The retired soldier at the gatehouse window
A retired Hausa soldier from Kano who traded the parade ground for a snack counter, and sees everyone who passes the gate.
They call me Sarge. Retired soldier, current commander of this snack counter.Mallam Garba
Mallam Garba spent his working life in the army and his retirement looking for peace and quiet. He found it, more or less, behind the window of the gatehouse by the estate's main gate, where he sells snacks, cold drinks and medicine. Back home in Kano there is a big farm, plenty of land, many wives and many children. "I live here to get a little peace from the wives' drama," he says. "The children still find my wallet."
Everyone calls him Sarge. "The gate officers call me Sarge when they want advice," he says, "and Mallam when they want snacks on credit." He told them his radio outranks their whistle. Nobody has argued.
Sarge sees everyone who comes in and goes out, and he forgets nothing. He was the first to welcome AJ home ("You must be AJ, the young man back from London"), and he is the one person on the estate who remembers the owner of Prizm from the old days near Kirikiri, before he was a chief.
Sarge's counter is at the gatehouse by the main gate. Buy snacks to keep your strength up and medicine for when the dogs at No. 8 get you. In party mode, his counter is where you buy gate tickets.
Mallam Garba spent his life in uniform and came to a Lagos gatehouse looking for peace. He sells snacks, gives advice, and remembers a man from the old days whom he hoped never to see again.
Deported from London, beaten in a cell, broke on a veranda bench. He has a plan, a London accent and a debt to the gate police.
Funny, tired, underpaid, sometimes greedy and sometimes kind. They hold the gates, and they want to be settled.
Thirty-one years at Kirikiri prison, now the owner of Prizm. He plays the big man, brokers deals at his table, and takes ten percent.
AJ Cities