The Life Changer – A novel written by Khadija A. Jalli is the JAMB 2024Â recommended text for the Use of English paper.
This novel changes the narrative of life on campus. The plot follows Salma and her university roommates as they swim in academia’s turbulent and seamy currents.
The JAMB 2024 novel, The Life Changer, will be given to candidates at the point of registration in any of the 2024 JAMB accredited CBT centers after candidates have paid and obtained the JAMB e-registration PIN.
About the Author of the Novel – The Life Changer
Khadija Abubakar Jalli wrote the novel The Life Changer. She holds a B.Sc (Ed) in Mathematics and is an entrepreneur and CEO of She’s Boutique Afrique. She has a husband and kids.
The Life Changer is Khadija Abubakar Jalli’s first publication. She seems to be saying that the female voice is making a rebound on the parapet of the African literary scene.
Themes of the Book The Life Changer
The book upholds the following tenets in the lives of youths:
- Hope
- Freedom
- Redemption
- Youthfulness
About the JAMB 2024 Use of English Novel ‘The Life Changer’
The Life Changer is Khadija Abubakar Jalli’s first publication. It has nine chapters and is the official book for JAMB 2024 Use of English.
Khadija Abubakar Jalli’s “The Life Changer” is a debut novel that explores the narrative of life realities at the Nigeria University campus; the freedom of dressing, way of life, and attitudes towards life. It also explores the good, the bad, and the unthinkable aspects of human characters, especially in response to freedom.
Furthermore, hope and redemption of life in contemporary youth are themes of the book. The narrative details Salma and her roommate’s escapades at the University as they glide through academia’s turbulent and seamy sides.
Chapter-by-Chapter Summary of the JAMB 2024 Novel: The Life Changer
Here is the summary of each chapter of the novel:
Chapter 1
The Life Changer is an interesting piece that begins with a family of six awaiting the arrival of Mr. Esquire.
While they wait, Bint gives an account of her classroom encounter with her intrusive Social studies teacher, Mallam Salihu. Mallam Salihu acted as though he knew a bit more about every subject. He will often ask questions outside the subject of discussion.
Bint narrates how she genuinely handled a similar occurrence leaving the teacher dumbfounded by the cheering and laughter of other pupils.
Ummi is seamlessly proud of her daughter, particularly Bint’s intelligent approach to issues. She joins in the discussion right before Omar joyfully announces his admission to study Law at Ahmadu Bello University.
As the family gathers to celebrate Omar’s success, Omar boasts of his achievement and takes pride in solely overcoming examination challenges and several other entry procedures while seeking admission.
Ummi recognizes her son’s naivety and tries to enlighten him about the life-changing capability of university admission.
Ummi tells her children how her admission changed her.
Chapter 2
Twenty years ago, Ummi gained admission into the University and married her husband even before she started her registration.
Ummi tells them about the freedom and carefree lives of students at the University. She also shares the difficulty in distinguishing between teachers and students. Females dressed almost naked. Ummi further discloses her experience with Salma, a sophisticated young lady.
Salma goes for her registration much later than everyone else but expresses discomfort and irritation about the delay in the registration process. A young man in the queue interrogates her and continuously engages her in a discussion, but Salma continues to criticize and overgeneralize her opinions about lecturers.
Salma created a similarity between lectures and policemen as personalities that can be bribed. She also boasts about her ability to win the lecturer’s favor if she gives him as low as two or three thousand naira.
Unknowingly to Salma and to the astonishment of everyone in the queue, the young man she has been conversing with is the lecturer in charge of the registration procedure.
Ummi proceeds to her departmental registration. On getting to the HOD’s office, he exchanged endearing pleasantries with her. She finds this rather discomforting and inappropriate.
Ummi assumes the HOD is trying to make a pass at her. After getting her matriculation number, she left the office irritated and angry.
Ummi tells her husband about her experience at the HOD’s office upon getting home. However, she is astounded to learn about the friendship and rapport between her husband and Dr. Samuel Johnson.
Chapter 3
Ummi tells the story of ‘the quiet one,’ a boy named Talle.
Talle was given birth after many years of child futility, and his birth caused the death of his mother. He grows up possessing a silent character and becoming even more reticent with the death of his father and stepmother. Thus, ‘the quiet one’ was a perfect description.
Talle is considered a good person by the villagers and unable to cause harm.
However, Talle needed money at a point and confided in Zaki, who proposed the idea of abducting a boy and requesting a ransom. The duo executes the plan, and Talle restrains the boy in his house. Talle goes to the market for his groceries, but his usual request for food items is doubled. Soon, the market woman notices a change in his larger request for groceries and reports the issue to the District headÂÂ.
