Broken World

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Chapter 1 It was extremely dark everywhere across the land of kajore . Though it wasn’t night yet, but everywhere had suddenly became strictly blur so much that the man at one pole could hardly discern the presence of the other man standing at the other pole of some yards away. Children leaped out of their parents’ abodes and formed a gathering to develop a casual play in which to celebrate the arrival of a sudden nightfall while the elderly ones started running around to strongly prepare for th

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Chapter 1 It was extremely dark everywhere across the land of kajore . Though it wasn’t night yet, but everywhere had suddenly became strictly blur so much that the man at one pole could hardly discern the presence of the other man standing at the other pole of some yards away. Children leaped out of their parents’ abodes and formed a gathering to develop a casual play in which to celebrate the arrival of a sudden nightfall while the elderly ones started running around to strongly prepare for the coming of the heavy deluge. Men and women having with all agility skittered around their parsonages and kept in safe, all the items that were perishable in water, locked themselves inside. It was only some of them who had their cocoa seeds or cassava tubers in their orisa where they did dry it in the sun that stayed little longer outside in the scaring weather. Some of them had allowed their grown up children to lend them helping hands in the task in order to make things faster. With the long brooms in their hands, they swept the seeds into heaps so as to make it easier for their parents as they were parking them into the raffia basket and sacks with the short wooden spades crated for that purpose. The zeal with which the cloud had gathered thick in the sky rose high and the cloud showed the highest extreme of its gloomy nature. At once, the wind bestir from the east and blown passed all directions. It started with a strength, which could only sway the plants and increased to that which could lift away a kid and throw down an adult. And so, more and more it was fostering more of its force on the entire land, vigorously sweeping through it at all direction. The sky had been filled up with sand and every manner of light items at its reach. And there had been constant hearing of the sounds of branches of trees in the nearby forest, as they were forcefully chopping down from the parents trees by the stormy wind. Before this, time, out of a fiery kind of fear, the parents had poured outside, smacking and dragging in, from the mood of play, those of their children that seemed having lion hearts. These were the ones that were fearless to the anger of the monstrous wind, and stayed behind while others dashed inside to take refuge under their parents. Doors and windows were properly lucked and all the villagers had themselves and all their belongings including their children and animals intact in their places. But the case was quite reversing at the side of kaka. When he was fully assured inside his room in the dilapidated building bequeathed him by his late father, that the rain had indeed determined to fall, he, in a deep bitterness gathered all the cloth he had, including that of his two children into a nylon bag which was as little as the one a woman would go with to the market to convey back home the four or five tubers of yams she had purchased. He held the nylon bag in one of his hands and using the other one pushing forward his two kids by the heads from behind as he led them outside. The little ones were so reluctant to move into the harsh, gloomy weather, which their father had presumed the best in which to take their shield and not in the house again.

At the façade of the house, in a little distance away, there rigid a stone with the size of two heads of cattle put together. It was part of what kaka inherited from his late father. He had grown up to learn the two important usefulness of the stone to his late father. And in his own days too, he had spared it for the same purpose which he had also cherished. Kaka would find it as the most convenient seat for him to do his after-farm work of the day. And also, before he would leave for the farm in the morning, he would carry his bag by the shoulder and reached to the stone from inside. He would then sat himself on it, stretched his legs, draw his cutlass and at the space between his lapses sharpening it with the stone. Now, as kaka hasten his two children out of the house, from the pavement, he caste a look on the stone and made for it right away. The stone and its surrounding had been littered with the debris of the bunch of the palm tree leaves from which, he had made about eight or ten bunches of broom after returning with it from the farm he had been to in the morning time of the day. As kaka viewed across the stone and its surrounding in his worried mood, he knew the waste of the raffia leaves was no more as much as it was before. A much portion of it had been swirled away by the aggressive wind. He reached to it proper, sat himself on it and fixed his two kids by his both sides. He then gnashed his teeth, bit on his finger and sobbed silently. He was indeed tired of going to squat with neighbourhood as he had been doing each time this manner of rain had come. And this was not only what he had been tired of but was absolutely tired of his life. To which length or day would he run reach from his house for this manner of rain that was becoming perpetual in the land at the season? As he moved out of one boundary to another of his thought, he would hit his head nervously at one side with his fist. He would do it in a way that his kids wouldn’t plumb easily. At a point, he unbend his brow and gazed toward the house; built of a literate mud blocks with feeble foundation and having fissures here and there on its walls, waggling in the whirlwind. As he progressed in the keen look across the breath and length of the ramshackle house, his eyes caught with the grave of his late wife at the right side corner of the house and he could no longer hold himself. Thus, in a raucous cry, he sang his melancholy and his children were moved; they chorused him uncontrollably. He held them tightly to himself and they all wept on. Kaka in the mood of sobbing began to put the blame on his late father who didn’t do him good but thought he had done so by bequeathing to him this devil’s box he had called a house. And rained expletives on his progenitors too for their malevolent act, as they had only tarried in the ghostly world in idleness, watching him and his family wading about in gradual destruction. Now, the same kind of rain to which his wife had lost her life was about to fall. The demise of kaka’s wife was very painful to him and many of the villagers who knew her quite well. She was an assiduous and easy-going young woman. two weeks ago, the rain had started as this was about to, and the wife having returned from the market where she had left for since morning time to sell her wares, fixed herself up in the kitchen. She was to make yam porridge for her family as it was already sundown. The kitchen was closely erected to the wall of the parsonage at the back. It was also made of mud, small in size and was as old as the house itself, which had pass through the care of more than fifteen men in fifteen generation down the family ladder. When the torrent downpour began much of it was poured on the weak wall of

the house at the back as it was the direction which the whirlwind that came along it was blowing through. At that moment, the woman had already settled proper in the kitchen and centred her heart on how she would by her culinary skill give her family the best meal of the night. And just in a trice, the wall at the back of the building cut out and fell on the little kitchen and every thing therein flatly crushed down. The raucous sound of the fallen wall especially that of the metallic items inside and on top of the kitchen alarmed the nearby villagers including the husband. All jumped out of their abodes and rescue teams were instantly formed out of them. They threw up one thing and upend another to evacuate the poor woman. Children stayed in distance watching in great trepidation. By this time, the rain had greatly gone down and people called it Esubeleke. The devil that had cunningly done his evil work and ran away. When the woman was pick up, there was no more life left in her and mournful cry arouse among the crowd. Still on the stone of the ages, in the long retrospection, kaka wept as he still watching the grave. He would set his eyes there even when he wouldn’t see anything because everywhere was gloomy, but would use the occasionally advantage of the light of the thunder that flashed through the surface of the earth. A thunderbolt had followed the glimmering light that illuminated across the land and all shivered. The strike of the thunder had hit hard in the sky more and more and the rain that had been busy all the while gathering therein had now been ruptured in a trice. It increased rapidly and poured in torrent. Kaka with his kids was drenched in it and juddering heavily in great cold. And their weeping escalated so extreme that the rain couldn’t wash away all their tears. Fortunately for the two kids whose health had virtually been set in peril by too much of cold , but unfortunately for kaka himself who had strictly determined to die together with the kids in this bad situation rather than continuing with it, a woman from the next building managed to leap out with a small size of a plastic container in her hand, wanting to add it to the numbers of the vessels she had already set at those points where the roof from the edge was dropping water in volume, for drinking and for domestic use. As she stepped out proper off the door and bend body to set the vessel, the thunder flashed it light and kaka head that was raised above that of his two kids glimmered in the darkness. Her heart caught with fear as she saw it not quite vivid. Immediately, she unbend herself, and as she had now keenly set her gaze toward the direction of the image that looked like the head of a sad monster, who was tired of the delay he had encountered in capturing his prey, the light flashed again and this time around the woman was somehow succeeded in discerning what was it and exclaimed in great passion. ‘You kaka!’ She had shouted and pointed toward the direction. She couldn’t see him clearly again as there was a temporary seizure in the flashing light of the thunder but zealously desiring for it again. ‘O, my God! The woman shouted this time around in disappointment thus she dashed inside to alarm her husband. And in a moment, she scooted outside again with her husband and their two grown up daughters. Kaka ears were filled with pleas by this team whose souls had been overwhelmed with massive marvel and yet he sounded like a deaf. ‘What an evil you’re doing; the husband of the woman said. ‘If you’ve planned to ruin yourself why would you include these little ones who came for their

own lives. Why wouldn’t you take pity on them and allow them to live on with health free of distortion’, he added passionately, but yet all fell on kaka’s deaf ear. At a point ,they all thought he was already mad for as much as they persuade him to leave the rain and move inside with them and his two kids so was he became more adamant. He would not say anything meaningful than ‘let me and my kids die here and let our blood be upon our political leaders.… see what they have turn us to, our land is not good but a hell’, he would say this with a faint voice. More of the villagers who had their houses close to that of kaka were also called outside from their sleep inside the rainfall of the night so as to join effort with them at wining the heart of kaka and when kaka couldn’t here them all still, they planned to force out of his hands his two kids and he was left alone outside. The children were already chilled up, shaking heavily in the cold. Having succeeded at snatching the two kids from him the first woman Samaritan took them into her care inside her room, drained them of their drench body with a clean dry towel and covered them with a very thick blanket having laid them down for sleep on a mat. She had also deposited two hurricane lanterns close to them so as to give a little warmer condition. Though it was indeed a great number of the villagers that hate this kind of rain yet some of them want it. Most of this set of people were people who were so confidence and could be proud of the immersion of the foundation of their own houses, the solidity of the walls and firmness of the roofs. But this category of people was so very few in the land and they were not sadist however. They had always found rainfall as a great privilege to secure water for usage. it had often help them putting off the stress and danger they did encounter when they would go far into forest for water in. Water was one of the greatest banes wrecking the hearts of the people of the land. There were no boreholes or any source of good water other than the stream they had in the forest where they would have to go struggle, competing with those thirsty beasts in the jungle before they could have a pot full. So, if rain falls, they would set their vessels in it and fill them up for a while relief. The only stream in the whole land which was drinkable in their own standard was indeed far from the habitation but in the heart of the thick forest in the land. The mothers would go there with fear and would never dream to send their children there. Though this started to be so the day Jimi, a little boy of seven years old put in the care of his grandma by the parents, went to the forest to fetch water for the old mother. After hours, no one smelt his return and fear ensued. Alarm was raised in the village and search team was formed and sent into the jungle. All the interior and exterior part of the bush were combed and at the end, the remain body of the poor boy, eaten left by the beast that had mauled him into pieces was gathered together and conveyed back to the village. So each time there was going to be rain, a pent up joy surged through the hearts of this set of people who had had a strong detestation on the stress and danger laid on their way to secure water from the only stream in the forest . But it was indeed a womanly joy, for the male folk especially those who own houses prefer not to have water in use at all to that of having their house falling in the perpetual rainfall. They knew how poverty that ruled the land had impaired them of all it took in erecting standard buildings. Most of the houses in their cares were the one built by their great grand fathers. Most of them had only inherited them. The turbulent rain continued throughout the night till the following morning . When it was properly dawn, people leaped out of their places as usual and began moving around to witness and inspect the possible damages the heavy down pour

might have caused. Each started from his or her own place and moved to the neighbouring ones, one after another and so, they went on round the village. There was sadness across the little world but not as much at that of the fourth night after which the same manner of rain had fell. No death causality was recorded and no kid was missing this time around but valuables and belongings were vandalized and some were injured. These were the people whose roofs were carted away by the whirlwind and which in the process were hit by one or two stones falling from the top of the building. People had gathered here and there in the houses of the casualties this morning, sharing with them the grief and consoling them alongside. Given them reasons why they should be thankful to their God. They pointed at the families that lost lives at the fount night rain and told them it was a sign that God had began listening to their supplication that this rain didn’t take live at all. These groups of the sympathizers standing here and there of the houses which encountered the calamity of the day were dominated by well matured men and women. The youths and the children in their own groups had been busy moving around without a stop unlike their parent would do. They viewed through the damaged and undamaged structures, sharing commentary with one another on them. Having combed the interior of the land the cluster of youth turned and headed for the main entrance where their was much activities. This was where there was a bus station well known across the six villages under the same local government. Kajore was the land fixed at the centre of all the villages . At its east there lied two villages one after the other. They were Olola and Kaba respectfully. And by the Westside of the local government, it was Oke-Gbaguda. Oloba and Arin-Odo were by the north and south respectively. People coming from Olola and Kaba villages and going to Oke-Gbaguda would have to join the vehicle going to Kajore. There was no direct vehicle, so they would have to alight at the popular bus station at Kajore where they would board the one setting for their destinations. And so was how it was for people coming from Oke-gbaguda to Olola and Kaba villages. Thus, because of this mode of conveyance across the villages, the bus-stop at Kajore became famous and a very busy spot. It was from time to time receiving all manners of commuters from far and remote places. Petty traders were plenty there too. They had stores where they sold assorted fruits and beverages such as mango, banana, pineapple, pears, apple, pawpaw and others. Food vendors were also there and artesian in various fields tailors, cobblers and potters. But virtually all the artisans didn’t have what they could call a workshop. At the open spaces they would set their stool and table and shield themselves from sun and rain with scruffy but capacious umbrellas. One of the parties that strongly dominated the bus-stop was the group of well grown up boys or young men. They were more or less of miscreants and they were formed out of the youths of the sit villages who dropped out of the school or who could not go to school at all due to their poor background. Their eyes’ balls were always red and they had always looked like the wild cat that was always ready to marl and kill to get what to eat. Their regular, slight victory over hunger and other necessities known with a man in predicament was what they had always achieved in exploiting and extorting the commuters and the drivers at the bus station. And also by begging from a noble or wealthy person or the one that had names. They were often harsh and rude, gluttonously taking liquor and smoking marijuana, moving around with cutlass,

dangerous knives, bottles, little axes and the perilous black-charms. And they were popularly called ‘the area boys’. Their most favourite season was that of the elections. While struggling for survival at the bus-station, they would be hoping for this season when the ruthless politicians would come for them, chose out of them for conscription into their forces of pure hooliganism where they would be mobilized for election days so as to beat up the electorates who would not be by the side of their party and beat off lives from those of them who proved to be courageous at casting their votes for their desired candidates. In addition , carting away ballot boxes thus making the chance of success of their opponent strictly narrow or quite impossible no matter how popular they were with their people. As the group of the youths who had headed for this centre of the land in their effort to witness all the havoc been caused on their land by the previous night rainfall, came very closely to their heading points, they instantly had their hearts apprehended in their mood of race and discussion by a shout that rolled up to the sky at intervals. They at this movement walked down somehow slowly and became so very attentive so as to fathom what could be wrong around afresh. And it was in that attempt that again more raucous one that seemed almost broken the world was heard. Thus, in agitation they set themselves loose of the slow movement and jumped into a giant stride forth. With all eagerness they scooted , competing with one another for the first to set eyes on the strangeness that tarried in the front of some metres away And at once having appeared in a very close proximity they began having their eyes gluing to a black jeep, busy entangling here and there from moving forward by the aggressive area boys in their mood of noisy praise to the one who was inside the Jeep. it appeared apparently that the vehicle was not heading toward Oke-gbaguda or Olola village but Kajore. The driver had already set its head on the road pointing to the village. The shout continued, it ranged up and then down every now and then and it content was a sharp encomium which was for the mighty one who had just arrived in the Jeep. When the skittering crowd of the youths arrived proper at the bus-station and instantly knew to whom the shout was meant for they too screamed for joy and each was emotionally forced to throw body on top of the jeep but was keenly prevented contemptuously by the tough ‘area boys that dominated the scene. They had already left the way clear for some numbers of their mates who wanted to roll their bodies on the damped ground. This was the best way this barbarian thought they could give honour to the noble ones. So, people were continually chasing backward and those that were slow to running felt in their marrows, the pain from the hot lash deposited on their bodies by the ‘area boys’ in their desperate mood, also using their guttural voices to throw fear into the hearts of the people. Activities turned paralyse at the bus-station, people had rushed out of their business places in an effort to ensure they at least had the glimpse of the great visitor. It was rear in the history of the village that a man in such a royal horse had entered the land. The gathering became thicker and thicker and Out of over zealousness some of them at interval loosed control and passed the boundary place on every movement on the scene by the area boys but this had always died temporarily in a sudden dispersion. They fled backward when the lashes from the area boys cut into their bodies painful y with a speed that left them falling on one another in agony of joy. Non of them, even the strong area boys, had yet seen the face of the one inside the jeep as it was with tinted glasses all over but the largest numbers of the heads in the gathering knew whom it was going to be ,for some had heard it through

one means or the other. Another thing that had captured the hearts of the onlookers was this giant motor, which they had seen. Many of them, except few who had travelled to the cities for work and business had seen such a huge motor on the roads. They had all the while been hearing about it and now that they were seeing it for the first time they had called it ‘a moving house of the white people’, for many of them had seen that most of the houses they had in the village were not bigger or slightly bigger in size than two of this black jeep. It was not that long in this state of disarray induced by the area boys that the two front doors of the jeep were opened at once and two men in black suit came out of it at both sides. One was apparently the driver and the other looked very much like an escort, putting on a black spectacle. While he surveyed round the environment with his eyes he had caste here and there on the ground from his stand by the jeep side, the driver on the other hand didn’t make a move, but faced the crowd as he placed his left arm on the jeep at the place above the window of the side he came out from. The two men were very tall and black. Having satisfied within himself, he stepped backward to the back door of the jeep at the right side and bended his body, speaking through the window to the one inside. And occasionally pointing forward to the surface of the ground outside complaining about the poor status to the noble one listening to him inside the vehicle. Every body at the scene had been standing in the mire caused by the previous night rainfall fall. It was the kind that could cover the leg of a man in a place between the foot and the ankle. Virtually all but especially those one that fell while running from the lashes of the area boys had been seen soiled all over by the red earth. The noble man who had felt much concern to reach out and dispense at least little peace to his people who had suffered much in their effort to reach him told his escort also silently why he would not hear him. He would not afford to stay back in his jeep while his people he had come to meet all died in the effort of reaching to him. And when he stood out of the jeep, there was a great blissful cry that rose up and travelled far beyond the sky and shook the world greatly. Absolute disarray thereafter ensued. It was almost going to be a great stampede as they had all attempted skittering forth to touch the hem of his white suit but the motion was blighted through the ravaging action of the area boys who had been so desperate about grabbing their daily bread from the Lord of the day. The retired colonel came out of his jeep with a healthy smile on his face to meet his people but the smile had gone faint and faint as much as he saw his people been smacked, brutalized and thrown backward by the area boys. He looked down to his feet and was somehow startled at seeing some of the boys already rolling their bodies inside the mire; begging him and bracing it with praises ; shouting Baba Alaye temi mole ki o koja, meaning, the father of the world step on me to by pass. All was to thrill him into throwing money on them. Having seen all these, he was shocked at the ill manner of these able beggars. They were not amputated in any way, lame, blind, mute or deaf. ‘How could this manner of thing still be seen at this age of the world? He taught bitterly. And again in his keen look on them he couldn’t find bright future written on their brows. And just to trick away the desperate wolfs, thirsting for blood by throwing in distance some pieces of fresh meat so as to allow the sheep to have their way in reaching their shepherd who had come for them; the colonel whispered two or three words into his escort in the ear and he immediately obliged to the directive. Rose, who was the wife of the colonel, was still in the jeep together with the lady secretary to the colonel. Just in a moment, the escort returned with about four

bails of money and handed them all to the colonel. Four of the area boys were called forward. They were the ones pointed to by the rest as their leaders and the bail of money were dropped with them to be shared with their people. All roared , jumped and fell down onto the grand with great bliss, the colonel wondered again how such a chicken feed could send such grown up boys in amok and hate them for that. But later he saw reason to show them little likeness. As they collected the money they didn’t waste time afterward to clear themselves out of the way for his people who had been struggling to meet him . Instantly, there was an immense struggle of being the first to reach the front among the great crowd. In ecstasy, children flee back to the village to spread the news of the return of the colonel to their parents who were still busy consoling the casualties of the previous rainfall of the night and they too poured out in mass. The scene was greatly filled up. People in an uncontrollable joy stretched out their bodies and hands to touch the colonel. In eagerness, the ones at the back jumped to clamp the ones in the front to catch a glimpse of the noble man. With such speed they had been taken , if not that the colonel was what he was, he would have been knocked down in many occasions. He was such a huge and very tall man with good health. Kaka had since the beginning of the struggle putting his head to under one man’s armpit and at the space between another two men that stood abreast, to see he reached front but all had not work well for him. He had only determined not to be tired, so he carried himself put at the back of one man, jumped to pipe forward and sought for more perfect way at the armpit of another having been failed by his height. And just in a trice after a long stress, the eyes of the colonel glued to him as fortune rose to advocate for the rescue of his dieing soul. He saw his jumping head and became so concern about seeing him in full in the front. He waved his hand in an unusual ways and shouted, ‘please let him pass through’; every one stared toward the direction. They centred their mind and eyes on him and began to clear apart as he came by their side till he reached to the colonel in the front. There was much of lively smile all over his face as he fetched kaka to himself. He exchanged words of greeting with him and in that bid scrutinizing on his body. The man was so different among all in the gathering. His cloth had been seriously over wet and the colonel had also felt shiver in his damped skin. He asked him why he had been like that, kaka could not gather himself along, he rather broke into cry. He raised his right arm, placed it across his already bent brow, and slightly drew it downward so that it covered his face a bit. Balls of tears rolled down his cheeks and the colonel gathered him to himself proper and laid his head upon his chest. ‘Weep no more friend, the hour has come when all the monsters of sorrow shall be fought to death in this our land. One thing I know is that we are not created like this but our leaders have made us like this. They want to change our destiny due to the greedy life they have chosen to live.’ At once, the colonel turned back but still allow his hand tightly adhered to kaka’s. He used his right hand opened the door of his vehicle and stooped, having his head slightly inside then passed word to his wife with the rest of the people inside. He closed the door back afterwards. He had told his wife why he would not continue with them in the vehicle. And that the driver should drive her with the secretary home while he and his escort would go mingling with his people with their yet un-quelled zeal of feeling him and in the course he would have their grief shared in discussion with them along the way. The vehicle left right away and the colonel with the escort mixed with the crowd and led the way into the land. They walked through roads and

headed toward the palace. There were steeps and very deep portholes here and there on the roads and so the walking was not that comfortable. As they walked down, the colonel and his escort would stare across to the houses on the ways in scrutiny mood from time to time , and regularly exchanging that with the critical gazing he would imposed on the faces of those ones flocking with him and at the end of each of this, he would give a weight- full breath out of the heaviness of his troubled heart The houses were like devil’s boxes and the younger ones among the crowd were all waifs while the grown ups were all moving in a scrappy bodies. All were like the only surviving soul after an age-long famine. While the colonel was busy with this scrutiny, fear creped into his heart. He had now knew that the task ahead of him was far beyond what he had thought of while he was still in the city. He remembered the last day he visited his father’s land after he had left for army. It was the day he came for the funeral service at the demise of his father about a decade ago. The colonel happened to be the only son of the land known with his great benevolent service to his people. In his file he had the document in which he had adumbrated the financial exigency of his people of which a year had never by passed without him ministering to it. He had men and women he did use for this. He would send them from the city where he served as an air force man to bring succours for his people. Scholarship were quite often awarded to the assiduous and brilliant ones among the students in the ghetto. The only clinic owned by his land with all the facilities there in was by his solitary effort and he had also responsible for the securing of jobs for many of the sons and daughters of the land in the cities in spite of the too much of the narrow opportunity of getting job in the nation. Now that he had finally arrived to live among them after thirty-five years, he had been able to see by himself that lives had almost been coerced out of his people by the mighty hand of the great poverty that had taken charge of their life in different manners. confusion set into his heart. He knew not where to start was from. Was from the devil’s boxes they had been calling houses? The ones that didn’t even worthy for the goats to lay their stubborn heads not to talk of human beings. Or from these their roads that the mass portholes on them were as deep as the bottomless pits of the devil? or from these unhealthy bodies which lives had virtually hauled out of? In Kajore and the rest five villages under the local government, lack of accommodation, starvation, the want of good water for drinking and other purposes, ramshackle roads, dearth of infrastructures and social amenities and maternity homes were the major factors terrorising them. . And lack of education remained the greatest. Though it was so seldom to see any one sleeping outside, it’s quite apparent that the houses had greatly consumed lives. The news of collapsed building was no more strange in the land the weak buildings waggled in the breeze each time it blown even with little force across the little world. They indeed tired of yarning for urgent repair from this bundle of paupers, thus eventually turning from what that shield lives to what that destroys. Things had actually gone too worst for his people upon all he had done for them in the past. He had again had the flash back of the last time he visited home to break the news of his admission into the military school after he had finished his high school in the village. Things were bad then but was still very much fairer. As much as he thought of all these, so was the fear in his heart gained much size. It was the fear of how he could be succeeded in leading the battle he had come for. The one in which to liberate his people e from poverty having given to the ruthless politicians who were behind it an ignoble defeat. The fear with time became

much more massive and was weighing him down of his zeal. But he thereafter strived to remind himself of what he was. He was a valiant who had fought many battles. But again the pushed away fear seemed hustling to regain its capacious sea again in his heart. And this seemed to be so when the colonel smartly compared in his heart this kind of battle he was about to lead his people into with the ones he had involved in his army days. The discrepancy was quite distinct. It was a delicate kind of battle as he thought in his heart. He peaked this point from the sense that the enemies involved in this kind of battle were not so definite and they were so corny and ruthless. All these , especially the one of being indefinite made them so powerful. And the most striking point of the issue was that most of those ones he was going to lead into the battle were ignoramus fellows who didn’t have even a paucity of knowledge about what it took to discern the enemies. How would they then fight the fight well’, the colonel asked himself silently. But at this moment, a new thought sprout out from the depth of his heart which made him to turn every thought of his heart to a silent prayer. He had only remembered that a good valiant does not mind the clouded smoke of fire, the deafening sound and echo of gun-shot and bomb blast and the lying of countless corpses here and there of his way in the battle field in his attempt to chase the assailants to death and liberate his Land; for all are nothing but mere evidence of trouble. And again it’s when the lion is hungry of meet that it becomes stronger and more fearless. This was the time he was hungry of rescuing his people wholly thus ought to be stronger and fearless. He then freed his mind at a length. As he moved in front with his escort, they looked and pointed to directions and made commentaries. The entire land was immense but greater portion of it had been covered up by thick bush and forest, ‘this is a waste of resources’, the colonel said to his escort while he pointed far into the bush by the sides on the roads. Eventually, the crowd arrived with him to the palace. They were not showing any sign of weariness at all nor bothered about one or two things they had abandoned at home or in their places of work. Before the time the monarch had heard the news of his arrival into the land and that of his coming to the palace and he had blissfully ordered his maids to set pots of food on fire and the boys to produced kegs of palm wine and now that he had appeared, the table was set for him and his right hand man. The colonel managed to cut about three or four morsels out of the mountainous pounded yam coupled with a delicious egusi soup decorated with vegetable and countless, huge pieces of goat meat. He cut and masticated a piece of the meat and washed all down the gullet with a full cup of palm wine and cleaned up his hand. And so his escort did. He had told the king he had lost his appetite when the king complained of his poor interest shown in eating the food. Indeed, it was so, the little he had taken was just to honour the king. His heart had become so heavy once he had set eyes on those things aching his people. His soul had been indeed depressed by all. Afterward, he and the king had a close discussion. He told him the plan, which upon he had come to the land and massive mirth creped into the heart of the monarch. He blessed and fell plaudits on him. The colonel left almost immediately. He gave reasons. He would still have to reach to the parsonages of some of the first class indigenes in the land. The crowd followed him, they headed for Otun’s house and then to Balogun. These two were prominent chiefs in the land. Their families celebrate with them to receive him and wanted to kill goats and cook every manner of food for him but he didn’t allow them to do so. He gave his reason ands begged they should reserve the offers for the visit of some other days.

Oluwo was another prominent chief in the land. He was a special adviser to the king on spiritual matter. The colonel knew his avoidance, should it be, from reaching the priest could blight the reputation of his visitations to the dignities though the news was told in the house of the old priest. He had a very great fenceless compound and large façade. When the colonel arrived there, no one was outside. He moved with the escort to the main door that led into the passage of the entire house while the crowd kept not close. They watched from distance and non craved for the front places unlike how they had been doing in all other places they had visited with the colonel this morning. The door was knocked and two girls appeared by it. They took messages from the colonel to the man of the house. Just in a jiffy, one of the girls reappeared and told them what the chief had said. He had asked them to sit outside while he would come to them in a while. A long bench was immediately carried out by the other girl. Murmuring aroused and moved endlessly within the crowd of people where they gathered in distance. This was the only visit they had greatly detested among all they had partaken in the very morning with the colonel. But they never blamed him much because they knew it was with his olden days eyes he was still looking at this old chief. Their hearts had initially filled up of the doubt of his being around at this time of the day; for he had changed his work’s base from his home to the far end forest. Oluwo was once a popular herbalist whose house always experienced the stampeding of people who would come for consultancy. He was so famous to be discussed abroad. And in all the six villages under the local government, he was the only occult healer that a lot of people told endless stories about the potency of his medicine. He was so expert at treating chronic illness and the common ailment. People who suffered epilepsy, the lunatics, chicken pox, leprosy and iba were ferried from every far and near places for cure in his place. He had also cured people who were attacked spiritually and helped to appease the gods. But the caprice of Oluwo in the moment democracy returned to stay in the country eight years ago, precisely in 1999, shocked his people. He left all he was known with and became a maniac merchant. He shifted his office from his home into the forest where he butchered human body parts and sell them in parts to the politicians who desired winning elections through the forces of darkness and people who wanted to become wealthy through diabolical ways. The villagers were tired of the constant missing of their children and relatives. Oluwo and some other spiritualist like him had boys whom they had well trained and cooked in medicine and use them in the night or daytime to hunt people. Most of this operation had been found quit easy to them and secretive because of the charm they did use. A medicine ring was always fixed to the middle finger of their right hands and once they see their prey they quickly beat on his chest with the very finger. And this victims would turn mute and senseless and then lead into the forest. Some of them did use violence to catch their victims in a place far from habitation; using guns and cutlass to intimidate and incapacitate them from striving for escape. Heap of cases on this issue were incessantly brought to the police and the people had only become tired of the flippancy of the police in handling the matter. And so, they ran from them and cursed them at their back. As the news that the police was taking the side of the ritualists spread around the six villages, a great detestation toward the police grew among them. Some of them said because the police were collecting bribe from the ritualists, that was why whenever they were by chance caught by themselves one

of the agents of the ritualists while conveying human parts, perhaps to their customers with a sack carelessly stained with blood and handed him over to the police, they would luck him in the cell but by the second or the third day, they would release him and told them it was the blood of animal that stained the bag after they must have seen the decapitated heads of men and plucked eyes. So people called the police great magicians who could conjure white to become red. And they raised a saying and spread it round; that if a police man tells you the river is burning, never bother yourself to ask him to show you the ashes; for if you do, he would surely show it to you. They had become the great magicians who could turn blood to water. The hatred was so much that if any of their children or kin called and told them about his intension of joining police service, they would critically discourage him, telling him it was the frustrated and the heartless people that do go to join the police force in the land. The colonel on his seat where he sat with his escort still tarrying for Oluwo to come out, felt disturbed in his heart. This was because of how he had seen his people standing away from the front of the house of the old chief. ‘When have things become like this? When has children began to be stroke dead of the fear of seeing their fathers?’ He reasoned thus in his heart and he hadn’t been through with that when the old priest now appeared outside. A great silence engulfed the crowd and was later broken by a murmuring that developed from one part and spread round. When the old man came out he came out with hands which palms had been covered with blood. Immediately as he trudged forth toward the colonel with his escort who had rose to their feet to exchange greeting with him, a girl from inside dashed outside with a small wooden chair in her hand. She deposited it closely to the bench. After the greeting, the old man sat on it, asked the girl to get back inside, and fetched him some water in a bowl. People in the distance gathering began to whisper one thing and another in the ears of one another. Some said the old man had just finished with the body of human that was kidnapped and that was why blood covered the palms of his hand. ‘When has he began to butcher human body in his house? What has happened to the forest he has been using?’ A man in the crowd asked the one standing closely by him. ‘You are asking me friend? Are we not together in this land where there is lawlessness? Our policemen are not even helping the matter; what they would eat is what they are after’, the friend replied. A plate that contained four colanuts was brought out by one of the girls and the other one carried a very small wooden chair again outside. They placed the plate on it. Two cups full of water were set by it as well. The old man, drew his seat closely to it, said a very short prayer, then deeped hand into the plate, and broke the colanuts into lobes. Afterwards, he asked the colonel with his right hand man to peak and chew. At this moment, a great silence engulfed the large crowd. They watched the hand of the colonel in horror as it went into the plate. And as he took a lobe of the colanut up to his mouth to make a cut, they greatly felt disturbed. Some nervously pinched on their skins out of great concern. To them, it was like an angel ignorantly sharing an affair with a dangerous demon. They wished a force could rise and held down his hand from reaching the mouth and also whispered danger into his ignorant ears. ‘You are welcome once again our great son’, Oluwo greeted when he had settled proper. We constantly see your hand of generosity stretching to us here from

your station in the city. We thank you greatly for not forgetting your father’s land. It’s people like you we want our children turn to when they grow up. The ones that would never forget their fathers land wherever their desire in life takes them to. ‘Thank you old one. That is why I have come to join hand with you elders to assist them to become what they desire to become in life. ‘Are you saying you have returned to the land to stay? ‘Of course old one’, he answered with a broad smile on his face. ‘That is good. But are you not working in the army again?’ ‘Yes old one’, I have completed my service years so I now decided not to stay in the city. There are much work here to do. ‘You mean you want to start working here in this land? ‘Not really so old one’. ‘I wonder, because we don’t have companies here or factory in which you could be fixed up, except you sneak into farming. ‘Old one, the kind of work I’m talking about is quite different from that. I have retired from the service, so this is my resting period and I’m satisfy with what I have realized. But the work I’m speaking of is the one meant for our younger ones. I have come to team up with you elders to work on them so that they could become what they desire to be in life. ‘You mean you’ve come to help these ones; Oluwo asked solemnly, pointing to the crowd at the part where the youths dominated, gazing balefully at them. ‘These ones are not ready to turn to somebody in life. ‘Why did you say so old one?’ ‘They are not helping themselves. Non of them wants to till the ground as it were during our own time. And they want to become everything in life. How can that possible?’ Murmuring stirred up again in the crowd. The youths grumbled and carefully gawked at the old man while their parents calmly whispering curses on him in a great exasperation. ‘Let us hope they would yield to something good as we join together to pave the way for them’, the colonel said and they began to discus some other issues. A short while in that course, the colonel remembered certain question that had rose and fell in his heart, disturbing it since he had set his eyes on the old priest. It was the question he had wanted to ask him about the blood that was seen covered his hands in the moment he appeared outside of his parsonage before he washed it inside the bowl of water. So, the colonel asked. The crowd nodded at that with relieved hearts. Their souls gave him kudos for not leaving such a question un-asked, for they had since felt in their hearts that the question should be raised. ‘Oh, my son’, the old man said, twisting his hands, observing on them and them unbend his brow again. ‘It was the work of the spirits. ‘How did you mean priest?’ The colonel asked. ‘I mean I was working for the spirits. ‘Did you mean you were sacrificing some goats to the gods inside? ‘No my son’, ‘he said, shook his head, ‘the blood you saw me washing in the water the other time was the one that came out of the body of my son, Akin. I was about finished working on him that a message reached me that you were around. The distance crowd wondered about this disclosure and murmuring stirred up again and moved around them.

