Photo credit: Daily Mail
Bode is reading about a couple of Nigerians who meet in Benin city on their way to cross the Sahara Desert in the process of getting to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. The story is a very interesting one of adventure, trafficking, betrayal and what have you.
The guy, Tony is from Oyo state while the lady, Rose, is from Edo state. Both meet in Benin city. The guy had traveled to Benin City while Rose is a resident of the city.
In Benin, Tony goes to meet a self-styled travel agent near Alpakpava Terminal. He had been in contact with the man when he was at home. They had negotiated the fare that would take him to Italy.
When he meets the man, he pays him $3,000, the man then takes him to others going on the journey. They are to make the first part of their trip to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. So, with the others, they board a Toyota Hiace bus.
The first thing that strikes Tony is that although there are about 30 of them, all of them are packed sardine-like into a 14-seater bus.
Tony complains to the agent, “we shouldn’t be travelling in this way. We paid enough money to be able to travel in comfort.”
“Hello,” responds the agent, “this is only part one of your journey. And we must settle with the law enforcement agents. They are everywhere.”
After that, the agent tells the driver to watch out for the guy so that he might not get them into trouble. From that point, Tony becomes a marked person although he doesn’t know.
In the bus itself, although it is jampacked, the passengers still have some time to socialize. During the journey, they have no choice but to sit on one another. Tony sits next to a beautiful lady.
He introduces himself, “I’m Tony.”
“I’m Rose.”
“Nice meeting you.”
“Same here. Where are you from?”
“Oyo state. You?”
“Edo.”
During the trip, Tony and Rose often sit on each other due to being forced to seat sardine-like. Tony starts having ideas about Rose. Rose too, doesn’t seem to mind their having a relationship with him. With time, she becomes expectant. Even when the bus doesn’t rock both to each other, Rose will pretend it’s doing so.
Of course, Tony not being a newcomer to relationships, understands Rose’s maneuvers. He himself, doesn’t mind the feminine touch. He remembers a Yoruba saying: “We are looking for wealth and we meet honour on the way. When we get the wealth, isn’t it honour we’ll use it to buy.”
When the bus gets to Lokoja, the driver parks so that his passengers will ease themselves and go have some snacks.”
Tony invites Rose for some snacks.
Rose is surprised and says, “You’re spending your money buying things for a woman so early on the trip.”
“Oh! Well, I believe in faith. And you more than deserve these small chops.”
Rose had never been shown such kindness by a man. Most of the men she went out with were just users. She is grateful for this unusual show of love coming from a stranger.
They go into a ramshackle restaurant and Tony asks Rose to place an order.
Rose asks the filthy waiter, “Do you have peanuts?”
“We have bottled ones.”
“Please give me a bottle and a soda.”
Rose turns to Tony who is busy listening to Bongos Ikwue’s “Show me a virgin in a maternity ward” and asks him what he wants.
Tony asks the waiter if they have bread. When the waiter replies in the affirmative, he asks him to bring the big one with a soda.
Tony pays for the snacks, and they go join others in the bus.
The driver does a headcount and when he sees everyone is aboard, he starts the vehicle.
They continue their trip and security men were stopping them from time to time. The driver is also equal to the task. Once he gives them some bribe, they allow the bus to move.
When they arrive in Abuja, it’s already night. That doesn’t stop them from changing buses. Tony and Rose are getting to know each other more.
Tony asks, “Who is Rose?”
“Am in for an interview?”
“No, I just wanted to know you better.”
“Okay, Rose is the third of five children. Four boys and I’m the only girl. I’m a single mother of a six-year-old girl. All my brothers are university graduates. But I didn’t finish school I didn’t finish school because I became pregnant. I was in love for the first time not knowing the guy wasn’t in love with me. As soon as I told him I was pregnant, he disappeared leaving and my mother to take care of the pregnancy and eventually the baby when it was born. Every other man I’ve met treated me shabbily. That’s one of the reasons I want to find my way abroad. Maybe I’ll find true love there.”
“Hmm…I’m so sorry for your experience. But I can assure you that not all men are bad.”