While the District head was interrogating Talle, policemen rampaged the palace and arrested Talle as a suspect of kidnapping and extortion. Talle and Zaki are eventually sentenced to some years of imprisonment.
Chapter 4
Chapter 4 of the novel ‘The Life Changer’ gives a further account of Salma’s splendor and pomposity.
Salma goes to Dr. Dabo, the level coordinator, to have her forms signed. Unfortunately, Dr. Dabo loses touch with his many years of discipline and makes advances toward Salma.
Salma arrogantly dismisses his attempt and further insults him before leaving the office. Dr. Dabo is left in a state of regret. He remorsefully prays to be vindicated from the impact of what he has created.
Salma completes her hostile registration and moves into a room occupied by three other girls. Initially, Salma does not like the sight of her roomies, but eventually, they begin to grow fond of each other and form an intimacy they regard as sisterhood.
Salma is offered a ride in a Mercedes Benz on a faithful evening by two men, Habib and his driver, Labaran. She slides in, knowing it is dangerous, and she conceitedly plots a scheme to decline Habib’s request to date her if he eventually proposes.
Having to decline a man who rides Benz is Salma’s way of upgrading her standards and getting recognition and respect from her colleagues and the entire University.
Chapter 5
In chapter 5 of the book ‘The Life Changer,’ it is discovered that Salma gives Habib Tomiwa’s mobile line instead. Unknowing, Habib calls Tomiwa to go out on a date with him.
She is curious about Habib and decides to go out on a blind date but eventually discloses the switch in mobile lines. Habib likes her still and shops for her and her roommates. He also gives Tomiwa some money for herself and her roomies. She is excited. Her roommates shared in this happiness.
At first, Salma agitates against Tomiwa’s approval of Habib and accuses her of being a chameleon. Ada and Ngozi intervene, but the issue escalates. They soon come to a state of tranquillity as soon as someone knocks at the door. They do not want to have to share their lots with other neighbors.
Meanwhile, Salma and her roommates continue to excel in their separate departments and prepare for General Studies papers.
Chapter 6
Salma finds Moral philosophy very difficult. She, however, prepares by practicing past questions and answering them offhand.
Unfortunately, Salma could not answer any of the questions during the examination as none of the topics for which she had spent the whole night preparing had come out. She resolves to indulge in examination malpractice.
Kolawole Abdul provides answers to some of the questions in a note, and she copies them into her answer booklet. Regrettably, she is caught by a female lecturer, and Kolawole is implicated.
Salma is compelled to fill out the Examination Malpractice (EMAL) form and is ushered to the HOD’s office. He transfers her case to the Exams and Ethics Committee for further processing.
Chapter 7
Salma goes to Habib to help her influence the Committee by using his position as a politician. Habib offers to involve Dr. Dabo, but due to her past experience with the lecturer, she declines this suggestion and proffers bribing. Habib offers to give Salma some money to bribe the Examination and Ethics Committee (EMEC) chairman, but in return, she must repay in kind.
Salma is reluctant to accept this offer because of her affair with Labaran, and she considers it unfair to have an affair with her friend’s man.
Salma soon gives in to his request, but unluckily, she gives the money to Dr. Kabir, who claims to be the chairman of the EMEC.
She soon finds out Dr. Kabir has deceived her. He was neither the chairman nor a member of the Committee. She is demoralized and breaks down.
Chapter 8
Chapter 8 of ‘The Life Changer’ reveals the true identity of Mohammed Kabir, a laboratory technologist employed by the University.
He has been nicknamed Doctor since his secondary school days. He has always been referred to as Dr. Kabir.
Labaran discovers Salma has been played by the gambler and informs Habib, suggesting Zaki be contacted to handle the situation. Honourable Habib is uncertain about involving Zaki owing to his failure in the first mission of abducting Alhaji Adamu’s son.
Habib yields to Labaran’s suggestion and contacts Zaki to trail Kabir.
Kabir is spotted at a gambling spot. He wins the game at the gambling spot and leaves to avoid losing it all. Sadly, he is trailed by thugs whose mission is to retrieve Kabir’s wins. Zaki catches up with Kabir as the thugs are attacking him. Zaki strikes the thugs and gains control of the situation as they flee. He concentrates on Kabir, collects the money, and leaves him bruised.
Ummi also tells her children how Salma changed her sinful ways. Salma becomes serious and decent after her father’s death, and because of her level of seriousness, Ummi allows Salma to become friends with her.