‘Has the evil man begun to do himself’?’ A man asked the other man that stood by his side, ‘he said he had been working on the body of his own son, ‘he added. The fellow gave no answer. His heart went blank as much as he struggled to think of what to say. He rather breathed down deeply and stared on. ‘Perhaps the spirits of those one he had shed their blood have been turning against him; making him to work against himself’, another man by the other side eventually answered. How do you mean old one? Has anything wrong with the boy?’ The colonel asked in little wonder. ‘Nothing my son. I’m only doing the will of the spirits. They told me to begin to imbue him with power and that was what I had just finished a part of’, he said smartly then widely opened his mouth and called the very damsel that brought out the bowl of water outside the other time by name. The damsel heard him once and skittered outside and she was thereafter told to call Akin outside. Akin appeared almost immediately in his nude. He was having pant alone on himself. He carried a very sad face. There were cuts all over his body and the spaces between the cuts had been filled up with something that looked like a very dark powder. ‘That is him colonel’, Oluwo said as he stretched out his hand to draw the boy proper to himself, showing his body all over to the colonel, ‘ these are incisions you can see on his body and they are one thousand and two hundred in number. ‘Oh! Old one! Are these not too much?’ The colonel asked worryingly. He set keener look across the body of the boy. And it was then that he knew his scalp that was well shaved was also cut round and that it was a very tiny space that one cut of the incisions took to gap another. ‘My colonel, it was not too much. Man does not become a valiant in one day. It’s a steady tough process. This is the child that must succeed me and I want him to be more powerful in his days than me. He’s that sucker that would replace the old banana. This disclosure of the old priest aroused the greatest murmuring in the crowd. It had laid a great disappointment in the hearts of all of them. Since they had obviously learnt that the police had greatly failed them in dealing with this old ritualist in their land, they had began to put their hope of liberty from the incessant lost of their children and kin in the death of this old man. But now, he had even started preparing for the one who would succeed him and even trying to make him tougher. How would this malevolence stop was the question that depressed the hearts of the people and caste an indelible sadness on their faces as they flocked behind the colonel who had just been leaving the premises of the priest. As they moved on the ways, the colonel looked to every direction at the reach of his sight. He pointed to far and near places and interchanging words with his people. In the mood, he studied nature and knew very much well that the land was indeed immensely endowed. He had also known that his people were not indolent. They were very assiduous at work; zealous and prudent farmers but who improvised as a result of the effect of bad government. In his observation, he knew obviously that the only problem facing his people was lack of good political leaders. ‘Things were not like this before’, the colonel thought in his heart. He remembered the season of his youth when leaders were still leaders. When dry bones could still rise again in the land and he wept silently. He wondered why these present leaders were so unrepentant and ceased not form perpetually bringing fiery failure upon their people. It was certain that it

wouldn’t be that easy at all for the hard working ones to move prosperously in such a harsh environment. The leaders there were suppose creating enabling environments for them. In Kajore, the rich people there were every day becoming richer through all manner of atrocity mostly through the shedding of blood while the poor were perpetually becoming poorer. Before every election, the ruthless politicians that abound there would recruit vagrants that full every roads of the streets wondering in despair, into their forces of hooliganism, train them and deploy them on the streets on the election days and use them to hijack power from the canny politicians having mauled and kill people in their struggle to cart away ballot boxes and chase away the electorates whom they had knew were not by the side of the parties they were representing. When the crowd made about three turnings with the colonel on the long road, their eyes glued to the colossal building they were heading to in distance. It was barricaded round with wall. And as they moved to a close proximity they began perceiving the sweet aroma of the food already set in preparation. They had also known apparently that all were just happening inside the mighty building. When they arrived finally, the compound couldn’t contain them all, so chairs were made set outside and food was served to all. The people ate and discussed both the sumptuous house and food. They talked about the size and the strangeness in the style by which the house was built. None of it kind could be found on the land. The only one that was very much close to it was that of Bawon, who was a giant politician in the land. When the construction, of this building began and when it was built up to half, people thought it was owned by one of the politicians who happened to be one of the son of the land but who stayed in the city. Or a business tycoon who moved around the world. For it was such people who could posses what it takes to erect such houses. They never thought of the colonel and none of them had ever thought he could even attempt to come to build house in the ghetto not to talk of thinking of coming to stay there. The women among the flock of the villagers rather talked about the sweetness of the food and how it was cooked. In the history of the land, in a house where such an immense portion of food was to be prepared, signs of that must had been seen in the moment that one step in distance. The façade of the house or the back must had been filed up with loosed and unloosed faggots placed here and there. And pots of great sizes would have been made taken their places on several numbers of tripods. And in distance one must have seen smoke pervading everywhere. Again, scores of women running in and out to peak up one thing or the other must have been seen . Many of this village women at this scene except few had it difficult to set themselves loosed from the grip of marvel as they thought of how possible the cooking had gone as simple, clean and perfect as this under the supervision of just only four lady cooks until some of their colleagues in the gathering, who had at one time or another travelled to the cities told them stories about gas cooker. They then in astonishment extolling men who had been so far growing technology in their country abroad and spreading its dividends around the world. The colonel returned to his people from inside when he saw they had all been through in their dinning and winning and were well satisfied. He asked them to gather together and comport themselves as he would address them. These ones greatly felt elated over that. They had really wanted hearing from him, so they immediately did as he had instructed. The colonel greeted and thanked them all for the love they had

lavished so far on him and every one of them smiled broadly and told him he deserved something far more than that. ‘You see’, the colonel began, ‘our situation in this land could be linked to that of some poodles in a story told me when I was very young by my father. He used to tell me this story whenever he wanted to remind me of why I must always know what nature owes me as a right. I could remember the last day he told me this story while he was still alive. And this was the day when I returned from school to tell him how the school authority had chased me and some other students away from the school to go and bring our due school fees from our parents. In agitation, my father had to go and sold all the remaining little cocoa he had in store and gave me all the money and there was nothing left with him. When I counted out the worth of my school fees out of the money, I returned the remaining change to him but he refused to collect it. And he told me to use it buy those books I was lacking for study. And this very day too, there was no food at all at home and he had to trek a very long mile to borrow money from a close friend. I was so touched by this and I determined to pay him back by turning a more serious student. ‘So, this day I told you he refused to collect the remaining change from me was the last day he had told me this story. My father said, a certain mayor thought of leaving his land for another land for certain assignment. This mayor had numbers of poodles that he was keeping in his mansion and loved them so much just the way they had loved him too. So when he was about to leave, he gathered plenty of food to the amount that could serve the poodles so long and stored them in stores. And also, he gathered drugs and aseptic for de-warming and for preventing them from pathogen and kept them as well in stores. He then called his servant, handed over the keys of the stores to him, and gave him instructions on how to take care of the poodles. He told him to be feeding them well and giving them nice bath with the aseptic regularly and ensured too that they take their drugs at the normal time. While he was parking his loads, he called the servant again and showed him all he had prepared for him too; the foods, drinks, clothes and drugs. And the servant was greatly felt happy. The mayor then set on his journey and saw he entreated the servant to promise him he would do as he had all been told and he did. Immediately the mayor left, the servant went round the streets, gathered people of his type into the mansion, and set them by the dinning table. He would do this every day and when he had already served them with the food taking from the stores reserved for the poodles and when he and his men had greatly eaten and got stuffed, he would then go to the backyard and call the poodles together, led them to the dining table and allow them to eat the crumb that fell from the table. The poodles would afterward dance from sides to sides wagging their tails. They were so ignorant to what was their rights. Within a short while, the servant and his men had developed paunches and carried them around the streets, bragging to the people on the streets that they had been eaten from the work of their hands. So, when it got to a time that a suspicion wanted to rise from the neighbourhood, the servant then trained these men and they served for him as propagandists. The poodles continued to eat the crumbs under the table and were not given drugs nor bath with the aseptic but all rather used by the servant and his men. Yet they wagged their tails and danced round to peak up food under the table because they didn’t know how far their right should go. Their suffering but smiling style kept the neighbourhood in mute. They thought they were really enjoying what that was reserved for them by the mayor. But as time went on they began carrying scrappy bodies around and had lice creeping into their skins. After some couples of year, the

poodles started suffering anaemia because of the meagre diet and the effect of vector attack on them. Hence, they began to drop dead one after another just because they were ignorant of their right’. The colonel ended his story and it brought strong meaning to the people’s hearts then he continued to address them. ‘God has indeed enormously showered his munificent blessing on this our land. He had given to us all we need to rise to any length in life. We have land that is naturally good for agriculture we have mineral resources in abundance and brilliant people. And our great fathers had also really worked and immensely left behind for us much of something worthy of rising in life. But it has been that the political leaders we are having today are those ones who have been debarring us from rising to the summit of mighty success. It’s unfortunate we’ve not been able to conquer our problem of producing bad ones as leaders in our land. The bad leaders are the ones who have been taken for themselves alone all the abundance left behind by our fathers but throwing crumbs only at our reach. The colonel spoke at a great length. He talked of the great efforts of the late fathers who had ruled the land immediately after the British left at the end of their colonial administration. He mentioned keenly the virtues and wealth they had left behind but which part had been greatly embezzled by military dictators and the remaining one still squandering by the ruthless political leaders land that currently ruling the land. He mentioned and extolled the reposing spirit of Obafemi Awolowo, Albert Macaulay, Amodu Bello, Tai Solani, Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa, Bola Ige and some others. ‘My people!’ He called them audibly again ‘we need to do fast and launch a great fight against the scourges of poverty in our land. They are easy to discern for those of you who are yet to know them, but only if you will be ready to know. They are not some else people other than the ruthless politicians around us; who recruit boys into hooliganism and use them to foment political crises during campaigns and on elections days in which they hijack power having beaten up and killed people in an attempts of forcing the electorates to cast their votes for them and also when they would be carting away ballot boxes for manipulation in hiding places. These are people who are not ready to serve us but only going there to embezzle and become greatly richer. ‘Rise up compatriot!’ The colonel shouted. And it became obvious that he had been highly lifted up in spirit. ‘The labours of our hero past have been pushing toward the ocean of vain! We need to team up and defend it! See our land!’ He swirled his right hand in the air to refer to the entire land, ‘as it is scanty of something good for humanity. We cannot afford the price of an outstanding treatment in our hospitals. And the hospitals themselves are dearth of standard facilities. Thus, we are endlessly shedding tears of being bereaved every now and then, as we don’t have money to ferry our sick ones abroad for good treatment, as our leaders would do. ‘While we are forced by poverty to release our children abroad in the care of the human traffickers, our political leaders are sending their own children abroad to attend good schools and live in salubrious places. And these are the children who would eventually return to arbitrarily rule our own children they have deported as nonentities from their places of doing servitude jobs abroad. ‘My people, it’s all we all know that our land is where versatile workers are now vagrants’. The colonel spoke on and the ears of the people were greatly filled with words that many of them had never heard before. And they felt great relief in their hearts from their state of despair. He had told them to prepare for the battle to fight the ruthless

politicians who had brought to them fiery failure. He told them that the battle would begin immediately he had strengthened them by helping them to develop their land. ‘A man does not fight well with empty stomach. The task of developing our land shall begin right away but before then, I will send my men to the city to bring for you relief packages so that you would eat and wouldn’t die before the land is well built and before the war begin, ’he said. A great shout was sent up by the crowd as the colonel ended his speech. People hogged one another in ecstasy and then began to fall for the noble man in appreciation. Before the blissful dispersion, kaka and some other families whose buildings were fell and whose roofs were carted away by the stormy rain were granted ingress by the colonel into his house. They were to stay there till their banes were chased to remedy.

Chapter 2 The following day, the colonel had risen very early and prepared himself for the business of the day. He had two commitments on ground, so he had to do things smartly so that he could achieve them indeed. At his arrival the previous day, the king had told him he would like he appeared in the palace this morning so as to meet with all the achieves and the grandees of the land in general. And on the other hand, he had planned in his heart to go for the search of men that would serve as his disciples in accomplishing the work of the project. All through the night, he knew not sleep. He had been working on the documents of this project which he tagged ‘The White Vision Project’. Before the bed time at the night, the colonel had already alerted his driver, the escorts and his lady secretary about the early hour trip. So, they had all prepared for it as soon as the day broke. The weather was so cold. though it was not yet Hermantown proper but it had been showing its signs. Having taken the warm tea and some slices of bread, they all took their places in the Jeep. They were all in suit and the driver drove toward the only secondary school in the village. St. Frances high school was as old as the oldest man in the village. It was situated at the outskirt of the land. It was managed to be built there by some white missionaries who had served in the land in ages past. When the black Jeep arrived by the front of the school, the students were already observing their launch-break. And when they saw it they were deeply enthralled by it. They ran closer and abreast, piping through the window to get the quest discerned. And when it was drove passed the gate into the school field, the teachers moved outside their offices too and gathered on the corridor. They were tempted by the Jeep to giving it their total attention. It was once in one generation that such a vehicle did appear in this atmosphere. And they wondered somewhat about the strangeness, as no notification had any one of them received about the coming of any august visitor. Eventually, the glaring appearance of the colonel outside the Jeep after which the driver had parked it well at the school’s garage, enchanter a throng of students that skittered forth, throwing themselves on his body in great

ecstasy. A pet- up joy immediately engulfed the atmosphere immensely .the teachers dashed down the corridor to meet the one whom they had greatly adored. This was a man who had sown bountiful in them all from long. About four or five of the teachers who owned cars in the whole school; it was through him they got it all while he was still in the army. Five students from the school had won scholarship through him to study in oversees universities. And since the departure of the white missionaries which took place after they had handed over the school to the local government, the laboratory had been bereft of facilities and equipment for the use of the science students. It was the colonel who had long come to its aid. He had continually revamping it. To the school library, he would from time to time sending from the city, text books, research books and novels for the students to acquire qualitative education and he had also contributed in the building of more class rooms, toilets and the renovation of the dilapidated buildings of the school. It was a massive elation indeed that had engulfed the entire school this very morning. The principal and the senior teachers had brief meeting. They had felt so perturb as the coming of the noble man had caught them unaware. They would have fell heaven for him if it hadn’t gone that way. But yet, they organized a dinner for the reception and strived earnestly to make it as colorful as of their capacity at that moment. The students too rolled out their drums to pep up the occasion. The troupe of dancers swirled from one end of the show to another. In an overwhelming mirth, they danced the last dance in Yoruba land. They began from acrobatic one then the bata dance and to nameless ones. Different manners of performing groups set into the scene one before another and every heart was filled with unusual joy. Later on, after some minutes, the atmosphere became wholly swallowed by a massive mirth in the moment all learnt that the noble man had not only come to them on mere visitation but had come indeed to stay with them in the land. At the end, when strength had been well exhausted, applauses was rained on them all and each of the entertainers withdrew to take back their seats. After the dinning and winning, the colonel had a close door meeting with the principal. And it was so brief. At the end of it, the principal convened a fresh meeting with his staffs so as to sort out the request of the noble man. The colonnel had unveil to him his mind about his need of men of high calibre who would join their able hands with his in the project set to uplift the entire land. At the end of the brief meeting, the teachers checked out of the conference room to take back their places at the reception ground. Afterward, six seats were ordered by the principal to be taken out of the staffs’ room and the student who went for the errand were told to set them on a role at the front of the long table which the noble man and his entourage sat behind of on a chair on a lengthy role. And the seats were set in such away that those ones that would sit on them would face the colonnel and the dignitaries at the occasion and back the audience. Instantly, four male teachers and two of their female counterparts set to occupy the honourable seats after the order had come from the principal.

According to what that had been put down by the colonnel, the principal knew these were the ones among the entire that were very much alike to suit his interest. The principal then stood upon his feet where he had sat closely by the side of the colonel for the introduction. He began from the first person. "That is Mr. T.S. Ade’, he pointed at him and a round of applause from the audience cheered him up. He stood firm for recognition and had his face beaming with smile. "He’s a man with a great dream’, the principal continued, “He has great zest for good service. He happened to be a very wise man who knows how to work on just five grains of maize and turn it to millions cobs of corn. And also through his great dexterity in his field he could fill a very great capacious barn of yam at the end of every harvest with just ten yam-Seeds he would have planted at the beginning of the season". The principal paused and everybody graced him back to his seat with heavy claps. But before then the colonel had hugged the agric teacher and shook hand with him as he was extremely full of joy. He turned to the next person on the set of seats. ‘That is Mrs. Ola Bello, he pointed at her, ‘she is a visionary woman. She believes in working out the bests in every thing she lays her hand upon. And was also a woman who knows the best weather for every good thing to be done". As the principal paused, with her exhilarated spirit, the geography mistress stood up to her feet to receive the hand shake of the colonnel, and a blissful shout from the audience accompanied her to her feet. She afterward waved her hand at them as her face glittering with lively smile. The principal introduced the third person. This was Mr. Dada Clement, the economics teacher in the school. He had been described by the principal as the one who was perfect in knowing how to utilize the little available resource to satisfy the infinity needs of man and also was described as the one who was so business- wise. The three other teachers were also introduced. They were Mr. B.A. Tunde, the English teacher and Mrs. O. Ige, the Chemistry teacher and Mr. Amos who taught Biology in the school; they had also been receded to rear outstanding qualities. As the principal paused, the colonnel rose to his feet and shook hand with them all. Applauses from the audience were rightfully poured on them profusely. An ineffable joy had obviously overwhelmed the colonnel. He never believed he could find these calibers of people in this part of the world where ignoramus fellows abound. Thus, he stood firm and delivered his speech of appreciation.’ You are all beautiful and wonderful people. I would have loved to spend the day all with you people if not that I have a crucial appointment at the palace. You’ve greatly surprised me for your great affection you’ve bestowed on me all. Be expecting to reap this that you have just sown in millions folds. Thank you all! The exchange of greetings and hogging ensued immediately. Afterward he made for his Jeep together with his retinue and zooming off to the palace. A cloister of students scooted at them, waving their hands.

But before this time, the colonnel had had a brief but so important chart with his new disciples among the teachers. He had told them their next point of contact and when and how to go about it. ****************************************************** At the palace, the chives had been arriving in numbers. About five of them were already on seats. And they had come to meet some groups of people who carried sadness and agitation on their faces. At one side at the meeting floor of the palace, there stood a very old women who had appeared infirmed. She had lost her upright posture, the teeth in her mouth were fewer than four, and she regularly had her lips pouted in her effort to resist saliva from dropping out of the mouth indiscriminately. And once she did that, the deep hollows in her both cheeks became deeper thus making her scraggy face looked uglier. By her side, there was a young man that looked very much like her son. He looked so sad and depressed. His face had been littered with bruise. And there was a deep long cut across her lower lip, oozing blood. And by his chest, the cloth on him was indeed drenched with blood. All the chives eventually gathered and settled down proper. So they began to watch the old woman as she began to talk. She was the one that brought the report of the case to the palace, so, the king had allowed her to talk first. "She shouted to begin, "O! O! O! You pillars of our land, will you seat there and watch my hope vanishing in the whirlwind? She lamented with her quivery voice and became so nervous. Her body shook together as if she suffered in an extreme cold. As she seemed falling, she quickly stretched her frail hand and held her son by the shoulder to support herself. All the elders felt for her and the king sent word to the maids to fetch out a stool for her. "Please old one, just take it easy", one of the chives said to her sympathetically, asking her to honor the seat she had just been offered. "Your hope shall be salvage and you will always have your son around you till your last day in life, "He added. But it was as if all had fell on a deaf ear. She continued to speak with the usual difficulty. She made two steps forward with her frail legs without unlearning her hand from the shoulder of her son. "Ha!! Ha! Ha! This is him’, she shouted, bouncing her body feebly on her son, ‘the only son I have in life! Here is him surviving with only one breath! Live has almost been beaten out of him!" She cried more playfully and juddering very much more in a great agitation. Everyone on seat felt much greatly for her and become so perturbed of calming her. The king beckoned to one of his guards. The young man dashed forward and bend his body by the king side as the king whispered into his ears. Afterward he at the same moment dashed to the old woman side, held her respectfully and pet her until she agreed to seat on the chair earlier brought for her. Afterward, the son of the old woman was asked to step forward to give the account of what that had happened precisely. The young man prostrated with his sad face before the elders as he began to talk.

"My name is Bolu, the son of this old woman. It happened that, four days ago, my cousin told me about the annual carnival of the Olomoge adugbo that was to hold today and she at the same time invited me to it. "Ha! One of the chives exclaimed somewhat in little agitation. Things have greatly turned upside down in this our world. Moral decadence is eating up everywhere and every good thing to wasteful dust. Kajore is never like this before. In our time, men dare not set their feet in such a gathering. It’s meant for the ladies alone; he paused and asked Bolu to proceed. "So when I got there, I mingled with other invited male guests to celebrate with the ladies. And when it was the dancing turn,, we begging to watch the ladies dancing; some of us danced with them. Where I sat myself, was displaying in her own dance. all of a sudden my eyes were charmed by the great dexterity which that girl there’, he pointed at the only girl in the midst of the other group at the other side of the meeting was displaying in her own dance. Everybody looked at her direction.” so I stood from my seat and moved away to her front and took out two different notes of two hundred naira out of my pocket and placed one on her brow and the other one I dropped it on her chest and began to dance with her. ‘This was where I reached when I saw those men there, especially that one,” Bolu pointed to the young man standing in front among the other group, ‘they rushed over to me and began to deposit huge blows on my head. They beat me so much and also turned terrors to people that came to plead for me. That is my own side of the matter", he paused, prostrated and was asked to leave the space for the man who front the other group to come forward. This young man as he stepped forward cast a baleful look on Bolu and his old mother. He appeared in face as if he had not done his best on Bolu. He prostrated and greeted the elders. "My name is Amusan, the son of Ajakaye". All the chives nodded once he related himself as a son to this great man. There was no doubt in it because he looked exactly like his father. Ajakaye retired from hunting to become a full time medicine man. He was so fearless and that had made him so venerable across the land. During his hunting days, he was one of those few hunters that did go into the extreme of the jungle to catch wild animals alive without a shot out of a gun or the firing of cannon. He had such charm of high potency. Ajakaye had also participated in series of wars between his land and the neighbouring villages. Anyone who had seen Amusan had seen his father. He had a tough appearance. His biceps were so mountainous. On his shoulders, there were heaps of muscle that grew up closely to his ears and, his chest was very broad. "I never had any initial intension to fight with this man’, he pointed at Bolu, the son of the old woman, but he passed his boundary’. ‘We were together at the ladies’ carnival this morning, drinking on the same table and all of a sudden I saw him disappeared. And the next time I saw him again, it was in the front of this my wife, he pointed at the lady standing beside him. All the elders cast their gaze on the lady. ‘You means you’ve paid his dowry?’ One of the chives asked.

"No Sir". "But you are calling her your wife"? the chive asked again and Amusan had his mouth dried of words for the answer, but indulging in total mute. "When I said things have turned upside down in this our world the other time, you people thought I was doing banter", The chief said to his mates and asked Amusan again to continue. "So, I saw him bringing out two different notes of two hundred naira out of his pocket. He then placed the first note on the forehead of my wife and when he wanted to give the second note he put it through the bra into her breasts and refused to take his hand back immediately. And that was all that stirred up my anger and which upon these my friends here joined hands with me to beat him tough. We didn’t mean to kill him but to teach him lesson" amusan said grievously. "You mean he put his hand through the bra into the breast of this young lady you call your wife?" the king himself asked in wonder. "Yes your majesty", Amusan answered with aplomb, nodding along. Bolu was then asked to step forward again. ‘Is it true that you put your hand into the breast of this young lady and also not take back your hand?" Balogun one of the chives asked. "My hand didn’t touch her breast as he has claimed Sir. I put the money slightly at the fringe of her bra and it was the cleavage alone that my hand touched". "Incredible! This is quite egregious! The chives said simultaneously. Balogun, who had been asking him questions, looked confused of what else to say. They then called the young lady forward. And when she appeared forth, she was an eyesore to the elders. She was a lady with a very fair complexion very pretty and averagely tall. She had heavy boobs and rump. She wore a skimpy skirt that seldom covered the rump. And the blouse on her was just like a camisole and so diaphanous and it was sagged at her chest, thus leaving from the cleavage down to the middle of the breast opened. The bra under the blouse was very much like the blouse itself. It had actually hid the nipples alone and exposed the rest of the breast The hearts of the elders were full of disgust. they caste a sad look on her as she match forward Is it true young lady that while you were dancing, this young man cast his money into your bra to touch on your breast and delay his hand there? Of course your majesty, in a pretext to throw money on me he deepen his hand in to my bra and touch everything there. Meaningful look was exchanged among the chives and each made a deep breath. The king was started at all he had been hearing while watching his chives as they were proceeding their judgment. Otun then turned to Bolu. "You can see yourself now? If you can be doing this manner of thing at this your age, what then will you become of in the nearest future? Is this not how the spirit of raping begin to rule man’s live? You didn’t show pity on your old mother at all. But deliberately putting your head in the mouth of a famished beast and… “

Balogun cut in with eagerness taking word from the mouth of otun. "It’s this young lady the biggest blame should be put upon. She’s the devil at work. Look at her very well, he pointed keenly at her, twisting the finger upward and downward to refer to her total body, see virtually all the erogenous zones of her body outside. Who is that young man that will see all these and would not be tempted to fall a victim?" "They say, women brought condemnation upon the first world man had live in, now again. It’s women who have greatly determined to impair this our present world to no repair. The word has been drifting backward. People have been seeing walking naked on our roads like the animals.So things have. turned upside down and people are no more what people ought to be”, Balogun said passionately then turned to Amusan squally. "You bull dog that thirsting for man’s blood, so this is the person you are boasting of as your future wife? Is this, he pointed to the lady again,‘Worthy to be proud of in a serious gathering. I mean ‘the gathering of the intellectuals? What is that virtue you think you can find in this one that is more or less look like an ardent prostitute?" Upon all the beautiful places in the world, the housefly find no place to lay its egg but on shit and that is the number one reason why it’s hate by man. We know your father very well. He is a loving fellow and has a good reputation. If any man comes here today to defame him we curse the fellow. Why? Because your father would not pass his boundary nor any man ever set the food of assault before for stealing goat, chasing his son or sleeping with his wife your . He is a valiant and an easy-going, knowing what is right from what is bad. And he has never because of the love of money resolved to become one of those of our spiritual men who have suddenly turned to the merchants that butcher and sell human body parts in the forest and other hiding places to the politicians who want to win offices through the forces of the darkness as they have no confidence in the work of there hands and those of our men too who want to become wealthy and famous through diabolical power.’ As Balogun mentioned these all the people at the gathering knew he was referring to Oluwo and some other herbalist in the land including Bawon, the great politician who was also the god-father to many young political aspirant, and many holders of political power, and who was known widely with the habit of conscripting and training boys whom he used in his established force of hooliganism mainly for vicious attack on the members of oppositional parties and the electorate at elections and campaigns. When Balogun finished with Amusan, he looked at the young lady in face again. ‘See, when the snail felt the pour of the first rain of the season on her head, she decides to embark on a long journey which her mother has never told her the story of; thinking life is always with such a fair weather. But once the sun of the season shines to burn on her head, she would then in her pain learn one of the lessons of life . She would learn why this world should be lived through with all precaution. ‘Now you are still passing through your fair weather and that is why you are still like this. I urge you, to begin now that you are still okay, walking through this life with all precaution so that you won’t become the victim of

other side of life where, sorrow, agony different manner of disease abound. Death is there too. I think you know of HIV/AID? The lady nodded somewhat reluctantly. ‘That is good’, Balogun continued ‘Dangerous men will spoil you if you don’t learn how to stop eposoing outside all the good things God has given to you with which to be a virtuous woman. The lizard says ‘since I have learn all the havoc done by man to bird eggs I have also learn how to hid mine in the depth of the earth’. "They say lion beget lion and dog beget dig, who is that man who can dispute with me that this one would not only begetting an harlots as herself at procreation’, a chief put in eagerly in a great ire. In the long run, the chives took words from the mouth of one another, one after another and elucidated on them. And eventually told Bolu, the son of the old woman who had reported the case, to go and beg the lady and that Amusan should go and fall for the old woman too. The departure of these ones was instantly replaced by the arrival of the colonnel. As the Jeep parked, he alighted with his entourage and once the chive’s eyes glued with him, their mood changed. Each began comporting himself on his seat and became very much zealous to receiving him into their midst. As at this time all the chives had fully arrived including the grandees and settled themselves on seats. Oluwo and Bawon were the only ears in the land that were not on seats. Since Oluwo had turned from healing herbalist to a minac merchant, who major on human body parts, he had lost his comradeship among the elders. And he had since then sanctioned himself from attending any meeting convened in the palace or in the house of any of the elders. As much as the rift between him and the rest of the elders exacerbated so was the friendship between him and Bawon grew fat. They would regularly paid visit to each other compound and plans deals. And the two became the greatest enemies of the people of the land. Bawon had the money and Oluwo had the medicine; the paranormal power. Bawon would through his trained boys that full his compound transferring some, out of the plenty of the covert coffers incessantly brought to him by his godsons; the young political aspirant and many holders of political power from the government houses, into the compound of Oluwo. And so, they would work together ceaselessly to see they regularly win election for the god -sons through black-charm and violence Immediately the colonnel and his men settled down on the seats provided for them, there was a brief prayer led by Otun. Before then, three huge kegs of palm wine and two calabashes full of colanut had been deposited in the middle of the gathering. In Yoruba land, colanut and palm wine serve as the best thing to offer in the gathering of the elders and afterward eko with bean-cake or amala with egusi soup or gbegiri and ewedu. Some prefer pounded yam and vegetable soup. But all these are best appreciated after which the very matter which warranted the gathering had been well addressed.

It took the colonels about twenty to twenty-five minutes to explain the entire plan he had for the land to the elders. And used another ten minutes or there- about for soliciting for their support. All the elders were greatly gratified. Otun was the first to open the floor among the elders with his talk. ‘We thank you our noble son and we say you well done not from our lips but from the bottom of our hearts. With this little words you have told us, our hope has began to be restored. We have began to feel the relief in our bodies. The pain in starvation is better than the one in a state of despair; for hope itself is an antidote to cure any bane of life. A man who doesn’t have anything to eat today but have hope of abundant one that is coming tomorrow is better than the one who have surplus today but no hope of that of tomorrow. Our hope has been long cast into a whirlwind by our political leaders in this little world of Kajore. They have poured filth on us and rendered our children useless. They would approach us in our dwelling places when election is on the way with portfolios they claimed are full of diamond and dropped them with us for our own pleasure just for us to vote them into power. But it has always been after the election that we would then know the portfolios are just Pandora’s boxes of which inside, we find sorrow, agony diseases, conflict, the surge of abject poverty and death. "We are of no value again to our children since we’ve failed woefully at discharging our parental obligation to them. Poverty has prevented us from doing so. Thus, our children have turned to prostitutes, drug addicts, drug traffickers, and political thugs. Many of them have contacted killer diseases and many are in the prisons in overseas countries and some have lost their lives. ‘We thank you as you say you have come to deliver us. This impedimental our bad political leaders have brought upon us is too great for us to carry. It has made us dieing every day in depression, so we need the worthy one, who would help us carry it down into eternal remedy. Our colonnel indeed, things are not easy for us here at all. Through their jiggery pockery ways, our political leaders would make us vote for them and when they get to power, they renege on the promise and set us in furnace of harsh life. ‘They have brought fiery failure upon us and our children. There own children are overseas attending good universities by our looted money while our own children are here praying for quick return of the human traffickers who would ferry them abroad for servitude jobs; for at least to save themselves from becoming the next death casualty of the scourge of poverty roaring around us every minute. ‘We didn’t have the privilege to go to school and that is why they are cheating us. Our children are willing to go but they have made things difficult for them. Yes, going to school to our children is as difficult as pulling the tooth of a living elephant’, Otun stressed this last sentence with a quivery voice. He sounded as if he was going to sob. His face shrunk in sorrow.

Then Balogun took word from his mouth. He began "We all know that all the problems we are facing today are cooked done for us by our ruthless political leaders who hijack power from the canny ones during election period. But I will like to ask every body here this question……. "If our government fails us must our children fail us too"? Every one on the seats shook his head and made a deep breath. ‘In this our land Kajore children are no more what children ought to be. Our children have turned to birds. It’s the bird that would grow and flee and would never remember that wings that shied her from cold in those days and would never look back into that nest where she was raised up. "We have a lot of prosperous children abroad .many of them have big posts and big companies there and own mansions and prestigious cars but they would never remember their fathers’ land. They would only come home when they know its time to come and show us the paunches they have developed out of too much of eating and gluttonous drinking beer. They only come home when they know it’s time to come and brag to us with their exclass cars and expensive wears and jewelleries. These are not what we want. ‘Look at our land’, he stretched out his arm and circuously waved it in the air to show he referred to the land wholly, ‘it’s dearth of things that facilitate success. No companions and no factories. But our children are setting up companies in their land of alien and would never strive to spare one in their fathers’ land and we say we have children. So when I called them birds you people might thought I was only doing banter but it’s a salient fact". Balogun paused, cleared his throat in a slight cough and continued afterwards. He turned face to the colonnel squarely. "Our son we thank you. If we have hundred of you in our land our problem would have been melted from its present size of a massive mountain to a heap of yam. And we do not say our gratitude to you alone but also to your father. He was a wise man and he has sown good seed in our land. May his perfect soul repose well in the ghostly world. "We Yorubas know how significant names are in procreation. The name we give to our children have great influence on what our children become in the future. That is why we Yorubas are so careful about the kind of name we give to our children when they are born. "A man had a harrowing experience in his relation with people around him and because of that, when his wife put to bed he named the baby boy Otamipo my enemies are many. "And so when the child grew, it happened that if he coughs here people chased him far with rod and if he urinates there, they whipped him tough with iron. And these are what other children would do to the same very people and they would overlook. "And there is this again in a far away land. He was a farmer who majored on cocoa and by his house he built a store where he did store the bags of cocoa ready for sales. And at a point, he was frustrated by perpetual burglary at the store. "So one night his pregnant wife began to labour and in anxiety he led her to the maternity home. And before he could return the thieves had come

again to steal his wares. He was greatly embittered and he was directed by some of his colleagues to one spiritualist in an adjoining village. Eventually he returned from the consultation and when it was the eight day, at the naming ceremony, he named the baby Asona; the one who guides or a guard. "He later on gave his reason to the quests at the occasion on this day. He said because the baby that was born, the thieves are going to be remorse wherever they are and stop breaking into his store. "My people but things didn’t go as he had thought. It went awry. It was as if a father lifting a curse on himself and throw it on his son. Truly, he was no more experiencing theft in his store but when the child grew things didn’t augur well for him. He was a brilliant boy who obtained both the first degree and the second degree in the university but searched for job for years to no avail. Eventually he was employed as a guard in one of the banks in the city. "So when I say name is crucial in bearing of children I know what I’m saying. "My colonel, when your father gave birth to you, he named you Kolawole. We all know what this name means’, the one that brings wealth home. You have brought wealth and fortune to us here. We thank you and say much thank to your father who had sown the good seed. He was wise enough to give you such a wonderful name. Some of our people don’t understand this. They give their children names that are meaningless. "We talked of our prosperous children overseas of how they’ve turned bad and abandon us but we don’t look at what that have been causing it. Most of this problems sourced from the name they are given or which they give themselves. "I met with one guy one day when I visited my friend in the city. He was the son of the landlord of the house where my friend resides. They said he was named Mayowa when he was born but when he traveled to America , he named himself mugor. We all know what it means when we say Omogo in Yoruba land. A child who is foolish. So when I asked more about this young man from my friend, he said to me that he stays abroad and he comes home at the end of every year and when he comes, he would stay in the hotel for like the period of six weeks lavishing money on drinks and when he eventually return to the street, he would spend the remaining two weeks chasing girls around and sleeping with them until nothing left with him. And within the short days that he would have to leave, he becomes a burden and beggar to his father and his mother and would provoke them till they would see him off from home to America with curses. "You can see what name has done in his life. Is there any sense in the life he leads. His father named him Mayowa; the one that brings joy but when he reached America , he named himself Mugor which sounds like Omogo in Yoruba language and which mean a silly child. Is foolishness never reflected in his life? He lavish money on mundane things while his siblings and people around him are suffering. "You can see that what our children are doing themselves are more than what the enemies are doing then?

