I can never forget the first day I stepped into Kubwa Camp for my N.Y.S.C orientation, it was the most memorable day ever and here’s why. As I narrowly escaped a furious soldier, I bumped into the most beautiful girl ever. It wasn’t the fact that she almost caused me to land on the floor but there was something about her that radiated and caught my attention. It was the first time I saw Diana Okwudili.
Diana was tall, fair and very beautiful. It was like she wasn’t of this world. I stared for a while before another soldier coming from behind jerked me into reality muttering “My friend move out of the way”. In the twinkle of an eye, Diana was gone. I had to find her soon. Those were the last words I thought about before I sauntered off to begin the rigorous clearance process.
Soon afterwards, camp activities began and deep within me, I hoped that Diana was going to resurface on camp. My newly acquired friends kept telling me to forget about ever seeing her again. According to them, there were several fishes in the water and Diana was one of those fishes. It was funny but that was exactly how they put it.
“Besides, Kubwa camp houses numerous corps members and the probability that you’ll see this dream girl again is very low” Tosin- one of my pals voiced out gently. On hearing his statement, it dawned on me that there could be the possibility of truth in what he was saying. Initially, it felt saddening but after a while I began to accept the reality.
I was attached to platoon five (5) and couldn’t wait for the platoon competitions to begin. My platoon was very large and it was quite obvious that I probably wasn’t going to speak to some people even for the time period that we were going to remain in the orientation camp. It was like I saw new faces every single day. During the first day of the second week of camp, we were having our platoon meeting when the platoon leader posed a very difficult question. In no time, a young lady stood up confidently to answer the question.
After she brilliantly answered the question, with a smile; the platoon leader asked “What’s your name?”
“Diana Okwudili” she responded calmly.
My mouth dropped in shock as I raised my head a little bit.
Diana Okwudili was in my platoon.
12th November 2013
Excitedly, I called the attention of my friends as I showed them the girl that had been on my mind since my inception into camp. They all had different expressions. Tosin whispered gently “Pretty girl but looks like a book-worm”.
Charles hissed then muttered “She’s not even that fine, there are other finer babes in this camp and I can prove that”. Emeka’s reaction was the most shocking “Don’t go near that babe, you’ll hate yourself for trying it”. Surprised, I directed my gaze at him and asked “Why? What’s wrong with her?”
With venom in his voice, Emeka continued “We dated while we were in the university”
I was shocked. Seeing the look on my face, Emeka continued “She sucked me dry and dumped me for a richer guy”. My ears were filled. For a moment, I wished that I didn’t show them who Diana was. In fact, till today I wished I had kept her person secret. It was almost impossible to further any plans with her based on what I had just heard. After what Emeka had said, the other guys began to insult her and call her names. I was simply numb.
That day, after camp activities I decided to sit down in a quiet corner and ponder on the whole issue after my friends had left. Dating Diana would mean letting go of what Emeka said and forging ahead but what if he was speaking the truth. I could feel confusion driving through my veins.
The next day, during the morning drill, I stood on the large field with a puzzled look on my face. From afar, I sighted Diana in front of the line. She was absorbed in the excitement of the drill. Perplexed on what to do, I decided to walk up to her after the morning drill. “Hi” I mouthed gently as I sat beside her.
With a smile, she responded “Hello”. A conversation began. It wasn’t long before my friends who came to look for me noticed what was happening. On seeing them, I began to act like I didn’t know Diana was sitting beside me. Just then, they came over. Emeka was the first to speak as he voiced loudly “Stupid” with a hiss to follow. Although he didn’t mention anybody’s name, it was quite obvious that he was referring to Diana. My other friends were laughing hysterically in support of what Emeka said.
I stared in shock, not knowing what to do. As if trying to help me, Emeka continued “Abeg, Bryan.....make we dey go”
Without complaining or saying a word to Diana, I stood up and left with them.
18th November 2013
You guessed right! Diana and I never spoke again after that day. I didn’t even have the guts to walk up to her again for the fear of what my friends could do. The funny thing was that, every time she saw me, she simply smiled and turned her face away. This went on for a whole week.
