After watching a movie in the first half of 90s where a court adjudicated a case in favour of an indigent old woman whose right was infringed by an affluent member of the community, I picked interest in the profession of law. But soon after getting to Senior Secondary School, the interest dashed away. I had found a new course of interest; accounting.
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The love for accounting was strong. I would run away from the official school lesson to attend Comrade's lesson where I learn accounting everyday. The penalty for not attending school lesson would not deter me from having a dose of accounting everyday. 'Accounting is for me, football is for you', I would tell my cousin, whenever he complains about my wrong passes on the football pitch.
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In 2009, I was admitted to study accountancy in Federal Polytechnic Bauchi. I felt, the day my dream of becoming an accountant will come true now has a date. But on learning about the height of discrimination against HND holders, i felt the need to continue the pursuit of my dream in a university. Undoubtedly, FEDPOBAU is a perfect institution to study accounting but the discrimination was not encouraging.
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Before long, i purchased a new jamb form and applied to study accounting in Federal University Dutse. FUD was a new school and it was the first time the school would admit students. If FUD is going to start with only one course, that course must be accounting. When you fall head over heels in love with something that is how you think. I was obsessed with accounting; too obsessed to think outside the box.
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I received the shock of my life when I opened JAMB website one day and found out that I have been offered admission to study Sociology in FUD. The only thing i knew about Sociology was the suffix 'logy' which is a derivative of a Greek word “logia” which means science or study. I searched google for the meaning of sociology. The study of society? That's all? So I felt.
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Then again, it happened that the course/program of study was actually Criminology and Security Studies, not Sociology. The later was the name of the department offering the course. It was a devastating feeling knowing that i was leaving accounting for a course I hardly have an iota of knowledge about. Those who claimed to have knowledge of CSS made matter worse. They painted a daunting picture of the course; a picture portraying criminologists and security experts as warlords.
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The maiden lecture with Professor Abdullahi Salisu set my heart at rest. It was explicit from the lecture that CSS is not all about raiding criminal hideouts, though it includes it. Criminology is more concerned with ‘how’ and ‘why’ crimes are committed rather than ‘who’ did it. Security, on the other hand, goes beyond the protection against traditional security threat like armed robbery. It extends to protection against non-traditional security threats like food scarcity, poverty, flood, poverty, disease, nuclear pollutions, to mention few.
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If you ever hear me scream in jubilation
If you ever see me laugh uncontrollably
If you ever see me dance like I have lost my mind.
It is the joy of the opportunity I had to study CSS.
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But who ever knew I will be writing a quatrain for CSS? When ‘Chattered’ was the mantra, who ever knew CSS would come to occupy a chiefly space in my heart. When I was cruising to south direction, thinking i was on course, who ever knew I would have to take a U-turn at a point? On the road to my destined end, I often had to eat my words. But I must say, i found the word I used to describe how my life will be incomplete without accounting a wholesome diet.

MUH'D ABBAS

sheettle:
MUH'D ABBAS

Yap.