Too much of silliness are in the actions of many of our children; Balogun paused again briefly to get hit throat cleared and proceeded. All the elders had been mesmerized with all he was saying. "This very friend of mine whom I said I went to visit in the city has a son too whom I find his way of life somehow sily too. Since I have been reaching to his father in the city it’s so seldom that I meet him reading our local magazine and the novels written by our black writers, he would rather throw them if he’s given by any fellow, to a bean-cake seller to use them for wramping the cakes for the customers. He’s always seen reading the foreign ones. Is their any sense in that? "And again, you will never see him around whenever the foreign league is to be played. He would have gone to where he would join with his mates in the hall where they buy tickets to watch it. And there, they would beat themselves just because to say Chelsea is the best or Barcelona fc should be. But you will never see them showing a token interest to our local leagues. "I don’t know when our people will begin to value our own things than that of other. Yesterday, we cried that the white were enslaving us and our children; with these things our children are doing nowadays have they not begin enslaving themselves to the white indirectly.? "We value their food than our own, value their cloths than the one we produce hear, value their services that what our black men could do. Now tell me, are we not bringing ourselves low to them?" Everybody will shout, even the sucking babies that our continent is bad; its full of poverty, sorrow war and all negative things and yet we are not doing the right things. If we don’t embrace our, market support it and show it real and enough of love held would our continent grow well?" Our black brothers would watch foreign dancers, listen to foreign music and buy their video disc and cassette at exhaubitant price and frustrate our own singers here by not hearing them, then tell me how we would discover the latent talents among us. And if we cannot discover that how would our continent rise. ‘We don’t say they should not buy the foreign tapes, we all need knowledge. The knowledge obtain in ones world alone does not reach to live through the successfully but they should always put our own things first just the way those white are doing in their own continents. And it’s then the entire work can know we are wise too. ‘The white men will call us ‘people from the third world countries and we would smile at them instead of feel touch and think of all to do to correct all our errors. Is that gesture not silly . I remember two of the foreign singers; those ones they call Michael Jackson and Ceined deon. These two singers have never stepped their feet in this our land Kajore, yet our children are ready to die for them. Every morning, afternoon and night when they ought to have been reading their books so as to burden their knowledge and help their country technologically in future, they listen to their music and dance tirelessly to it. At least the leisure times are there to do these but they would never listen to their elders once, but when they want to retort them, they would say we are backward and so, they want

to cheer up themselves from too much of thinking induced by the burden of failure. My people, what are making us backward? Is this their sily action not part of it? I f our governors and senators want to do birthday, or celebrate promotion they go overseas and lavished money there on cloths, drinks and food. Is that not frivolous? We don’t say they shouldn’t celebrate fortunes and spend money but let them spend it here so that it would has effect on the growth of our market. African market is still very poor. They would carry huge money and go save them in foreign banks and those ones there would have enough money to lend their young business men and ladies while our own children are here perishing in the lack of money for investment and expansion ,is that not silly? ‘My people let us call a spade a spade. What our people are doing are bad the world is spoiling and so, we have begging to see the fools coming out in public to say they are wise. Let us not take bat for rodent and tadpole should not been taken for fish otherwise we continue to fail. "If many of our speakers are speaking in conference about our country and when they want to say "I the third world continent" they would pronounced it in a fashionable way and minced it colourfully between their lips without sense of shame just the way the white men would do. ‘We’ve never seen a governor or a senator from U.S. or England who have parked their people in mass from their own land to our own here to come and do parties. And if we want to talk, we say we are as wise as them or equal to them in senses. Is this acts our people are exhibiting not akin to downwardness in senses? And in literary sense, we are calling ourselves slaves or servants and taking them as the master. For it has never happened that the lord of a mansion would come and beg his servant to spare him a space in his bunk for hosting his quests in merriment. But it’s the servant in the massion who would approach the master to entreat him for a space in his compound where to celebrate his new promotion with his colleagues from outside. That’s the simple logic. Naturally, we are equally wise but until we begging to do the right things before this quality could be reflecting apparently on us. ‘It’s the olden days that the white themselves took us as their slaves and those of us who are born afterward to learn it in history wanted to course them but we couldn’t do so because they’ve repented. But now, our brothers have been the ones enslaving themselves to the whites indirectly by behaving foolishly when it come to the matter of showing love to what that comes from our side here. Should we then begging to curse ourselves as we’ve first intended to do on the white who had in those days coerced us into slavery? ‘If the white men come to our land here to work we honor them and when they have gathered bountifully, they carry all to their people in their own land. And with it, they build industries for their people to work in, so as to get their rapid success being fostered. They also assist their government in creating for their people an enabling environment in other ways round. But our own people would work there; abroad and still invest all they have realized

there too. Helping those younger ones there with all they need to rise in life while our own children are languishing here in dire poverty. ‘No enough companies, factories and others with which to facilitate rapid success among our own people. And when we want to say, we would say there is no filvoirity in our attitude. Is that so? ‘It’s our father that says ‘lion beget lion, hero beget hero’, I wonder what our blessed land has done that it hasn’t stop begetting basted. Kajore is great, we all know it. It contains people of diverse tongues and nature. Our land is great and our fathers are warriors but we doesn’t know the wrong we’ve done that our progenitors have continually sending it impostors as children nowadays. They are not what our fathers were in their own days. Our fathers were so patriotic. I could remember this day I visited the city and I was privilege to visit the popular Akarakiri market. There I saw a woman in the front of one shade where they sold assorted items used domestically. It happened that this woman demanded for a lantern, so when the seller came out of his store he came with those lanterns of different brand. The first was written made in Nigeria and the second written the name of the countries in the east Africa . This woman collected the two, stared straightly to where the names of the countries of the makers were written. ‘The manner of this woman’s dressing and how she talked convinced me she must be very educated. That day, I too wanted to buy two packets of matches down to the village so that they could serve me and others that I was going to there them with for long. "So, the next thing this woman did was that, in the moment she was through in discerning the makers’ countries, she quickly gave them back to the seller and said ‘Don’t you have the one made in China or Japan ? ‘The seller told her he had them but their prices were far higher and little agitation shown on the woman’s face. ‘Did I tell you I don’t have the money? Do I look like the riff rats and nonentities that seek to buy the locally made products? She began to bawl at the seller this way and I felt much embarrassed because I too was standing there demanding for the locally made packets of matches. ‘And again, there was a young man at the other end the young man looked very much like a student. He requested for a packet of a foscal paper from a woman in her stationery’s store and the young man was given one. He perused on the label and it was therein written ‘made in South Africa ’. ‘The young man then asked the woman ‘Don’t you have the one produce in Europe ? And the woman said there was and told him about its price that was higher. ‘My people, look at our people; see us spoiling our market with our own mouths and hands. Our producers are producing things of low qualities because the government is not helping them. No encouragement by providing the necessary infrastructures no motivation, through good advertisement policy. No political stability religion stability, ethnic one and the stability of all other good kinds, and enabling environment. And our people too have learnt to reject even some of our products that are even better than those ones produce in Asia, Europe, Australia and America. Then when are we going to

rise? I mean when is our continent going to be risen from its least position in the world history?. ‘Sought Africa is trying in the issue of motivation, encouragement and generation of all good sort of stabilities especially the political one and providing enabling environment which our producers around the world need. ‘Though we don’t know book, we still have great interest in the current affairs. And for that reason we do send our children out from this our village to the city; though not often, to buy us news papers and asked them to read them to us. And these are all what we have been hearing them reading to us. ‘Also, most of the countries in the North Africa are trying too and about two in central Africa. But not until all these ‘trying’ circulate before we could all be balanced; for if A is good and B is bad, those ones in B wouldn’t allow those in A to enjoy to the brim all those things that made them good as a result of too much of unfavourable migration into their land. ‘Many of our children here are no better for anything than to destroy. They are not afraid of blood. We kill one another just because that one is not from my tribe; this one is from that tribe. And, that man or that woman is not in my religion. is that not too silly and turpitude? If we can be doing this, then where is the evidence to prove that we are better than the animals? Or is it not the beasts that attack one another anyhow in their world without sense of remorse?" Balogun paused at this point to swallow saliva. He seemed obviously having a lot more to say but couldn’t, as another chief had put in. the title of this chief was Asipa. He was a very tall, slim man and was very dark in complexion. "Our son, the heaven sheds tears in pain to cool the earth of its heat yet the sons of man who thread on it would not appreciate it but rather cursing it as some would say to what it has given was not enough, some would say it has given too much. My people; when shall the sons of man cease to be ingrate! We have seen them a lot in our world, they would never appreciate God who is in charge of everything. We must thank you, thank your father and mostly, thank God who has sent you to us as a result of answering our supplication of the ages past. Indeed, we thank you for coming to deliver us from our state of penury. Anybody who has ever dwelled in captive, sorrow, especially in poverty would know better what it means to be delivered. We thank you because we know it’s not little thing that it cost to go through the service of delivering others. It take a lot of thing even blood, for we have seen many of the world heroes who had fell just because they had gone to deliver others. But we pray our own case we not be like that for it would be a misfortune to us. We have leant through the word of our fathers that we don’t have bad heads so, the good head that we have shall go with you and lead you through to the better end in this task. ‘Our colonnel; Asipa called again with all concern of his heart, ‘you are the world greatest and I must stand up for you’, he at once rose to his feet and the colonnel smartly stood up with him and prostrated before him, asking him to sit back. In Yoruba land, the elderly ones don’t stand up for the younger

one but if situation warranted it, the younger one must pay him double respect. ‘No, let me stand up for you. We need to stand for the champion you are a young man who have been doing more than what the elderly ones could do, and so you should own the same honor due for the elders. ‘Now we implore you do as you’ve said, "Asipa said passionately and his face was wrapped in much of seriousness. He stared directly into the colonnel’s eyes and held him tightly in his right hand as he called him with all passion. ‘The wing colonnel, please, save our hope from the whirling wind. We are ready to go with you, we are ready to move as you tell us to move, eat as you tell us to eat, drink the quantity you want us to take and we are ready to fight in the direction you ask us to fight at. ‘The ruthless politicians that abound in our land, Kajore and who have been by vicious attack hijacking power from the canny politicians have been pushing the labor of our hero pasts toward the oceans of vain. We are ready to join you in the fight of rescuing it. ‘It’s a foolish fellow that would come out with his plea when that perfect antidote of high potency, stretch out its hand of vengeance to strike down that stubborn ailment. Even the man who suffers the ailment would never hesitate to spite out a phlegm of curse on the fellow for attempting delaying his recuperation. We all agree with you to stretch out your hand and strike down our enemies who have pushed out into the pool of poverty. We don’t have two enemies than the ruthless politicians that full our land’, Asipa ceased and took back his seat. Speakers rose after speakers among the chive, including all the grandees at the gathering, and at the end, all reached contention and left the rest for the colonnel. ‘My elders’, the colonnel called, ‘it’s you people who would always say in your word that ‘the best drummer is never the one who put smile onto the faces of the audience but the one who has also thrilled their legs into an unplanned dance’. All the elders nodded in approbation. ‘You have done well by promising me of your support, I would also wish you take the message to your people at homes. Prepare them for the great task. Give to them what they require; I mean the motivation, encouragement and the rest that could facilitate cooperation to the achievement of this goal of developing our land. ‘Begin to help them pointing to their enemies, for many of them do not know them. Tell them to stop collecting money and food from those politicians who seek for them in the streets and in their dwelling places. Through their wily ways they have used them to win elections and eventually pay them back by abandoning them in abject poverty. ‘Tell them why they should stop given out their children to the human traffickers who ferry them abroad for prostitution, servitude jobs, and drug pushing. Let them know the difference between child rearing and animal rearing; for they are mistaking this to each other.

‘Let them understand why they should put their children to school and be ready to trek any mile that it involves to bring those thing that would prevent their children education from being blighted. ‘Let them know these politicians are cheating us because many of us don’t go to school; for an ignoramus fellow does not know his right not to talk of knowing how far it should go. And most importantly he does not know how to fight for it. The colonnel spoke so lengthy and finally, he deviated somehow. He began to talk of the past masters of Africa . Those great past leaders the epitome of good leaders. He pointed into the life of Nelson Mandela of sought Africa; how he had left London where peace and pleasure abound then, after finishing his law course and returned to south Africa that had been inundated with castatrophy, vicious killing and anguish of the heart under the reign of apathy; after he had disclaimed the advice of his loving friends who told him not to go set his head into the hell fire. He led his people in the fight of the freedom and was apprehended and immured in prison for twenty-seven years in his spirit of patriotism. He was released and had never shown any regret for his action and didn’t resolve to pay back the evil done on him by looting his country money when he became the president, unlike many of our rapacious leaders’. The colonnel also unfolded the good seeds Nkuruma of Ghana and the former president, John Rollyns had sown in Ghana . He talked about many other good African leaders in diversity. ‘These are leaders indeed’, he said passionately and he began again to tell the little he knew of the profile of Dc. Washington . How he had led Americans in their battle of freedom from the tyrannical rule in the colonial era of the British Empire . How he had helped them won the thought battle with some other intellectual Americans and put his people on one board of equity; and thus, all evenly achieved greatness. Because of these few men, USA becomes a land where the Nobodies around the whole world are stampeding and eventually becoming great men and women in the world. ‘These are leaders’, he said again with much passion in a solemn mood. Our own fathers too had also done this kind of glorious thing down for us but it’s unfortunate that those ones that succeeded them have squandered all they had left behind. ‘They were like the prodigal sons in the Bible who lavished all the surplus bequeathed him by his father. ‘And very much like that servant in the bible whose master gave one talent to multiply it but went and burried it in the earth. Our bad leaders have buried all that our fathers left behind in their own stomachs where it does not geminate rather than investing it in the lives of the ones put in their care. ‘But as the master of the servant had called him to come and give the account of his stewardship so shall God will call these rapacious ones one day to do likewise. Sin is not done with impurity. The colonnel later began extolling the spirit of their past great father reposing in the world beyond. He pointed at Obafemi Awolowo in his nationalist days and the days afterward. He touched on the names of Tafawa

Balewa and Nnamdy Azikwe. He unveiled the good face of clemency of Albert Macaulay, which he had shown to his people in his lifetime. He did not do without saying two to three things about Amodu Bellow he sent kudos to Tai, Solani who had experienced tough series of apprehension and brutish long term remands during the long years military dictatorship rule just because he had tirelessly speaking against the turpitude of the military leaders and advocating for return of democracy where he had expected his frustrated people to enjoy good government, encompassed justice, peace, and free of every manner of corruption. And again, colonel K didn’t forget just as he would never, to give his usual great plaudit to Bola ige, who gave out free education to the benefit of the people of his land while he was one of the state governors in the country. Eventually, the colonel deviated from these late ones to pray for those ones who were still alive. Among them were Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, who were great activist with dauntless spirits, who had kid down in the nation’s history something praiseworthy and admirable to the last generation that would ever emerge in the existence of life. The colonel then talked more about the unrepentant spirit of many of the present leaders at a great length in sadness and rounded of finally. The palm wine and colanut were served to all in the gathering by three smart maiden. In the palace the elders drank and enjoyed it as they never did before. The promising words from the colonel had soften their hearts from the harshness of the burden of an age- old

Chapter 3 Colonel Kola had continually piling up his sleepless night tirelessly. He had passed three nights now in his father’s land and had knew not sleep in one. He was keenly concerned with the task of developing his father’s land. He had also seen much of the motives why he needed to open and modify the developmental plan he had initially drafted in document while he was very much about to leave the city for the village. By then, what he had envisaged his land suffered was very much more than what he had seen in the moment he returned, so he needed to amend it and add more to the content. It had been a very long time ago when he had last visited his fathers land and that was when he heard the news of the demise of his father. But he had all the while sending people who had been helping him in taking succours regularly to his people in the squalor and remained the number one son of the soil who had been doing so. Though, then, things were a bit fairer, it had gone greatly worst now. The population of the land increased at very alarming rate while the development of the land hadn’t been raise to any meaningful degree; it was absolutely under governmental abandonment. It had been indeed three days now that the colonel had arrived with his wife into Kajore and still cloister of feet hadn’t been shrunk a bit at the corridor of his parsonage. Pots of food were still every now and then taken up and down of the fire inside the capacious kitchen in the compound. Rose with her employed cooks hadn’t

yet been able to secure enough privilege of getting relaxed and strengthen their bending backs. People crawled in and out of the compound like the constant inward and outward agility movement of the multitude of ants in a full force of food parade. These were people who had abandoned their moribund farms and businesses to settle in the compound and eat so as to add at least little flesh to their scraggy bodies that had been so long pierced through by the perilous long, thick proboscis of the ravaging monster called poverty that dwelled among them. Kaka appeared distinctly among the herd of people who hobnobbed with the colonel. He had continually gorging himself and his two kids. So, he was no more moving around with sad face except some occasions when the thought of his wife’s death would surge through his heart. At each of these occasions, he would withdrew himself from whatsoever he was doing and moved to a solitary place where he would stay for moment and mourn. And this occasion had always been when he would eat, get stuffed and still have much of the mountainous food in the spacious plate with huge pieces of meat remained. He would then wished his wife had lived to these days of his surplus and not those days they would eat shit and call it food. Another occasion that he would mostly remember his late loving and hard working wife was when his two kids would, especially at nights, cry for more comfort which was what the mothers alone could provide. But at the end of the mourning, he would begin extolling the spirit of his assiduous wife in heaven as she did not go there to repose in idleness but still continued with what she was known for while she was still alive. She was something greater to her family other than been so assiduous; taking the giant role in the bread winning of the family, been so probity and compassionate. And as kaka had seen the matter, these were all she had also gone to be in the world of the spirits when she got there and that was why she was able to put some force to expedite the Angel( the colonel) to leave the city for the village where he would quickly help to rescue her husband and the two kids she left behind. ‘She was a great woman indeed’, kaka would always say at the end of each of his cry. Within the three days of joining the family, kaka had greatly adapted to the world. And he had been taken a giant role in helping Rose doing the masculine works in the colossal compound. He had shown enough interest in this service that he had even forgotten his moribund farm. He would clear the gutters of the debris, sweep the floor clean of dirt. It was only his first morning in the house that he never woke up early enough to work. This was the very morning after he had passed a great unusual night sleep in this compound. It was a kind of sleep he had never experienced in his life before and which he believed he could never experience in that devil’s box he inherited from his poor father. It was quite different from the fitful one he would pass in his own moribund house where it was a must for him to wake from time to time in the mid night to watch the possible havoc planning by the common breeze of the mid night that would blow across the frail body of the aged building. The fountain of colonel k’s wealth with which he had been reviving the dieing souls of his people was best known to him. He himself had indeed known that all he had saved from the scrap salary he had been receiving monthly while he was in service and the tip that came immediately after his retirement were not enough to plug a single hair from such a massive body of the agony that had be fell his father’s land not to talk of having strength enough to pull it down. But his wife, Rose was the fiery fire behind the pervading smoke.

Colonel K. would never be carried away by anything in life from the thought of that striking day he came across the absolutely chick, humble damsel who eventually brought into his life wealth and fortune platonically. Rose was still a sophomore in the university where she was studying economics when he met with her military husband while he was still in the middle of his course in the military school. There was no need to tell anyone who had had privilege to meet with the couple that it was the huge hand of the Almighty God that had crafted their perfect solemnization. The compatibility was so glaring and sound. The silent, lady millionaire had always be fervent in boosting her husband’s morale in his effort of imparting virtues and fortune into the weaker ones. Rose had been a very assiduous person. This virtue had began manifesting in her right from her days as a kid in his father’s yard. It had reflected much in her in her involvement in the domestic works. In spite of the fact that the capacious compound of his rich father, who was an expert in his stock broken service, was full of kids, teenagers and big boys and girls that came out of their extended family circle to gather there, she still emerged as the one who work most without minding her position in the family. In the erarchy of the ménage she was the second to the first child and had many grown up siblings, causing and the rest of the members behind her. Her father had many servants and maids and she would never wait to ask any one of them to do something for her before she would do it for herself. All things work for good. Immediately Rose graduated from university, the hardworking quality with her university experience and the one he had taped from his father himself, who was a stock broker and a business maven, helped her grow a business wings which enable her to fly around the world and eventually made a lot of wealth and prosperity. The more colonel K felt the zeal of helping his people so was fear planned to weigh him down. Each time he looked at his people keenly enough, he discovered they had always looked and behaved like the beasts that had been so famished and thus became so desperate to kill and lick the last blood that littered the ground ***************************** Colonel K had tarried long enough inside his sanctum for his men whom he had sent to the city since the first cockcrow. Among them were Mr. Ade, the Agric teacher, Mr. Tunde and Mr. Dada and Mrs. Bello. The message was of two segments just as the messengers were of two groups. The first group was to negotiate deal with some contractors in the city while the other group was to purchase and return home with relief packages the colonel had promised his people. In the first speech he delivered in his house the very day he arrived, he had avowed to them a relief packages, which were meant to soften their hearts from the harshness, placed there by poverty, till the development of the whole land would reach it summit. And since then, the people had been creeping into the compound to confirm if the vow had ripen. Some of the women would even appear there with their baskets and men holding pieces of sac in their hands. The cooking of the afternoon meal of the day had just been through now and the people that filled up both the inside and outside of the compound had set themselves and each had began to receive a well full plate of food from the servers. The colonel in his solitary mood inside his sanctum where he had always found very much good to conceptualize, in a trice, sniffed through the aroma of the nice delicacy as it moved through the air and his body shivered once. He was not actually interested in the food but that had only helped prodded his memory about his planned visit to the

palace. He knew it must have been noon by now. He twisted his wrist and confirmed from the watch thereby. Instantly, he rose to his feet in much eagerness and walked to the door and sent word through a maid in the house, going for an errand to his wife. He then shifted to his wardrobe to dress up. Rose came in and did everything to persuade him to sit back and take his meal before he would leave but he obliged not, telling her, his present status was like that of a man who had swallow a mortal. So he could not seat or remain stand until he would reach to the palace where he hoped to empty his belly of all he had bore inside. He was yet to tell the monarch about the errand he had sent his men in the city, so, he would like to do so before they would be back. ‘But just wait a little and make the swallow of two spoonful of the food darling’, Rose said passionately as she was watching on her husband busy buttoning up his jacket. ‘ The food is already on the dinning table and its very warm, nicely discharging steam in the air’, she added. ‘If I have not known you well, the way a good husband would know his wife your plea would have riled me up. But I know you better. You’ve always understood my nature; perhaps you are pretending this time around. If I say I would take my birth by beginning from my toes up to the hair in my head no one can influence me to reverse it so far it’s not an action that can bring side effect upon the smooth existence of humanity. I always mean whatever I say and that is what I’m trying to say. This is an important mission, a short trip to the palace to further deliberate on the steps of digging out credible and lasting modalities with which to fashion out good living for our people. Our people are perishing everyday in diseases, calamity, conflict and all sorts of crises especially the political, ethnics and religious ones. These are what we expect not seeing again in this age of the world where civilization and good understand have properly come to stay. And these evils should only continue here only if we want our own world to continue to be a shameless among others in the world.’ ‘But I think you were there throughout yesterday? You need rest for yourself’, in strong emotion and in a spirit full of sympathy Rose said as she still stood by her husband in the front of the wardrobe while he was still busy dressing up. And in the course of that as the husband removed one dress from his body to put on another, she was able to see apparently that he had lost much weight. She knew it wasn’t of a result of something different from the stress and fatigue he had been involving himself in since he had returned to help to build his father’s land. He had sternly passed through sleepless nights and several starvations. Colonel K never listened to his wife again but smartly tying up his pair of shoe. ‘Let call off the matter’, he said eventually, upright his body then moved keenly close to his wife. He placed his palms at both side of her cheek then gave her a hot, sharp kiss. ‘Rose’, he called afterward, looked into her eyeballs, ‘ don’t bother for now. Take me as I’m. I will still get over all the stress once the entire work is well done. Now, take care of yourself and everyone at home till I will be back very soon’. ‘ Alright’, Rose smiled but it was not bigger than a midge. She felt for her husband greatly in her heart. ‘You can go now but keep no long,’ she added after little delay The driver had already set waiting for the colonel at the garage and immediately he appeared they left. The distance between the palace and the personage of the colonel was not so much far. If not for the awry nature of the roads it was not more

than what a man could reach in ten strides. But the trekkers would have to fall from one steep into one pothole that looked like a bottomless pit. And so was the case in the side of the motorists. As his jeep appeared in a close proximity, after the strenuous driving through the ramshackle roads, the king saw it and felt greatly elated that the colonel could still make it to the palace. At the previous day, he had stayed with him and all the chiefs including the grandees of the land except Oluwo and Bawon; sorting out issues in a lengthy discussion pertaining to the task of building up the whole land. And had afterward went around to gather all his newly chosen disciples together and held them through another series of meetings. To him who was the king, this previous day stress was enough to weigh the colonel down in his house and fix him into a round-theclock sleep of the day in what he could have called a search of recuperation. In the palace, when the colonel arrived proper it was on the seat of judgement he had met the king. He seemed very much about to deliver his judgement when his figure, which had caught his sight seized his attention. By the left side of the king, in a little distance there was a man and a woman that seemed to be husband and wife. Both of them laid prone on the ground in a very sad mood and their faces looked so haggard. It was so obvious that they had stayed little long in this state . The lips of each of them had lost their close integration in weariness that resulted from too much of pleading. The colonel watched them with great concern as he was ascending the few numbers of the staircases of the palace’s pavement. He wondered what they might have committed that had brought them in such bitterness. As he looked toward the right side, he saw one pretty young lady whose skin had been enshrouded in tears and profuse perspiration. Her two kneels shivered now and again which showed she had leaned on them too long on the floor. Three of the palace guards were standing behind her with hard whips in their hands. And there was much evidence on the body of the young lady that they had thrown about three or four lashes on her. The guards were so huge and tall. Each of them had biceps that were as stout as the stem of the great iroko tree. It was in the moment the colonel eventually took his seat having exchanged greetings with the monarch that he learnt that the king had even given his verdict as at when he was still busy settling his jeep at the front of the palace. It was also then that he learnt that the couple that fell upon their faces at the left side of the king, pleading with their quavering voices in tiredness, was the parents of the young lady. And the judgement of the king was that the iniquitous lady should be caste out of the land as the retribution of her wrong deed and also for the sake of the immunity of the entire land. ‘Are you deaf? I say you should rise and move!’ This was the raucous shout that welcomed the colonel immediately as he was about seating on the seat provided for him. The one who released the shout among the three guards had already held aloft in the air, his long whip produced out of a horse tail and he was about landing it again with a very great force onto the sodden back of the lady when he was held in interception with the fiery word that soared in full force out of the mouth of the colonel and sounded outside like the rumbling of the thunder. The guard had his hand standing still out of little shock and thereafter slowly lowering it down but the zeal to still make the attempt was still very much in him. ‘I say leave her alone and stay back of her!’ The colonel roared at him once again. The force in his word and the seriousness of his face scared him away from her. These ones were like dogs trained by their masters to understand only two words,

which were: go and kill. And once they had been told this, no one, even their master could speak ‘come and save to them that they would understand. But the voice of the colonel was the first to break the monopoly apparatus fixed in their ears since their upbringing. And this didn’t happen so, because of any reason other than the fact that they knew very well whom the colonel was. He was a military man. And it was in the habit of the natives to fear the military so much and they had also believed that the force men were always what they were till their death. Across the land, the idea of military men indiscriminately beaten up the bloody civilians (as they would call them) was not at all a strange story. They had done so in the cities at countless numbers of time when the country was still under the dictatorship rule of the military regime. They had beaten and killed many civilians even when they committed no offence. So since then, the natives had always bore the fiery fear of military ones in their mind. The colonel afterward turned face to the king and greeted him freshly. It was a unique kind of greeting that the Yoruba man would use to put in to an issue being presiding over by an elderly one. It’s used to be done in a cleaver way and full of respect. Thereafter, he entreated the king to take it easy with the young lady and unveil to him the face of the wrong she might have committed. ‘She has wronged the land’, the king sail ‘How your majesty’, the colonel asked with little marvel. ‘Of course colonel. She has brought evil to the land and the land could not condone that. So, that is why she must be caste away. She needs to go and join with the other outcasts out there’. Colonel K wondered what manner of evil the young lady might have done that she deserved such punishment, ‘Our king, did she kill? He asked with great concern looking so solemn. ‘Not yet my colonel, but she is about to start killing; about to bring massacre upon our people and that is why she mustn’t be allowed to stay. ‘Do you mean she is a witch or possessed some other evil spirit? The colonel had virtually as she was virtually gave up in suspense. ‘Oh, colonel, you cannot understand. If she’s a witch or possess some evil spirits, that one is still better; for a witch or emere does not have such appetite: the one that reach to sock and eat all the blood and flesh of all of us in this land within one farm season. ‘Please our king, tell me what exactly that has wrong with this poor girl.’ ‘Our colonel, look at her very well’, he pointed his royal sick at the moody lady, ‘she has travelled far and wide to possess the exotic spirit of evil that kills than anyone we are born to know of in our land. We know of emere, we know of Aje and oso. We know them well and know how far they can go in bringing havoc to ones life but of this exotic spirit we don’t know. The speed and zeal it takes in operation are beyond the comprehension of we, lay men’. The king thereafter began to narrate the girls ordeal to the hearing of the colonel and as he moved further and further, he began to understand that Sola was one out of many damsels in Kajore who were repatriated from Italy and some other countries across the globe where they had gone to trade their bodies in prostitution. In the past years, right from when the repatriation of girls from abroad back into Kajore had increased greatly, was the actual time when the spread of HIV?AID become so rampart. So, it was also then that the elders of the land who had seen it as a plague imported by those whorish girls and which was only inflicted upon them by those evil spirits there, who didn’t want dirty minded strangers, convened a meeting. In this meeting, the elders enacted a law, which explained that any repatriated girl or

lady must be reprehended and coerced out of the land by a special guard in the palace and to a medical doctor whom they had bid for his service of a perfect test of HIV/Aid status. And if such a girl was tested positive she should be caste out of the land without looking back so as to prevent the spread. At the end of the king’s story, the colonel breathed down heavily. H had seen vividly now that poverty wasn’t the only monster vandalizing his people but also ignorance. He then began to heap massive blames on the doctor for not doing well. He had lagged far behind expectation. All he had done wasn’t enough. He should have sent his agents or his nurses or other aids or come by himself to the land to enlighten these barbarians everything about this disease. He nagged him tough for being after money alone in his affair with these ignoramus fellows. At a point, the colonel resolved to suspending searching further faults from the act of the distance doctor. And so, he began to cogitate on how and where to begin in convincing the king that the diseases wasn’t exactly what he had taken it for. In anguish of the heart, he wondered the havoc in the decision established by the council of the elders on the victims of the virus. It was what that must had even helped the spread of the virus. If such hapless and hopeless girls should be continually casted out, they would continually becoming those ones that would settle in cities, moving in the streets, seducing men and using their pussy to collect money from them and in so doing escalating the spread of the virus. As the colonel was still in the depth of the momentous thought in which he had been striving gathering together ideas solid enough to dismantle the mighty pillar of the erroneous belief of the king toward the disease, one of the three guards stepped forth again to send a lash on the back of the rejected girl in her sobbing mood after which she would be finally banished out of the land. ‘Are you with your sense at all young man?’ The colonel roared vehemently at the guard and scolded at him,’ I say leave her alone’, he added and still keenly set eyes on him. ‘Now let me ask you, if two objects fall on each other, which one do you think is appropriate to peak up first?’ the colonel asked and the very guard to whom the question was directed couldn’t find a word to say. He seemed confused. ‘Now, have it this way; that is a dog by your side’, he pointed to the fat poodle standing by the side of one of the three guards in palace; ‘peradventure you are going with it on a short trip and along the way a moribund tree fell on one of its legs, which one will you pull first; the leg or the tree?’ ‘The tree’, he answered with his guttural voice. ‘Good’, the colonel said,’ That shows that you can still be wise. Now, it’s problem they say befalls man and when it happens, it’s the problem one need to peak up first, examine its cause, then subject it to appropriate remedy before deciding the new life style which the victim should be compelled to by the rescuer. And that is why I’m here. I have returned to the land from the city upon this purpose if you haven’t known’, he paused and turned face to the king. He had really determined to exorcize from his heart, the illusion that had been rigid there by the spirit of ignorance. And in great length of discussion, he began to unfold mysterious things pertaining to the virus. He elucidated on its mode of contamination, the normal way by which to prevent it, the series of treatment available for the victims and why to take them as our close friends and not distance enemies. But at the end of all a massive marvel griped the colonel in the heart once he discovered that all he had been saying on this virus shown no effect on the belief of the king. He had insisted on the banishment of

the girl by claiming that her permission to stay on, in the land would bring the health of all in total decline. ‘Our colonel, see, it’s you who is yet to understand me well. This disease is more dangerous than what you think of it. So leaving its victim here as you’ve advocated for, wouldn’t help us but bring us misfortune. Some couples of months ago, a woman in her market place asked a lady customer to help her carry her little baby while she would go into the nearby bush to ease herself. And by the time she came back after some minutes, she collected her baby back hail and healthy, and let the lady leaved as soon as she gave her the wares she came to buy. ‘But when it was on the third day, the baby fell ill and when it was aggravating, her mates in the market counselled her to seek doctor’s aid in the city. Colonel’, the king called, touched him by the wrist as to draw more of his attention, ‘… we all know the matters of our doctors. All there own is testing and testing before anything. The blood of the baby was drawn and took to the laboratory before any treatment. So, when the result was eventually out, the news that the mother came back with was that the baby was said to have possessed this thing you called virus. And unfortunately to the mother, the lady that helped her in carrying the baby while she left for bush was just an incipient customer; a strange one indeed. No one knew where she came from. ‘Colonel, it’s a pity that the woman had allowed a strange girl who had done strange things outside our land to touch her baby and kissed her cheeks which are what we’ve warned our people against’. The colonel breathed down deeply in sadness at the end of all the kings stories. He had actually from a new perspective seen the importance of education and saw how miserable was the place it was absence. ‘Where is the baby now? He asked. ‘And the mother too?’ ‘Judgement had been passed on her. She had been caste out of the land. But some of our people have been saying they saw her dwelling with people in a faraway village’. The colonel kept mute a bit and thought then asked as he afterward unbend his brow. ‘What of the husband?’ ‘He still lives with us here and has happily married a new wife’, the king responded in a mood full of bliss, smiling broadly. The colonel wept inwardly of how ignorance had vigorously worked with poverty to destroy his people. ‘Why did the husband chose to marry another woman and not choose to leave with his wife?’ ‘Ha… ha… ha, colonel. What are you saying in particular? You talk as if you are stranger here. Does it mean the western culture that abounds in the city where you’d stayed for so long has put seal in your ears that you could no longer hear the heart’s throb of our ghostly ones in the spirit world? The tone is ‘he who betrays another among their children shall be put to death with their sword. Had it been Dejo, who was the husband of this woman ran away to meet his iniquitous wife, it is very certain that he would be dead before his infected baby’. ‘Alright king. I have understood you. But I still have one question to ask you. Did the doctor test the mother after the baby has been tested positive?’ ‘They said he collected little of her blood and asked her to come a day after, as they said he was so busy on that day. ‘Did she go later?’

‘Colonel; I say your talks have began to sound so strange in my ears since we’ve began this matter. We are all borne to be wise. And so, a wise man wouldn’t sleep leaving fire at the top of his roof. The whole one day given to her by the doctor to report back was more than enough for the plague to spread round to a great length in our land. And besides, it’s one of our saying that it’s an act of time wasting to be shouting into the ears of the deaf about a war that has just ensued; for the melee in sight is enough to pass the message across to him. We don’t need to sit here and wait till the doctor say she too have contacted the disease before we know it, and know as well that we need to throw the two out of the land. After all, it’s her baby and for the fact that she carried her everyday and night was enough to transfer to her the perilous plague. And more importantly she served as lesson to our people, particularly the women. They would lean how to be wary when having a deal with strangers or any of our people, who has returned from abroad where they’ve gone to engage into strangeness like this one here’, he pointed the royal stick in his hand to Sola. The poor girl was greatly nervous and busted into a fresh cry out of more fear. At initial time, when colonel K arrived to step into the matter, she had began view her hope of surviving the matter been restoring. But now again, it seemed to have been speedily dashing away in the wind. Thus, she wept bitterly as if the tear’s gland had been busted. She couldn’t afford missing her poor parents just as they too, where they had helplessly laid prone in the flood of tear at the corridor of power, wouldn’t like to renounce the moribund soul of their daughter out of weariness of too much of pleading. In the moody state, Sola thought of how and where to start again from in life should she was eventually thrown out of the reach of her parents. She had neither qualitative education nor even a paucity of knowledge of any trade nor the capital. Then, how would she cope with the harsh condition of where she was borne into. In retrospection, she recollected that fateful day she met with four men among the army of men who had incessantly invading their land seeking for young men and women whom they would ferry abroad having promised them high paid jobs over there. This day, she was promised a job in a famous shoe company in Italy. On getting there, Sola realized she had only been lured along with many other girls. They were posted in hotels and made to be sleeping with by the lascivious European men. Some were even taken to the extent of involving in bestiality. Sola, having knew this, wanted to flee back to her father’s land but was absolutely ran out of money with which to do so. Hence, after all her wailing and groaning she succumbed. Before she left her place with the foreigners, she had entered a written conveyance pact with them just as the other girls had also done, which stipulated that the money spent on ferrying her abroad would be deducting from the money she would begin to be paid for the period of six months. So, over there, it was still in the course of paying this debt that Sola was when she was caught by the Italian police with some others and repatriated. No penny return with her. Colonel K felt greatly embittered. He had been fed up of the obduracy the king was still showing in spite of unfolding to him, every thing mysterious about the HIV/Aid virus. He had told him the virus wasn’t the type that moves in the air but blood. And that, one wouldn’t contact it by dwelling, eating, drinking or sharing cloth with any of the victim or by touching on them. He told him it was through sex, using un-sterilized sharp object and from an infected mother to the baby during pregnancy and breast feeding that one could emerge a victim.

But still, out of the mind fill with clemency, the colonel determined not to give up totally. Thus, he began stressing his mind so as to dig out from the depth of it, a systematic way by which to overrun the strong belief of the king toward the virus. He then called for one of the maids in the palace. When the smart damsel leaped outside and fell on her kneel in the front of the colonel, he asked her to go back inside and peak up a very clean cup and fetch him water with it. The girl obliged. She skittered inside and appeared outside again in a moment. She then stretched her hands to deliver the cup of water to the colonel. ‘Carry it to that girl there, he pointed to Sola and the maid turned and walked away to her. ‘Do you mean a potential outcast; an iniquitous indeed should drink from the water collected from the sacred, royal pot?’ The king asked in wonder, looking so solemn. ‘Our king, please May you not go angry. Spare me this. I’m ready to pay the prize’. The cup was handed to Sola. Her hand trembled as she collected it. ‘Drink out of it young lady and give the rest back to the damsel in your front; the colonel said to Sola and she went by the directive immediately. She afterward returned the remaining water and the maid who passed it to her returned it to the colonel as she was instructed. The king was yet to fathom the wonder the colonel was about to perform. But in a moment he saw him lifting the cup of water up to his mouth, he at once carried himself eagerly off his seat and seized him in the hand with which he was doing so. ‘Please, colonel, don’t do this’, his face was wrapped in broad fear. ‘We don’t want you die now. This is the time our people need you most. What would I tell them that cause your death in the palace that they would not curse my existence?’ The primitive act of the king greatly amused the colonel but didn’t allow that glitter in his face. ‘Noble king, please seat back. This is not poison which might kill me after taking it. And beside, you know me very well, that I always do what I say I would do, so if you say I shouldn’t take this water which this girl’, he pointed at Sola, ‘took remain, then I’m ready to leave this land today and would never look back again until the end of your own reign’. The word bore such heaviness that outweighed the tremendous will of the king and coerced him in a dilemma that held him in silence. He would not like to miss the messiah whom God had finally sent to them after many years of supplication in their decades of agony, and would not want as well that a single girl brings the worst calamity upon his people. He hadn’t found his best way to follow in the thought of the heart when he watched the colonel again re-fixed the cup into his mouth and drained it of all its content and returned it to the damsel standing in his front. The king immediately became as fear as the man, whom sorrow always knocks at his door. The shock in him was the very kind that coerced into a grip, those men on the Island of Malta, who watched Apostle Paul in a great trepidation, as he survived the venomous from the delicate viper that bit on him. Which eventually made them declared him as a noble god and no more a condemned murderer, as they had initially presumed of. ‘My colonel’, the king called eventually as he was just recovered a bit from the consternation, ‘ with this that you’ve just done, I can now believe indeed, in all you’ve told me about this disease which you called HIV/Aid. And for that reason, I’m endorsing your request of releasing this damsel unto you.

