Every week, Culture Custodian talks to Nigerians who share tidbits about their lives. This time, we have eight people telling us how they met their partners:
Jimi, 25
We started talking on Twitter after someone’s tweet about a lady not kneeling for her husband had gone viral. I responded to the Tweet asking why everyone was pressed. She found my comment impressive and went ahead to send me a direct message. We started talking and it seemed like we loved each other from the jump. It was a smooth sail. Things fell into place. We were friends for four months before we decided to start dating.
Sola, 27
Before we started dating, we had actually met a couple of times. The first time was at ‘Career Day’ in our first year at the University. She doesn’t even remember it. Years later, we started following each other on Twitter and naturally, I initiated DMs and things seemed pretty cool. Then, I asked a mutual friend about her and got some bad news: she had just started seeing someone else. Not too long after that, we stopped talking. A year later, I saw her again at the aforementioned friend’s home. Thinking she still had a boyfriend, I decided to keep it casual. On Valentine’s Day that year, I had been invited by a friend for a singles’ night. We had Secret Valentine’. We exchanged gifts with other friends. I pulled up that day to find her there. I asked her, ‘aren’t you in a relationship?’ She told me how she’d broken up with her old boyfriend. Two years later, we’re about to get married.
Funke, 23
Okay, so I met my partner during my NYSC service. That was 2019. We were in the same department in camp. When I first saw him, I stared for a while because he looked so fine, but I didn’t make any move at him. I had to let it go because it didn’t seem like anything was going to happen. We eventually left camp after the three-week orientation service without saying a word to each other. I was posted to Osogbo for the rest of my service year which is where my place of primary assignment (PPA) was. I stayed at the Christian Corps members’ family house. Some days later, he arrived there as well. I was shocked to see him. I thought to myself, “the universe has brought us together again.” I only wanted to be friends because I just came out of a relationship that really hurt me and wasn’t ready to mingle. So, we kicked off as friends. I later realized he was posted to one of the Ministries while I was posted to the Government House. We went to work together every day, and sometimes we returned together. I think I also had a problem with being committed. It wasn’t like I planned to cheat but I was more involved in my career that I felt like I had to place it before any relationship. I eventually decided to be in a relationship with him but not after waiting for a while. I wasn’t waiting to hear from God or anything. We were executives and couldn’t be together while in the office, so we respected the rule. But a week or two after handing over, we went on.
Bola, 25
We met through a mutual friend. He just buzzed me and went, “how come you don’t have a boyfriend?” I replied, “well, it is what it is.” After speaking with him for a moment, he told me he had a friend who liked me, That was obviously a lie because he had never even heard of me. Lackadaisically, I told him “whatever, give him my number”. He reached out to me afterwards, exchanged a couple of texts, then we eventually agreed to meet up. The first date was super easy. We chose to hang out at Eric Kayser. I was excited to get dressed up because it had been a Iong time since I went out. It was a hit from the first date! Six months later, he asked me to be his girlfriend. It’s been a year now and he’s been the absolute best boyfriend ever.
Zainat, 25
I met him at a friend’s graduation. I didn´t even remember we went to the same primary school. We got into the talking stage, then I realised he was someone I wanted to be with. I was sceptical about it because of how he looked. One day, he asked me out on a date and I was bored. So I had to yield. We went out and had conversations. He turned out to be a really nice, charming guy. After some time, I decided that I was going to be intentional about talking to him. Then, I realised that I should have not judged him the way I did at the beginning. I’m glad I met him. He makes me happy. I’m not perfect, neither is he. He’s turned out to be all I ever wanted in a man and more.
Chioma, 26
We have been friends from the university for as long as I could possibly remember. We crossed paths again during my service year and we continued to be friends until a particular day when we were at a friend’s birthday. They decided to play a game to enable people to interact with each other and loosen up. I was matched with him, so we spent that period together and were able to speak at length. Over the conversation, I genuinely painted the man of my dreams. He told me he was interested in being that man. I was shocked because before then, I doubt that either of us ever saw that happening between us.
Seyi, 29
I met his brother first. I saw a family Instagram post that his girlfriend at that time put up. I followed him on Instagram and sent him a DM. He responded, then we started talking. I clearly knew he had a girlfriend who was still very much a part of his life. Feelings grew between us. We subsequently made plans to meet up. We had sex a couple of times until he decided he was going to break up with his girlfriend. This was hard because I couldn’t imagine this happening to me but I was glad I had him to myself.
Tijani, 24
I was going through my social media as usual when I saw her profile among suggested profiles. Her profile picture was pretty attractive, so I decided to open her profile. She happened to be someone I knew from way back in secondary school but we were never friends, neither did we ever say a word to each other throughout our time in the school. I started following her, liked a couple of her pictures, then waited patiently for her to notice me. After a couple of days, she started following back. I immediately proceeded to send her a DM. She replied after some hours, we exchanged messages until I finally got her number. After weeks of calls and texts back and forth, I decided to invite her to one of my gigs. I’m an events creator by the way. She came around looking like the brightest star I had seen in the sky. I was overwhelmed by her look that I stuttered for a second. We went on a couple of dates afterwards until we decided to give the relationship thing a try. A couple of months, arguments, good sex and beautiful memories later, it still feels like a dream that I’m living in.
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