Oladimeji Ramon and Chima Azubuike take a journey into the world of Nigerians who have never communicated via a mobile phone
Panta Burguse does not know what it feels like to use a mobile phone to communicate. At 80, she neither owned nor ever communicated with one.
For the childless widow, who lives in Sishemvire village in the Yalmatu Deba Local Government Area of Gombe State, it will be a dream come true if she ever owns a phone and to experience speaking through it.
“I often peep at people making calls, looking at them in admiration. Sometimes out of curiosity I will move near the person, trying to hear how a phone call sounds; how the receiver’s voice sounds; because I like a phone,” Burguse, who introduced herself as a farmer, spoke in Tera language during an interview with Saturday PUNCH.
Sishemvire hamlet where she lives is nearly an hour’s journey from the state capital, Gombe.
The encounter, facilitated by an interpreter, Ali Ahmadu, a commercial motorcyclist plying Zambukk and Gombe metropolis, was after a long, relentless search.
On arriving in Sishemvire at about 11am on a Wednesday in February, Ahmadu, after making some enquiries, led the way to Burguse’s house but the widow was not at home.