Colonel K became so highly exhilarated by the declaration of the king. His victory at the end of the long argument had now rigid a massive pillar of joy his heart. Thus, he stood off his seat and move proper to the front of the king where he prostrated and gave his gratitude. The king too eulogized him for his brave heart. Drinking with a victim of this dieses in the land was a news that had never been told. The parents of the poor girl, in an ineffable joy of the heart stood upon their feet for the champion of their days as he went back to his seat having through with thanking the king. Having well seated, they then fell by his feet, giving to him great plaudit. After all the joyous gestures had gone stale, the colonel told them to leave for their place and continue their normal business with peaceful hearts while their daughter should stay behind. The king and the colonel were just starting on the very matter that brought him to the palace when a message was brought to him that some of those ones he had sent to the city had just returned in some buses. So, in three or four words, he told the king how he had sent his disciples to the cities, to negotiate deal with contractors and bring them into the land after they must had concurred. And about the second set of his men he had also sent along to purchase the relief’s materials he had promised his people the first day of his arrival to the land. At the end, he left the palace with Sola into his jeep and they zoomed off. As they appeared in a little distance from his personage, he saw that more than seven gross of the villagers, male and female, had converged at the façade. And there had been a little disarray in the atmosphere, as some of them at the back were struggling in desperation for the front. The total space the crowd covered fell at the back of the buses that were parked on a role in the front of the colossal building. The buses were six in number and they were the huge J5 model. four of them were loaded up with bags of rice, flour and beans and the remaining two were filled with gallons of vegetable oil, food condiments, beverages, butter, candies, chisels and caned food. Colonel K made out of his Jeep and asked Sola to come with him. The driver had to go and park the Jeep in the garage while those men who had led the loaded buses into the land were stepping forward to meet the colonel on his way to meet them too. He gleefully stretched his hand and began to shake hand with them one after another. He commended them for the job well done and asked them for the others. And they told him they were still in the city negotiating with the contractors. These two people that returned now was Mr. Tunde, the English teacher and Mrs. Bello, The geography teacher. Instantly, the colonel convened a brief meeting into which he invited the two teachers, his lady secretary, his driver and Sola. But at the middle of the meeting, Kaka was invited too and was told to bring some other four men he trusted among the crowd. He thereafter shared all the duties involved in the sharing of the relief’s packages to these ones. Sola was made as an aid to the lady secretary who would be responsible for the registration of all the families that appeared in the crowd. And the two teachers and the driver were to afterward work on the list of the names to draft out how the sharing would go. While Kaka and his selected four men would stay in the store where they would be given barrel with which to share the bags of rice and beans in units. So, every one knew his own part of the assignment. The colonel afterward appeared outside again. He addressed his people and told them to keep to order. He asked everyone to ensure he had put down his or her name with the two registrars. Then sixteen sound men were selected out of the crowd by the colonel himself. Four of them were sent into the store to assist Kaka with his

own chosen men. They were the ones who would be helping them to loose the mouth of the bags and upending them for the content to be poured out on the floor, so that, there would be ease for them as they would be doing the sharing. The remaining twelve of the men were the one who would be offloading the loaded buses according to the directives from the one who was the supervisor. They would be hoisting the bags of food on their heads or shoulders one after another into the store where they would begin to be shared. Of all the duties involved in the sharing of the food, this was the one the colonel considered to be too onerous. And for that reason, he had promised to pay the men greatly at the end of the service. The task began instantly. It took about thirty minutes before all the names were well registered. Meanwhile, the offing of the four buses had greatly been done to half point. Kaka with his chosen men had also begun the sharing of the foods. People entered the store with their sacks once they heard their names called. Beneficiaries began to appear after beneficiaries until each of the people became one. It took them about three hours to complete this part and it then came to the turn of the two buses loaded with beverages, vegetable oil, butter and the rest. The colonel had already instructed his men that all of these should be shared to the mothers alone. No man should have one offer from this part. So, when the beans, flour and rice had been duly shared, the men among the crowd had to gather at one side to wait for their wives who had just been on queue to receive their on share of the packages which had just began off loading from the remaining two buses. But those of them who hadn’t owned a wife or who had been living in divorce or widowhood left immediately. Those ones busy tarring for their wives didn’t do so because they wanted to oversee what they were about to be offered but because they had learnt not to be allowing their wives or children to alone walk through their roads to their different places at dusk since the marauder regularly sent out by the ritualists that full the land had become absolutely great in number. in most cases the marauder were so found of wearing the garment of darkness to perform their evil. People had been tired of the persistent missing of their kin and children. At the end of all the sharing, there was a blissful dispersion. No one could explain the degree at which joy was floating in the heart of each of them. They walked in company and greatly discussing the noble man, his family and all the virtue and total well-being he had been propagating in their lives. They wondered such a tremendous benevolence. ‘Does he intend to be our next president?’ Gbade, a man among the returning crowd asked his friend whom he walked abreast of. ‘I thought so’, the friend responded. ‘What he has been given to us since his arrival has immensely out passed what many of our political aspirants that are seeking for lower post like counsellorship, chairmanship or representative in the state’s house would offer us in their attempt to buy our votes. He has been obviously sowing bountifully so that he could reap bountifully, I thought so’, he added and the two busted into laughter. ‘Dare you talk like this you people of dirty hearts!’ from behind, the voice arouse with a rebellious tone and fell words of rebuke on the back of the two friends. They quickly slowed down and turned behind. They saw Akanji trudging forth. He was also a friend to them. Because of his little stature, he appeared in his walking as though he was the one that carried the hugest load on head among the three. And should not these two friends knew that the portion given to every one was perfectly equal, they would have begin to be jealous of him for carrying on his head something greater than their own.

‘Haven’t you learnt from the past that this man you gossip is a great philanthropist?’ Akanji asked nervously. ‘He’s not one of our politicians who would stampede our places or gather us together in one place each time election is approaching in order to give us something which I call poisonous sweet as an offer to lure us into voting for them. Akanji paused as Gabbed cut in. ‘We’ve grown to learn from our fathers that when we want to kill the little oge bird we use stones but if its to kill the eagle, we use our gun. This man is only using gun on us and not mere stones. He wants to catch us where we never escape. So, do you want to tell me he’s going big like this and he’s not having big intention but vain one?’ Akanji cut in again, ‘what do you mean by a big intention.’ ‘Now listen’, Gbade said, ‘we all know that the aim of our politicians stampeding our places or gathering us together whenever election is on the way and given us gift of food and money, is not to serve us indeed but to thrill us to the winning of our interest of voting them into power. Now, what is the aim of this man if you say he hasn’t been bribing us in advance for the next election?’ His fellow man whom they stood abreast nodded for support as Gbade paused. ‘That’s why I would always say your heart is as dirty as a dunghill’, Akanji said vehemently. ‘If you cannot learn from the presence I say why can’t you learn from the past. Our politicians are given us their own offer of food, money and material things in order to veil our common senses to use us and dumped us away in poverty, while this man is given to us his own just to deliver us from this bondage of poverty. When you are able to eat and get full, then you know how to say ‘no’ to bad gestures and yes to good ones. It’s a simple logic. You return from abroad to meet your dogs in an age-long starvation and the only thing you could do is to tell them never to go eat shit again. I’m telling you that, you will whip them tire and they will never stop looking for shit around until you do the right thing. This man genuinely wants to help us chase away poverty so that our veiled senses could he opened and we be able to remove our hungry eyes from those chicken-feeds our politicians are using to lure us. ‘Our politicians here in this land are so wicked. It’s few of them alone that are good but these ruthless ones among them wouldn’t allow them to rule us. They are the one who have deliberately created poverty here in this land and made us dwelling in it. Should you say no, then why is it that we are so blessed with both mineral and human resources and yet we suffer greatly as this?’ Gbade wanted to cut in but Akanji was so keen on the matter than to give such a change. He passionately spoke on. ‘They don’t want poverty to leave this land. They would only tell us a tale of mendacity as they would tell us they have been putting all efforts in place to alleviate poverty. They know what they are doing. They know that if we are all averagely okay financially there will be no reason for any one of us to collect those chicken feeds from them. It won’t even enthral us a bit so far we can feed our self and our children three times daily, cloth ourselves and the children, shelter ourselves and the children and sponsor them in school. consequently, we would be self independent at deciding the right person to rule us’, this was how Akanji continue pouring out all that burnt his heart about the poor living status in his land and was determined not to stop as the three of them moved on far through the dark road. It was so gloomy already. Out of the great concern he was having on the poor state of his land, he told his friends too about a poem he had just written on poverty

and which he was intending taking to Mr. Tunde, the English teacher of the St. Francis high school in his home for the editing. He even cited to them the poem having told them the title, which he called ‘the ugly praise’, and he put it thus. O poverty! You who paid a courtesy call to that peaceful and affluence home with a diamond portfolio. But at your departure enquiry unveiled it as a Pandora’s’ box s And sons turned rebel against the father while the daughter hearken no more to mother’s rebuke. O poverty! You, who dragged that man of irrationality to the court of nature, And therein gave him an ignoble defeat. O poverty! You who apprehended that woman of extravagance, Tortured her and thought her the lesson of frugality. O poverty! You fruits is sour, insipid and toxic. The man, who feed on it for long jeopardise his span. O poverty! He who accommodates you accommodates sorrow. And he who embraces you beckons to doom. O poverty! You, who vandalized a whole land without a nuclear explosion, And pour water of tears at that healthy face having robed her of her hope. O poverty! You, who strikes your victims with a sword of broken heart. You silent that poor, wise man in the gathering of the intellectuals. But gave that rich folly the privilege to gibberish. O poverty! The one who compete a pathway with you mocks his life for no offence in calling you one of the siblings of death. ‘Your words are good Akanji and your poem is very good too’, Gbade said. ‘No one need to tell us the details of poverty in this land before we know it. And why? It’s because it has been dwelling here with us for so long and our politicians by their obnoxious attitude have not been letting us see any reasonable sign that it’s going to flee us whether sooner or later. So, we know everything about poverty as man would know his best friend and his worst enemy. We know it’s size, its colour and we know what it always bears in hand. It was more dangerous than the sword of death. We know the havoc it has caused in our lives! ‘We work as hard as machine and as fast as horse but all we toil per day goes down our belly per day. No saving nor standard living. While we labour vigorously here everyday, tilling the parch ground with our raw hands only to earn little. our children are taking away from us to do prostitution and servitude jobs around the globe and mostly to engage in illicit business. Many of them are in prisons across the globe having caught for drug trafficking and many of them too have been put to death. ‘But, this is where I’m going to; when you are saying we should stop collecting money and food from our politicians, because as for me, I think that is our own chance of benefiting from the national cake; do you think that, as far as our land has gone today in an electoral malpractice, bribery and corruption, somebody who could put an end to all could still emerge one day?’ Gbade asked keenly.

‘That is what we should hope for if we begin to cast our vote wisely. And we wouldn’t only have one but plenty of them; I mean the canny ones’, Akanji answered stressfully and his two friends especially Gbade busted to wide laughter. They laughed until their eyes Oozed tears. When the laughter had gone stale Gbade then called Akanji by name keenly. ‘It’s now I believe you are just a wandering insect managing a come-across shell of a dead snail. It will be absolutely be ignorant to things happening around its world. For when it’s cold out there, it thinks it’s hot and when its hot it thinks it’s cold. The owner of this body you carry about is no more alive and that is why you don’t know the weather under which you are at present. You talk like our people who describe their fathers’ home with their left hand to the strangers. And I won’t blame you for that, and why? Because many of our leaders have been doing likewise. They would go abroad to pass wrong description of their land to the foreigners. Many of them have gone to tell them there that our land is better than hell whereas we perish here every day in perpetual surge of poverty. ‘What I’m saying in essence is that; are you not together with us in this land where our youths have began boasting around in the streets of their incipient plan of looting the wealth of the nation that day when they would be privilege to rise to the mantle of power? Are these ones not those we call the future leaders? Then what are we talking about again about the scenario of this land? Many of those ones we have been hoping to rule us well in the future have always seen in our streets promising to do the worst of what many of the present leaders we know to be so rapacious are doing; claiming it’s a game or fight of revenge’. ‘Listen Gbade! Akanji cut in with little fury. ‘You are always sound like a dog who is tired of missing its ways. We know that in every set-up or gathering, there are always bad eggs. And that is the fight ahead of us. We need to fight and see that the bad ones never join to rule us again in this land. And the only weapons in our hands, capable of doing this well and polite are our votes and the battle is during election. We need to defeat them for our goodness sake! Gbade and the other fellow again busted to laughter again. They laughed Akanji in derision. ‘Has any one told you that the virus or bacteria or whichever the scientist would call it, that spoilt these bad eggs you talk about are dead finished? It’s still looming in the air and ready to perch on any one of us. It has obviously began spoiling even our children who have not even get to power’, Gbade paused and still laughing Akanji. ‘You are always backward in your thinking’, Akanji replied nervously. His face had been so wrapped in a broad ire. ‘ what and what exactly do you mean by the virus or bacteria you’ve spoken of? He said. ‘It’s cupidity and selfishness’, Gbade answered with aplomb. ‘Now listen’, Akanji said, ‘We all know that this influenza things you talked that caused bad eggs among our people; and which in philosophical sense means cupidity and selfishness in this our argument, are still very much dwelling in our land and that is why we need to fight them. They say, when the head is well sound, the rest of the body feel it. Let us see that we vote in the right people and then see if corruption especially the electoral malpractice and embezzlement will not leave our land and whether we wouldn’t feel it well afterwards .The three men talked along through the dark road as many of the returning crowd had also done in their own companies until each segregated to face the different directions that lead to their different homes. .

Chapter 4 When the morning was dawned, lager number of the villagers couldn’t leave their beds earlier as unusual. But most of these ones were men and young ones in every compound, for most of the women had woke very early to report at the compound of colonel K in acting on the tip-off he had passed to them all at the previous twilight when they were departing his place after the sharing of the relief packages. He had told them to gather in his house this morning, as he was to hold with them a brief meeting in which he would collaborate with his own men to educate them about many things that had to do with procreation. And these were the things which he had discovered since his arrival that these women were lack of in their lives. Also he had eventually felt gratified that the turn out of the women this morning was so overwhelming. At the previous night the whole villagers passed a very wonderful night in their places though there was another heavy down pour. They slept as if they had never slept before just because their heart had began to know peace and joy ushering in by the armies of hope courtesy of the generous colonel. At that night, when the rain was pounding heavily on the roof under which he laid his head, Kaka suddenly woke up by a strange ghost of feeling. It was the same kind that would wake him up inside the devil’s box he inherited from his late father each time this manner of rain began. A slim fear creped into his heart as he opened his eyes but still having his back leaning to the bed. He began to listen to the rash noise making by the rain and the great wind that accompanied it. The more the harshness of the wind continued, so the more the fear he bore in his heart gained weight. Then, he instantly rose rough from his bed and looked around to see the position of his two kids as he used to do in those days under such an awful situation in his own moribund house. He stare at the recesses of the bed and found them not and he had almost shivered at that before he managed to remember that their care had just been taken away from him by Rose, the dearly wife of the colonel and put under the nannies she had just employed into the compound. Kaka heaved a sign of relief, then walked away from the bed to the window side. He drew the curtain to one side and carefully jacked the handle of the louvers and began gazing far into the darkness. The rain was great, Kaka felt it as it was falling dangerous cat and dog on the wall of the building and yet it couldn’t pull a grain of sound from the wall. Was this not the same kind of crazy rain that would come and shake my own house and make me judder inside heavily in fear like bird cruelly beaten in an heavy deluge of rain? ‘He asked himself. He wonder how the tough rain had become so impotent to this building in spite of all the anger it had been vigorously wrecking on it. Kaka then see how bad poverty was to man. He said, it was just because this colonel had money, that was why he could own a house fit enough to accommodate the poor soul of man and prevent it from bad whether. And in a moment, he gave poverty a new definition. He said it’s the inspiration of all evil happening around the world of the blacks. Later on, he returned to his bed, lied on his back again. It was too cold. Thus, he rolled from side to side and seriously desired to have at his reach, something that could warm him up. He rose again, walked to the widow side and voraciously staring into the wind blowing through the dropping shower and desperately wished, he could

see the flying spirit of his wife coming to perch on the jamb of the window and give him a hot peck to warm up his chilly soul and put him out of loneliness. Kaka began afterwards blaming death out of the anguish of his heart as he had tarried too long in vain by the window. He cursed it for not had allowed his wife to live up to this day she would have stayed with him under this solid roof where they would have both mocked this torrent rain for knowing now its impotence. For it was not that those rain they had experience in their ramshackle building, pouring out in this manner were powerful as they had thought then but was only seemed to be so to them because they had been dwelling in poverty. No money to build for themselves that which was strong enough to incapacitate it of its havoc each time its comes in its crazy manner as thus. But later Kaka ended all the feelings as he used to end them. He began to praise his late wife for still been what she used to be while in this mortal world. She had really acted in valour to be wining the daily bread of her family and she had also gone to the world beyond not to repose there as others would do, but struggled further more and saw that she fired a force of speed to the feet of the distance saviour who had just returned to stay with them in the land for their rescue. So, as it was already morning and after the village women had return from the early hours meeting to their husbands parsonages, each began checking into her kitchen to set the pot of her family’s choice of delicacy of the day on fire. In the male folk, some kept themselves busy in doing some of the domestic works that were masculine while some were resting their backs against the seats provided for themselves and at the same time stretching their legs on the stools stationed in their front as each in his compound waiting for when his wife would bring down the pot of food from the fire and fetch to him his own portion in a tray. It was a dawn that fell on Sunday, thus each of the compound was filled up of schoolchildren who were observing their weekend holiday and their parents too who were to rest for works of the week. It was only the few number of them who are Christians that had already started the service of the day in the church. It was already getting to the sunrise when the sound of some strange vehicles moving into the land began attracting all out of their inner places to the façade of their parsonage. The vehicles were drove passed to the forested parts of the land. And a thronged of boys was saw roaring on as they pursued those vehicles. These ones were part of the boys at the famous bus station at the entrance of the land of Kajore. So, as they all passed, each of the onlookers began to walk out of their corridors to the open ground where all formed a crowd and made for the site to know what the strangeness was all about. At the site, the four black jeep were parked and about sixteen men came out of them. Among them were four white men. Two of them looked like men from Asia. They dressed in white shirts and navy blue trouser. Instantly, the four men formed themselves into two groups. The first group faced the north-east of the site while other faced the north-west. And so were the other twelve men, they too divided themselves into two groups. And each group followed each of the group of the white men. Some of these men were in black suits and looking so smart. They continually lagging behind the four chief contractors who happened to be their bosses, as they walked across to the length and breath of the massive land, pouring out commentaries every now and then in their mood of observation, pointing far at different spaces and directions. They wrote down on the papers they held in hand the result of every bit of the observation. This part of the task took them about thirty five minute or there about

and they all teemed up again. Each group reading out the result of it observation to the other group and at the end they ordered their boys to begin parking out the tools for the work of the day from inside the Bedford. Some of the boys had scattered themselves around the field, so they beckon to them and passed the same information to them. The guys quickly rushed to the vehicle to fetch out the survey equipments. Compass were fetched out in numbers, ringing poles followed but they hadn’t done passed this that a strange interception came. The area boys had just had their muscle tingled by their usual zeal of reaping from where they hadn’t sown as they arrived the site. They had began to demand for money from the surveyors before they could be allowed to start any work on the land. And that had arouse a hot argument. When the chief contractors noticed the distortion, they withdrew themselves from the extremeness. As they moved closer the argument went tougher. The area boys were now desperate to beat up the white men’s boys who had been turning down their request. ‘What is all these for’, one of the white men asked, looking so haggard. ‘Oga, I say make you put down isakole before you work here’, one of the desperate boys replied him, fidgeting in his front. ‘Isa-ko-le? The white man quoted him with Little wonder, looking very confused. ‘What does he means by that? He asked and smartly stared across to all the faces that gathered at the scene in his search for the answer, but later fixed the gaze on the face of Mr. Ade once he noticed the position of his presence. Mr. Ade and Mr. Tunde and some other natives who were also part of the disciples of the colonel were the ones that led the contractors into Kajore from the city. He seemed to be confused as the white man directed the question to him in particular. It wasn’t the kind of confusion breed by fear. It was that of knowing the right thing to do at the point in time. He didn’t know weather to first lament the barbaric act of these area boys or to first release out the enormous laughter that had just gathered thick in his heart, striving for an escape. It was the laughter that developed in him from the other side of the act of the area boys where it was amusing. They sounded funny to him by using a native language to confuse the foreigners. Yet he hadn’t knew which one to do before the same young man put in. ‘Oga, naa tax we dey talk. Give us tax make we go, he said, still fidgeting and his mate began praising him in full support. ‘What tax?’ The white man asked with some anger. He then surveying their bodies from their heads to the toes to see whether indeed they resemble tax collectors. But in the course of that he only knew that each of them was too rough and rude to be a tax collector. But yet he couldn’t establish his fact, as he got to remember that one man’s food could be another man’s poison. In his own country, such people couldn’t be fitted for such an assignment while it might be so here. Mr. Ade had now began to address the boys with the native language before the white man could come to the end of his thought. ‘Tell them to go and sort that out with their king. He knows about our being here. They should stop disturbing us. We work under a time frame, ‘the white man spoke to Mr. Ade as he was still addressing the boys. ‘Oga, a cat and a lion never eat from one bowl. Give our king what that belong to our king and give us what that belong to us. Don’t lock our heads together,

otherwise you no go work here’, said to the white man by one of the area boys with their usual guttural voice in their mood of desperation. Mr. Ade knew the boys far better than the foreigners. He knew they were not good at all in building things but in destroying especially when they are in need of money. But once they have it is their hands, they become as soft as that contentious nine years old child, who would not talk even when a knife is about to be put by the enemies on the neck of his sleeping mother once he has been bribed with a piece of biscuit. So, Mr. Ade knew there was no option left on ground than looking for the pieces of meat with which to deceive the aggressive wolfs away from the road by throwing the meats in distance so as to leave the road clear for the gentle sheep to have their way. Having calmed the boys with about four powerful words, he tingled Mr. Tunde, his companion in this project, on his shoulder and they both moved little away from the boys and had a brief discussion. And the result of the discussion was that Mr. Tunde fetched out six notes of money, each happened to be 1000 naira denomination, from the bag he held in his hand and handed them over to Mr. Ade, who then counted them and knew the total was six thousand naira. After ward, he called the boys together in his front and handed it over to the one they pointed to as their leader to share it with his gang. The boys jumped up at countless number, raining plaudits on the two men; Mr. Ade and Tunde who were the ones that brought the contractors to the site from the city. The boys did that for three or four minutes and then began jugging away. The teeming crowd of the villagers who gathered there to watch the strange men that were about starting work on their land, edged out of the way as they watched the area boys busy passing in bliss to their base at the bus-station. The white men also stood still and set their keen gaze in little wonder, on these boys who were up to twenty four in number as they were jumping away over the chicken field that had just been given to them. ‘So bribery and corruption also dwell in African bush?" One of the white men asked his fellows. ‘I think that is their own way of surviving. Poverty is too much here I must confess’, one of the fellows replied him and they shook their heads piteously, as they still watching the boys vanishing out of their sight in bliss. As the men on the field had now began proper, the surveying of the great hectares of land, the onlookers became so anxious at fathoming whom they were precisely and that which they were intending to do on their land. And it was not so long when a rumour developed from one part of the crowd and spread round. Every ear began hearing it that these men working on the land belonged to some chief pimps who had been so far sending their agents from their places overseas to the land of the blacks to select girls whom they would afterward ferry with themselves back to their places where they use to them to trade in prostitution. And that, these pimps had only come this time around to their land from overseas to build for themselves business houses in which they would stay behind and have the room to trade on the daughters proper than ever. And that It was these buildings, their foundation was about to begin that they would settle their agents which they would use to hunt for girls, across the whole villages, recruiting them in mass and sending them frequently to them (the chief pimps) abroad where they would be fixed in hotels to serve as prostitutes under a contract. They said it was just a way of creating expansion to their business. As this rumour spread, it spread with a fast speed and it was the women in the land who had taken it mostly serious. They heard it that it was the council of the chives that sold the mass land to the white men for such ugly purpose under the

consent of the king. It was a great inferno of anger that this rumour had lighted up in the heart of the village women and in a moment, messages was passed round among them all including those that had gone far extreme to their work places and all gathered together in great furry at the front of the house of the one who was their leader. And just in the manner by which a ravenous beast would speed to attack a prey it has spotted in distance, the women set themselves loose to hit the palace. Some of them held branches of trees in their hands which was a symbol of protest in Yoruba land. And virtually all of them had loosed their head-scarves and tied them round their waists. in Yoruba land it was a sign of great anger. As they appeared in close distance, their noisy approach and desperation in it, absolutely caught the attention of the colonel and the king in their mood of discussion at the palace. Having keenly gazed toward them, the colonel recognized many of the faces among the approaching mob of women as the ones he had seen in the meeting he had convened with the entire village women at the early hour of the day morning. It was immediately after the meeting that he too came to the palace with his driver to deliver to the monarch, his own special portion of the relief packages he had shared for his people the previous twilight. At the arrival of the colonel into his father’s land, he had observed by himself and also heard it from reliable sources, the news about men and women from abroad, who had been incessantly storming their land and luring the parents, especially the mothers to releasing their children to them. Having given them token and promised them the whole of heaven and earth for the future, the children would be made release to them by their parents and they would be conveyed by the human traffickers abroad for servitude jobs, rather than being in the school. The grown up ones among them were those made prostitutes and drug traffickers. So, at the meeting he had with these women the early hour of this morning, he had warned them strictly to cease from such malevolence act toward their children. He had told them the different between child rearing and animal rearing. ‘It’s the animal that we rear and use to make money and not our children. We are to cater for our children to become all the good thing they desire to be in life so that at the end of the day, when we are old, they will come to care for us to’, he had said to them at the meeting. He told them also to stop hiding under the name of poverty to do such evil to their children. And that, the diseases, agony and untimely death that their land had been experiencing so long were not only the handiwork of poverty but also that of foolishness. ‘How can a mother who claims to be sensible enough gives out her child to another fellow who would go and use him or her any how they like? Why would she not think of the pains she passed through at the time of her labouring of the child and also the risk that involve in it? Why would she not think that the very way she would feel when any man comes to hold her into slavery was the way she shouted feel if any person come to ask her to give out her seeds for money? ‘We know indeed that you live in poverty but still try to see that the little thing you possess, you are helping your children with it. ‘Among we Yoruba, many of you, women love yourself than your own children. You love going for flashy things at the expense of abandoning doing what that could facilitate the total well being of your children. You love attending our local parties where you would have to buy the party’s uniform virtually every weekends. If you would begin proving to the world now that indeed you are not as foolish, as any one might think of, you need to start sowing much enough of remarkable things into your

children lives with those money you do spend unnecessarily on party’s uniform and other mundane things. why would you spend money on buying party’s uniform every now and then while your children wear tattered uniform to school and lacking good school bags and books? ‘The banana says; let me die so that my baby will come well alive. And this is the same kind of word we were borne to meet in the mouths of our great mothers. In their own days, you will hear them saying ‘I would rather chose to continue putting my head in harsh thing than seeing my children not making it in life’. These are the good African mother we know. Our parents suffered pains to see they invest in us and only taking their solace in seeing us yielding to their desire in life. ‘And again, another way by which you can begin proving to the whole world now that you are wise and not suffering from foolishness, is by starting not giving birth to more than the numbers of children you know their care could not go beyond your capability, both financially and morally, because it’s a silly act to do so’. The colonel had also said all these words to the village women at the early hour meeting of the morning. ‘Every wise farmer cares to plant their seeds on good and well fertile land where they would germinate well and yield surplus. Why should you, our parents of nowadays planting your own seeds known as your children, in the evil hands that take them to foreign lands, where they would never germinate well, but only having their bright future withering off in illicit involvement they are holding them into, such as servitude works, prostitution and trafficking of drugs?" He added in his speech at the meeting and it was with this question he rounded off. Now, as the ranging crowd of the village women the colonel had earlier addressed in a meeting in the early our of the morning reached the front of the palace proper, there immediately arouse stillness and silence in the atmosphere. But it was so momentarily. At the open ground in the front of the palace, before the pavement, the women’s leader made some steps forward in full agility leaving her mates a little behind where they gathered firmly, looking rebelliously. She thereafter bend her brow to greet the king and then the colonel and out of his violent temper she didn’t hold it even a bit to watch the king, as he had began waving at her, his royal fan to reciprocate her salute, when she turned back and faced her mates. Now that she gazed into their eyes, she looked much more aggressive. Obviously, they appeared to her as an inspiration. At once, she swirled her body speedily having loosed by her hands, the wrapper on her waist and held it in hand. The black skirt she wore underneath appeared outside and revolved round her wais. In a moment, she stood still again and instantly tuned her voice to the topmost and began bellowing while her mates chorused.
Omo ooo! Omo lomo wa!! (chorus) Omo ooo! Omo wa kin some iya!! (Chorus) Omo ooo! Omo wa kin somo osi (chorus)

All of a sudden, she became more nervous and broke into song, as she had also elevated her voice’s volume. Her mates chorused her along with full determination.
Eyin ara mi, moni ki lomo? (My comrade, I say what is a child)? Omo laso (chorous) (Child is a glorious attire ) Moni ki lomo? ( I say what is a child?) Omo niyi (chorus) (Child is an honour) Moni ki lomo? ( I say what is a child?) Omo leye (corus) (Child is a prestige)

Moni ki lomo (I say what is a child?) Omo lafe aye (chorus) (Child is the most greatest fun in life) Moni ki lomo?( I say what is child) Omo ni wole de ni toba di ojo ale (chorus) (Childs is our steward at our old age demise) Eni ko bi omo? (She who bears no child?) Kori omo ra (chorus) (Can never find real child to buy ) Eni kobi omo? (She who bears no child?) Eran ni o wole de e toba dojo ale (chorus) Has no child to dance with Can never find real to buy in the market She who bears no child? Shall has domestic animals as heir at the end of her life.

The whole woman sang the song whole-heartedly, made it sounded so melodiously, and was full of emotion. The tone was so powerful. It was the kind that could help to add much to the remaining strength of a warrior who seemed to have been loosing his battle in the war front, once he listens to it. And again, the tone was such that, if a suckling child is allowed to use it in her sobbing, could draw back the line of unity between her and the dead mother once she hears it in the world beyond. Colonel K was touched by the song just the way the king was. But yet, he never plumb the exact that had engendered this action of the women. A little while, the song ended. And immediately, there was a prevalence of a fresh silence in which the women took back their places. Then the leader began to talk. ‘Our king, enough is enough! We are indeed tired of seeing our children perishing while we live’, the woman continued to pour out her mind until she told the king about those pimps that had just arrived on the site to begin work. She said all in great anger, accusing the chives and the king for being the ones encouraging evil in their land by selling out the bushy portion of land to the pimps. ‘From whom did you hear this that you talk about?’ The king eventually asked solemnly. Our king’, the woman called, ‘they say when it comes a matter of witnessing the eye is always dependable than the ear. We have all chosen to storm here not because of what our people have told us but because of what we’ve seen with our own eyes. They have come to the forested part of our land, taking charge of it in order to build hotels and some other kind of building where they would trade on our sons and daughters. The king having heard this, exchanged a meaningful look with the colonel where he sat closely to him. Afterward, the two drew their ears close to each other having slightly bend their bodies and so, each opened mouth and whispered word into that of the other and after the brief moment, they both nodded in concord. So the colonel stood up at once to address the women. There was a great joy in him. It was the joy of the rapid change that had just taken place in the lives of the women. These were the women who had been known to be so found of given out their children to human traffickers. Many of them would even pray for the quick return of these traffickers from the cities and overseas so as to take their children away so that they could get little favour from them with which to ease their living. He had seen the result of the meeting she had had with them in the early hour of the morning. Because they had yielded to his warning and enlightenment, that was why they had stormed the palace in a protest. But he had greatly detested the manner by which the group of the youths of the land that had just arrived now took their own protest. The youths had just arrived the palace and that had ensued an interruption instantly. They besieged the palace in the effort of joining their mothers in seeking permission from the king to fight the foreigners. They shouted ‘kill them!!! Kill them!!! As they landed.

The colonel wondered why the youths should believe in settling matter through killing and destroying. The hullabaloo was too great for him to speak through, thus, he waved his hands across to them, from where he stood at the mouth of the pavement at the front of the palace; asking them to calm down first while their grievances would be hearken onto. They all understood the gesture and obliged to it right away. The colonel was the kind that never sweats to get honour and rear kind of regard upon himself, for they were always there in the air keenly waiting for him to be perched upon. ‘Women’, he called as he faced the women again, ‘I will genuinely tell you now, that your presence here has really poured great joy in my heart and I’m still having it flowing cool there. It’s the joy that flowed in, not from the fact that you have come here to seek permission from the king to fight the strangers who have come to work on our land, but it is the joy that, you people have come to tell us here in the palace, that you’ve eventually known what our children ought to mean to us or what children ought to mean to their parents. ‘For years, many of you have been living in ignorance. Ignorance in the sense that you were mistaking children rearing for animal rearing. You rear them for the day you will give them out for money to those ones, who use them as they like just because you want to add ease and gain little comfort to your harsh lives. It’s animal that we rear to make money and food so as to ease our living condition in life. ‘Iya Abiye’, the colonel called the women’s leader by her daughters name ‘you’ve sang greatly, your song has really exhilarated my spirit. I’m not only talking about its beautiful melody but basically, the message derive in its content. You have made us known through the song that you, women know the truth and the right way to follow in life but it is poverty that has damaged in you what it takes to embrace those two qualities of good life. ‘Now, let me tell you, since I have returned to this land, my wife and I have been given you one thing and another to relief you of the pain poverty has been ceaselessly injecting into your bodies and souls. But, let me tell you frankly, I’m not Moses, who prayed for his people for manner from heaven, which they ate extravagantly and forgot that they still have a long way to go in their journey of freedom, and neither is my wife Aaron, who afterward fell in temptation, when they mounted pleas on him to calve for them an idol which they could take as their god that give richly. ‘Listen, it’s what that man worship everyday that stands as man’s God. If any wise man comes to you today to ask you who is your God, tell him your God is that which you worship every hour of your day. It’s then you can pass the test of the wise person. So, if my wife should be allowing you coming to her everyday to continue worshiping her as you’ve been doing, just because of the food and cloths you are getting from her, then she has already been committing the same offence committed by Aaron and you all know the implication from God .It was like making herself a god What I’m saying in essence is that, if I should allow you to continue to eat from me, you will surely eat to forget we have a very long way to go in helping ourselves. Our land must be savaged from the scourge of poverty and each and everyone of as must be ready to take a great impart in that. We need to till and toil our land to feed ourselves. I know it’s not easy to climb the mountain where success lies in life, especially when one is not having any strong person behind him for assistance. The mountain is too long and massive; think of the vertigo. So, upon this matter of assistance, I have returned to join you in this land.

