JOURNEY TO ZUMA

Our legs were almost touching our heads, panting is an understatement, as we found our way back to the bus. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Filled the air and those that came with their bible clutched it on their chest with passion. We could not wait for the bus to Move, our Teachers did not understand as they were far behind when the incident occurred. There was relief in our hearts as the bus kicked, and moved away from the monolith.

We have heard news about it, read about it and even spoken about. Hence, an excursion to Abuja without a visit will not have been complete. My school, Citadel International College, organised a 3 –Day Excursion to Abuja and I was privileged to be part of those that paid for the trip. We had been in Abuja for about a day, with visits to so many interesting sites like the Abuja zoo, Wonderland etc, but with much anticipation in our hearts, we wanted to see the popular Zuma Rock. On that day, clad in our White Ceremonial wear, we embarked on a Journey to the popular Monolith A day before; we had seen the Aso Rock, from whence the name of the presidential Villa was gotten. So we thought seeing large pieces of rocks were just normal activities.

During the journey, some of our classmates that have been to Abuja before, had informed us about some superstitious stories associated with the site of the Rock, but this only “GINGERED” us to want to get there faster. Unique among the stories was that the Rock cries and has human features.  Common knowledge was that Zuma Rock was in Abuja, but we had almost left Abuja itself before we got to the site.

From afar, we could see a Nigerian Flag on the top of the mountain, approaching the boundary between Abuja and Niger State; the bus came to a halt. The school had not taken permission to take us close and around the cultural heritage, hence we were told to just look around. But the excitement in our hearts as students in SS1 could not be confined to seeing such a monument of nature from afar, we wanted to get closer. First of all one of the information, disseminated in the bus had been confirmed, the rock had human features when looked at. It had a place for the Nose, eyes and mouth...but the excitement blinded our hearts from the remaining aspect of the stories, only for the veil to be removed later, you can guess what happened when the veil was removed...

 Without permission, we entered into a property (Land: government owned), with a view to getting close to the Rock, we hurriedly marched on the paths as the grasses and shrubs gave way. Some of my classmates refused to come down from the bus, others came down, but stayed with the bus (It was parked by the roadside). Later, we discovered that probably that was the right thing to do. As we got closer to the Monolith, we met an Old man, who stopped us and asked us what we were doing around the place and who gave us permission to come in. We explained that we came for sightseeing and that we were students of a secondary school. As we waited to listen, some others continued the expedition... the old man then instructed that we leave the place immediately! All pleas fell on deaf ears, as we moved forward to tell those in front what had happened, we looked back and we did not see the man again. Ye! Wetin happen? Where the man enter?... those questions raised in our minds and the veil dropped- those information that we were told started replaying, we did not wait for them to finish loading when the race began. I ran my life out, all that was in my mind was that let me just get to the bus... we forgot the idea of wanting to go close; we were satisfied with the one we had seen. Fear gripped us and relief was the atmospheric condition as the bus left the place, that was when I knew that some of my class mates had bibles and could pray. Though to some this might be funny, but to some, it wasn’t oh! Some of us began to form, why una run sef?(pidgin). We had seen people disappear in films, but this was too real to be false.

That night our lodge was very quiet, because we expected the consequences of our adventure to catch up with us; but fortunately for us, nothing happened. None of us wanted a replay, so another visit was not part of our agenda. We continued on our excursion trip and made it back to school on the third day. The excursion ended, but the thought and experience never left our hearts.

Its been long, so some details might not be the same or enlarged: abeg na the beauty of the work of art oh. Kudos to members of the 09/10 session that went to Abuja Excursion.