SHORT NOTE ON CHARACTERS IN DESTINY OF LIFE BY ASABE KABIR USMAN

SHORT NOTE ON CHARACTERS IN DESTINY OF LIFE BY ASABE KABIR USMAN

Characters in any given story, refers to the human beings so created by an author playwright through whom he communicates his message to his audience.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

1. Aisha

2. Umar

3. Nafisah

4. Awal (Baba)

5. Marya (Mama)

Aisha: Is a daughter of Awal (Baba), she is central to the entire story in the novel “Destines of Life”. This is because it is through her personal experiences that the audience comes to know everything that has happened in the story. Her childhood had been very uneventful and filled with so much sadness. Despite her being an intelligent and a hard working girl.

She was very polite and positive about the world around her even when she was being maltreated by her step mother Rakiya after the separation of her parent. When she was just five years old. She became happy when she got admission into Secondary School and Higher Institutions, and when she met with the love of her life “Muktar” thinking that her joy had fully come, little did she know that destiny had dealt a cruel blow on them. As she recovering from her ugly experience of losing muktar, she met with Umar who became the father of her four (4) children; Ibrahim, Aisha Junior. Zainab and Sadiq.

Umar: Was a lecturer at the University of Sokoto, who was invited to lecture on “life after camp” where Aisha was posted for her NYSC.

Umar was from the prestigious Sokoto Royal family, he became so much interested in Aisha after the orientation to the extent of tracing her to her parent’s resident. After the introduction, they eventually got married and were blessed with four children and were living in harmony.

Before the child bearing of Aisha, Umar’s school where he was lecturing went on strike and this made Aisha to be the breadwinner of the house until he finally got a job in the Department of Economic Planning of the Federal Ministry of Finance Abuja, through Baba’s help and influence.

He became succesfu1 in his new job till he got to the level of Director. Tragedy strikes, after 15 years of marriage when Umar started having an extramarital affair, initially with his Secretary “Farida” later with his distant cousin’s daughter “Nafisah” who came to live with them. On the process of trying to get married and please Nafisah in all aspect, he went into a fraudulent act of making money that landed him into prison: On this process. Umar lost all that he has, including is own dear life.

Nafisah: Was Umar’s distant cousin’s daughter, she came to stay with Umar and Aisha because of her study at the University of Abuja. She was the only daughter of her parent. 

Nafisah began to see Umar more of a lover than a father when she noticed the look and comment Umar gave her, her relationship with Umar grew day - by - day to the point that they could no longer hide it.

Nafisah was all after Umar’s wealth and nothing else as it was potrayed in the novel when Umar lost his son Ibrahim, and when he has found guilty of conspiracy and defrauding the Federal Government of (30 million) and even in his health condition, she was nowhere to be found. She finally packed out of the house proclaiming that she cannot live in the same house with a criminal; little did she know that she cannot reap where she did not sow.

Awal (Baba): Popularly called baba by Aisha and others, he tried to keep his marriage with Maryam but all effort was aborted all because they were forced into the marriage by their parent.

Awal later got married to Rakiya and adopted her four children. The two could not live long because they were incompatible despite his love for her, the marriage was not successful.

He remained a good father to Aisha till the end by encouraging her in all aspect of life, even in her matrimonial home.