A Superb First Quarter – Stolen Phone, Double Trouble, et al

It’s been a superb first quarter of the year, and I have enjoyed an amusing blend of experiences.

One of which I would share with you shortly is my phone loss experience.

Meanwhile, it’s been about three weeks since my phone was stolen and I’ve since been living without a phone . . . an interesting three weeks if I might add.

Now here is the weird part . . . I do not miss having a phone but that’s not the point of today’s post.

So let me continue with today’s post.

I lost my phone on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, the day Nigeria played the 2022 World Cup Qualifier match against Ghana. (why does this line sound like a Police report . . .lol)

I and some colleagues were going to watch the live match at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja, and I was over the moon.

We had gotten VVIP tickets and we were looking forward to the live experience, in high hopes that Nigeria would win the match and clinch a spot at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

In fact, I had planned to flood my timelines with photos and videos of my first live match experience, but sadly, the devil had other plans, lol.

We got to the stadium at around 4 pm for a match that was to start at 6 pm, yet, the stadium was packed full . . . right from the gates, talk about foot traffic!

Nigerians had gathered en masse to support the Nigeria Super Eagles against the Black Stars of Ghana (rumor has it that a number of delegates had stayed back after the APC conference that took place over the weekend, and more people had flown into the FCT to watch Nigeria qualify).

It was a big day!

There was a lot of excitement and patriotism in the air – there were bands playing, people singing and dancing, waving their flags, and blowing their colorful pararans all over the place.

It was a beautiful sight to behold!

We even joined the excitement for a bit, chanting our support for the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

But this is not where it happened – I still had my phone, purse, lip balm, earpiece, and eyeglasses in my bag.

Let me pause here to state that, “football indeed unifies Nigerians . . . and I think music does it too.“

That said, back to my gist.

After all our dancing and chanting, we started towards our designated gate – Gate D, hoping we’d be ushered to our exclusive VVIP seats, little did we know that our exclusive seats would come at an exclusive price . . . lolll

When we got to Gate D, we were redirected to a different entry point, and this happened at about 3 entry points, they kept redirecting us, and on some occasions, when we could have easily settled for regular seats, we insisted on having the VVIP experience.

At about past 5 pm, we still hadn’t gotten our seats but we were happy to keep trying.

However, by this time, I was already tired, the initial excitement had started to wear off owing to all the stress . . . and it wasn’t over since we hadn’t gotten our seats.

When we got to the next entry point that was suggested to us, there was a queue but it was rowdy, and the gate officers had refused to open the gate because the queue was rowdy.

But this time, we were sure that was our entry point, so, we were willing to wait till the gate was opened, despite the rowdiness.

Eventually, when the gate officers could no longer stand the agitation from the crowd, they flung open the gates and everyone rushed in.

This was where I lost my phone.

We finally found our way in, and the first thing I noticed was my purse on the floor, and I then saw my colleague pick up my lip balm, and that was when it hit me . . . I had been robbed!

By the time I could process the thought, it was too late to raise an alarm because the passage was suddenly empty, everyone had gone in . . . the deed had been done!

I didn’t even notice that I had also lost my eyeglasses until after we had gone farther down the passage and I saw it sitting pretty on the floor . . . smh!

The sad part is, that wasn’t even our entry point . . . sigh!

At this time, it was a few minutes to 6 pm, and everywhere was jam-packed – a lot of people were yet to get their seats.

We tried one last time but without any luck and we eventually decided to leave the stadium and watch the Super Eagles qualify from the comfort of our homes . . . but not without meeting the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports – as some consolation for all our trouble . . . winks.

Unfortunately, the Super Eagles didn’t qualify, . . . and while everyone was quick to count their losses and move on, for me, it was double trouble – I had lost my phone.

I would have thought that my phone was sacrifice-enough to appease the gods of football.

But sadly, it wasn’t.