During the last week of camp, a motivational speaker was invited to address all corps members. While speaking, he posed a question at me and asked me to stand up then tell all corps members what I thought the answer was. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it so I simply stared like a dumb-ass. Jeez! I felt so embarrassed. After a few minutes of awkward, painful and unbearable silence, he then voiced out loudly “Who is willing to bail him out by answering the question?”
His words were followed by a young lady who raised her right hand above her head. She stood up and answered the question so well. In fact, I felt more foolish. I rubbed my eyes to get a clear picture of who it was and to my greatest shock, it was Diana.
By the time she was done speaking, all corps members gave her a round of applause. Deep within, I began to wonder why anybody would hold anything against her. I finally decided that I was going to try and make-up for what happened the last time. So after the motivational talk, I rushed to mammy market so as to get her a cone of ice-cream. All the while, I didn’t know that Emeka had been studying my movements. As I approached Diana to say thank-you, Emeka purposely ran into me and spilled the ice-cream on Diana muttering “Good job Bryan, Ice-cream is meant to mess up messed up girls”.
With those words, he sauntered off. He had succeeded in making it look like I purposely bought the ice-cream to pour it on Diana. Before I could get a grip of myself and apologize, in tears, Diana walked out on me.
20th November 2013
“What did she do to you?” I screamed at Emeka as soon as I saw him. I was furious and frustrated. He simply laughed without any tangible response. At that moment, I became angrier as I shook him gently “Oh boy, talk now”
“I just hate her” he finally voiced out with anger lacing his response. Tosin and Charles simply stared at us without wanting to involve themselves in our case.
“How can you just hate somebody” I responded.
“She’s a fool, a fool for what she did to me” Emeka shouted angrily.
“Because of something that happened how many years ago, get over it and grow up” I hissed.
With those words, Emeka walked out on me.
The last week of camp unfolded rapidly like it was in a hurry and no-one could stop it. Through it all, I searched for Diana but she was no-where to be found. At a point, I began to ask around but nobody seemed to know about her where-abouts. I knew something was wrong but I just couldn’t place my finger on it.
“Diana, where are you?” I whispered gently in my heart. My train on thoughts were stopped by some girls talking and crying in a popular corner of mammy market. Very soon, they began to attract people. Curious, I walked towards them to find out about what had happened.
I didn’t even have to get to where they were before I heard whispers of “Due to unexplainable complications, Diana Okwudili died of brain cancer last night”
25th November 2013
I wept.
I wept.
And I wept again.
I was never going to forgive myself and if I did, it was going to be the hardest thing ever. Diana died without me conveying my feelings. Diana died without me apologizing for everything that went wrong. Diana died without becoming my friend. I was extremely hurt.
In camp, that night I sat on my bed pondering on all that had happened as tears ran down my face gently. “Diana was gone” were the words that kept ringing in my head. Not long after, I was about to drift into a painful sleep when I heard some-one crying with excruciating pain from the back of my window. I got down from my bed, picked up my torch-light and walked up to where the sound was coming from.
After putting on my torch to discover who it was, I was shocked at what I saw. Don’t be scared, it wasn’t the ghost of Diana. It was Emeka, he cried even louder when he saw me. His eyes were red, his face was swollen and he had a white piece of paper in his hands. Before I could even say anything, he spoke gently but in tears “I’m sorry Bryan, I’m sorry for everything I did to Diana, I’m sorry for lying to you about her,”
“Lie! What are you talking about” I responded in grief and shock. He then began to explain how he had asked Diana out before they came to camp. However, she simply refused to go out with him even though she admitted that she liked him and that was why he was mean to her. He concluded by saying that now he knew why she didn’t agree, it was because she had known that she was going to die soon and didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
After he was done, he handed over the piece of paper he held in his hands to me. It was a letter he wrote to Diana after her death.
Dear Diana,
I’m sorry I never took time to understand what you were going through before you died. I’m sorry I made your life miserable despite the fact that it was short. I’m sorry I never gave you a chance to be happy and ruined every sign of happiness that I could tamper with.
Dear Diana, please forgive me.
I will never forget Diana Okwudili, the girl whose memories fill my entire experience in Kubwa camp.
By Olugbeje Temitope
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