Chapter 9
Ummi also reveals Salim’s bitter experience with smartphones. Salim confesses to Lawal about a girl he met on social media. After several exchanges of pictures, chats, and affection, Salim visits Natasha according to her preference.
Unconsciously to him that Natasha is tricking him. He embarks on a journey to see her late in the night. They met.
He is eventually ambushed by gunmen who try to rob him of his possessions. Luckily for him, he escapes this only to get involved with another lady he meets on social media.
This time, he pleads with Lawal to accompany him to avoid a similar contingency. Lawal declines, and he goes to see the supposed beautiful girl. Salim leaves in disappointment and meets an ugly girl instead.
The children are seen proclaiming admiration for all the stories relayed to them by Ummi as they await Daddy’s arrival.
Plot Summary of the Novel ‘The Life Changer’
The story begins with Bint, a five-year-old girl and the darling of the Ahmed family, narrating her classroom encounter with their meddlesome social studies teacher, Mallam Salihu.
He seems to believe he understood every little bit about every subject. He was somewhat ridiculed when Bint asked him to say “that is very good” in French after asking Bint to say ‘good morning’ in French.
Mallam Salihu was unable to answer the question, but with the help of the French Mistress. This incident made him leave Bint’s class and never return till after the break period.
Bint’s classmates appreciated her courage to ask a teacher a question he couldn’t answer.
While she recounts her tales to her older siblings, their mother comes in and joins what sounds like an interesting story. They are used to her impromptu barging into their room. She used this tactic to keep them on their toes on personal hygiene issues.
She, however, puts them in the right perspective, not to mock Mallam Salihu but rather celebrate his humility to accept that he doesn’t have an answer to her question and calls the French Mistress to their aid.
Omar’s arrival changed the conversation. Omar has just been admitted into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to study Law. This good news calls for celebration. Omar had been a precocious child and had outstanding success in his SSCE. He described the achievement as “no means a small feat,” and JAMB gave his mother the need to explain and share her experiences at the University and how she responded to them. Some of these life experiences were hers, while many are through Salma’s and her roommate’s embedded story.
Ummi tells her son that admission into the University is a life changer. She recounts how she left Lafayette for the University after agreeing to her father’s condition. Ummi must be married before she graduates—that was the condition. Luckily for her, her husband agreed to marry her before she went for registration at the University. And this called for a double celebration for her and the entire community.
Ummi and many other students were in a queue at the Faculty registration office at the University. The lecturer in charge had taken ages to commence the exercise.
Then Salma, a fair-complexioned girl, tall and slim in tight-fitting clothes, had only arrived at the venue barely fifteen and began to grumble about the ineptitude of the registration officer and the University lecturers. She has previously had an awful occurrence at her previous University. She was expelled from the school for the offense of examination malpractice. While she was grumbling, a young man politely addressed her to be calm that others had come earlier than her, yet they remained calm in the queue. Still, Salma wouldn’t refrain from saying spiteful things about university officials.
However, the twist of all happened when a Janitor emerged from the office and handed the keys to the office to the young man who had engaged Salma, and the turnout became a discomfiting moment for her. The faculty registration commenced, and in a short time, Ummi was through, and she proceeded to the department for her matriculation number.
The head of the department, Dr. Samuel Johnson, was a young man. This surprised Ummi. He had a tribal mark that showed he was either an Igala or a Yoruba man, and the crucifix on his necklace showed that he was a Christian.
He was very friendly to Ummi. This made Ummi feel awkward. She later learned from her husband that Dr. Samuel Johnson was the one who assisted him with her admission into the University.
Furthermore, Ummi recounts the story of “the quiet one” alongside more unfolding tales about Salma and her roommates to admonish her children, especially Omar, who is now a university undergraduate.
The moral of the story of the quiet one is for her son not to trust anyone because it is impossible to be certain of people, especially the fact that looks can be deceptive.
In Salma’s story, the children learn to be careful about whom they make friends with.
She admonished them to avoid friends who could lure them into cultism or those who could engage them in EMAL (Examination Malpractice).
Roles and Characters of the Novel ‘The Life Changer’
The following are the characters and their respective roles in the novel:
1. Ummi Ahmed
Ummi Ahmed is the main character and the narrator of all the embedded stories in the novel “The Life Changer.”
She met her father’s requirements before she could go to college, and Mr. Ahmed married her, so her father was very happy.
She is a teacher and a mother of four children; Omar, Teemah, Jemila, and Bint.
2. Bint
She is five years old and the darling of the Ahmed family. She is a brilliant and very curious child.
