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Chapters 1 and 2

The Life Changer Chapters Summary 1 covers chapters 1 and 2 of the book. You will find the other chapters in links at the end of this page. Follow the links to continue reading. Good luck!.

“The Life Changer” is one of the novels recommended to Jamb candidates for the years 2024 to 2025. The story is written by Khadijat Abubakar Jalli, who studied mathematics, and the novel is her debut. The story is a moral one, intending to portray the reality of life in Nigerian universities or other institutions. The book’s name is derived from the general belief that university is a life-changing experience.

Chapter One and Two Summary of “The Life Changer”

Chapter 1

The story starts with everyone waiting for the arrival of Daddy. The author doesn’t provide a vivid description of Daddy in the novel, and his character is poorly developed.

The children are making their room warm with endless discussions that elicit laughter from them and their Mummy as well. Their mummy’s name is Ummi, but they can’t call her that. It’s disrespectful to call one’s parents by their names in some Nigerian cultures. The name “Ummi” means mother; however, she’s named after her grandmother.

Everyone calls her mummy except Omar, who insists on calling her Mum. 

If there’s anything Ummi detests, it’s listening to the children, who are chatterboxes by birth, but they’re indeed comical in their discussions, which attracts her attention. Ummi has four children, three girls, and a boy. Five-year-old Bint is telling her siblings about her encounter with her Social Studies teacher, who is fond of interfering in other people’s affairs. Ummi, who’s equally a teacher, can’t bear hearing her little daughter narrate how she humiliates her teacher in the class. Bint’s teacher asks her to say good morning in French. Ummi mandates her last child to learn French at a young age, reversing the mistake she made raising her older children, stating that it’s easier to learn a language as a child.

Bint answers her teacher correctly, and the teacher applauds her, but he can’t say “that’s very good” in French, causing embarrassment for himself. Bint’s classmates sing and dance around her in the presence of the teacher, believing she’s destined to be great. 

Ummi walks into the children’s room without giving a signal; she does this frequently for reasons: to check whether they’re hygienic and the way they bond. Ummi listens to the children, although she loathes doing that, but she does and makes them learn a lesson in each of their stories.

Omar is 18, and he’s the oldest, while Bint is the youngest and the favorite child of her mother. The two siblings are fond of each other.

Note: The Social Studies teacher’s name is Mallam Salihu. Teemah is the second child.

Omar joins the rest of the siblings, entering the room in jeans and a white shirt, and Ummi is pleased with her eldest child’s decent fashion sense. Although Omar is 18, he looks far older than his age. Omar is thrilled to announce to the family his admission to study Law at the prestigious Ahmed Bello University, Kongo Campus, in Kano, which reminds Ummi about how Daddy wanted to study Law but ended up studying Accounting.

Omar, being ecstatic, requests everyone call him a learned brother, except Bint, whom he gives the free will to call him anything she wishes, and Teemah responds by calling Omar Esquire. Teemah is called a blabbermouth. Omar does not want anyone else to inform his daddy about his admission because he has promised to get him an Android phone if he gets accepted to study Law.

There has been a power outage for days, and the room is hot, making them sit under the mango tree outside where Teemah sells Zobo. Omar picks up Teemah’s zobo without dropping a dime, making the two trade hurtful words, and Mummy steps in to pay for Omar.

Since Omar will soon leave home for school, Ummi finds it necessary to tell her children, especially Omar, who’s going to a new world, about her experience at the university. Omar’s Jamb score is 230.

Read also:

Summary of The Life Changer by Khadija Abubakar Jalli

WAEC/NECO Recommended Literature Texts 2026-2030

The Lion And The Jewel Characters

Chapter by Chapter Summary of The Life Changer by Khadijat Abubakar Jalli (Full Book)

Chapter Two

In the second chapter, Ummi tells her children about how her father wanted her to marry before her graduation and how she was stunned by the free nature of the people in the university. She’s shocked that students don’t wear uniforms like in secondary school, making them equal to lecturers. 

Through Ummi, readers know about a lady known as Salma, who in her description, is radiant. Salma is a tall, busty, slim, light-skinned girl. In the faculty registration office, she complains surlily, connoting that university lecturers are inexpensive to purchase, just like the Nigerian Police, prompting a young man nearby to engage her in a talk. The young man, whom she doesn’t know is a lecturer, tells her to buy any lecturer if she thinks so.

When she learned the man with whom she had been engaging in a brutal discussion was a lecturer in charge of the office, she found herself helpless. The lecturer, whose name is Samuel Johnson, a Ph.D. holder, wasn’t fond of talking. Ummi was present when everything was unfolding, and she was telling her children the story. The same Johnson, the HOD of the department, praises Ummi for her decent dress and wishes other students learnt from her, but she thinks he is making sexual advances on her. Ummi is the first person to register, making her registration number UG0001, and Samuel Johnson prays for Ummi that she will always be number one in everything as she’s lucky to be number one in the register.

When Ummi got home, she told Daddy about her encounter with the HOD, and Daddy made her know that her perception of the HOD was wrong and that she misjudged the man. Samuel Johnson happened to be Daddy’s friend, and she helped Daddy to make Mummy get admission to the university. Always mistaken for Igala, Samuel Johnson was a Yoruba man, and his nickname was Sam John.

Important Facts in these two chapters:

1. Ummi is a teacher.

2. She has four children.

3. Daddy is her husband.

4. Ummi is called Mummy by her children.

5. Bint is the last and favorite child of Ummi.

6. Omar is the 18-year-old first child of Ummi.

7. He was admitted to study Law at the Ahmed Bello University, Kongo Campus, Kano.

8. Bint is five years old.

9. Samuel Johnson is the HOD and Daddy’s friend.

Read more

The Life Changer Chapters Summary 2 covers chapters 3, 4, and 5

The Life Changer Chapters Summary 3 (covers chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9)