‘God has since creation blessed us with good land and fair weathers, so why must we continue with suffering? We all know the source of all these problems we are facing today. I don’t think there is any one of us here who would say he or she doesn’t know it. Our problems are from our politicians and some other wicked people. They shed blood without remorse just to get fame and fortune. ‘Those men you’ve come to tell us, you’ve seen on the site are the contractors who have come to help us to prepare our land for production,’ the colonel paused then turned to the youths. ‘You have done well for pouring out in mass as this to give support to your mothers in fighting against the idea of given room for those pimps who have been incessantly thronging our land to cart away you people, who are our precious children. But, there is one thing I earnestly detested in your action. And that is your shout of killing. You shouted ‘kill them!! ‘Kill them!!!’ And you are so ready to do so. These are cutlasses in your hands and many other harmful objects. You are not beast that thirst for blood and don’t allow any body to make you one. I don’t know when you will grow enough to learn how to settle matter in the absence of fighting and killing. You are no more kids. Many of you here have grown enough to impregnate women, so if you can by now not knowing which side you need to take in life, I don’t know when you will know it. ‘My children, I implore you, learn how to stay at the right side of life. ‘Don’t be destructive ‘Don’t be lured or volunteer yourself into political hooliganism as many of the youths have gone to do. ‘Cease from jiggery- pockery habits .Learn how to settle matters in dialogue and not fight or killing. There is this story told me by my father when I was very little. Though I know that many of you here are older than such story, I will still like to relay it to you people so that the very younger ones among you would learn their lessons. We want to build up good people among you for good future leaders’. ‘One day’, the colonel began, ‘there arouse a discord between river and three of her inhabitants. And these ones were fish, toad and crocodile. They were so furious that they planned to fight the river. But they mustn’t do this until the matter is taking to their head as that was their tradition, just the way you people have just come to do here in the palace. So, the third day, the three left to meet the manmade in her palace. The queen was somehow shocked at the degree of their anger and she told them to please calm down and explain to her all what the matter was all about. The fish was the first to step forward. Her face was absolutely wrapped in anger that was wider than that of the rest. She prostrated before the queen, greeted her and began to talk. ‘You know me well in this aquatic world. I don’t reap from where I never sown and would not drink from the pot of enemy. Now, it’s the matter of the river that my colleagues here’, she pointed at toad and crocodile, ‘… and I bring before you. In her wickedness the River has been setting on fire, her food of wickedness, and has made me and the rest over gorging ourselves with that. We are now extremely tired of it and that is why we are here before you!’ ‘Because the fish spoke with suspense, the queen at this point urged her to hit the nail by the head in her report. ‘Our queen’, she continued, ‘it has been long now that river would stir herself up and down every now and then in violence and thus putting our peace in disruption. And when we complained she has always told us it was an exercise she was only doing. And by so doing, she has allowed her surge to throw out of my reach virtually all my children. I’m getting older everyday and my children are rapidly reducing in

number! That is just the wickedness our queen! The river has intended to make me die without leaving any child behind; what an evil!!’ ,she added The fish having ended narrating her own ordeal, withdrew to one side and toad stepped forth to take the place. In great ire, she told her own story. She told the queen how river had set her tide on the black string with which she fasten her eggs to the mouth of the river and how the eggs had been flooded away. Crocodile came forward too, afterward to tell her own story. She told similar story with toad; how at the river bed her eggs were destroyed by the surge of the River. ‘At the end, having listen to them all, the queen breathe down somehow audibly. She then called them by their names one before another. ‘Will you here me? She asked, stressing the words. ‘We will hear you our queen’, they said in unison. ‘I want you to breath off your anger, calm your temper and go back to your places to continue with your businesses. I shall in three days time conveyed a meeting in which I will invite you all, including the River and I shall settle the matter with you all in a dialogue. Let me talk to her, I mean the River, I’m sure she will hear me. ‘No our queen! The fish shouted vehemently’, we shall wait not to settle the matter in a dialogue but war! We are tired of River and her turpitude! ‘At a great length, the queen spoke to persuade them to follow her word but all was done to no fruition and she was greatly felt tiredness in her body. Thus, she began to call the complainants by name one before another to push her judgement to an end. ‘Toad’, she called ‘Yes queen’. ‘Will you agree with me that this matter should be settled in dialogue or it’s war you want?’ Toad immediately leaped her mind into a brief thought so as to known which one to chose. But as she was doing so, the fish was very sad at her she never expected her to think for once before chosen her answer. And as she saw her carving her mouth as if she would say ‘dialogue’, the fish quickly put word in her mouth. ‘War! She shouted and toad echoed her instantly, nodding along. ‘The queen turned to crocodile and asked same question. The fish again watched her in the mouth as she slowed down to know which one to say in a brief thought. But when she saw how she had curved her mouth as if to say ‘dialogue’, she quickly put word in her mouth. ‘War’, and crocodile echoed her and nodded just the way the Toad had done too. ‘The queen then turned to fish herself, the war monger and she had never fully expressed the question when fish had began to shout war! War!! War!!! ‘The queen then released them all and fish led her companions away. As they appeared in a close proximity, they all began to curse The River. They cursed her mother, cursed her father and cursed her that she was shapeless like the amoeba. The toad even pick up a stone and throw it at her. ‘River was greatly exasperated, she could no longer hold down her temper thus, she began to stir herself up and down with a great force to torment them to the extent that she virtually touched the sky. In this course the fish busted to heavy laughter rather than been felt hurt. She threw herself up and down in an uncontrollable laughter. ‘So, this is all she could do"? She shouted and still cackling as she moved around blissfully on the surface of the water; busy raining expletives the River. ‘This action of the fish greatly riled the River up to the climax. She thus began to think of more tormentors way by which to suffer all the three assailants. And in the

depth of the thought, she learnt that those who believe in using wisdom dug out of a deep thought to fight know how to fight better. For out of every deep thought a good idea comes forth. So, she resolved to show to fish and her cohorts that she didn’t only have much more to do but have the better. ‘The following day, the river neither talk nor show any disgust and so was the second day. Thus, her assailants, especially the fish used it as a blossom privilege to pill up more of their invective words on her. They told her she was soulless and impotent. It was the third day that the river resolved to strike them where she had spotted on them, in her patience. Before then, she had gone to visit the Earth and implored her for her cooperation. The Earth agreed and as a result to that she let her mouth widely opened while the River began to park herself down into it gradually. At first, when this was happening, it looked very much like a play to the fish and the rest. They bothered not, but rather minding their business and not without singing maliciously to her and gawking. ‘When it was the fifth day, the situation became unbearable to the crocodile the river had really went down the earth to such a length that she only covered the lower part of the body of the crocodile, leaving the top exposed. And as it was amid of the dry season, the fiery sun of the day burnt hell on her back and as she could no longer endure it, she ran out of the river to seek refuge in the nearby bush. ‘As at this time, the water was still much enough to shield the fish and the toad from the blazing sun of the season. But, they began to live on, in a great anxiety, seriously passing all their plea to the river so as to cease from her anger for tey had began to perceive danger. But unfortunately, this didn’t come to pass. ‘The sixth day, the river had virtually parked herself wholly into the belly of the earth. And toad left having knew she would die if she stayed there for just one more day as the one time cold water had began to turn to a very hot one at the noon because of its smaller amount. The strength of the sun had apparently outweighed the little that remained of the river as much as the River went down into the belly of the Earth. ‘Fish remained in agony and sorrow. She wept bitterly for rescue but non came forth. The remain of the river continued to dry up as much as the blazing sun of the season waxed stronger and shone upon the surface of the earth. Unlike her friends, fish didn’t has any other world to run to. She wasn’t amphibious at all. Thus, as the pain became too aggravated, she began throwing herself high up in agony and so, falling flat for the river with her great plea in order to forgive her. ‘At the end, fish, the war monger died in her helpless situation and then news reached to the two of her colleagues, toad and crocodile inside the bush where they too were busy facing the painful attack of the mosquitoes and the dangerous infect that stung them perpetually. The awful news escalated their bitterness and they wept uncontrollably. ‘And after sometime, when they too had suffered much of the unfair weather in the terrestrial world closely to the point of death, they resolved to report back to their queen. In the palace, they fell before her weeping and apologizing for repudiating her advice. They told her how they had gone to fight with the river and how tough she had dealt with them. Eventually, they implored the queen to help them in begging the River to forgive them so that they could return to their homes where there was a pleasant life. ‘The queen bawled at them greatly in fury and hauled them verbally into a fiery fulmination. But this didn’t last for too long when the pathetically appearance of the two caught hold of her anger and pacified it. She took compassion on them and asked about fish and they told her she was dead. Afterward, she pleaded with the River on

their behalf, then, toad and crocodile returned to her after the queen had compelled them into a new life style through her powerful word of authority’. At the end of the story, the colonel paused to have a moment thought of the heart and began again to talk to the young one. Their mothers had already left the palace amid of this. ‘I’m sure you’ve learnt one or two lessons from this story?" They all said ‘yes’, in unison. ‘So I want you to desist from living a life of hooliganism. Learn how to settle matter in the absence of fighting and killing. Cease from given yourself to those politicians who trained you and used you to torment trouble during election and its campaigns. Prove to them that foolishness is no more in you. They are sending their own children to schools and works in good places around the world through our looted money but making it impossible for you to go to good schools and at the end of the day, making you killing one another in political riots. This is egregious! it’s you that will stand firm on your feet and say no to them any time they call you to themselves. As I do tell you, they have purposely crafted poverty and rigid it here in our land and making you dwelling in it so that you can be their slaves and thus they have the privilege to use or navigate you how they like. ‘Our fathers would say ‘the owner of an impedimental is the one to carry it where it’s much burdensome. You stand in the best position to fight the battle for yourself. The battle of liberating yourselves from the bad reign of the bad politicians that abound in our land. The fight is not of laying your hand on them to smitten them but to always refuse to listen to their flattering tongue. Stop collecting those chicken feeds they call something from them and see that you keep far away from them and embrace the good ones; I mean the canny politicians. ‘ ‘ The numbers of the disable ones among us here in our land are not up to the numbers of those of us who are not disable, then why must we continue to suffer. ‘I urge you my younger ones, not to be indolent and make no friend with a sluggish one, for no more good lesson left to learn from a lazy man than the one he has thought his hands. He has thought his hands to remain closer to his mouth alone and be very far from life’s activities. ‘A lazy man is also a foolish man. So do not ask the fool why he needs water for he will surely tell you more than enough reasons. He will tell you he needs it for washing, cooking, drinking, bathing and many more. But ask him; why is water tasteless? An indolent man is shameless, covetous, and steals .one day a sluggish man set to wonder around the street as usual while every man was on work. And he was seen by a woman who was coming out of her husband’s hut to attend to the soup she had set on fire in the wooden kitchen at the backyard and she accused him of stealing. ‘You’ve picked up a piece of meet from my pot of soup and threw it into your mouth! The woman shouted on him nervously. ‘Who is going to eat the meat that has no salt? The sluggish man retorted. ‘How did you know that the meet has no salt if it hasn’t touched your tongue? The woman challenged at the top of her voice. And out of fear he attempted fleeing away but luck was not by his side. He was caught by the people around, who were attracted to the spot by the commotion and was beaten to death just because of a piece of meet. That is the life of an indolent man for you, my younger ones’! ‘Know where you ought to and where you ought not to belong in life. You ought to belong to the best part in life, for there, morality, good commitment, uprightness,

patriotism and altruism abound. Position yourself there so that you grow well, flourish and produce good fruit in life. ‘Why is it that an egg mistakenly dumped away as a refuse along side some spoilt fruits onto a dunghill would not germinate while the fruits could? It’s because it does not belong to that part of life. And what will then happen to it at the end? The egg, no matter now fresh, good or healthy it’s, would begin to rotten off. That is how those of you who have gone to start their life on the bad side of life have ended up or would end up except they go to change. These ones are people who have gone to operate in illicit world. They are the ones duping their fellow human beings, trafficking drugs, do prostitution and who are bandits and chiefly the political touts. ‘You youths in this our land have been known with your jiggery pockery attitude all over the world. You have lost your glory. People around the world don’t thrust you again. They don’t want to pact with you of any deal. Wherever you enter into in the world, you become eyesore there. They question your existence, gaze into your eyes with much suspicions and always love to throw you out of their reach. ‘You’ve duped the foreigners, robed them, caused them great sorrow, bankruptcy and led many of them into perdition. And the news of your obnoxious deed has spread to every end of the world. This is egregious! Our fathers are not like this in their own days. They were always loved by the foreigners, honour and crowned with glories. Wherever they entered, they begged not for ingress before they could be given and the foreigners receive them with drums and beautiful dance. ‘Now that our present leaders here in this our land have been failing us, and not yet ready to change let us be serious for I am sure our God will rescue us if he sees that we are serious and righteous, he will shine his eyes on us and we will reflect in glory, riches, honour, joy and peace. ‘My younger ones, I’m saying all these to you not of any motive other than the fact that I and the elders of this land want to build out good future leaders from you all. Your own generation must be different from the present one ruling us. It must be like that of our fathers where integrity, love non-selfish, patriotism, altruism and all others virtues of life abound. ‘My younger ones, I will be very happy if you would only heed to my word. I wouldn’t want your own case to be like that of a rat in a certain story told me by my father when I was still a little boy. I will like narrating to you, the story so that you will also pick one or two lessons from it. ‘Once upon a time’, the colonel began, ‘father rat returned from a long journey and looked so sad than tired. He had attended the meeting convened by all the elders of his race. It was a meeting in which they had all in sombreness discussed all the issues affecting their existence. So when he arrived home, he called his son to himself. And when the son appeared from outside , he was shocked once he had the glance of his father. He was shocked over the degree of the sadness he had seen on the face of his father. Thus, he put before him a question in eagerness. ‘Why are you so sad as this father? ‘My son it’s because of the matter of our race. In the meeting that I just returned from, we had all throughout discussed the great shame, which has been over ages strictly adhered to our existence. Every one among we elders was so embittered over this matter at the meeting and we have all given strict instruction in concord, that each of us should having reached home call his child or children and share with them the matter been discussed at this meeting and afterward warn them seriously to heed to all the admonition in it.

‘My son our race is so backward in life when it comes a matter of virtue. We add no value and fortune to life but sorrow, lost and weeping. Our life is characterized with theft, dubiousness and crafting of conflicts. ‘ We are useless to the society and the world at large and thus hate by man or good people. They don’t want to see us and once they do, they chase us curiously with sticks and rods and wanting to kill us. Human beings are ready to go any mile, however far it’s with their money to buy the babies of the dog, the goat, fowl and cow and keep them because of their usefulness to their lives, but they never pray to receive our own babies even when they are given to them free. Rather, they would chase them to death without any sense of remorse. our bad ways have made us like this in life. We don’t have value but appear as eyesores everywhere. My son, our live is useless as our death. We cannot walk with boldness in the day light like the dog, the goat, fowl, cat would do. And even at nights, we move around in fear. No one shows sympathy not to talk of crying at our death as they would do for others, I mean the dog, pig, goat and the rest. Some human beings would even pick up the bodies of the dead fowl, dog, goat and the rest and take them into their refrigerator while they watch our own bodies once we die, rotten on pathways. ‘My son, this is not life. Our race need to change for good. We need to begin to add virtues ,value and fortune to life. I mean, we need to be useful to the world and not to be destructive any more. ‘ Father rat ended the message he had brought to his son from the meeting tearfully. He sobbed to the extent that some fear creped into his son’s heart. The son was so moved and thus, stood off his seat, moved to his father and started consoling him. After some minutes, he wept less and called his son by name ‘Dima’ ‘Father’, Dima answered. ‘You’ve heard all that I have told you. That was the discussion of the elders at the meeting and which every one of us has been mandated to pass to our children. I’m sure other children must have heard this by now from their own fathers. Now, you’ve heard me well, are you ready to heed to those words?’ ‘Yes father’, Dima answered but faintly. The answer he had given wasn’t from the depth of his heart but at the top of his lip. ‘Do you promise me that you will join the rest of your mates to change your generation and even take the lead, so that the reputation of our race too could be proud of in the world history as that of the others? ‘Dima couldn’t open his mouth to answer his father this time around but nodded. His heart was already filled with disgust. There was no bit of bliss on his face. He grumbled that his father had been exhausting most of his time he would have used to go for raiding around for food and valuables in people’s house. ‘Eventually, his father discharged him and since then began to keep his watch over him for changes. But it wasn’t long to this time that he began again hearing the report of his son, of how he had been going around, using wily ways to disposes people of their belongings, of how he had been robbing around and causing people sorrow. Thus, father rat was struck by an uncontrollable sorrow. And after some years, he died of cardiac arrest. ‘Immediately after the demise of his father, Dima adopted more smart ways of stealing and duping others. At a point, he strived hard and saw he won back the hearts of his mates who had once been changed through the words they too had heard

from their own father the day they returned from the meeting. So, the generation continued as it was before. ‘ One day, it happened that Dima went out to raid for food and as well as for those he could dupe but could find no one. Then he decided to break into cat’s house in her absence. The cat had gone out to search for food for her new born babies. She just put to bed less down four days to the very day. ‘As the cat’s house was dearth of food, having thoroughly searched for it, Dima was not happy. He must just have to go back with something edible. He had never broken into a house without having something to cart away with. Eventually, after a brief thought, he resolved stealing the three babies of the cat. As he reached home, he gathered wood and make fire. And having slaughtered one of the three babies, he set it on the fire and roasted it well. At the end, as he cut part of the meat with his teeth into his mouth and masticated, he knew its taste and danced round his late father’s compound. ‘It was so sweet’! He shouted with a winsome smile. He had never eaten such a delicious meat before, so he ate and almost chew his tongue. He crushed all the bone with teeth and lick the least marrow that littered the floor. ‘When it was twilight, he killed the second baby and enjoyed it as well. Then he was griped with the fear that perhaps he would never get such a meat again. Thus, he resolved to spare the third baby till his birthday. Right away, he went and immured it in a cage inside his fathers compound and began to make sure he feed it everyday. Eventually, the birthday arrived. Dima had already invited all his fellows across the land to the colossal hall in his father’s compound. These ones had stampeded the hall with massive mirth in their hearts as Dima had already promised them, that they would all enjoy what they had never enjoyed before in their lives once they appear at the party. ‘Fire had been kindled here and there in the kitchen and pots of different nice delicacies had been set on them. When Dima knew each and everyone of his people had settled in the hall, he ordered drinks to be served to them all and later appeared to them himself to tell them he was going to prepare their meet which he had promised to be the best they would ever eat. In unison, they all shouted praises on him as Dima said that to them. He afterward returned to the backyard and by the cage, he opened the door and pulled the bridle at the neck of the cat to drag it outside. The cat followed calmly. Had it been the can resisted the move and jack its body backward, Dima wouldn’t have been able to coerce it outside because the one time little cat had become very stout and robust. Immediately Dima saw it outside, he was stunned of the size it had developed to. But later, in this course joy developed from one part of his heart and spread to enrapture the shock. It was the joy he develop from his usual sense. The sense of greed. He was happy that at least he would be able to cut out plenty pieces of meat from the huge body of this cat than his initial expectation, it would reach him to serve his guest round much surplus having been killed’. ‘’Dima pulled the big cat through the rope tied to the neck and headed for the slaughtering ground somewhere in the compound without much stress. And he was so happy, thinking it was by his own strength he was overpowering the big cat which had become far bigger than him in stature. ‘When he got to the abattoir, he picked up a rope and tied it to all the four legs of the cat then pushed him down and made him lied flatly on the ground. He quickly rush to the kitchen to pick up his knife. But before he made it back, the cat had

smartly stretched his legs keenly with all strength until the rope was slightly loosed and then laid back again in pretence. ‘Dima rushed outside again from the kitchen with a great joy in his heart and a knife in his hand. Having reached to the cat on the ground, he stooped to cut his neck. But shockingly, he had his hand seized by the cat. The cat rose smartly to his feet and without leaving the seized hand of the Dima. In a very great fear, Dima struggled to free his hand but the cat had held it so tightly and at once, he seized the other hand too and gather the two in one of his own two broader hands. Using the free one hitting Dima in the belly. Dima suffered an enormous ache. He shouted, begged and struggled to free himself but he could not make it. None of his people could hear him from the hall for they were busy drinking and doing noisy banter. In this harsh mood Dima began regretting his life, . the word of his late father began to surge through his dieing heart. He wept and could not stop until he eventually died in the hand of the cat. The lucky cat then carried the body to one side, buttered it, washed it thoroughly and carried it to the fire Dima itself had earlier set for him inside the kitchen. He poured the meats inside a clean pot therein and set it on the fire having added water. Afterward, he searched through the kitchen and gathered all that could make the meat so delicious. He added salt, some content of pepper and some other condiments. At the end of the cooking, he parked the meat in one big dish and faced the hall. He was still in some distance away when the sweet aroma had pervaded the vicinity. All the rat in their impatient mood of receiving it stretch their nose to smell through the aroma in joy. But as the cat appeared by the door of the big hall, all of them were startled. It was as if the ground should open up and they hide in it. This had never happened in the history of their race; seeing cat in their midst. The cat understood them and he quickly gave an address. He told them not to be scared of his presence in the hall and asked some of them who had already threw themselves under the dinning table to rise up and sit back. He told them it was his master, Dima, who had sent him to them. ‘He told me to carry this dish full of meats and set it before you. And asked you to continue to devour them as he would continue to send more and more of the rest to you. They are still plenty, so, eat on, as I will go back now to meet my master so as to bring the remaining one for you’. All of them were happy and once the cat disappeared they fell down in an uncontrollable laughter. ‘When has the son of the great one began to be our slave? One of them asked rhetorically into the general laughter and busted to laugher again. ‘ Are we not making it now in our ways that people claim its bad and evil? Another one shouted this in joy while still laughing. And greatly without wasting time, all began eating the meats. They were so gleeful as they crushed it between teeth. And they hadn’t eaten it to the half when the cat appeared again. ‘My master said I should ask you weather you are still enjoying the content of this dish in your front and has also told me to tell you that the next one is almost ready’. They all laughed at this beautiful message from their fellow. ‘Tell him we want to see him here. He has really shown us wonder. We want him to come and tell us how he has done it. He has set before us, a palatable meat which we’ve never taken in our life before and has also presented it to us by the son of the mighty one whom we are not worthy of unloosing his shoe. It’s wonderful’ another one among them said

and the hall with the winsome smile that the faces of all of them reflected with, as they were still busy crushing the meats. ‘Alright Sir’, I will go and deliver your message sir’, the cat replied and as he turned his back leaving, the very rat whom the cat had just replied collapsed in laughter having smartly surveyed the body of the cat and compared the huge and tall body with their own small and short ones. He knew the difference was so much and yet he(the cat) was even rejoice to be their messenger. ‘Could you hear him answering me with ‘Sir’? The same rat shouted into the laughter and made it more raucous. The cat had appeared outside the hall and smartly arranged his own men. Before he appeared in the hall the second time he had already rushed down to his people in their own field and narrated his missing story to them and how he was managed to win his freedom and then told them every thing that was happening afterward. And he had afterward returned to the hall with twelve of his people. As they arrived, six of them secretly went through the back of the wall and fixed themselves up at the window ,the remaining six who deluge by the door at their arrival moved into the hall with him now that he was ready for the attack. They looked so fierce and famished. As they appeared by the door there red eyes lighted up danger in the hall. All the rat fell into a great panic. They bit their lips and chew their tongues instead of the meats in their mouths. And in tension again, they defecate and urinated to their bodies. The lucky cat stepped forward while his colleagues guarded the hall wholly and he began to talk to the rats. ‘You people are widely known around the world with your obnoxious attitude. The young have talked, the old have talked to you but you wouldn’t listen to them. You never add value to life but sorrow, pain, bankruptcy, liquidation and great lost. While we cats in the cold time rob our bodies with the bodies of our owners to keep them warm, the dogs serve as guards to them, keeping watch over their compound to check intruders. The fowls lay them eggs with which they nourish their bodies. The goats conceive and give birth to kids so that while they grow they could serve as meat for their master. But you rats are never useful to humanity in any way rather, you rob them, cause them sorrow, lost and more. Now, you can judge by yourself that you are enmity to good life, peace and progress of the world. So, you deserve not to exist?’’ The cat said furiously and instantly ordered his colleagues to begin the pounce. The dozens of the rats jumped up and down looking for escape but they couldn’t find one. They fell and entreated the lucky cat but he would never hearken to them. His men pounded harsh on them. They mauled them all and gathered them in the big bag they had come with and carried all to their own place for their own celebration. ‘My children!’ The colonel at the end of the story called, ‘You all need to change from your obnoxious ways. Desist from jiggery- pockery acts, mugging, political thugery and the shedding of blood. It’s no more new to be hearing many of you saying it among your peers and in the streets, that you will go to do beyond what many of our present leaders are doing once you are privilege to become the president or the governor or senator or chairman the councillor. You call it a game or a fight of revenge. But I want you to remember one of the words of our fathers. Our fathers would say a child that says that out of all the good things that full the world, it’s the head of the pigeon that he will chose to eat as food when he grows, the spirit that goes with the head of the pigeon might not allow him to grow in life

‘You can’t say you want to kill a beast by putting your head into the beast’s mouth, otherwise, you kill yourself. So, you cannot say you want to revenge the effect of corruption to your life by putting your head into it. ‘You have been hearing the cases of our corrupt political leaders who have been caught and sentenced to jail. Your own impart on the matter shouldn’t be to mock them or to say you will go and sit down somewhere and plan out your own more perfect way of doing likewise as at that time when you will be chanced to get to power in future. But yours is to sit down and learn your lesson from the downfall of those ones so that you won’t fall like them in future. Remember that the mother who shown her total nude to her baby boy, doesn’t mean to abuse her womanhood but was only trying to open his senses to how heavy has been the load his father has been carrying all the while so that he too could change his mind from mere things of life to more serious ones through which he could become so great in life in the future. And remembered also that history is always there. All our leaders of today, their names shall still enter into the books of history. And their bad deeds will be told there and people especially the posterity will hate them and curse them and their children till eternity. And they will bless those of them whose ways are obviously clean and clear’. Colonel K spoke and spoke and virtually spoken the last word on earth. And the feelings of the people he had been addressing was encompasses of calmness, optimism and a blossom bliss. Eventually, he discharged them all. The king thanked him greatly as if he would not stop. Afterward both of them rose to go and meet the contractors on the site. **************************************** Akanji and Gbade, his argumentative friend met again at the dispersion of the mob of people form the palace after the lengthy speech of the colonel. He was busy trudging forth in haste to visit the site too when it rang in his ear, the question that Gbade who walked a little yard behind him was asking another fellow he walked together with down the road. ‘Is this not the man who had preached war the other time; I mean the first day he returned from the city?" Akanji heard him clearly as he asked this question and he was touched by it and turned back having stood still. He keenly set his gaze into the face of Gbade and looking expectantly. He looked as if he didn’t hear him well and wanted to hear him clearer or as if what he had just heard from him had cause him some irritation . ‘Why would you have to stare at me like that?’ Gbade challenged him as he noticed his action , like a dog who was busy in the panic of spotting where to strike on the body of its shadow its pray", he added. ‘Your question is always poor in content, Akanji retorted. ‘And the question itself is not what that is always pain me but the seriousness you have always put into asking such foolish question. ‘Now, if at all it’s true, though it’s not, that the colonel has some times preached about we, waging heavy war against our political leaders and now preached against it, does that mean he has missed his way in the journey he has been leading us through? Is it not our fathers that say ‘a shoulder who knows how to shoot well but who knows not how to daulge is not a valiant. ‘And besides, does it means the war he has preached for is the one to shed blood? That is why I said you are always sound poor in your word or questions. It’s the war to liberate ourselves from the state of poverty which the bad politicians that

full our land had put us to. And it’s a war that involve no gun or cutlass. It’s just one powerful weapon that this man has told us that we need, and that is our vote. Gbade put in eagerly at this point. ‘Then if we can’t use violence, for how long shall we fight , before we could win the battle with this mere weapon you talk about; the war which cannot shed smoke not to talk of fire! Akanji was upset as he heard Gbade calling the votes of the people mere weapon that could not shed smoke not to talk of fire. The giant weapon, which the great people in the world like America, Europe and some other powerful part of the world will never play with. The weapons they regarded powerful than guns and cutlass that our countrymen carry about. The weapon, which they had used to throw out bad ones from their government and build their countries firmly ‘what a pity’ Akanji said vehemently, ‘you have a big head but you’ve always shown that it’s a token brain that is inside. ‘What of you’, an insect living under the shell of a dead snail’ Gbade quickly retorted. ‘That is why you don’t know the totality of what is happening around you. Don’t you know that this our land has been turned tough by our bad politicians. Things are not easy again for the people. Our people are becoming week while our politicians are waxing stronger every day. Our politicians are so wicked and dangerous. Most of them have gone to possess paranormal power in the occult world, so they are not easy to pull down. We need to use violence and not mere votes alone as our weapons. We should plan revolution on them. We know them well; I mean those of them who have spoilt this our land. Many of them are our past president, governors, senators, chairmen, councillors, ministers, the director generals, police and army boss and many more including the incumbent ones. Let us gather ourselves, plot series of attack in which we would massacre them all. It’s then we would begin to enjoy our God given resources which they have been taken for themselves alone and making us living on crumbs, thus dropping dead in numbers everyday.’ Akanji seriously hate all what Gbade had just said. He was so sad at him and hate to hear him further, thus he quickly left the spot. Chapter 5 It had gone beyond a dream and moved far into reality that the little world of Kajore was going to be dragged into a massive development as at when it was one week exactly that the colonel had returned to the land. At the early hour of the day, four tractors were moved into the land under the supervision of the contractors so as to work on the new farm sites. Two were set at one end of the land while the other two were fixed to the other end. The land was so massive so that the operators at one end could not have the glimpse of those ones at the other end. The bush clearing began as soon as the contractors gave the instruction. Before then, great numbers of the villagers, mostly the young men and children had spread themselves round the edge of the bushy ground. The children had only came to feed their eyes with the strangeness that had just started going on, on the land while the young men had came in full force for game. They held in their hands various kind of weapons with which to do this. Some held machetes, some strong sticks and other rods, chasing one rodent and another that were heading for an escape having began loosing their shield to the exposing ground. Kaka was one of them. He had really killed rabbits after rabbits and yet seeking for the higher ones to reach contention. At the early hour of the morning, he had sprang out of his bed to work upon the news which he had heard from the Connell

before the bed at the previous night . It was the news about the contractors who were going to storm the land at the morning for the bush clearing. He had waken early so that he could finish the domestic work in the compound on time so as to be able to arrive the site where he knew he would be chanced to kill animals for food and for money. It was a great deal for the men on the sites. The plenty bush was so thick on the massive ground. They fell trees after trees and shrubs in countless numbers. No one had ever thought the land was of such greatness until now they had began to see its nakedness. when it was getting to noon, the four contractors returned to the city. They left their men working on the sites and the supervisors. As at then, the mothers at home had been tired of standing by for their children to return home. Thus in single and pair, they skittered onto the sites and each chasing her children homeward with the whip in her hand. As it was getting to around 2:00pm, which was the time for the break, the two groups of the operators had worked to the point that the one at one end could catch the sight of the one at the other end. But still it was a long distance and non of the groups could speak to the other as to hear even at the top of their voices. The sun had set keenly in the sky, blazing hot like hell fire. The operators and their supervisors returned after the break to begin again. They must finished the work by 6:00pm or at the depth of the twilight. That was the instruction given to them by their bosses. Perhaps it was the agreement between the contractors and their employee, in person of Mr. Ade and Mr. Tunde. Before the time, Kaka had been able to kill about six huge rabbits, four squirrels and two tortoises. And having parked them in his bag as the other men on game had done, he shifted from the mouth of the massive land which had been widely cleared and to the extreme where the two groups of the operator were working toward with their tractors to meet with each other. He mingled effort with other men he had met there and became more desperate as them in killing the escaping animals. At the end of the game which ended about an hour after the operators had finished their work, they were able to kill six antelopes, five big snakes, twelve grasscutters and unnumbered rodents. Kaka added his own share to that which he had already hunted on his solitary effort. It was already sundown. The operators and their supervisors formed a gathering together, had a brief meeting then, headed for the parsonage of the colonel. This was what the colonel had discussed with their bosses before they left for the city. They were to pass their night there with him before they would be leaving for the city the next morning. The reception offered to them was so warmly. Each of them, having thoroughly washed his soiled body under the shower in the birth room, was ushered to seat and served with food and drink in a quite impressive manner. It was such delicious meal prepared by cooks of high culinary skills. Its sweet aroma pervaded the room. They all ate until they were stuffed. The colonel and his wife sat with them and kept them accompany with their words about the issues of life. He had first of all, commended them for the wonderful efforts they had imposed on the work of the day. "If our contractors could be doing like this, things could have been far better here in our land .we wouldn’t have been having much problem as we do have in our construction projects. We’ve been tired of hearing the cases of the contractors who would bargain even with the government on a deal and run away with the huge money been paid them without doing the work. Some of them that had even stayed to do one, it’s a shoddy work they would often do".

The colonel had led them further and further into the discussion by the strong effect of his remarks. In the course of that, they too commended him for the goodwill he had bestowed upon his people. Mr Ephraim, who was one of the supervisors to the contractors said he would like to go and learn how to become like him in the moment he retired from work. He told him the village he too hailed from and how poverty had impaired the bright future of virtually all his people and left indelible tears on their faces. "There is this case I met on ground last week when I travelled to our village,’ he paused briefly, lifted up the cup he held in hand to his mouth, sipped at his wine, withdrew the cup again and continued. "It was about a woman who attempted throwing herself inside a very deep well at the front of our Bale’s palace where she heard the bad news that hauled her into this action. ‘My father’s house is very close to the palace, so we were able to hear it clear, the great shout, raucously made by some group of women who saw the woman from the front of the nearby house where they did use as shade to plait people hair for money. They saw her as she was about to fall herself into the well. ‘Anxiety ensued immediately and the shout mounted as we all rushed out and scooted toward her. People did not only rushed to save her in order to avoid the attempt of polluting the only source of water for the people of our land but to also prevent her from destroying her life. We all wondered that manner of calamity which had befell her that she was so moved to burry herself alive. "We, men around, held her tightly while she struggled to throw herself down as she had already set her feet on the mouth of the well and, dragged her into the palace where we afterward heard her story. The Baale and his men inside never new what was happening outside until we dragged her in. "My people, things are happening in our lands. We entered the palace and saw the man who had brought this bad news which upon this woman ran amok. This woman was a single parent to three children. Two boys and one girl. Her husband lost his life three years ago to a protracted illness. Since then, she had been the only one hustling for the survival of the three children. Just of recent, a woman came from the city. She was a native too but dwells in the city. She asked the poor widow to release to her the three children having promised she would take them to the city where she would make them to re-continue their blighted education, which triggered off by the demise of their father. This poor woman accepted, upon a pact of paying her one thousand naira on each of the children every month. Afterward the woman returned with the children to her place, she then gave them out too to one petty trader there in the city who happened to be a neighbour. She too entered into an agreement with her to be collecting two thousand naira monthly on each of the children. Now, the very news that was brought to the palace which resulted to the amok the woman had ran into was that the three children who had only been made hawkers of sachets water in the major roads of the city rather than been put in the school on the basis of the vow made to their mother, met with a sudden death a year after. They said, where they were busy running after one vehicle and another to sell the sachet of water to the passengers by the road sides, a trailer whose driver afterward tested drunk lost control and swerved to crush the children in their business mood to death. "Wonderful! The colonel exclaimed with his wife in a great consternation. Her lips refused to integrate out of shock. She placed her hand across her chest, gazing keenly into the face of Mr. Ephraim as he was narrating the story.

"You mean all the three children died? The colonel asked "yes colonel, Mr Ephraim answered. His voice quavered and was full of sorrow. He had sounded as if he wanted to cry. "They all died colonel. It was pathetic. Things are happening in our land, our leaders are not helping our children. They are only helping their own children. Taking them out of the country to better places in the world and that is why the children here mean nothing to them’ "You are right Mr Ephraim and the parents too are mistaking animal rearing for child rearing’. the colonel put in ‘It’s the animals that we rear to make money and food. And the children should be reared with the mighty hand of care to imbue in them all virtues of life so as to mould them to good successors who would look after all we left behind at the death of old age’ . Among themselves, the people discussed the high rate at which their sons and daughters are running out of the country to known and unknown lands in the world. "This our land is too hot for our souls" said Mr Ephraim ‘poverty has greatly brought upon us fiery failure. Our children are tired of enduring uncertainties. To make it in this our land is not so certain for the poor and that is why our children would never listen to any of our advise before they would run out of the country to strange land. And most of the lands are death snare. Can we count the numbers of our children who had died on their way to Libya and some other part of the world? Can we point to the actual numbers of those of them who have been killed there? "Poverty has choked off all the virtues we have instil in our children when we born them. It has turned them to miscreants. They shed blood, dupe themselves and especially the foreigners and do mugging Just because they want to make money. And people question their existence. They’ve become an eyesore to the foreigners and thus they seek to put them to death and prisons. "My people, who and who are to be blamed for all these? Is it we that gave birth to them to become useful to us in the future or the children themselves who crave to be somebody in future? The biggest blame should be put upon our political leaders. "Though some of the parents are careless and many of our children are greedy and rude; they disdain our admonition, still things wouldn’t have been worst as this if our political leaders are ruling us outright. The ruthless ones among them are the ones who have moulded our land to a furnace of poverty that burn on our skins and made us to seek for shortcut means of escape. Every short cut to success or may I say comfort in this life is evil. short cut is robbery, shortcut is drug trafficking, shortcut is prostitution, shortcut is duping, shortcut is embezzling and rituals. "I remembered some few months ago when one of the governors in the cities was doing his birthday, the affluence people came from the far and near to present to him cheque of huge amount of money and prestigious cars and many other valuables. But they would never remember the paupers that full the streets they are passing every day. Some of the fair one’s among them are those you will see throwing peanuts out of the window of their cars onto the scrappy body of the paupers in the streets while passing by "They say, teach me how to fish is far better then give me fish to eat. The one that struck me most was when they said the president was going to lunch a library he had built to put its ownership in his own care while still in service and not in the care of his state or community. And there was a great throng of the noble ones across the country at the ceremony and who contributed millions of naira to the grass to plethora grace president.

"The worst of the matter was that many of these ones who appeared there were people whose hands were not clean in their offices and no one could challenge them, even the chairman of the board in charge of fighting corruption just because the president has placed himself to be more powerful than the one any man dare touch any of his sycophants. ‘ And when these ones would talk, you would see them claiming they are wise. According to one of our title men here, chief Balogun, he would say, the world is spoiling everyday and so we’ve began to see the fools coming out in public to boast they are wise." The colonel later talked about a man he knew very well in one of the sates in the country. The man was a retired civil servant who hardly owned a two bedroom flat where he managed with his wife and his four children. He also had a ramshackle car he carried about. In a not shell, this man contested as a governor some years after. And his people poured out in mass to vote him into power out of the interest they had in the party under which he was contesting. This was the party that was said to have been formed as the reflection of the hearts of the past state men who had greatly sown good seed into their land Before the end of the four years, his people had virtually perished in frustration of all sorts. They cursed him and all fastened their will and made it one massive one which basis was that they would never vote for him again in any election. But at the end of the term, he beat their hands down. At the election of his second attempt, he used his trained boys on his people who had converged the election boots to vote him out of the office. The desperate boys brandished their cutlass and shot bullets in the air, scarring away the voters. They killed, maimed them, beat up the press and some electoral officials, and stole away ballot boxes. And at the end of all he was declared re-elected. The striking part of the story was that, at the end of the whole eight years, the one time poor civil servant emerged as one of the richest men in Africa. He owned numbers of ex-class vehicle, mansions, two first class aircrafts and millions of dollars in both local and foreign banks. The Colonel eventually compared him with the man Adekunle Ajasin. Decades ago, he happened to be one of the state governors in Nigeria. At the end of his term, this man who stayed for years in government house where money abounds hardly own a building and also rode in a jalopy Peugeot car throughout his life. "This is what is called leader", the colonel said nervously. "Look at Nelson Mandela too. He left London where peace and prosperity abound then after his education and returned to his father’s land where sorrows and conflict reined, just to come and help his people having turned down the advice of his colleagues, which forbade him from leaving. He was immured in prison and was only able to receive his freedom after twenty seven years. He afterward became the president of his nation and yet he did not see it as an opportunity to pay back the evil done on him by looting the money that belong to his country as many of our leaders here are doing’. "These are epitome of good leaders", he said with great concern. "My people, we would continue to talk about them. The one that do good we would say it and the one that do bad we would never exaggerate it. And our children shall read it in their historical books in the future. We would never fear them for the man who fear they that could kill the flesh but who could not kill the spirit is not a valiant’. The colonel paused briefly, cleared his throat in a slight cough then continued again.