Bint boldly answered Mallam Salihu’s question in French but, in return, asked him a question that he couldn’t answer. This scene somewhat embarrassed Mallam Salihu out of her class.
3. Mallam Salihu
Mallam Salihu is a meddlesome social studies teacher in Bint’s school.
He thought he knew a little bit about everything, especially French. But the class made fun of Mallam Salihu when Bint asked him a question in French, and he didn’t know the answer.
4. Jemila
Jemila is the third child and the second daughter of the Ahmed family.
5. Teemah
She is the second child and the first daughter of the Ahmed family.
6. Omar
Omar is Ummi’s first child and the only son. He is eighteen years old. He always appears well-dressed and clean.
Omar described his SSCE performance as outstanding and “by no means a small feat.” He also passed his JAMB and gained admission into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to study Law.
7. Talle
Because his mother died soon after being born, everyone calls him Talle. The “quiet one” was also a nickname for him. This is because, even as a child, he was quiet. He was born and bred in Lafayette.
When he was just twenty years old, his father and stepmother died in a horrible car accident. This incident made him feel worse, and he shut himself off.
He conspires with Zaki to kidnap a young boy to extort his father.
They were both sentenced to prison with hard labor.
8. Salma
Salma is a fair-complexioned girl, tall, slim and busty. Her previous school expelled her for examination malpractice at her 400 level.
9. Tomiwa
Tomiwa is a Muslim girl from the west, Ibadan, to be precise. She is the brightest and the cleanest in her room.
This girl keeps herself updated with the latest information in the entertainment industry because she wants to become a singer.
She also knows the latest and the craziest fashion outfit. She dates Honorable Habib.
10. Ada
Ada is from Benue but insists that people call her birthplace the Middle Belt. She is also Salma’s roommate at Queen Amina Hostel.
11. Ngozi
Ngozi is Salma’s roommate. She is from Umunze in Imo State, and she is a very quiet and reticent person. Though reserved and withdrawn, she is generous to a fault. She will never cook for herself alone.
12. Habib
Habib is a politician. He and his friend, Labaran, met Salma at Kwangila and offered to give her a ride to the University campus.
13. Labaran
Labaran is Honourable Habib’s childhood friend and his driver. They grew up together, but he chose to go to a driving school while Habib chose education. Labaran sometimes supported his friend Hon. Habib before the Honourable became a politician with the little he earned as a driver at the local government. Habib made him his driver to pay back for his kindness when he became a politician.
14. Zaki
Zaki is the brain behind the idea of kidnapping his friend’s son and extorting him. He involved Talle in his evil plan because Talle needed money. Involving Talle in the kidnapping seems to be a way to get some money.
15. Dr. Samuel Johnson
Dr. Samuel Johnson is a young lecturer. He has a tribal mark that almost confuses him with being an Igala or a Yoruba man.
Dr. Samuel Johnson is the HOD at Ummi’s Department and a very dear friend to Ummi’s husband. He also assisted Ummi in gaining admission into the University.
16. Dr. Dabo
Dr. Dabo is a very disciplined lecturer. He has never engaged in any form of underhandedness with female students. He has a track record of treating his students justly.
Dr. Dabo is never last for lectures, and his lecture rule is simple: “Don’t come in after me.”
17. Hakimi
He is the district head of the Lafayette community. The police apprehended Talle in his palace.
18. Kolawole Abdul
He is Salma’s coursemate, and out of pressure from Salma when they were writing their last paper, Moral Philosophy, he scribbled out some code to the answer and gave it to Salma.
Kolawole Abdul is brilliant and very smart. Salma implicated him in Exam malpractice and the Ethic Penal. The University, after that, expelled him also.
19. Mohammad Kabir
Mohammad Kabir acted as an impostor. He is not even a lecturer at the University, let alone the chairman of the EMEC. He flaunts himself as Dr. Kabir.
20. Lawal
He is Salim’s friend who refused to accompany him to meet his new social media lover, the Fulani girl who turned out to be completely different from the looks on the displayed picture on her profile.
21. Natasha
She is the girl that Salim met on a social media platform.
22. Kartagi
He is the leader of the gambling group where Mohammad Kabir gambled and won three hundred thousand naira.
23. Gumusu
Kartagi sent Gumusu as a thug after Kabir. This was because Kabir won three hundred thousand naira from his gambling group.
Also check: How to Score High in JAMB 2024 CBT | Score Above Cut-off Mark
We recommend that you read the novel (The Life Changer) and prepare well for your JAMB UTME 2024.
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