upset with Adediji’s bad spending habits and she had had enough. On one of his visits to Abuja, they decided to talk about it and this time, the bomb exploded. With hurtful words flung at each other and emotions running wild, Hannatu returned the gifts he brought for her and ordered him out of their house and her life. She cried all evening, because she felt hurt and it was just two weeks to the wedding date. She went to her mom the next day and said “Mommy I’m calling off the wedding and let’s have the church informed too".  TO BE CONTINUED...