"There was this story told me by my father in my elementary school days. It was the story about three noble wise men who love God most as they called themselves. Because of their name, they resolved to do that which no one had ever done before. So, they bought precious things, like gold, silver and other vital valuables which they afterward decided to go and present to God. "One bright morning they move into space and began to look for God. They searched and searched into the tiniest air to meet with God for years but they could not find Him’. "They came down again and moving from inside one sea to another and to every rivers in the world. This was done also for years then they move to mountains and valleys for another couples of years to no fruition. Wilderness was not left out. It was properly comb’. "so, one day like that, after they had also combed virtually all the spaces on the earth they met with one old woman in a very far away land. The woman, having saw them and sensed they were panic, sweating profusely, she took sympathy on them and kindly placed them on question to fathom what their ordeal was all about.’ "They told her they were looking for God and also told her how much they had suffered in searching through heaven and earth for Him. The woman told them that she too never knew where exactly was the face of God but that she knew of a man of God in one remote ghetto whom she believed would be able to tell them where the God whom he called everyday was. "The three noble wise men who love God most were happy, they tendered their gratitude before the old woman so much and left for the land afterward. As they reached there, they met the priest, He was old, neat but poor. When they saw him, they were not please at meeting him but because he was said to be a man of God they could not take the decision of going back,. "God is a big man, how can his servant be as poor as this?’ One of them thought as he surveyed the scrappy body of the old priest and the squalor he was dwelling. The priest received them with smile and beautiful words and offered them seats. Thereafter, he asked them about what they had came for. And they told him they were looking for God and made him to also know how much they had suffered in the process. "The three noble wise men, who love God most was amazed at the saying of this old priest who said he was seeing God cheaply .The same God whom they had suffered greatly to catch even his glimpse. The man smiled again then said’, ‘my men, you don’t have problem anymore once you’ve reached to me. You shall see God very soon. But may I know your name first? "For the first time, win-some smile glittered on the faces of the men when they had been assured of seeing God soon. They heaved a sigh of relief as they attempted to answer the question. "We are the three noble wise men who love God most. They said in unison, we also fear Him and study Him of his word always’. " Your name is good. To be wise is not easy and to love God most is a great task. Now, seeing God depend on what you want to see him for; you want to seek him in prayer or you want to meet him one on one? "We don’t want to seek him in prayer", they said with little contempt, we are rich enough, so we don’t have problem we need to pray God for. "Alright, may I know what you want to see God for.

"As we’ve told you, we are so very rich, so we’ve brought plenty of prestigious items which we want to give to God so that we would continue to see His good face for the rest of our life.. "Ha, is that what you want God for? He asked with smile. This is call ‘meeting God one on one’ and its very simple". "They were all marvelled at this saying of the priest as he said this one was simple. ‘Now, you will rise to your feet, carry all the prestigious items you brought and move to the entrance of this land. God is there now waiting for you. The men were so amazed. ‘so you’ve already contacted him and told him we are here? They asked the old priest in glee. "Don’t worry about that, just hasten yourself to the place. He’s right there waiting". "These men left immediately in bliss. But when they reach the entrance of the land they could not find anyone that looked like God. Hence, they returned to the old priest in sorrow and narrated their ordeal. "When you get there how did you look out for God? The priest asked . "We looked out for a white giant, whose head would virtually touch the sky and who put on a crystal robe and having a long white hair touching his rump’, they answered. "The old priest was astounded" what did you say your names are the other time? He asked solemnly, "we are the noble wise men who love God most and who study him of his word’. The old priest turned round and whispered into the air as he was still in amazement, "the world is spoiling so the fools have been coming out in public to say they are wise". He whispered this in the air then turned face again to them afterward. "Then, who did you see there? "We met a man who was so emaciated and wore a scruffy cloth, looking out in helplessness for people from whom to beg succour. "Good, the old priest said nodding along, "you see that pauper you found there is that God you’ve been looking for all the long while". "Incredible". They shouted in unison and in wonder, they accused the old priest of blaspheming. "How could you call a riff-rat God? "I wondered how you’ve called yourselves noble wise men of God and could not understand common spiritual things. were you not the one who have also told me you fear God and study his word? I have told you before that it’s two ways God himself has set as means by which we could meet him. No one has ever seen God physically. He is invincible and invisible. He has made us been able to meet him in spirit through prayer or meet him on the other hand one on one by reaching to the destitute and ministering to their needs. by so doing God will shine his glorious eyes on anyone who came around them to offer them succour in his name. For God has used them to represent himself on earth because of his great interest in them’ "My noble men, he who gives to the rich while the indigents suffer would gain the favour of men but would never see the good face of God. If you can not go to them yourself give it to the elders of your places of worship and let them do it for you", the old priest said and referred them to the scripture. He cited to them, the book of Matt 25:41-46. "Then the king will turn to those on the left side and say, away with you, you cursed ones into the eternal fire prepared by the devil and his demons! For I was hungry and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to

drink, I was a stranger and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me no clothing, I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me. "Then they will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you? And he will answer. "I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters you were refusing to help me. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into internal life’. The colonel paused having rounded of his story, cleared his throat in a slight cough then proceeded. "These are how some of our leaders here are. They always think they are the wisest. They believe they are the one that love God most and whom God love most just because they are in power. Some of them serve as workers in the churches and mosques. They would sashay into the churches and mosques every Fridays and Sundays as the most prestigious worshipers of God, using fat tithes and offering pressing down the tongues of our clergy men from preaching the truth. Are their acts not as silly as that of these men who called themselves the noble wise ones who love God most? And what is the different between them and those clergy men and women who in their different churches given them red carpet treatment which they could not even give to God who owns their souls.? "Look at our villages how they have turned to cemeteries where the dead and the moribund ones waiting death instrumentally abound just because no clinic with quality facility and no money to purchase drugs to treat oneself of illness and disease that full the squalors. "We should give kudos to unicef and the United State of America government and some European countries. They shall never fall. If not for them we would have cursed our existence out of weariness of seeing our children dropping dead everyday. They have been greatly doing well at saving lives across the globe and that is what God want. "Their senators, governors, ministers and others in authority eat moderately, drink moderately and collect only the money they are due for in office and hence, they were able to use the excess in their national income to sponsor programs that bring comfort to humanity across the globe especially in Africa. While many of our black holders of offices eat and drink gluttonously, and parking all the surplus the countries are making into hides for their own use alone with their families and people of their concourse. And when we want to say, we say we are equal to them in intellect. Is the discrepancy not regal? Actually, in a natural sense we are equally created but cupidity and shamelessness including egocentric are bringing us low. Many of African leaders were shameless like a man who begs for food from an orphan and desperate at eating like a famished dog. "Truth was taken to the market for sale and no one recognize its presence but when falsehood appeared in distance with high value place on its head people ran to it with huge money; that is what our father’s told us. in African societies our people don’t want the truth. The world is a world of vanity. It worth not living luxuriously. No permanency here. it’s birth today death tomorrow. This is where you find the one laughing today over the joy that has taken place in his life, but crying tomorrow for sorrow that has just befall him. ‘This world is a place where human spirit itself never wish to come and live while in the world beyond but was compelled to . My people, why is it that when

baby is born he cries? It’s because he has been force to come where he’s not willing to come but which is under must so as to come and face the test which the creator has design for every soul, out of which his fate for the life of eternity will be decided. It’s a simple logic, when we send our child an errand and we put some forces to it as we sense he never want to oblige, what will he do? He begins to cry while he goes. Not everybody understands this philosophy. once they are born and begin to grow people forget the condition under which they come to this world and subsequently they begin failing the test which the creator has made them to come and undergo which would eventually determine whether their existence will continue beyond this world or it would be put in extinction at the end of the world. ‘Equity is very scarce in Africa and rule of law is so very less valued. Sometimes ago in one of our banks a cashier committed a fraudulent act in the account of N50 thousand naira and taken to court and was sentenced to seven years jail term with hard labour. while a state governor was caught with a lot of money amounted to millions of dollars and was only taken to court when people had began to heap curses on his fellows in power who had been trying to cover him up. And at the end of the day, he was given two years jail term. Millions of hands that pamper surrounded him and accompanied him there, and after few weeks he was out of the prison through manipulation. ‘We teach our children rule of law in our schools but we don’t practise it. If two poor men fight each other on the street, the police apprehend them and would release them only when they have drained them and their families of all they have. While our senators fight themselves even on the street and no policemen dare touch them. "The great philosopher, I mean A.V. Dicey who propounded this theory perspired like others to do so in order to propagate ease to the living of humanity. But our people would never value this. They would never sit down to think critically for what they too could do for the world and which they will ever remember for". ‘The canny politicians are wailing and struggling to move into power to help us, but because they are so few in number, the ruthless ones that full there are making the attempt tough for them". All of them that night talked one thing and another until the depth of the night when they eventually went to the bed. In that night too, kaka was not happy in spite of the huge money he had made from the sales of the animals he had hunted on the sites during the game. In the market, after he left the site at the sun down a lively joy stood tall between him and the market woman who bargained with him to buy the meat and that was the mood he was returning home with. But unfortunately for him, the joy died prematurely as he walked on his way home and reached the point where he had the moribund building he inherited from his late father Which was along the way. The same building where he lost his late wife What that choked off the bliss was the fiery shock of the strangeness he had just observed there, on the land. Some building materials had been deposited at one side. About fifty bags of cements, iron sheets of about five bundles, four separate massive heaps of white sounds, many numbers of planks and frames and doors were all deposited there and properly covered with a thick tapolean. Kaka stood still as he wondered about the one who could have intended to snatch his place from him and erect a building there secretly He knew the hand he had seen on this place must be that of a wealthy man. Perhaps somebody had sold his land to one of the strong politicians who could do an undo with their unclean money.

Thus, he was griped with a fiery fear like the one whom sorrow had always knocked at his door. When he reached home at the night, he knew the colonel with his wife was in discussion with the guests in the house, so he could not reach to them. He managed to carry his bag to the kitchen. There were two dead rabbits inside and some dead squirrels too. He was so sad that he felt not to attend to anything around him. But he knew it would be bad if he could leave the meat from been processed. Thus, he managed to kindle fire. And having butchered the meat into parts he set them on fire. Kaka went straight to his bed immediately he was through in the kitchen. He swayed from one side of the bed to another. The thought of the malevolence that was about to be done to him overwhelmed his soul and he found sleeping extremely onerous. He remembered the case that happened in the land about two years ago. It was the case of a young man of about thirty five years old. He too had the house he had inherited from his late father collapsed in one of the torrent rain of the season after about five years of the death of his father. And thus, he sought for a space where he was managing in the house of a friend to his late father. One morning like that, on his way to his farm, this man heard people pouring greetings on him, commending him for the great courage he had showcase in reconstructing the crumbled house of his late father. The elderly ones among them praising him and blessing him for being a responsible and reliable son to the dead man. They braced it by calling him a good heir. "It’s few of our children that can do this; one of the old men said as they walked through the path that led to the farms. It was the kind of road that contain about three people who walked abreast. "It’s few of our children who can stay to look after those little things their poor fathers have left behind; the old man added. initially, the young man was not getting the point but after about three or four people had greeted him this way, he was totally baffled. His mind was no more in the farm he was going. He immediately turned back as if he had forgotten something at home. He walked down straight to his father’s place and was shocked to meet some numbers of labourers: men and women, working there. He controlled his temperament and greeted them very well to draw their perfect attentions. "For whom are you working here my men? The young man asked. "May we know whom you are representing here before we can tell you anything?’ One of the labourers answered as they unbend their back to look him in the face. The rest nodded in support ‘I can see you are all strangers and that is why you are asking me this kind of question and that is also why I will agree to answer you. I’m Supo and I am representing my late father here. This collapsed building you are working to convert to a new structure belong to my father. And this farm from which I had just returned from it’s path are the only two properties my father bequeathed to me at his demise. I’m his only son and the rest of my siblings are all women who have all gone to their different ways to live with their husband. "Oh, that is good of you", said the leaders of the labourers "But there is something I’m yet to understand. your mission here is not yet clear to us; or what do you say my people?’ The man gazed into the mouth of his co-workers for the answer and they all nodded simultaneously and said "yes" in unison ‘ ‘perhaps the one who buy or paid for this crumbled house has over-paid and your father you said you are representing here has sent you to bring

the rebate because we heard that the rich man paid too hugely for this mouse’s hole’’, the man said comically and his co-labourers laughed un-controllable. The young man became greatly irked and was so confused. He didn’t know which one to react at; whether the shocking news he had just heard from this man about the sales of his father’s dilapidated building or the insult he had just received in the bad way by which the man talked to him. But he was such a person that never wanted trouble. ‘Did you mean somebody has bought this land including this collapsed building on it? He asked keenly, looking so expectantly for the confirmation. The labourers rather laughed him scornfully and when the laughter had gone stale their leader faced the young man again. "My friend, with this question you’ve just asked I can know now that you are like a wondering insect, managing the shell of a dead snail, when it’s hot outside it thinks it’s cold and when in winter it thinks it was summer. The owner of the body you carry about is dead. If not, how won’t you know that this place does no longer belong to your late father but a man in the city; a great politician indeed who can do an undo with his great money’. ‘From whom did he purchase the land? He asked ‘young man, I repeat, they said this man paid excessively for this mouse hole you claim belong to your father and he has promised too, to pay us hugely but he hasn’t done so perhaps he’s waiting for when we finish our work. So, if your father has sent you to refund some of the excessive payment, you can give it to us now. Our pockets are dry’, we need money. Is that not so my people?’. He turned to ask his people. They all answer him and busted into an audible laughter. ‘He was asking me of who sold his father’s mansion’, the leader added mockery and that triggered high their laughter again. The young man became so fume and baffled. Fear had seized up his heart. His blazing enthrals had boiled enough and cooked the saliva in his mouth to starch which strictly held down his tongue to his mouth. Hence, he found words difficult to utter. It was then his eyes opened to the foreign labourers. Through the way they looked like, the tribal marks on their faces and the way they pronounced their words he was able to discern that village these labourers were from. it was the one about seventy kilometres from Kajore. They had always been tramps that moved in colony and searched for manual jobs. They hardly had education and so non of them do bother for lucrative jobs. Wherever they met themselves, it was their inherence to always keep themselves cheerful in hurting others through utterances that contained element of insult . People hate them over this habit but they had always succeeded in winning people’s interest by their assiduousness at working. They worked as hard as machines and as fast as horse. The young man thereafter left them alone and went away to meet one or two friends for counsel. And he was told not to plot attack on the labourers but to find out who precisely was the one whom the land was sold to and that through him he would in the course of time know the devil who had done the havoc. In a vivid investigation, he knew that the man in charge of the project was one rich politician who dwelled in the city. And in his trip to him in the city, the politician told the young man about how he had suddenly became the owner of the crumbled structure. "That project you saw going on in your place there", the rich politician started relaying his story, ‘was a bit out of our effort of preparing for the next election. My

brother, you know we are no more infants in this business. It’s the business of our day. The businesses that can make one as rich as of this business is absolutely rear now in this our nation. All these you can hear of me that I acquired, are not by any means other than politics. I started politics since when I was nineteen and this took place immediately I resigned from being a messenger to one great politician. He’s late now’. The rich politician continued his story and the young man fell disrupted in his body . A kind of heaviness befell him and he could not un-lean his back from the upholstery seat he was ushered into inside the colossal sitting room of the rich man nor was able to lift up his hand to carry the bottle of wine he was served on the table in front of him at his arrival. He remained startled as he wondered how a men could be boast of trading politics in this age of the world. The young man was greatly embittered as he moved forward in his thought. He had now properly understood why people suffered enormously in poverty in his land. This idea of some ruthless set of people in society teaming together and form a political party through which they would fetch the nation’s wealth at the greatest proportion and sharing it among themselves having succeeded in hijacking power in violence from the canny politicians on election’s day was a bad omen to the future of the nations. ‘As I was saying my young man’ the rich man continued immediately he finished attending to a phone call, ‘the building we are constructing on that land you said brought about you being here is our party house in that land. It’s part of our efforts in gathering strength to confront squally with full force the ranging competition of power among the political parties in the forth coming election. The young man was patient enough to allow the rich politician to relate all his political stories before he too unveil the totality of what that brought him there. At the end, the rich politician told him he was the one who bought the land with his own money for his party and was also the one sponsoring the construction going on, on it eventually, he made it known to the young man that it was Bawon, the great political lord in the land from where the young man came that sold it to him. A great fear struck like thunder across the heart of the young man in the moment he heard that Bawon, the dangerous political lord: the one time senator to his land and the god father to many political aspirants and holders of power across the land, was having hand in the lost of his father’s possession. Bawon wasn’t an easy man indeed. He hardly regard any man however well position was the person in the society. Even the king in the land had suffered unnumbered contemptuous approach from him. He was a man who reap where he never sown. A lot of plots of land had actually been snatched and sold by him and non of the victims had been able to retrieve one. The young man wept bitterly for falling a victim. He had never dreamt of that. All the while, he had been planning his future on the little farmland he inherited from his late father and the dilapidated building. Not any other hope left with him to build his future upon than these two moribund legacy. No education nor the required capital to move into trade. Within a short while, after he had been told about the sales of the land, the face of the young man had turned pale and he was wholly nervous. This sombreness of him caught the right side of the heart of the rich politician where compassion laid and thus he moved to consoled him. He gave him fifty thousand naira cash but sorrow had seriously struck him that he valued not the grant and that was how he left for the village.

At his arrival, when his friend heard his story they blamed him for not collecting the token. Two or three of them stressed it to his hearing the impossibility of the retrieval of the land from Bawon whose compound was full of dangerous boys who thirst every now and then for blood of the innocents like the vampires. On this insight, the young man went back to the city to collect the grant from the rich politician. But yet he had been finding it difficult to recover from the pain of the great lost. All these were well known to kaka. He was a close relation to the young victim. throughout the night, fear strictly apprehended him from reaching into a nice sleep of the night. He would not like his own case to be like that of this young man. Thus, in anxiety he swayed from one side of the bed to another and momentarily giving out deep sound in a heavy breath out of his worrisome heart. He began the counting on the ceilings in his room through the night to no end. As soon as it was morning, with no bit of patience he shown himself to colonel in his sanctum K. Before he could even start unveiling his heart the colonel had knew it was filled of agitation for he looked so aghast. ‘Is anything wrong kaka?’ He asked having responded to his faint greeting. He knew that this question he had put before him was just ceremonial, for obviously something was wrong with his soul. "It’s fire sir’, he responded piteously’, they have set fire on my future…" he added looking so sad like a dog that had been so tired of missing it’s ways. The colonel did not understand the message thus he became nervous to grab its demystification. ‘How has fire set on your future? He asked solemnly, staring into his eyes keenly. Kaka began to pour words out of the abundance of his sorrowful heart but busted into cry along the way. A great concern fell heavily on the colonel. He moved away from his seat and to kaka where he had sat opposite to him. His arm was placed across his shoulder and began to console him sympathetically. Kaka told his plight. He told him how he had gone for game on the farm sites the previous day. How and how he had killed animals, which he eventually took for sale in the market for pocket money. But when he was about to reach the point where fire he said was kindle by some enemies to born his future was, he busted again into sobbing. The colonel set again to drain his misted eyes with his handkerchief. ‘My brother the colonel called, ‘you see, when trouble comes to victimize a man, it would only be glad to praise itself to more of the obnoxious deed only if the man agrees to be his servant. For If he does not succumb the trouble would flee. In this life, trouble is ineluctable to man. I mean, man at least must face a trouble in his lifetime. But it’s the man who will decide how long the trouble has to dwell with him. While trouble makes the strong men to become stronger, it makes the weak ones weaker. And mind you a weak man is not identify by his physical appearance but by his heart .some have tough hearts, stronger than a shell of palm not while that of some were as soft as the shell of an egg Even the strike of trouble is the parameter by which the brave one know how consistency they are in power. They also believe that trouble does not come upon them for destruction but to make them expose to new things of life’. ‘My brother, the river does not lack clemency when it allow its surge to throw out the fish from its aquatic world to that of the fiery terrestrial. It’s because the river

knows that the lesson learn in one’s world is not enough to live through this harsh life we are living in, for there is always fresh ideas hanging in the air of every new world. ‘And the whirlwind does not mean to torment the timbers when it blows tough across the forest but it’s has only done so in order to know which one among the three that is always there preparing itself for the evil days. ‘So if problem befall you today, don’t believe its intension is to kill you or impair your future as you’ve claimed, but it has come on you to expose you to new things of life through which you could be stronger’. The colonel spoke at a great length and only ceased when it appeared to him that a reasonable portion of kaka agitation had been allayed. Kaka thereafter opened his mouth again to talk. He coughed slightly to clear his throat. ‘Colonel’, he called to begin’, you know my two kids and the two moribund assets’, I mean the ramshackle building and the sterilizing farm land which I inherited from my father are all that am building my future upon. Now, if not for your grace my children would have both died just the way my wife died inside the devil’s box that my late father bequeathed to me. And the death of the two kids would have caused my ancestor to have whipped me tough any time I get to them in the spirit world for smashing off their lineage into discontinuity. I am the only child of my father and I must be able to produce kids that will allow the continuation of our lineage. Now, you have helped to save them .And yet another evil is looming around me again ‘I’m not the one who saved them. It’s God. "I know colonel, but it’s you he has used". "Let give God the glory. Now what exactly is the evil you said is looming around you? Kaka explained all what he saw on the land. He gave vivid and accurate account of it and told him the story of the young man his own land was systematically disposed of him by some strong men in the land and what became his end. At the end of his story, the colonel breathed deeply down. It was that of a relief. ‘Is that all? He asked. ‘Yes colonel’, kaka answered and was somehow wondered how the colonel had only taken the story simple. He had shown no sigh of perturbation. "You see the other time when I returned to this land and gave you and some others who have similar cases with you refuge in my house here, I told you people that your staying here is just temporal. And as the day has began right from the day you people parked in here with me so shall it end in the day your building are fully reconstructed as they are going to be done in a modern pattern. so, all the building materials you said you saw there are what I’m responsible for. And it is not on your own land alone that such are deposited but also on that of another ten people that encountered same stormy calamity. ‘ All the materials haven’t been conveyed here in the land. The labourers that will work on the land will arrive today with the remaining materials. So go and cool your mind; nothing to boil over’’. Indeed, enormous mirth had engulfed kaka as he finished hearing the disclosure from the colonel. He fell on the floor, rolling from one end to another in the front of the colonel. The colonels bended down with him, lifting him up ‘don’t do this. It’s God you should give the glory. Kaka could not hold his feeling and had appeared discomforted having been restrained by the colonel from singing his paean and delivering his plaudit to him, who had turned his plight to pleasure.

As he was still in this mood of joy and that of appealing to show his gratitude, the colonel had inserted the key to his drawer and fetched out the plan of the new houses on construction. Kaka saw his own and flatly collapsed in joy. He never knew why he had deserved such. And tears of joy rolled down his checks But at a point as usual, sadness stood with joy in his heart and each measuring itself against the other. This happened as the memory of his late wife surge through his heart. Now that there was a clear indication that he was going to be a owner of a mansion in his life, who would then be the queen of the gigantic house. Would it be that woman there who had never shed sweat with him when life was so tough and rough for him? How would the new wife he might marry now maintain the house and place value on it. For what a man does not suffer for he does not value it as what he has suffered for? Kaka then began to blame and curse death in his mind having declared it as the number one enemy to man. He felt pain in his heart of why it had not been possible for the whole world to come together in one mind so as to pray God to crush out death from existence. Now that kaka had indeed retrieved his lost mirth, he remembered his meat in the kitchen. He dashed there and hastily warmed it. Adding little condiment to it to make it tastier then collected some portions into a clean plate and conveyed it to the colonel. It was a beautiful offer of the morning to the colonel and he received it with great glee, having his face beaming with smile. Afterward, kaka asked for Mrs. Rose but he could not wait for the answer when he hastily went for her in her room. But as he got there he knew the beautiful mother was still sleeping, breathing cool in the somnolent whether of the bright morning. So he resolved to reserve for her, her own portion of the meat. Rose could not leave the bed early this morning because of being wearied in the strain been encountered in the trip Sola and her had made to the city the previous day. They had only returned while it was already gloomy. The two had travelled to the city to consult a professional doctor. The man was a bosom friend to colonel K and he had been their private doctor for over one and half decades. Having warmly welcomed them, Rose unveiled to him their mission in his place. It was the case of Sola. Rose relayed to him the story of the poor lady with inclusion of her HIV status. And mainly the interest of she and her husband in knowing how far was the veracity of the test that had been done on this girl previously by a doctor in a test in which she was declared an HIV/AID victim. With the same fiery zeal always inside of every famished kite in attacking a wondering rat, the doctor set for the fresh test. He would never toy with any work on anybody associated to the colonel’s family. At the end of the laboratory test the doctor returned to his seat. He then told Sola to rest her mind. He thereafter told her some stories that all centred on why she shouldn’t allow fear to rule her life. Among the stories was the scientific one where he unfolded some numbers of research works that had been so far busy going on in the world, in order to give remedy to HIV/aid itself. He told them about the great achievement of the scientific in discovery of some retroviral drugs which had been in use to fight the virus at their early stage. He went further by also telling her the great advantages the drugs had brought to the victims. The one he had struck mostly well was the one about the protection of the spans of the victims of this deadly dieses from the risk of shortening them. Eventually, he congratulated her for been fortunate to fall a victim of the disease only when there had been the discovery of those drugs he had mentioned

could be used to averagely incapacitated the ravaging virus that lives in the body of the victims. ‘Many people who had contacted the disease in the past hadn’t this great privilege until they were ignobly killed by the virus’ the doctor said and continued. ‘that was when you would see the victims avoiding to move around people because of the stigma attached to it. You would see them carrying their skeletal body about. And you are not a victim when the victims were frustrated to stay in desolation. People kept away from them, even friends and relations. Now, there are always jingles every where enlightening people about the disease and why they should not run away from the victim but show love and keep caution’, the doctor added. Rose breathe deep down as the doctor made a brief pause to peruse over a book he held in hand. "So, it’s true she has contacted the virus?’ She asked ‘yes madam. But fortunate for her, she has reasons to thank God for .The drugs are here which she could be taking to fight the total reign of the virus in her body’ . Eventually, at their journey back home, a lot of drugs were given to Sola and she was admonished to be paying regular visit to the clinic. Both the head and the tail of the story was told to the colonel by Rose in the moment they arrived. And the colonel felt for her. He motivated her in a lengthy talk not to be disappointed. ‘The fulfilment of your destiny is not determined by any circumstances around you but by yourself. Have we never seen a child that was has glorious background wondering in vain at his adulthood and a fellow with a very poor upbringing turn a millionaire? So, failure must come and it’s the victim who would determine whether he would continue to wallow in it for the rest of his life or not. The colonel did very much at allaying her of her agitation. He had also told her the story of Jezebel and Job. And after she had gone to bed at the night with a very less burdensome heart, the colonel stayed behind and buckled under the strain of a massive thought of the mind. The thought of what to do for this poor lady wasn’t what that weigh down this noble man in his heart for he knew he had the potential but that of what he turn her to as to be a blessing to her generation. He was going to imbue in her the spirit of altruism dwelling in him. At least by catering or attending to the problem of the others, she would be able to forget about her own problem.

Chapter6 One thing is to make a vow and another thing is to drag it into a splendid fulfilment. Making a vow is one of the things of life that man often find quite easy to do, but for them to afterward bring it to pass, it has always been to them as tough as the attempt of pulling the tooth of a living elephant. Bringing a promise to the highest order of its fulfilment has ever remained as the paramount in the establishment of a sound rapport among men in life. Many had been seen vowed hugely to their fellow beings and had even sprang into its fulfilment, but at a little move along the line, something strange would come and chopped off the zeal in them like the seed that fell by the road side, and hurriedly devoured by some famished birds in the story of the sower. This had never been the case of colonel k. To make a promise wasn’t as important to him as its fulfilment. He had also been a man who had often cherished

embracing consistency in all its endeavour however harsh it was. And had as well found no sense in procrastinating issues when the whether was still fair a little to make a move. He had strongly shared same notion with people who say ‘action speaks louder than words. Day after day, since his arrival, the planning book of the project of developing his father’s land had frequently found been opening to new chapters having brought that, which were on the previous chapters to reality. The day after the clearing of the bush and when the survey that followed it was over, the real work began proper. The contractors rolled into the land, their machines and implements. Kaka was privilege to emerge as one of the men that the contractors had employed to do the bricklaying work on the site. This resulted from the effort of the colonel in persuading the contractors to see that the largest number of men and women who would work casually on the farm sites were people from the land. At this appointment, Kaka found himself driving through the axis of brighter hope and joy. Over years, he had lost hope in the profession he had chosen when he was a very young man. This came to be after he had toiled and toiled in this field and realized all what he was making was a pittance. What he toiled per day went down his belly per day. No saving and no properties to point that he had acquired. At a point in life , he could no longer make his three square meal of the day not to talk of feeding his family and that was when he eventually sacked himself from the profession. Now, this very day that he had found his name in the list of the bricklayers that were going to work on the land meant a lot to him. This was the day the force of a good news had penetrated his heart through the ear, to chase away the enormous regret that had for many years rigid itself firmly therein. He had so far regretted choosing this profession that had earlier carried the crown of good trade upon itself during the life time of his father who was the one, who admonished him to go for it, but which at the turn of his own time, become , messed up like an abdicated king. this was just because people were no more building houses like before as the result of an abject poverty that had been for long operating across the land. People were no more aiming to eat and get fat and fortified but just to see they make a do in order to avoid the death of a hunger not to talk of planning a building. Kaka had also emerged as the head of those bricklayers that were chosen in the land to work now on the sites. And immediately after a short while that the colonel had assembled them in a place at some distance away to the farm site, and engaged them in a brief discussion, kaka led his men onto the farm for the work of the day. As these workers turned their back facing the site, the colonel couldn’t resist the marvel that griped him when he viewed the degree at which the men craved for the work. It had appeared apparently on each of them that they had really suffered too immensely the effect of idleness foster on them by bad government. ‘Bad leadership is too precarious’; the colonel had had himself releasing this in the air from his mouth with great concern. He wondered why there could still be suffering and insufficiency where there were versatile workers, able bodies in a well-endowed land like this. The people had only been artificially made handicaps by the poor leadership in the land. No impressive effort made by the government toward the provision of employment. It was such a shameful environment that one would every now and then finding beggars who were neither blind nor lame. In short, who were able and never in the state of infirmity, moving desperately around the streets, and turned public menace and disturbances. They trouble the pedestrians and the commuters in their effort to beg for what to it As people walked in the street, these

beggars would skitter at them, some would draw these passers-by by the hem of their cloths, combining some forces with much of plea so as to convince them to releasing succour to them for daily survival. One thing that had always struck the colonel dumped founded each time he observed into this issue, was that some of these able-beggars were university graduates, polytechnic graduates, high school certificate holders and other holders of one certificate and another. He had had his eyes sick of constant seeing graduates, some of whom were masters holders, wandering around the streets as vagrants while political thugs that didn’t attend school at all were seen riding in prestigious cars. They were the ones the ruthless politicians were using to foment trouble and hijack power from the canny politicians during election having paid them hugely from the covert coffer they must have smuggled out of the government houses. After minutes, the colonel strived and exhumed his buried consciousness under the burdensome thought and only unbend his head to see that the cheerful workers had vanished into the sites. They had already going far in digging hard into the earth with their tools. The colonel afterward returned to his parsonage to prepare for the next obligation of the day. As hours passed hours, the labourers continued waxing stronger. The manner by which they were cutting out the ground in the attempt of carving out the foundation of the structures had began reflecting a nice layout for the incipient building when viewed. There was a sound mutual understanding between the labourers and their supervisors and that had really helped the smooth running of the work. Voiced were keenly listened to and orders perfectly followed. The nature of the progress that had occurred in the day work had brought enormous impression to the contractors and especially the colonel as he repaid his visit to the site at noon, when the sun had earnestly set in the sky. In distance, he watched the workers on the field with great marvel. They had been working unperturbed under the fiery sun as if they were under a roof barricaded with air conditioners. At the recess of the field, their half nude bodies which had already enshrouded in perspiration was greatly heating by the blazing sun. And still they bothered not. They had been cheerfully working to even forget that there was a break time set aside for them. They worked so hard that shown they had really been tired of the lay-off which had been for long fostered upon them by the bad leadership in the land. Not only the incentives they had benefited and the rest they still hoped to derive in this work that had breaded their desperation at the work, but also it was the pent up joy over their fresh freedom from the protracted lay-off they had for long suffered. But when it was exactly 2pm, the entire work suffered a set back somehow. A sudden complexity emerged and the contractors encountered with the panic. They ran helter-skelter to obtain remedy. Having alerted one another, including their supervisors, the meeting at which to make the decision of employing more labourers was convened and about twenty-five men were recruited. About four trailers and six tippers had already arrived the land but stopped at the entrance. The four trailers were filled up with bags of cements; each 250kg, four of the tippers carried white sound and the remaining two were filled to the brim with gravels. The drivers couldn’t move them forth anymore into the land down to the sites due to the degree of the condition of the ram-shackle roads. The potholes on the road were so wide and deep and thus looked absolutely as the dungeon of hell. There were also steeps here and there. It made pedestrians to suffer great imbalance not talk of heavy trucks. Before the contractors could arrive to the decision of employing fresh labourers who would be off-loading the trucks and from the long distance, conveying

the building materials to the sites; they had brained stormed so long and so well on how to settle the difficulties in moving the vehicles onto the sites but all was to no fruition. They knew if they could be filling the portholes with sound and gravels and levelling the steeps with tools, it would take them many months and resources, which was not in their disposal. The fresh labourers, which were scores of hefty young men, set for the work and it began by lifting the bags of cement on their heads and facing the farm sites. The contractors began to watch them and became embittered at a point. The work was not moving fast and the pain suffered by each of the men in covering the long distance with heavy load on his head to the farm sites was too immense. And in their decision to make a change, they sent for wheels in the city. Before it was glooming, the labourers on the sites had really gone far in the construction of the farm building. And those that were on the other side offloading and conveying to the sites, the building materials had absolutely done what that worth big kudos. The trucks that carried the bags of cement had been totally emptied. And they were about starting working on the tippers of gravels when their bosses came to inform them it was the exact hour to call it a day. And having been settled with their dues a blissful dispersion ensued. Kaka led his own group of the workers to one side for an address. He first of all commended them for their courage, cooperation and the enthusiasm. This lasted for six minutes or there about. Afterward, he told them the precise time he would like them to join him on the site the next day and what and what to come along with. At the end, he shared the wages of the day with them all. He was the one the man whom his group was under his supervision gave the bunches of money for his group as he was the head of the group. And that was how the sharing of the wages went among the rest groups. Kaka returned home at the dusk with a mind full of bliss and mirth. He was not that wearied because he didn’t carry the portion of the work meant to be done by his group where it was too burdensome. He was just a sub-supervisor. After he had ushered some other labourers into the compound, especially those ones from other villages and who could not return to their places because of the fear of night and the long distance. And after he had shown them the room meant for them to sleep inside of by the auspices of the colonel, including the bathrooms, toilets and some other things in the compound which could be of their use, he moved into the bathroom himself and thoroughly washed his soiled body with the usual toilets soap he had always made available for the purpose. The imperial lethal soap was so fancy to him. Each time he wanted to bath, before he pour water on his soiled body, he would first take up the soap in his hand, carry it closely to his nose and sniffing on it. He loved the fragrance and how great it was in quality. He had always found it nice on his body. Kaka noticed that since he had learnt about this soap from colonel K and was using it, his entire skin had taking up a new look. Looking fresh and flashy. Kaka finished from the bathroom and went for his food on the dinning table having robed his favourite cream and dressed up. He had also learnt about the cream; the Venus cream which he found so nice, from the colonel and his beautiful wife. The cooks in the house had always done well since they had been employed to the house by Rose. They had a very high level of culinary skill and the strength to work impressively. They were only five in numbers but could do better than any ten counterparts. And because of that, they had always succeed at preparing the food that had always been much enough to serve the throne of the village: men and women who