“Oh well, I’m yet to find a good one. It’s your turn to tell me about yourself.”
“Well, I’m the last in a family of four boys. I happen to be the only graduate. The whole family is looking up to me for their livelihood. But given the economic situation of the country, after so many applications to various companies and even schools, I’m yet to get a job. So, I’m in no position to help myself not to talk of my family. I was able to gather enough money to try my luck in Europe.”
Before the enter the bus, the driver takes a roll call. They then travel in another Toyota Hiace bus to Kano.
Tony and Rose are still basking in the revelry of their new-found friendship. Although neither of them says it, both hope it will develop into something much more serious.
They make another stop in Kano where they are bundled into a fleet of Volkswagen Passat cars. They are taken to Daura in Katsina state.
Tony and Rose deliberately choose to travel in the same vehicle. They discover they are fortunate to have stuck together. The Harmattan is making the weather so cold that they just can’t imagine how people who are travelling alone are coping.
In Daura, they go to a tea seller to have some scrambled eggs and bread with the usually boiling-point tea.
While waiting for their order, Tony tells Rose “I think God Himself knows about our relationship.”
“I think so too.”
“Let’s stick together.”
“But you hardly know anything about me.”
“For me, I believe you and I understand your situation.”
“Thank you.”
“By the way, I really want us to take this to the next level.”
“Maybe I should confess that it was love at first sight for me, when I saw you.”
“It was the same with me.”
Tony asks the mallam to tune his ever-present transistor radio to BBC Hausa. Luckily for him, the station is playing “Love” by Ali Jita.
Tony then brings out a traditional ring his father had given him for protection and kneels while presenting it to Rose and asks, “Will you marry me?”
The windowless local shop with mats as walls and the run-of-the-mill Toms, Dicks and Harries as customers is witnessing its very first proposal.
Rose answers with tears of joy running down her cheeks, “Certainly, I will.”
Tony then inserts the ring on her finger. Rose pulls him up from the kneeling position and they seal their love for each other with a prolonged kiss.
Other clients are nonplussed because they have never seen such a thing before. In any case, Daura is a conservative Islamic city that does not support an open show of affection.
But the couple is lucky that they are just wayfarers. If they weren’t, they might have been sanctioned, not by the legal system but by a crowd. Extralegal justice is prevalent in Nigeria especially where it concerns religious and ethnic matters in the northern parts of the country.
Before the travellers enter the fleet of cars, the roll call is again taken. They are already used to the calls. They unwittingly feel it’s for the drivers to know if some people are still left behind.
However, they are told to get down in not too far away Katsina.
There some commercial motorcycles are waiting. They are instructed to ride in twos on the motorcycles. Of course, Tony and Rose ride on one of the motorcycles.
They then cross the border with Niger. They bribe immigration officers who appear to be in sync, as far as bribe-taking is concerned, with their colleagues along the way.
The motorcycle takes them to a house in Maradi. There, they have the luxury of a room to themselves. All they do is eat, drink, and, of course, make love. They spend five days there. Their stay in Maradi can easily be described as the most enjoyable part of their trip. Since nobody tells them when they are going through the next phase of their journey, they relax and enjoy themselves.
But without their prior knowledge, a bus comes to ferry them to Agadez. As usual, the two lovebirds sit together. They are dropped in an estate which is not as comfortable as the one in Maradi. Calling the place an estate is an overstatement. It’s a ghetto. From the initial number of thirty, their population has risen to about one thousand. They are from various countries, including Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea and, of course, Nigeria.
Tony and Rose are separated because there is a rule that males and females must not stay together. Before they go their separate ways, they become quite emotional. It’s as if they had known each other for ages.
Tony is the first one to talk, “I really don’t know what to say.”
“Neither do I.”
“I’m feeling something is being removed from me.”
“I feel my heartbeat is being tampered with.”
“Let’s do something.”
“What?”
“Let’s exchange a personal item so that we may be using it to remember each other.”
“That’s a brilliant idea. But what can we exchange?”
Tony is lost in thought for a moment. Suddenly, he brightens up and says, “Let’s exchange our scarves.”
