n the week before Prince Abubukar Audu’s death in November 2015, he video chatted to his son in Maryland, asking him about football and glowing as his son talked about his growing love for the game. When the former governor of Kogi State in Nigeria died, Audu left a legacy as one of the most successful bankers from the West African country, as well as one of the most successful politicians from a minority party in the country’s 63-year history as an independent state. His son, Abubukar Audu Jr. ’23, is just as gregarious as his father, with a booming voice and engaging smile. Behind that smile, though, is a child who has lived the tumult of being “the chosen one” of a father who died prematurely, the one of his 11 brothers and sisters who is known as Junior. He is also a child, who due to America’s tightening immigration laws in the late 2010s, was left with his younger brother and sister outside Washington D.C. without his mother for his high school years. Junior Audu grew up in Abuja, Nigeria, and attended the American International School of Abuja as his father stepped into and out of the spotlight of Nigerian politics. WARRIORS rince PThe By Joe Guistina I have goals for myself and a map for my life. I know there will be changes on the path, but I know I will get there because I will keep pushing myself. 18 LYCOMING COLLEGE 2023 SPRING MAGAZINE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTA3NDk=