would not stop creeping in and out of the house of the colonel from dawn till dusk since the return of the colonel from the city to the land. Each of the labourers including kaka began to check into their various rooms shortly after the super was over. Some of them at bed discussed the meal with their room mates. They talked of the nature, uniqueness and its charming taste. ‘I have never taken this kind of food before in my life; one of the four men sharing one of the rooms in the compound at the night said ‘After the swallow of many morsels, my tongue still clamour for more. And the tiredness my hand had suffered in satisfying my mouth was more than the one I face during the day work on the site. No wonder people are always accused of too much of incessant visits here. We say it is unnecessary but they know what they are doing. They know it’s necessary for their scraggy bodies. Good food is good life. ‘I ate and ate and over gorged myself. My stomach took a new shape and size yet my innards cried for more because of its unique sweetness and I was tired and didn’t know what to do or who to blame for this. should I blame these generous people who had offered us these kinds of palatable dishes? But it was poverty I later blamed. It’s it that has made us to eat everything meagre everyday over ages and made us growing unhealthy. It made our tongues ignorant and strange to good food like these, otherwise I wouldn’t have over gorged myself now and suffered this complication of the stomach. But eventually I changed my mind from blaming this monster of life called poverty and put the blame on the bad politicians that abound in our land. They are the ones who have been using violence and evil power preventing the canny politician from coming into power and help our land to chase away poverty,’ The fellow ended expressing his feeling to his room mates in their mood of discussion in that night. Some of them took most of the words said by this man as a satire. They laughed at it but yet he didn’t loose the keenness he had put in expressing it. ‘My brother’, another man began, ‘poverty is a great enemy to the existence of mankind. Its food is sour, insipid and toxic. The one who feed on it for long jeopardise his span. It’s really nice to be wealthy in life’. The rest gave a nod of approbation at the last sentence and the speaker continued. ‘I can now see some of the reasons why many of our leaders are so greedy. Many of them rose from grass to grace. If a man who had suffered long in feeding on the precarious food of poverty now by chance finds himself having access to real taste of good food in life in a state of wealth, he will in cupidity eat and eat to finish even the one kept for others. The case is like the case of a man that was banished into a desert in the dry season, where there was no even a brook. The day he will be chanced to find a river, he would set his face on the surface, threw his tongue in it and refuse to take it back as he will continue to drain it until his innards turn rebel at him’, the man paused and the first speaker cut it. ‘All your words are good but those ones you said last I don’t take’. ‘How’, the last speaker asked. ‘Now listen, they say experience is the best teacher in life’, the rest gave nod of support. ‘This issue we are discussing is philosophical but unfortunately many of our people never seek to know it. ‘My people, you should agree with me that nothing happens to man in this life that has no purpose. Some people are passing through hardship in this life just because they have been divinely made to go through it for a purpose. God want some

of them to pass through this so that through the experience they would be so strong enough to be used in the future to deliver their own people who are also passing through such hardship. But it’s unfortunate that our people have chosen not to learn this. A man who has never experienced hunger once in his life does not know how hunger gives pain and once he does not know this he would not know why its very important to fight for people who are in that state. ‘So, it’s unfortunate that our people who have risen from grass, have gone to the mantle of power to disappoint their God who have put them there by neglecting the poor and the oppress ones under their rules. They park all that belong to all to themselves, alone but fail to learn that sin is not done with impunity’. This discussion began to go off over and over as sleep of the night kept advancing its effort of apprehending all. It was already mid night. Sola too slept lately at the night. She couldn’t return home earlier enough from the trip she had made to her own family’s house. Since she had been saved in favour of her parents by the colonel from the judgement of the king of throwing her out of the land for been contacted HIV/AID virus, she hadn’t visited her people. So, her presence in her father’s house at the early hour of the day lighted up a glittering smile on the faces of her people. Her mother dangled to every sides of the house, rejoicing the impressive return of her beloved daughter. When the car parked at the façade of the house, the people around thought it was one of the political aspirants who had come in their usual manner to canvas them as to vote for their party or parties in the forth coming election. And they especially sola’s family, had began to heave a sign of relief to their plight of the day. There was no food at home, so they were felt relief because they knew that after all the politicians they thought have just come in their car to canvas them for their party would not come under their roof with ordinary mouth. The family of Sola was managing a small mud house. It was one room and parlour. In the family they were eight in number excluding Sola. Inside the room, there were two aged ones and they were the old parents of Sola’s father. The father had made his parents to stay with him in the little house after evacuating them from their old place for better care of the old age. Sola’s mother and her siblings were at this morning before her arrival, busy deliberating on how to manage the little soup that remained over the night inside the pot. There was no food at home that morning and no penny with the father to buy it. The mother, having instructed Jumoke: the one who was the next to Sola among the children, to bring the pot from inside the wooden kitchen erected at the back of the house and having she done so by depositing it before her, the poor woman began staring into it to see what she could do to the little soup so as to reach to serve the whole family of eight for the breakfast. Later, she drew the attention of her husband who sat beside her on the mat into the scrutiny of the soup. Agbo ought to have been in his farm by now. He had only been tarring to see that he swallow three or four morsel of amala before he would leave. It was so seldom to see Agbo, the father of Sola, waiting to take the morning meal at home each day he must go to farm. He must had left for the farm at the first cockcrow. But it was not so this morning because he felt so light in his body immediately he woke up. And he knew that would hamper the length at which he would work reach in the farm. He would surely get tired so soon with such a feeble strength. Agbo never felt light in his body because of any ailment, but because he didn’t eat very well the previous night just because he had to cooperate with his wife in her decision that the soup at home

should be eaten small at that night so that the rest could serve them little in the morning meal. Jumoke was at last told by the mother to take the pot of the vegetable soup back to the kitchen where she should add some amount of water to it and set it on fire having added to it as well a little content of grounded pepper and some locust beans and grounded millet. All this hadn’t been over when the sound of the new Mazda car attracted much of the attention of all inside. And there was a brief silence that ensued immediately, in which they eagerly gazed outside toward the car through their windows and the doors. They were still guessing it was the political aspirants, which they had even wished to meet than any other kind of visitor at that particular moment when they really wanted money to survive hunger of the day. They knew very well that if it be the politicians that had truly arrived as they had thought of, they were sure of getting from them at least little thing with which to resist the hot blows hunger had been keenly depositing on their body this morning as usual. But as the car door was opened and Sola stepped out of it, their mood changed. Their eyes glued to her and they knew the real bliss of life. Her siblings in ecstasy beat their mother in a race of throwing their bodies on her in an uncontrollable move of joy, which almost caused them throwing her down in the hot embrace. This was her first time of visiting her people since she had gone to stay with colonel K. An over whelming change had really taken place in her and made her appeared hardly recognised to any distance friend. Her one time skeletal body had gained much flesh; making the skin smooth and flashy. She sounded healthy in her voice now, unlike before when she must have released in the air three or four breath out of the weariness of heart before she could pass out words from her mouth. Infact, then she suffered a very poor health. The shout of joy shook the wall of the buildings and scores of people were attracted outside. Neighbours came after neighbours to say their greeting to the visitors. A while afterward when Sola had partially finished with her parents and sibling in discussing the affair of the household, she introduced the two young men that come along with her. The first man who sat by her right side was her driver. He was to be taking her to wherever she desire to reach. And the other man by her left was a personal assistance given to her by the colonel. She elucidated further that the motor they parked outside was just given to her by the colonel in order to facilitate or create ease to the new task he had committed on to her. Sola told her people the story of how the colonel and his wife had planned to send her to some month’s course in the city. It was a casual course on human health and welfare. And at the end of the course, they wanted to make her the head of a new organization that would be created so soon of which mission was to campaign against HIV/AID and both human and drug trafficking. And also to help the youth in their upliftment and create a forum for adult education in addition helping both the pregnant women and nursing mothers. Indeed all Sola’s story was unbelievable one to her people. The mother rolled on the floor from one side to another, looking out to heaven and shouting ‘Olodumare o se o’! ‘So the dry bones can still rise again in this our lands upon all the damages cause to our economy by the bad politicians that abound here in our land? The poor woman began to say this to infinity until at a point she busted into cry. It was the joyful kind. Sola rose from her seat and bend to fetch her mother up. Two of her younger ones joined hands with her.

‘So you could still be somebody in life my daughter?’ She asked rhetorically and tears rolled down her cheeks much more. Sola took out a white handkerchief from her black hand bag and with it, draining the sodden face of her mother. ‘It’s okay mother…" ‘My daughter, they had made me to loose hope in you and to have hope that HIV/AID would not allow you again to become anything good in life. I can see you now in a way I have never dreamed of…, why won’t I cry? I need to thank my Lord in a cry because this is a serious type’. The woman was later led back to her seats. Sola afterward moved to her entourages and whispered into their ears. Afterward the two (the driver and the P.A) left for the car parked outside and they opened the boot and stretched hands as well to the back seat and began to gather out some bags of rice, gallons of vegetable oil, bags of semovita and some other kind of food such as butter, sadin and others. Having parked out all to one side in the front of the building, Sola’s younger ones were allowed to park them inside.

Chapter 7 When it was three and half weeks or so that the farm work had began, colonel K was able to see determination in various perspective pouring out its devidence profusely. It had been long that he had learnt it, that determination and hardworking were the bedrock of success but he had never confirmed it as great as to this extent The colonel remembered the fear that fell mightily in his heart some minutes after, in the very night he had a brief meeting with his wife in which he disclosed his decision of going back to his village to rescue the development project left laying there by bad administration; and making it groaning and wailing callously for urgent rescue for years past. The fear was the great one given birth to, in his heart by the questions of where to begin from, how to begin and with what solid enough to begin. It was a great dream he had had on this issue of liberating the indigents around his world. It was far much unlimited to his father’s land alone. He had wished he just start the step that marked the beginning of the thousands miles journey from his own village. A lot of things had been his inspiration and that which had eagerly propelled him into the charity deals. He had seen a lot of people across the villages helplessly drowning to death in the pool of poverty that had engulfed the whole land. He had even seen some where he had expected not to see one. A bit of it was the experience he had the day he paid a visit to a friend in one of the offices in the state secretariat of one of the states in the western part of the country. He was so dismayed at seeing destitute lying helplessly on the corridor of power dropping dead in numbers. Some of these beggars were mothers in scruffy dresses with their waived babies in their back or by their sides. At every edge of the front of the main entrance of the governor’s office they had made stations in the open air. Every now and then, they were there found drying up in the fiery sun of the dry season under which they sat waiting for succor from the passersby. And at night having their bodies being eaten up by the cluster of mosquito dwelling inside the damp gutters of the government house. And so it used to be pathetic during the raining season when there would be torrent rain pounding their moribund bodies into the ground. This was an atmosphere dentists should be

often seen here and there, courtesy of the state governor, attending to the bundle of gnashing teeth endlessly seeing there. The fear of accomplishing the great vision grew very much more in stature once the colonel set into his village. What he had envisaged his people suffered became more than what he met them with. The condition had gone escalated than what he knew of the last time he visited his people while he was still in service. But now that he had seen how far and good the work had gone within the few weeks he had returned, the mountainous fear had been dismantled down to the size of a heap of yam by the force of the unalloyed gratification of the heart. The farm buildings had just been completed. They stood firmly and so nice in view. They were as spacious as that which could contain thousand of live stocks. The layout was so attractive. It was cut on the basis of the animals’ types. At the front of the massive wall used to barricade the farm; a place at the both sides of the gate had it written there: the white vision farm. The colonel gave his reason for such a name. He had told his people that there had been many manners of vision that had been brought to them by their political leaders. They gave them series of names. Some called their vision 2000, some vision 2004 while others vision 2007 and so on. To him, with his past experience, all these manner of vision were blurred and couldn’t light up a bright future for the people. They were visions manifested from self centered hearts which the politicians did use to canvas people during the coming of an election; promising them every thing with their flattering lips. The rearing of the livestock began as soon as the buildings were completed. Animals of an outstanding breeds were purchased and shipped in. the first section of the building were meant for the cattle. About one thousand cows, two thousand calves, three thousand heifers, two thousand bull were inside. The pigs section was the adjoining. There were one thousand five hundred piglets and so many sows, boars and hogs. The rest of the building were the places meant for goats, sheep and poultry. At the far extreme end of the farm; some meters before the dunghill, there was a well-constructed abattoir. And at the northward of the farm, on a very large land, there were about thirty fishponds of great dimension each. Labors were employed after labors. The work on the farm was a tremendous one. So, messages were also sent at several times across to the neighboring villages about the availability of workspaces after all the able body in Kajore who were ready for work had been duly employed. And there were outflow of joy wholly across the villages. The kings, Bales and the chives sent gratitude’s from their places to the colonel with his wife and all his men who had been facilitating the work of the project. Those ones who wanted to work but who could not at the end of the series of employment exercise conducted at the livestock’s farm were told to still exercise more patience and were afterward made to go back to their different places with much of a definite promise. The first thing that gave rise to the great glee in the hearts of the elders of the six villages especially Kajore, was the sudden reduction that took place in the numbers of the wandering youths who were at the same time the miscreants who had always gluttonously taken liquor, smoking their eyes red in taking hemp and lifting up trouble in the streets. They were not tolerant at all. They were like the snail that would even react against the mere touch of the fly’s foot on their heads.

Often time, they moved around with cutlass and dangerous knives and a times pistols, looking for the blood of the innocent to shed. They had always hoped to make their daily bread through violence. They would always hang around at joint and bus-stations; busy drinking and smoking in the course of standing by for the ruthless politicians that full the society as they would need their services. Their service had always become so lucrative in nature and commanding great attention to the politicians whenever election was at hand. When colonel K sent messages across to the area boys (as they did call themselves) to tell them about work vacancies in the new farm, some of them who responded were seriously mocked by the others who repudiated showing for it. Those who turned up among them were 1/3 and they were laughed in derision by their mates. They told them their turning up was a foolish act which included a waste of time and energy. Reminded them as they were walking away to the farm about the forth-coming election which was already knocking at the door; how their services would be needed, how big was the money they would be paid. Why they needed to stay back with them and continued in training themselves all for the perfect way of delivering their services to the ruthless politicians whom they called masters and who had been seriously using them hijacking power from the canny ones in elections having been paid well especially from the covert coffers smuggled out of the government houses. Some even boasted among the riff rats of riding in homer jeeps at the end of the forthcoming election. This was the kind of declaration that no one could impose doubt upon among the people of the land. For it had apparently happened before over and over. At the end of the previous election in 1999, when democracy returned to the country at the end of the torpedo of the many years of military dictatorship rule, many political touts in the country who were known before as nonentity and illiterates, who could not even use the bottom of a circuous bottle of wine to write letter ‘O’ were seen riding in luxury cars while the university graduates were seen roaming about the streets endlessly with empty stomach as vagrants. With this experienced of the flippancy shown by the area boys in embracing that which had been set up for them so as to help themselves out positively possitively other than negative ways they were known with, the colonel knew he still had a very enormous work ahead to get accomplished. The experience was a bad men in the total well-being of the entire land as the youths were the future of the land. He ran his mind through this issue and breathe down heavily in frustration on his way back home. He had just been to the area boys at their joints to by himself buttress the content of the message he had earlier sent across to them. He had sent to the area boys message that they should come and secure jobs in the new farm so as to help themselves in earning their living but they had rejected the message and even refused to hear him, himself now that he had come to them by himself. With which voice and tongue could he speaks to these ones again that they would hear him was the question burning hell in his heart as he was returning home. The seal the devil had fixed into their ears were as strong as the shell of the palm kernel. Instead of listening to him when he appeared in their front to persuade them to come and work in the farm and abandon all the obnoxious means they had been over ages taking to get money of sustaining themselves, they only began pouring praises on him in a hot mood to the

extent that about three of them flopped themselves down to the ground, begging him to climb on them and use them as rostrum to address the others. They did that ceaselessly until he was forced emotionally to throw three notes of two hundred naira at them because he knew that was their ulterior motive of rolling on the ground for him. And he was griped by a marvel that resulted from the way and manner these ones roared at the chicken feed he had given to them. He was greatly embittered, many of them had grown enough to be the father of two or three yet they knew not what was right from what was wrongly till he reached home the sadness still adhered strictly to his face and his wife knew it. ‘These ones are no more kids’, he said after he had related all the stories to his wife who had asked him of what that was behind his sadness, ‘many of them have grown enough to impregnate woman still they know not their right from their left. Why should they joyfully turning themselves to beggars, crooks and violators without any sense of remorse? ‘Just take all these matter easy dear. We should just do our best and leave the rest to God’, Rose passionately said, looking veraciously into her husband’s eye’s balls where she still slaw much agitation reflecting. ‘They think they are enjoying now but regret in life always comes later’, the colonel added. …………………………………………………………….. Things continued to go on vibrantly on the livestock farm. The animals were all yielding impressively to care and treatment. And the workers too were rigorously pulling through tremendously to the harvesting time. The colonel having seen and well pleased with how it had been auguring well on the livestock farm, ordered the contractors to begin work on the mass of kind set aside for the crops production. After the clearing of the bush, the survey was rightfully done and the layout were cut out on the basis of the varieties of the crops to be planted. Cash crops were made cultivated at the extreme ends of the farmland. It was a great numbers of hectares of land that it covered. Plant like cocoa, palm trees, citrus, banana were all there in great mass. It was a great mechanization farm built on a very huge capital and required great manager ran skills and attentions. And men of highly technical erudition who would lead the skillful subordinates at the fulcrum of production and both the semi and unskilled ones who would serve at the rudimentary level. Annual crops such as yam, cassava, maize, beans, vegetables, fruits, millet, melons, rice and many others were propagated enormously and in various species. It was around the months of November and December that the livestock farm was fully completed and paves way for the turn of the crops production. So, the planting began with tuber crops. And at a point which was not so long from the starting time the colonel and his men held a meeting in which they resolved to introduce an irrigation system. And thus, they were able to achieve early harvesting of maize, vegetables, fruit, and some others when it was middle of March of the second year. The first devidence of the quick creation of the second segment of the farming project at its spleen did completion was the golden opportunity it had granted to people who had been earnestly longing for work to at least been able to resist little of the harsh lashes of the strike of poverty on their souls young men and women from the rest villages, who could not secure

work spaces at the series of employment exercise earlier conducted at the livestock farm, were able to reapply now at the crop production farm and were eventually had their request granted without any bit of delay. And it was in this new employment exercise that the colonel himself was able to gain what that did manufacture mirth in ones mind than all the previous exercise been conducted. It was in this one that he had been able to win the interest of a larger number of the area boys who had now agreed to work in the farm. The colonel had often been zealous at doing this not because of anything else than to reduce mugging and assault or violence in their society. People said it was the high rates of incentives these area boys had seen been bestowed on their mates who had first yielded to the farm work ,that had made them to turn out in mass for the offer this time around. They had actually seen success radiating on those of there colleagues which they had laughed at in derision when they walked away from them at their liquor joints to marched into the livestock farm in order to secure spaces of work after which the colonel had gone to preach to everyone of them. They had now seen that at the end of the day it had happened that their reproach and humiliation were automatically turned to blessing. They became the ones who could eat three time daily at satiation, had savings, putting on nice new cloths every now and then and who could now give out succours to others rather than begging for it as of before. So, this development went so very far in attracting many of their mates who had earlier kicked against the idea of working in the farm. But yet, they were still very much who still determined to continue disagreeing with the acceptance of the offer which they had seen as mere peanut and had enormously had preference in their continually surviving in rebellion in the course of waiting desperately for the forthcoming election when they would be recruited and paid hugely by the ruthless politicians into pure hooliganism and used them to torment trouble through which they hijack power. Now that the entire production had been running smoothly to its apogee, the colonel was well pleased and he longed that every head in the land emerged as a beneficiary. Thus, he began to host series of meeting in collaboration with his men in which as a body or individual, the people of the land would present themselves, listen to insight about their professional and their total well-being powerful word of admonition and where they themselves would afterward be able to pour out their banes, ask questions on things yet mysterious to them about life endeavours and which at the of the day, their plight would be registered for redress. The first meeting began with the group of farmers across the land. Word was also sent to all the remaining five villages and a handful of them poured out in the moment they knew the colonel was the one behind the thrilling drumming. Before the day, some numbers of farm extension officers and some other agric experts had been sent for, courtesy of the colonel. After the introduction of the discussion of the day began. The primate farmers were exposed to the modern farm implements and inputs. They were also taught about different manners of parasites, pests and diseases that were precarious to the crops. They went further by unveiling to their senses the cause, all their harmful effects, implication and how they could be rationally prevented.

Each of the farm extension officers began to stand up one after another to speak on his own field. Some spoke every thing about crops, including their best planting time, species, cultural practice and the disease and the control. And other spoke on the live stocks. They elucidated on breeds that were good for achieving high turnover. Then the disease and the control and also the ideas of what to do to foster rapid expansion. All the lecturers took about sixty-five minutes which afterward the farmers were given chance on the basis of one-after another, to tell their experience; either harrowing or splendid and give vivid accounts of what they themselves had observed could have been so long causing them set backs in their profession. Immediately, a frail finger raised up by one of the farmers caught the sight of all in the conference hall. ‘Let us give chance for that old man to tell us his mind; the moderator said and the old farmer was ushered to his feet with a round of applause. ‘I greet you all my educated ones; he said, paused briefly to clear his throat in a slight cough. ‘You see, our problems are clear. It’s what any body here can easily know without hearing them from us who suffer them. ‘All the farms we own today here in this land are the moribund ones we inherited from our fathers. Our fathers were borne into poverty as we are also borne into it. And since then we’ve not been able to produce the child who has a spirit full of compassion with which to remember us in this our awful state except this one that sit there’, the old man pointed at the colonel where he sat behind the conference table with all the special quests. ‘But don’t let me speak to that side now but later ‘you see, we are not educated at all. We don’t know how to read and write and that is one of the problems of ours. That man there…’, he pointed at one of the farm extension officers. The very one who spoke on plant diseases, ‘talked on diseases of crops in our farm and I was so marvelled with all he said. Since I was born, I don’t know that plants suffered headache or bellyache. All I know is that plants do die. And if it happens that like that and we experience poor harvesting, we think it’s the gods who have taken us into discord. And why is it like that? It’s because I don’t go to school. And why do this man’, pointing to the same extension officer, ‘know it? It’s because he attended schools. So, this is one of the problems we farmers are facing here. Another thing is our roads. They are not motorable. So, it’s so difficult to convey our produce to cities which are the target of good turnover and the little which we could convey there, we pay hugely for the fare which subsequently affects our profits. The result of all these is that we are force to limit the scope of our production. ‘Storage facilities are another factor and capital. We were borne into it. And our banks and other financial organization are not helping us. They don’t want to give us loan. They complain that there is no money in their pulse; telling us our governors, senators, chairmen are only going abroad to deposit their money there and which become of the use of the foreign banks in given out loans to their own people.

‘The worst is that, most of the money that most of these ones do go keep abroad is our looted money. The few of them that are ready to give loans among our banks use big demand of collateral security and high interest rate to scare away we poor farmers. It has even be heard at many occasions, the news of some of our bank managers who had gone on their different ways to meet a spiritualist to help them use his evil power to cause their debtors who had used their mighty building to borrow the money that does not reach the 1/3 of the worth of the building, to continue to experience set backs in the business they had gone to use the money borrow to run so that they would fail at returning the money and the house, or other luxury possession standing for the collateral would then fall to the hand of the managers having reached court with the matter. That is Africa for you my people! The old man said passionately to all the audience. ‘White teeth to smile to our customer or any fellow that comes around to enter a deal with us especially the foreigners, but use our black hearts to plan evil against them once we sense they possess what we could take the advantage of. My people, those of us who are like this need to change otherwise we would continue to lack peace in our land because God is seriously sad at all that. ‘’As I was saying, we use crude implement in our farms. We improvise because of the insufficiency. No money to buy the modern days ones too. But all these are not even my points. My point is that, if our government fail us, must our children fail us too?" The old man asked with great concern, looking so solemn. ‘Our fathers were borne into poverty as we are also borne into it and since then, we’ve not been able to produce any son or daughter who have a spirit full of compassion to remember us with, except this one; he pointed at the colonel again. We suffered because we don’t have children. ‘When I say we don’t have children, I’m not saying we are not given birth. Infact, in our land here we give birth like the pigs. But what I’m saying is that our children are no more what children ought to be. They’ve turned to birds. Once they leave us here to work abroad that is the end. We would just be hearing of them over there, possessing mansions, owning luxury cars and founding companies while we are here rotten in poverty. ‘My people, it’s the bird that would grow, leave her mother and would never come back again to thank that peak that raised her up. Our children would suck their mothers breasts and would not look back again to say: how are you there to the poor woman and would feed from the sweating hands of the father and would not look back again to say; are you well father? Our children are borned in this land, enjoyed the nourishing water, the nice breeze of the season and every other thing offer onto us by nature in the name of the land while they were growing and will still not look back to do any thing good for the land in their prosperous times. ‘My people, is it not one of our strongest nation that forbid the placentas of our children to be allowed to the reach of the dogs or any other carnivorous animal or the omnivorous one? What do they say will happen to any child whose placenta is carelessly disposed?" The old man asked keenly and never waited for the answer to come forth of any one at the gathering when he let it out of his own mouth. ‘The child will grow and will never prosper in life. Our children are prospering abroad because those of us who are their parents are not careless about thing that has to do with their lots in life while they were growing under us. Infact, living the placentas of our children at the reach

of the enemies or dogs is as dangerous and bad as the act of that an over ambitious young man who went and save his future in the hand of a notorious witch. ‘So, we Yorubas have often been zealous at being so careful with what that has to do with what that has to do with the destiny of our children while they were young. But have they not been abandoning us who have done them this great thing rotten in poverty? Have they not refused to develop the land that has been helping us in moulding their lots to good ones in life? At least, it’s the land that does provide sanctuary or shield for this placenta we talk of. It opens its mouth any time we want it to, and allow us to burry it inside and also bears the mess involving in the process. ‘My people is it not one of our adages that says, ‘the birth of every child is responsible for by four eyes but scores of eyes do the nursing? And why is it that they say a baby does not has her head wrongly side-bended while in the back of her mother in the market where there are elders? It’s because, the nursing of every child is never in the hand of the parents alone but collectively done by every adult around. Our grown-up children know all these but they would never do anything that shows they do know. ‘The day a child begins to crawl, the mother does not see every thing she does anymore. While she is busy attending to the washing of the pant the baby has just defecate inside, it’s the neighbours around who will tell her about a piece of a broken bottle the baby has just taken into her mouth. ‘Our children will not know that. They will not know that all of us here in this land responsible for their carefully growth. Now, see us; see us growing worst everyday in the endless torture of poverty. I’m now seventy-four years old going senile everyday yet I’m still farming. I till the ground with my wearied hands. If I don’t, how would I survive? Even the barrens among us in our land suppose not to feel the absence of child in their lives if our children could acknowledge the collective effort exhibit by we Africans in nursing up children . And that is why I said our children are no more children but birds. ‘Is it the government of the United State of America alone that built all the industries, companies and factories in their land where their children walk in to work and achieve their success? Is it British government too that built all the industry in their own country which have been fostering the rapid success of their children? No! The establishment of the greatest percent of the industries there are responsible for by their prosperous sons and daughter. ‘Look at our own land, industries are scanty. How many do we except the government to build for us which can be enough of chasing away our bogus bane to remedy? Though we know that the biggest blame still has to go to our government. In this our African continent, many of the series of government we’ve been having have failed at creating enabling environment to encourage investors by generating everlasting political stability, good government policy on trade and social life, provision of infrastructure especially electricity and good roads. And the genuine guarantee of the derivation of thrust and confidence of the foreigners from the government and her citizens so as to yield mutual understanding at transaction of both locally and internationally. ‘But what I’m saying in essence is this; if our government could not rescues us all because it’s not really possible; can’t our prosperous sons and daughter abroad come to our aid just the way the whites are doing in their own land and as this colonel here has just started doing’, the

old man said tearfully. He looked so sad and virtually collapsed, as he was too nervous. His body trembled in sadness. The audience was extremely touched by the gravity of his sombreness. Thus about three of them eagerly dashed to him; holding him down to his seat. The colonel caste a gaze fully of sympathy on him. And then joined hand and with those ones consoling him. ‘My people let me cry. This suffering is just too much. It’s too enormous; those of us living in the rural areas in this nation know not the sweet taste of life. Any one who says poverty is good should be the one to tell me not to cry. See something’, he drew up his buba top and the stomach was unveiled outside. He then slightly beating on it to attract all the eyes in the gathering to it, ‘see my stomach, you can see how flat it’s, food barely enters into it twice daily. He drew the top again much more up and from his waist over to his chest was seen outside,. ‘See my body, all manners of parasite have made it their abode since ages, draining the little blood in me through which I could still be chanced to live more little longer in life. No good and sufficient food to eat and good soap to birth with, then you say I should not cry? ‘Why have they failed us by sending to us children who value their land of alien than their fathers’ land? I won’t call them bastards and vagabonds, but they deserved such names. Why has the spirit of patriotism died in these days of our children?" The old man afterward began to relay the story of Fabunmi Okemesi still in his sorrowful mood. This was a story known very well by every good Yoruba man. And as his name would never be forgotten among the people of Ekiti where he hailed from, so shall it not be forgotten in the history of the entire Yoruba’s tribe. Fabunmi was a great son of Ekiti who rose to deliver his people from the arbitrary rule of the old Oyo Empire. Ekiti was then regarded as the most backward and recess set of people among the Yoruba’s Fabunmi never allowed that to overwhelm him to denouncing his people and run to foreign land to become one of them permanently the non looking back type as some of the nowadays sons and daughter of this tribe had gone to do overseas. He was so proud to be one of the sons of Ekiti and despite the fact that he had all it took to renounce his people, who were often debased among the Yorubas and joined those ones regarded as the first class among the Yorubas, for he possessed the potential. The then despot of the old Oyo Empire who was the one who had the control of all the Yoruba lands in his hand, had great warriors whom he had quite often set loosed upon the people of Ekiti. With hearts dearth of clemency but filled with plethora callousness, the warriors at the end of every farming season dispossessing them of their livestock, jewelleries and valuables and forcing them into paying enormous tax. Fabunmi was borned amid of this tribulation and grew to understand its cause and eventually resolved to be the one who would lead the fight of freeing his people in their wearied states despite the bundles of discouragement set before him by the entire people of his land who infinitely reminded him of the danger adhered to such a move and why he should not bring misfortune to his poor parents by deliberately planning flopping his body down for the warriors of an indomitable despot whom the inferno his mouth did emit each time he was exasperated worth engulfing the whole world to ashes.

They told him that the action was just like that of a bush rat, planning a revenge attack on a famished lion that had just broken the last bone of her father it had just killed; hungrily crushing it in his mouth and whose dissatisfaction had lighted up red in his eye balls where he had laid on his crouch, rolling eyes as he was still masticating, and expecting more prey in great desperation to by pass. Finally, he led the war and won. They killed all the warriors and valiants of the Oyo land that took part in the battle and put the king himself to death having shown him an unbearable humiliation. Infact, he was one of those very few valiant who counterbalanced the Oyo Empire before the arrival of the British colonial masters into the country. But, his most recognized achievement was that he liberated his people from bad government. ‘Our nowadays children would not do this the old man said, ‘they are coward and ego centric. At the end of the old man story, his sobbing bestirred again. He looked so morose like he would never be happy again. Colonel K in a great sympathetically mood began to speak to him again. He told him many words that had high potency in exhilarating ones spirit and his last words were ‘weep no more father your dream children have just returned to you with your dream fortune’, and that was the end of the old man’s anxiety of the moment. The last words had indeed drained off reasonable portion of his bane. Hence, the real business of the day continued again. And after the lecturers of the farm extension officers on everything about farming had reached its summit, the colonel stood to his feet to announce to the farmers what he had made available for them in stock. He began from the old farmers. These ones were to go on retirement except some of them who were still strong enough to be mere supervisors on their farms. He told them how his new organization; the white vision farm, would help to employ labours of various skills to work for them on their different farms. The numbers of the labours to be employed to work on each of the farm would be based on the size of the farm. According to the colonel, every needed implement, input and technology to anchor the farms from their moribund state would be provided. And the retired farmers would be collecting encouraging amount of money while this begins, from the organization, every two-week so that through that they would be able to meet their needs and cater for their families at large. The farmers concerned also learnt that they still reserved the ownership of their farms which were going under the care of the new organization and that, at the end of every harvest, 60% of the money being realized would go to the pocket of each of the owners as royalties. The old farmer who stood the other time and lamented his or deal had now felt strangeness in his body system. He couldn’t explain all the strangeness. He was going to be one of the old farmers who were going to benefit from the great provision, which had just been announced by the colonel. So, he felt as a man who was at his point of death, narrowly been able to fall out of the fiery furnace he had been long thrown into by enemies, unexpectedly and fell into a pull of chilly water floating in joy.

He remembered the saying of the people of his land that the pain in the time of hunger is not as tough as that of the time of despair. For hope itself is a good antidote to every bane of life, however tough it’s. an hungry man of today but who has an infinity hope of tomorrow is better than the man who have surplus for today but have no hope of tomorrow. The old man hadn’t yet been given what he had intended to energize himself with but was very much alive now in his moribund body just because he had been given hope courtesy of the colonel. There were about sixty-five other old men who were also the beneficiaries. They were from all the six villages. All of them were of the ages ranging from 65-75 and they had been the ones who had been working for themselves at their different farms ever since. They were poorer than the one who could employ labourers. And now that the good news had been caste, they had been all engulfed by a massive election. The promises had really overwhelmed their souls and thus, their tongues remained tireless at given plaudit and kudos to the colonel. At the end, they sang their paean to their God who had allowed them lived up to this day at which they had been able to get the best story which to tell their progenitors anytime death says it’s their shift. Having dragged this segment meant for the aged farmers to perfect end, the colonel shifted his mind to the young farmers. He told them many things. He told, them why they shouldn’t allow those education and ideas passed to them by the extension offices go to vanish in the air. And having commended them for their mass turn-out, for the meeting and also for their unalloyed endeavour inspite of the much harshness every where across their land, he began to tell the fortune he had brought for them too. He told them that any of them who have interest in involving in fish farming should report at the white vision farm for the training in which at the end of it, he or she would have the chance to obtain machines for pumping water and other necessary equipment including bags of fish meal and drugs to start up with. The ambitious poultry farmers were also told similar story. And those who craved for other livestock farming like piggery, cattle, sheep and the rest, were told to rightfully make a move and report to the giant white vision farm for training and all what it took to begging with. The colonel ensured the farmers went home with this hopeful news and extended it to other ones who had same vision out there but who could not attend the meeting. The gourd of joy busted and could not be cleaned all from the ground when the young farmers who majored on crops production were told their own news. Many bags of fertilizers had been purchased from the city, auspices of the colonel and made stored in the white-vision-farm stores, waiting to be shared among the farmers. Mother implements exotic seeds that could survive in the worst weather and which could yield plenty under a period of time seasonably short in relation to the local ones, were all marked to be presented. For couples of weeks, the colonel still continued engaging himself into series of meeting. He was very much gratified in hearing the youths pouring out the content of their hearts about their lives endeavors in the meeting he had with them some few days after finishing with the farmers. It took the colonel a long time to end the very topic that based on non-discriminating and illicit migration of the youths among the other topics been treated.

‘There is nothing you can’t achieve here in your fathers land except you don’t crave for one. If at all you want to go abroad, you should go there in a very clean and honourable way and elicit. Stop responding to those ones who call you and use you as drug pitchers to abroad. Don’t let them spoil your future. Your future should mean a lot to you; he said colonel K hammered on this issue so much than any other issue been treated, and still hope to treat it further as it really affected his mind. Before it came to the turn of this meeting of the youths, he had earlier convened the one in which he met with their mothers. And from that, he had learnt that about six of the village women were having their grown up children abroad jailed over the trafficking of drugs. And eight other women were having their sons missing. Whether alive or not they could not give the vivid account, all in the name of drug trafficking, prostitution modern slavery and undiscriminating migration. The colonel had taken much of his time to tell the mothers the different between child rearing and animal rearing. He had also told them about the modes of family planning that were existing and how and where they could have access to them. ‘Stop thinking it’s the government alone that will do all for you. Infact, you are the one who will responsible for the greatest portion of the effort in making your children to be somebody great in life. It’s one of our adages that says ‘it’s the one who not an impedimental belong to, who is expected to carry it where it’s much burdensome. ‘Give birth to only the numbers of children you know is of your capability. There is no sin in that. Any prophet who tells you is a sin know him as a prophet of doom. A fake one indeed; the colonel said at the meeting he had earlier had with the village women after which it was the turn of that of the youths. In his critical observation, the colonel had discovered that poverty was not the only monster perishing his people but also ignorance. Many of them, despite their advanced ages, never knew what was right from what was bad. So, he had in total demystification explained to the women about the adult education programme he had just set into plan and which would commence in couples of weeks. These cloister of female barbarians were greatly had their hearts filled up with gratification in the moment they heard about what would be the result of the programme. It was full of hot cakes. The colonel polished their ignorant ears with glittering admonitions. He had told them not to allow the zeal’s he had just seen creeping in their hearts as he announced the programme to them, to die prematurely. He had also told them to start preparing for the registration which was free. ‘All is going to cost you, is the submission of yourselves and the portion of your time needed for the study. All the rest shall be granted onto you by the coordinators in charge’, the colonel said this in answering to a question asked by a woman in the gathering about how to acquire the materials needed for the study like stationeries and the tuition fees. Now that it was in the front of the youths that the colonel was in the course of the meeting meant for them out of the series of meetings that had been going on in the land, he remembered introducing the same antidote he had prescribed for their mothers so as to abate ignorance ravaging them in the land.