“With tears in her eyes, Rose removes her scarf and gives it to Tony. Tony reciprocates but doesn’t cry.
After some passionate kisses, each of them goes their separate ways.
Agadez is a historic town known for its historic buildings like the Agadez Grand Mosque, the Kaocen Palace and the Agadez Sultan’s Palace. The city’s market is a centre for trading in uranium, camels, silver and leatherwork. However, for obvious reasons, the travellers don’t get to see all these tourist sites.
They are separated for five days. But to Rose, it’s like a year. Within the five days, they only see each other once, and that is only in passing.
On the fifth day, they are called out to enter Datsun pickup-trucks. The men must sit at the back of the trucks to protect the women. Meanwhile, the truck is driving at top speed which means any of the men that loses his balance will plunge into his death.
Along the way, they stop to sleep in two villages. While males sleep wherever they find space, most females are taken away by the drivers. Luckily, Rose is not among those taken away.
They finally get to al-Qatron in Libya.
They wait in al-Qatron for two weeks. However, when the bus that will take them to Sabha arrives, they discover their smuggler has disappeared. While others are left to be tortured until their relatives at home – wherever that may be – pay or they work as slaves or sex workers, the driver, Rose and Tony make a ridiculous deal. Rose is to be a sex worker, and Tony is to do any work the driver assigns him. The offer the driver dangles before them is so lucrative and ridiculous. Lucrative because they will be able to have a free ride to Italy and ridiculous because the man, Tony, will not be man enough to protect his fiancée from sexual molestation.
Looking at their situation, they feel it’s better for Rose to have a single sex partner instead of being with several men throughout the day.
At first, Tony felt it isn’t a good idea. The feels of his partner becoming a sex worker is distasteful. However, the only other option he has is for him to be sold as a slave as the job the driver will give him won’t pay their passage to Italy.
So, he agrees on the proviso that the end will justify the means. The driver does them a favor by introducing them to the next driver in Tripoli and that one too introduces them to the skipper of the boat going to Italy.
Tony and Rose finally have time to spend together on their way to Italy. While awaiting the dinghy, they catch up on the time they have been separated. They become inseparable, at least for that moment.
“At last, my beauty.”
“Yes o, my king. I was afraid of losing you to another woman.”
“I was more concerned about your being in the hands of other men.”
“Well, I had to do it.”
“I agree. And it doesn’t stop my love for you.”
The Tripoli point of embarkation becomes a huge marketplace as tens of thousands of people assemble there. Naturally, buying and selling of food items, toiletries, blankets and all other things people going on a long journey are taking place there.
In some cases, travel arrangements for latecomers are perfected. But that’s if they have enough money.
Six vessels are sailing to Lampedusa. But none of them is seaworthy. The vessels range from a wooden locally made fishing boat, rubber raft, and an abandoned yacht that has been slightly refurbished. The boats are overloaded despite hardly having any floatation devices.
They are more or less, floating coffins.
Yet, they intend ferrying people across the deadliest sea in the world – the Central Mediterranean. But the hazardous trips might not have been possible without patrons. And these are made up of migrants fleeing poverty, conflict, war, forced labour, female genital mutilation, corrupt governments, personal threats, droughts, desertification and more.
This is where people smugglers come in. People smugglers are normal human beings. When life happens to them negatively, they resort to helping themselves at the expense of others and the law. They are driven by the desire for financial gain and not propelled by any love for their fellow men. Their companions in crime, the human traffickers, are not in any way different.
Both treat migrants, not like human beings but common chattels who are only useful for their commercial value.
Rose and Tony manage to secure a place on the overcrowded yacht. Since there are only a few tiny life jackets, preference is given to minors.
The boats set on course in a flotilla. The plan is to look out for one another. When the boats get to the high seas, most of the passengers start having sea sickness ranging from vomiting, nausea, cold sweating, headache to drowsiness. Yet others are having a loss of appetite.
One of the vessels sink in the turbulence with all on board dying. Another would have gone down too, if not for a rescue ship operated by an NGO. The rescue ship has enough space, food, medical care, blankets, and a lot of volunteers.