In his survey, the colonel had realized that 50% of the youths in the villages didn’t know school at all. Just like their parents, they knew not how to read and write. And those of them who started school well but dropped out along the line were also up to another 25% of the total population of the youths; making the overall percent of the youth who were not educated seventy-five. The last group was dominated by the young girls who got impregnated while schooling, in their efforts of helping their poor parents in winning the daily bread of the family. They would put little or no attention in their studies but move around the streets and their corners where they would see men whom they would trap out some changes from their pockets and in return, given them their bodies. And the sex seekers, in their desperate mood, would hold them down, cutting through their genital with their manhood and impregnating them and would not stand to responsible for the care, as they would flee to perch on else preys. Most of there men were nonentities, made up of the area boys who would only make their money through begging and violence in the streets and motor parks or bus-stations. And also, some labourers who would, when it was glooming spread at bear parlours and liquor’s joints searching for girls after they must had collected the pittance they did pay them daily for the parched ground they till tired all through the day work. And having lavished the greatest portion of these wages paid them by their employers at the fatigue work on smoking marijuana or cigarette and the taking of liquor, they would then use the token change left in their pockets to serve as bates to lure into their snares, these damsels who go round seeking how to get relief for the burden poverty has thrown on their household. And so, births were incessantly given in pain and great anguish by young girls whose ages were still very far from eighteen. And the case of picking up live babies from dumping grounds became exacerbated. Now that the colonel with his men who present with him in the meeting had spoken a lot, they then knew it was high time they gave three or four of the youths who were just repatriated from abroad to share there experience with everyone in the gathering. ‘My name is Ola; the boy who first raised his finger said after he had been granted the privilege, and this is my younger brother here’, he pointed to another boy who sat immediately by him. ‘The two of us are not only the children that our parents bore but we are four in number. I happen to be the second born. There is one female who was before me and there is another one who is after this my younger brother here. My elder sister, while she was fourteen was coerced into marrying one old man of about seventy years in a faraway village. It’s OkeGbaguda village near Olola. The old man was a rich farmer who majored on planting of cocoa. He had promised my poor father heaven and earth if he would allow him to marry his daughter. My mother dried up like a dead tree in her effort of restraining this attempt of making her under age daughter being a new bride of an old groom.

The day that my sister was forced out of my fathers house to dwell with the old suitor, my mother wept uncontrollably just as my sister herself did. She wept as is her tear gland had busted. My father afterward gave his reason for allowing this manner of shameful solemnization. He told the entire family that he had given his daughter for marriage at that early age to the old man so that he would collect money greatly from him. He also told them his fresh plan of giving out my younger sister as well to another wealthy man in another land once he grows to thirteen or fourteen so that he could make additional money. ‘What and what did your father said he needed the money for that warranted him exposing his little daughters to early marriage? Mr. Ade asked passionately, looking so solemn where he sat in the front, among some other men behind the table of the seats of dignitaries. ‘My father was an ambitious man but happened to be a very poor farmer. All his strength was his little farm from which he hardly gets food to feed his little family. My father said to us that he would like all the males ones among his children not to only go to school but to go to a reasonable length in acquiring education. In short, he said my younger brother and I must go to school so that we could be great in life and fit to be among those ones whom the wealth of the nation is in their control. He said those politicians who do looth out money have this priviledge because they attended school. ‘A poor farmer does not know how to steal with pen’, my father would always say. Mr. Ade breathe down deeply, then shook his head, I … so that was the reason your father went and give out her daughter for early marriage? ‘Yes …", the boy replied, nodding calmly along. ‘You see, the reason was one way good and other way bad. It’s good to have education or to give or children education. But selling one’s child out to make money for caring for the others is an act full of barbarism. It’s quite unfair. There are other ways round your father could make his money had it been he sat down and thought very well. And the most concern one in the matter was the motive in your father behind his intension of making you acquire education. You ought to be made to acquire sound education in order to possess things that can make you independent in life and contribute to the growth of your family and country. And not to go and possess confidence, knowledge and tacties of loothing the treasure of your nation. By doing so you are creating poverty and you are not exempted or different from a murderer in the sight of God. For it’s the word of God that says it in the book of lamentation 4:9 that: those killed by the sword are far better off than those who die of hunger, wasting away for want of food". I hope you get my point quiet well?" ‘Of course sir’, the boy answered. ‘Now, what then happened later? Did your father eventually make the afterward? Mr. Ade asked. ‘It was a sad story sir’, the boy said and real sorrow stood up glitteringly on his face. He began skiping now as he talked.

‘My father was paid the money promised him by the chief but not all. He paid him half and vowed to pay the balance as soon as the next season harvest was done. But before then something happened. My sister conceived and she was handed over by the old farmer to his first old wife. The man had already had twelve wives. My sister joined them to become the thirteenth. ‘When it was the time to give birth, we heard that my sister had strick complication in the process. She was said bleed too profusely to be talked about. The virginal was said to be too narrow for the baby to bypass and so the old women around her put different manner of knives inside her body and tore tissues and nerves anyhow within the scope of their understanding. ‘Why can’t they take her to the hospital for the delivery?" Mr. Ade asked. Everybody in the house had their hearts depressed by massive sorrow. ‘They said their was no clinic nor maternity home in that village. And beside, they said it was their inherence to put the work of the mid wives in the hand of the old women around’, the boy answered and the colonel began having his skin streaming sweat profusely inside the cold wheather of the season. He was so sad and tired of the persistent hearing of his people perishing in ignorance and bad government. In the blazing thought of his heart, he strived to see if he could discern when end would come upon his land being having bad representatives in the national assembly of the country. He had also been bugged that upon how immense was the allocation been given to his local government by the federal government, the total villages under the local government still suffered basic amenities especially clinics and pipe born water. He remembered that even the little click in Kajore, his own village built like a care of an imp where he would lay every day praying for the strike of death, was the result of the gross of letters he wrote to the elected local government councillor of then while he was still in his service years in the army. And he had also been the one regularly responsible for revamping the structure and the facilities therein. ‘So what then happened to your sister? Hope she eventually gave the birth safely?" The colonel asked. Hearing this, the boy couldn’t hold down his feeling anymore. His emotion stirred up and he began sobbing bitterly. His mood attracted great pity. People rose here and there from their seats to console him. ‘My sister died’, he muttered and shivered terribly and he almost fell off his stand onto the ground. People held him firmly and he was taking to sit among the host men behind the table of honor in the front. His younger brother was afterward beckoned to and made to continue the story. But before he was allowed to stand to talk, Mr. Ade had said to him about two or three words ‘you see, allowing you to share your story with your mates here doesn’t mean we are dragging you back to the memory lane of your plight and sadness. But we actually want to pick one or two things in all you could tell us and use it as part of what to draft remedy to the problem facing you, youths. And by relaying your harrowing experience we are sure others here would also learn their lessons.

‘Shortly after the death of our elder sister’, the younger brother began, ‘… our mother was greatly illed. My father spent the last he had with him on her. He spent the money he made on my sisters early marriage on her but all was to no fruition. She died at last too. Things became so touch for us. Our plight aggravated beyond bearable leant. Our lives became so gloomy and despondent. We could not continue our education again and we had to move into streets and begged for food and money. Our young sister who filled into the space left empty in our family by the death of our mother eventually got missing. Immediately after the demise of our mother, she was the one going around, using her body making money for us to survive by. But it wasn’t so long she had started doing this that she become missing. ‘We searched for her but we couldn’t find her we heard it from people that she had been taken away to work as prostitute in Italy by some of the pimps who do stampede our land to search for girls for promoting their business. And another group of people told us that she had only fell a prey in the hands of the ritualists, who do butcher and sell human body parts in our forest. Which ever one it’s we do not know until we, ourselves; I mean my brother and I in the course of wandering around, met with some guys who told us about Libia: the country they said is flowing of milk and honey. ‘Had we know the story was a mirage, we wouldn’t have attempted going there. Though, it was true that the land is good; it is not good for people, like us. What did you mean by saying ‘it is not good for people like us; Mr. Tunde, another man among the host asked. ‘They hate seeing people that look like us. Any one they see that is as black as us here, they say he’s from Nigeria even though the person is from Ghana, Zambia or any other African country. And they are always ready to kill us or humiliate us and subject us to repatriation. Colonel K wanted to ask the young man of why had the libianis had such degree of detestation on the migrants; but he averted the question as he remembered at the same time all what he had been reading in the news papers about the obnoxious attitude many of his country men in foreign lands were doing their. Through there wily ways, they had caused many of the foreigners bankrupts, sorrow, liquidation and anguish of the heart. All these were the claim of the bibianis and which made them who had once upon a time receiving these migrants to their country friendly, turned now against them. Many of the migrants had also been known with their mugging, burglary, drug trafficking and jiggery-pockry intents of entering into the foreign lands. Eventually, the young man told them the experience of their ways to the land of Libia. He said, they were eleven in number that left Kajore, including him and his elder brother who had earlier started the story. And when the got to Lagos at the time of the day when darkness hadn’t given total way for the day light, they met with another group of twenty-three boys who had already been made set for the journey by the man who was to lead them all. They moved out of the country and vanished into the wilderness. It was a terrible journey the young man said they had to walk through one boundary of pain, sorrow and anxiety to another. At a point, no water and no food left with them. The barrels of water they took along had been drained off. Their throats blazed hot like a furnance and their innards caught with an un-slaking inferno under the fiery sun of the season, which burnt hell upon the African world. The more they proceeded in the journey of freedom of poverty; so the more it seemed becoming lengthily and hence, they began dropping in strength and consequently, death

casualties ensued. There was no food left in their stomachs and the intestines had dropped flat like the punctured balloons. Infacts, at a points, the craniums and bones of human beings they had been tramping over endlessly on their ways through the wilderness toward Libia, were no more one of the banes of the remaining poor travelers for they themselves had apparently seen the spirit of death beckoning to them. The young man further stressed how they were just dropping dead in numbers in an extreme feebleness at the passage of every boundary. And how at a point, no one among them had the ear to listen to the complain of the other, as all had become bundle of walking corpse. And he further laid emphasis in the fronts of the audience, on the point that he found it astounded, how his brother and him had eventually survived such perilous adventure. He buttressed his claim that it was in many occasions that there occurred a sandy storm accompanied with horrific whirlwind under which many of them were buried alive. And that, out of thirty-four of the total number of them who journey together, it was eight of them that eventually reached their destination. ‘Those of us who reached the land at the end of the terrible adventure were just setting down to begin doing something before we were arrested, immured in prison for a while over an illicit migration and then repatriated’, the young man ended the story. Every one in the gathering took pity on them all, for upon all the agony they encountered on the road they still not achieved any thing worthwhile in the land. The colonel stood to his feet and quieted everyone in the gathering again. ‘You see my sons", he said, facing those of the youths who happened to be the victim of the recent deportation from the proverbial countries, ‘don’t feel sad and never think you have make a vain effort. At least, you still have your lives back. For the fact that you didn’t loose your lives on the way or in the country was enough for you to point to as an achievement. And another thing is the experience you’ve acquired in the course of the trip. That one is an achievement too. If an elderly one should come here now to tell you that all that glitters are not gold, you will believe him much more better than how you would do when you’ve not set your feet on this trip. Why? It’s because you have had the practical experience. Infact, it’s anenonous to leap into a thing that peers or friends, or acquaintances or strangers even kins that come around you have just told you about its goodness without the imposition of a very sound rational thought on it. For the interior could be full of dangers. ‘You said some of you died on the road and some were caught in the country over one crime committed and another and were massacred. That was the Irony of the case. The land they say that saves has become the land that perishes. And that was why I reminded you the other time that not all that glitters are gold. Truly, the land is good but not for all. ‘I remember when I was in service in the city; there is this my friend who often settle matters through his certain word. He would say gulder is good but not good for everybody. You all know what gulder is in this our land. It’s a brand of bear that people take for their refreshment

at their leisure time or during celebration. While some could die to have it, some hate it earnestly as they would complain it makes them grow a paunch belly. ‘My children, like I have been saying, the country is good indeed and our own country is good too. We are even far better outpassed them in potentials require of building up a better world, they can never refute this claim. Our problem is just bad leadership. It’s unfortunate that we still not been having good representative in our government. Our political field is still very much dominated by ill manner people. ‘As I was saying there is nothing they have in that country you are traveling to that we don’t have here. Talk of minerals and human resources, we have them in abundant. That is why I say we should support the canny ones among our politicians. They should be the ones. We should vote for in every election conducted here in our country and turn our back against them at election with the chicken feeds they give us. This is one of the gospel I bring here, in this land for you, for that is the prime solution to our problems. ‘And stop allowing the mafia merchants using you as Mafioso trafficking their drugs around the world. The act of giving in the them is similar to that of an over ambious man who went and save his future with a notorious witch. He had deliberately ruined his future in ignorance. And also, don’t give yourselves out to the ruthless politicians that dominated our political world, to be used to cause conflicts and rigging of election nor become one of the messengers of the evil ones who do kidnap people into the forests and some other mysterious places where they do butcher them and sell them in parts to people who want to become wealthy, who want to win big contracts or political posts through diabolitical power. The colonel spoke at a great length and then gave room for about three or four of his men to address the youths in their own perspectives. Before then, he had told the youths in more emphatically statement why they should take education serious in their lifetime. ‘Aside of God who has ever been the ultimate education is the hope of the poor; he had laid the matter in this way and hence, instantly told them how to help themselves out in the matter concern. ‘Any one of you who craves for it, I mean education, but I wish everyone of you does so, should report to the board which my men and I have just set out for this purpose. Once you see anyone of us, you’ve known the board. You will be given every necessary assistance including your daily food and accommodation through the course of your study. And those of you too whose own desire is trading should not hesitate to come forth and declare it to me or any of my men. We would provide you with money and all other necessities to start with’. The youths were immensely enraptured by the pleasure in the great promise they had just derived in the meeting and the massive admonition. It was coupled with. And the two brothers who had talked about their harrowing experience to the land of Libia, eventually had their agelong disappeared mirth restored. The colonel had put their names down for urgent attention in his document.

He told them assuringly that, aside of their education which would be sponsored to any length, all of their other primary needs, such as feeding, clothing and housing would be also catered for by the charity organization under Rose, his wife and him. ‘Poverty had hauled you putting your head in the mouth of the raveneous beasts on the precarious ways you’d embarked upon. But, thank God, who had endorsed your safety return. God loves your family and that was why he has spared you people. It wasn’t by your own wisdom nor might. You said one of your sisters died and the other missing, all in the course of rescuing your family from the painful snare of poverty that abound here in our land. ‘Your mother died too and left your father in penniless state of life and agony of broken heart. Head it been two of you had also cost your lives to the hand of death standing on your way out of the country, perhaps that would have spelled out, the end of your family. So, stop weeping and begging appreciating God for that’, colonel K paused and that was the end of the meeting of the day.

Chapter 8

It had passed scores of months now that the project of developing the land of Kajore had taken its stake. And greatly were the problems militating the people of the land had suffered decline. People had blissfully walked into one department and another in the whole Agro Company to work on their chosen field. In the livestock farm itself, department had emerged after department and had subsequently gave rise to the emanation of sub-department. As in the department of cattle rearing, it was not that long to the time of its establishment when it gave birth to three micro departments or firms. The first was the firm where the cattle meal were been produced. It began with the amount that could give satiation to the numbers of the cattle in the farm, but as time went on, it was elevated to the degree of great commerce. Bags of the meal were produced on large scale and made ferried to the cities and other villages for sales in order to generate more money for the industry and to create expansion to the spaces of employment across the six villages under the same local government. And importantly, where the effect of this commitment had been best seen was on the cost of production of the entire farm. It had vibrantly got reduced. Another micro department on the cattle farm was the milk extracting one. It was founded and made to have a trade link with a milk producing company cited in the city, where the extracted crude milk from the cows reared on the motive, was been processed into finished goods. And the third micro department on the cattle farm was the one wherein, the cattle for meats were made processed for consumption. In this department, there was a well built abattoir equipped with modern day facility where the meats were been slaughtered, butchered, cleaned up and arranged in parts, sealed in fancy nylon and afterward taken into the giant refrigerators rigid all round inside of the colossal hall where it would be awaiting buyers who regularly thronged in to have one. They purchased them in bulk to their trade stores in the cities where they did sell them in

unites. The firm also had vehicles through which they were convey to the marketers around, at both remote and nearby vicinities. This very meat packaging firm gained an enchanting potency of attraction by the dint of its packaging manner and the uniqueness in the affordability of the price. And people, especially the whole sellers and the last consumers had also said the meats had a distinct taste among all the meats sold in all the markets around the cities and the villages. Moreover, they had also pointed at the hygienically ways of processing it, as one of the reasons why they had always gone for it, unlike the one being sold by the local butchers in their markets, which they did in ignorance expose to all manners of pollution in the atmosphere. Many of the meats on the tables of the local sellers were the resting foams for the armies of houseflies Which were returning from their scavenging trips on the dumping grounds at every corners of the markets where all manners of dirt, including human excreta and that of the animals and, rotten carcass were often found. The positive end result of the emergence of these firms in the giant Agro industry lighted up a massive reality upon the tremendous dream the colonel, his darling wife, Rose and his disciples had had when starting off the entire project. The industry had within the few years of his commencement yielded such amount of profits which none of its upholders had ever registered in his or her heart. Colonel K was enormously gratified at this and so was the rest of his people. The elation was as immense as such because of one major reason. The industry had been able to generate such a tremendous amount of money worth of sponsoring the rest of the programmes that had to do with the development of the land entirely. And one of such programmes was the on going sponsoring education for the old and the young. Another was the one set out for the personal welfare of the entire people of the land. It was in this that the elders of the six villages, including the chives, the kings, or Bales, widow, orphans and the less privilege (who were the most dominant of the land) were been regularly given certain percent of money for their daily needs. The aged farmers were also not left out. This rapid industrial improvement really done so well in painting the image of the entire land into a colourful new outlook. Every sector of life therein was one way and another affected politely. Despite the extension of the project to the rest of the villages, people still filled in every where for work. Some of them had to dismantled their ramshackle houses and gave them new construction. And the erection of new houses were also sponsored. This act of morale boosting proceeded like this for scores of months before the other side of it began beaming until it reached its full reflection. Overpopulation in a trice creped in and outpassed the current move of empowerment and deposited some numbers of problems in the land of Kajore and the rest of the five villages. Water, accommodation and lack of more working spaces were the primary ones. At each of the six villages, about three boreholes were constructed in every street at the beginning of the commencement of the developmental project and thus the problem the villagers had been encountering in competing for water with the beasts in the forest had by then suffered a great decline. But now that each of the streets across the six villages had been filled up with influx of people from the cities and other places known and unknown and multiply greatly the number of the resident, the surplus been derived in all the social amenities had consequently been blighted.

Having noticed all these fresh problems, the colonel apparently knew the motive which upon to expedite the extension of the developmental project. the project desperately needed to be extended to the remaining villages where the people were yet to know any new thing worthwhile except the initial construction of some boreholes courtesy of the charity department of the white vision farm. No industry yet established there for their children to work and over that the land had virtually been deserted of the able ones who ran from impecunious life. They were among the people that caused overpopulation in those affected parts in the local government The colonel knew in his deep cogitation that the entire work of developing the whole villages under his local government would have gotten to the apogee if not some numbers of factors that had remained as the encumbrance which was so strict to subject into subjugation. The major ones among these were the total dearth of power supply and good roads. They had really hampered the rapid growth of development of the six villages and they had appeared still ready to do more if giant steps wouldn’t be taken on them on time. Inside his sanctum, now that the lands had been suffering strictly developmentally, the colonel thought of what to do. And he could not come out with any solution other than to extend the development project to the remaining villages where it hadn’t reached. And to also create solution to all that had been making the rapid growth of the already existing industries not to become reality as far as expectation. As he was still on his seat; yet in his sanctum in great a cogitation the colonel breathe down heavily. He knew the task was so enormous and if it should be hosted and put upon the white-vision farm alone for rescue, it might keenly cause its total collapse. The white-vision farm had been so far responsible for the sponsoring of numbers of programme that were financially bogus. One of them was the well fare programme for the entire lands. And another, the running of education for the old and the young including free health care service with some other unrecorded ones. Now, it was never a little capital that it would all require to construct all the unmotorable roads across the six villages in order to foster the smooth running of the industries. And he knew surely that the struggle to gather all the money it would take to electrify all the villages could break one’s spinal cord. But if this could be fortunately achieved, it wouldn’t only aid the industries in reducing their cost of production, but would also give more spaces of work for his people. For many artisans whose works had to do with electricity, such as the barbers, hairdressers, welders, electricians and many others, would have remained as self employers rather than converging the farms in great number to do farming jobs and threw away the careers they were born to pursue. Many of them ran to the villages to work in those Agro industries from the cities having become tired of the erratic power supply which had thereby fostered upon them an indomitable lay-off and turned them to streets beggars. The more the colonel went deeper into this massive thought, so was a great fear surged through his heart. He knew indeed that the work to still be done was still enormous, and more far from that which had been done. And he remembered again in this course that the problem of Africa in term of growth was not even initiative but capacity building and its eternal sustenance. The last day the colonel visited the single major market in the land of Kajore, he couldn’t easily recover from the flame of shock the awful image ignited in his heart. There was nothing worthwhile therein to impress a foreign quest with.

The ancient market was not so capacious. Behind it, there was a great thick bush and immediately before the bush, there was a very lengthy heap of dumping ground which made every where around the market fetid and so stench. Bodies of dead animals were there rotten and the ground was also the only source where the marketers and their customers did defecate. One would often find one or two lunatics moving around and scavengers working on the dumping parts with sacks in their hands into which they pick up one or two decaying mental which they would afterward go and sell to make their daily bread. Famished dogs were also there in numbers, desperately eaten up the decaying bodies of the dead animals, the waste food thrown from the marketers and the bones of meats dumped there by the meats sellers and also struggling to snatch away to their mouths the faeces dropping out of the anus of those ones regularly seen easing themselves there as there was no public toilet built for them by the local government which was only good at collecting tax . midges were always seen converging here and there especially at the damped arrears of the wide dumping ground where they often time withdrew from to perch and bite on the skins of the poor sellers just the way mosquitoes too were doing them. And the endless smouldering refuse at some dried sides of the ground had always pervaded the atmosphere; resulting to catarrh and cough and heart pain to the marketers and those that patronize them. The poor hygienic condition of the market was not the only concern of the colonel but also the agony of the heart encountering by the marketers inside the market. There were no solid building for trade stores. They would remain under the severe hit of the sun of the African summer; beaten hell on their skins. Some of them who fairly have the privilege of avoiding the hit of the fiery sun during this season because of their accessibility to some numbers of shield built with bamboo tree and roofed with palm tree leaves; swinging inside common breeze, had often stood and remained liable to sharing from the second segment of the awful state of the market when the raining season return. This was when all would experience outrageous lost out of the hardship involve in securing their perishable wares in the rain and wind that at several times accompanied it. This very day which the colonel visited the market last, and which fell in the middle of the raining season, he stood in little distance away, watching the marketers, striving to please their customers in their sadness. Rain had just spoilt many of their goods especially that of those ones who sold foodstuffs. And he also saw the buyers as they were wading through the mire caused by water from rain lodging there, which was of ankle-full . And instantly, he instructed his secretary who stood by him beside his car to mark this down in the document from her bag and since then he had bore it in mind and then planning when and how to go about the remedy. As the colonel got to the depth of all the massive thought which had brought depression in heart, he breathe down deeply again, then brainstorming on what upon to impose all the problems suffered by his land at this point in time for rescue. Surely, the capital required was too enormous and could liquidate the white-vision farm if made to be the one to carry the bogus impedimental. The major two of these problem were the electrification and construction of the bad road in the six villages so as to foster the rapid reach of the developmental project to its apogee. In his massive thought, the colonel knew the massive hand of the government was needed in the accomplishment of this task. But just as the entire people of his land had been continually sinking into the pool of disappointment dug for them by those ones who were representing them in the

state houses, so had he also. It was hardly one or two out of every hundred senators or honourables or chairman of local government or the councillors in the nation, who were ready to serve their people genuinely. Many of them struggled to the post under the do or die affairs because of the great remuneration they did derive there and the golden accessibility to louthe the nation’s wealth. In countless numbers of time had colonel K sent letters to all these holders of power from his local government of which the prominent content was that they should through the huge location they did receive from the federal government provide the basic infrastructure needed for generating enabling environment for industrial growth and development which would subsequently revamp economic recession. In the pensive mood over the obnoxious ways of the political leaders in his land toward his people, he found out that the only solution to this was to get good representatives in government. And the question of how to get this done later on formed a gigantic pillar of anxiety in his heart and made him feeling discomfortable. Thus, he resolved to appear in Mr. Ade’s house who was his right hand man so as to get all the burden in his heart dismantled through the hammer from the hand of impeccable remedy which was going to be pluck out from the giant vine of wisdom that come out of two integrated good brain. His body in his sanctum was hot despite the fact that he was under a cold atmosphere induced by the air conditioner which force of power was been received from a powerful generator set rigid at one corner of the colossal compound .This was so because of the extreme perturbation that had engulfed him. And so he could not wait for one more minute for his launch which was about to be set on the table when he stood up and made for Mr. Ade’s personage. Mr. Ade had been every now and then receiving visitors who came for one issue and another. Many of them were business maven from cities, who came to introduce to him one or two of their own product which could be of the use of the great Agro industry. Some of these products were chemicals for fumigation and fecundity. He had been made the D.G of the Agro industries by the proprietor immediately after the complexion and after he had also been made to resign from his teaching profession. Mr. Ade was the only one who studied Agric-economics among the few graduates in the land and was naturally endowed with strong trading deftness. ‘Your tongue has always done well in producing soothing and promising utterances for your restless customers’, once said by a customer in the office. Another prominent issue why the D.G. had always experienced the throne of people around him was on redressing discord and because of all these, he had often having little time for his personal life. Ogoro with his son, Bolu was his last visitor at this very noon. They had come to launch a complaint. ‘You said your son shown himself for the interview which was just conduct at the white vision farm? ‘Of course honourable; ogoro, the average old man answered virtually all the villagers had been used to calling Mr. Ade with this name to show him profound respect having seen and dazzled by his role in the economic growth of the six villages under his local government. ‘And what was the outcome?’ ‘He said he was not offer the opportunity to work there,’ ogoro answered and quickly carried his frown face toward the sad face of his son who sat by him in a moody state. ‘Tell him everything now you fool!’ He barked on him and spank on him at

the back. The boy grumbled. He shook his body wholly to revolt against the action of his father. ‘Don’t beat him sir…, Mr. Ade said anxiously. He was somehow wondered about the impertinence reflecting on the boy. ‘Did you mean this your boy grew here in this land?’ Mr. Ade asked. ‘No, he had stayed all the while with his mother in the city. The siblings are there too’. Mr. Ade nodded. He had now had contention in his mind. Once he saw Ogoro at his arrival introducing the boy as his son, he had known the boy must had just returned from somewhere different from the land. For ogoro was known across the land as a man who never look after his children. All he knew was how to go on binge around and at return impregnate his wife and ran away once he knew she was about to put to bed and would not return until the baby had began walking around. He would flee away to become a tramp. People would return from the neighbouring villages on their visits, to relay to his family, the story of how they had seen him moving from one village to another where he did serve some rich farmers as a labourer. And he was also notorious of his identification as one of those who hobnobbed with Bawon, the strong political war-lord in his capacious compound that always filled up with dangerous boys trained for deadly strike against the oppositional party on election days and during campaigns. And it was amid of this that his wife left him with pain to relocate in the city where she would hustle around to cater for her children. ‘And what did he say was the reason why he was rejected?’ Mr. Ade asked Ogoro, the father of Bolu who sought a space to work in the agro industry at Kajore. ‘He said the manager in charge said his education did not sound well and thus couldn’t be taken for the post he applied for. ‘What post did he apply for?’ ‘Our honourable one, it was the post of a clerk; sales clerk’. ‘And what is the qualification? ‘Show him you idiot..! "Ogoro barked on his son wanting to spank him again but was intercepted by the D.G. who afterward stretched out his hand and collected the result from the boy. Having perused on it for a short while he then unbend his brow. ‘Are you sure you apply in the marketing department? ‘Yes sir…’ Bolu answered. ‘Then tell me how you went about it and what happened afterward? ‘When I reported at the office of the secretary as a job seeker, I was told to obtain a form there free, take it home and return it the following day after filling it. I did so and returned it this morning. When the secretary saw it, he asked me some questions that were full of humiliation and then asked me to go. ‘How did you mean by some questions of humiliation? The D.G asked ‘He asked me questions that was degrading me’. ‘Questions about what? The D.G. asked this time around with little agitation. ‘About the form he asked me to fill’. ‘How did the questions look like? ‘Show him the form idiot!’ The father shouted hell on him. His heart had extremely caught up with fire of anger. The son obliged with a gesture full of contempt. He handled the form to Mr. Ade who afterward dropped the result on the table and began to read on the form. The name of the applicant was well written but not well arranged according to the instruction given at the top of the form. It was written there that the surname

should come first, then the middle and last name respectively. Mr. Ade proceeded and saw the space where the sex of the applicant should be indicated and the boy wrote inside it ‘No’. Mr. Ade stopped at this point and sought clarity from the boy himself. He upright his head and said, ‘you are told to indicate your sex here’, he pointed to the space box in the form, ‘why did you wrote ‘No’ here in this space? The angry boy opened his mouth and spoke in a voice full of rebellion. ‘They asked me of sex and I said ‘No’ ‘What did you mean by ‘No’. ‘They thought I wasn’t wise. It’s job I wanted from them and they wanted to seize the advantage and use trick to know whether I have had sex before and I said ‘No’. He responded in the usual manner. Mr. Ade could not quickly free himself from the grip of the marvel that came forth of what the boy had just said. He couldn’t believe himself of hearing that. ‘And why did you think that way?’ He asked solemnly. ‘In the city, people have been saying it; in fact, I have heard it from two of my friends that the government has been planning to see they catch people living with the HIV/AID virus and immure them in prison to avoid the spread’. Mr. Ade breathe somehow audibly. His soul had been greatly depressed for seeing it alive, the falling standard of education in the land. ‘See, in the form given to you, you were not expected to disclose your sexual status nor that of the HIV/AID. And your belief on this issue is an illusion for the HIV/AID victims all over the world still have their fundamental human right intact’; he turned to the father. ‘Sir… and you said this your son finished his high school? ‘Of course our honourable. He had been schooling where he stayed with his mother there in the city. That perfidious woman, who entered into my house as a new bride in that old day with a flaccid breast! Bolu became more irk and scowled at his father as he said this. ‘And why is it that he could not understand simple English? He could not know what it means to ask one his sex? ‘That is how I have been seeing them. They do not resemble me at all. ‘How would they resemble you? That would have been the worst’, Mr. Ade thought in his heart. He was full of disgust for hearing this man who was the worst of his family, claiming virtue above his children who were apparently fairer than him in attitude. He had always made a fiery quarrel with his wife and when the persisted feud could not be thrown down and smash to dust by those elderly ones who had often stampeding their home each time it occurred, the woman had to run far from him and found a place to settle on a petty trade in the city with her children. The D.G. turned face to the boy again, ‘… so you don’t know your gender status?’ He asked with total concern of the heart. ‘Please sir, if you know you will help me let me know sir. That was how the man there…’, he pointed toward the farm, ‘… started degrading me in the morning. I don’t have any agenda now with me than the one which case I have brought before you here’. Mr. Ade shook his head and took much pity on the ignoramus fellows in the persons of father and son who shared same mind and sense but a separate outlook. ‘So, it’s gender you are again taking for agenda? You don’t know what gender means too?’

‘But I have answered you sir. I have no any agenda or gender as you called it … than the one that brought me here’, he retorted. ‘You are just teacher in the school? Bolu answered not but grumbled. Anger had virtually enshroud his face wholly. The father cut in ‘… please our honourable take me as I’m. Don’t look at his foolishness and rudeness let him work with you in your company so that he can earn money and assist his mother in raising his siblings…’, he ceased and carried his body off his seat and wanted to lay prone on the ground in the front of the D.G. But was prevented by the D.G. as he held him in hand. ‘Don’t do that. To secure a job from me is not the problem. We are the one who recently announced to our people vacancies just as we normally do each time there is the availability. But the case is that this boy has problem which we need to tackle so that in future he will not encounter tough problems in matching up with the good ones in the society. If he’s left like this, he will grow to become a problem to the nation. ‘Do whatever you would like to do on him our honourable in as much that he will secure job from you’. ‘You see, I wonder that he could have this kind of certificate with him and he is still like this. This is the West Africa Senior Secondary School Examination Certificate in his hand. He has five credits including English language and mathematics. I wonder how he manage to get this result through his own brain. He must have had it from some fraudulent means. No student who can use his own brain to write this exam conducted by this board call the West Africa Examination Council and pass it at this level, who would still have problem in English or mathematics at rudimentary level wherever he or she meets self in this world at large. Through this exam, they’ve made one to have solid educational foundation, so I don’t know how your son could carry this kind of result and still be like this. He’s not better than a pupil in the primary school. ‘Just take me as I’m, honourable, please’, Ogoro pleaded. ‘Alright, just tell him to come to me tomorrow morning early enough. I will take him to the industry and ask my people there to fix him to where he could cope with, and later on we shall know what exactly to do about his poor state of education. It’s not good to have this kind of people in high places in our industry or even in our society. They will spoil the economy. If it’s little education that one has, one should make sure it’s solid and outstanding. We are not saying until one attends all the universities in the world, obtain all the degrees available there before one can contribute to the vibrant growth of ones country or territory. When Ogoro and his son, Bolu left instantly, a strange force, produced by bitterness immured the D.G. in a deep thought of the heart. He was extremely sad of what he had just seen the educational standard was trying to be pulled down to. He knew if reasonable care was not taken, this damage caused by some nasty people in the society would rise beyond the reach of best remedy. He thought of writing letters to all the examination boards in the country, including that of the university education and especially the West Africa Certificate Council (WAEC) .He also thought of writing the two houses of the senates in his country and to all the good African leaders and organizations who had the spirit full of good vision to intervene to this matter. He had wanted them to put on their amulets and carry their amour and wage tough war against these monsters of destruction setting into the black nations through the educational sector and which were therein weakening the senses of man rather than prodding them for achieving better world for every one to live in.

‘How did he even own such a result?’ Mr. Ade had it loud and clear asking himself this, ‘… he has credit in mathematic, economics, agric science, chemistry and English language yet he knew not what ones’ sex means and taking gender for agenda,’ the D.G. couldn’t find answered to his question. In the worrisome thought, he got to a point where he remembered his own younger brother whose attitude was very much akin to that of Bolu, the son of Ogoro. The D.G. had always had reasons to often give plaudits to his God and the infinity cause of been blissful. But each time the memory of the case of his brother surged through his heart he became so embittered. He knew that was the only bane that had strictly adhered to his life each time he viewed through it wholly. Observing thoroughly into the lives of these two; Bolu, the son of Ogoro and Supo his own younger brother, he had seen close similarity. Bolu was indolent, impertinent and dull in brain while Supo was greedy, disobedient and flippant. The D.G stared back into the academic live of his younger brother and saw how he had therein moved forth virtually as slow as the snail. He spent eight years in his primary school instead of the normal six years. His brain was okay but he wouldn’t stay in the class. In high school, his truancy also brought him an extra year to the year of graduation. And so was it, in the university where he put in for four years course but spent six years which was attributed to his flippancy. He would rather engaged in continual showing off in outing, clubs and day and night party, mingling with ladies around. Since he had grew to know him as a younger sibling, Mr. Ade had never seen him reflecting any sign as of the one who had what it takes to scape through life’s endeavour which he regarded as patience and perseverance. They were five in the family as children and Supo was the least. Mr. Ade who happened to be the third born in the family remembered how he( Supo) would at a great length sob in order to be given one piece of meet after the one, one round served to all the children in the family while dining. And he would never stop until his will had been done. And if meet himself among other children made to eat together inside one plate, before touching the food at all, he would smartly deepen his hand into the plate of soup, threw one or two pieces of meat into his mouth and even be zealous at swallowing all except he was quickly rebuke which was a seldom case. His father who was then an average teacher had always yearned for his disintegration from this act of greed, which he knew should he grown with, would breed vileness into his life in the future. So, he imposed corporal punishment on him but his mother who was a smoke fish seller had often stood firm for his perfect defence. Now, the father was no more and neither the mother. They had gone to the great beyond after they had done all in their capability on their children. They had ensured every one of them had good education and blissful marriage except Supo alone who was the last-born. He was then still on the way. Supo had graduated from university before the demise of his mother. His father had died earlier while he was in his first year. Since then he had never secured a good job. His way waywardness had really grieved his siblings especially Mr. Ade. He had never seen him showing much zeal in seeking an outstanding ways of making it in life except some illicit involvement where he had been moving around in the city with some other guys of his nature gallivanting around since he had graduated from school. Since the establishment of the white vision farm the D.G had at several times thought of securing for him a work space therein, but each time he had this thought, a great fear blazed up his heart. It was the fear of having his family’s name spoilt

should he help to fix in Supo whom he knew very much for his cupidity into a space of work there. It was in this pensive mood the D.G was still inside of when some knocks started bothering the door. He still looked so doleful as he made for the door to get it opened. It was the colonel who was behind the door and having exchanged greetings with him the colonel knew his bitterness instantly and thus, he asked to know what was behind it while he was ushered onto the seat. The D.G told him everything. He started from the visit of Ogoro and his son to him and how Ogoro himself had lamented to him how manner his children whom he had left their care in the hand of their mother had been disdaining him. The colonel heaved a sign of relief then began to tell him a story. He had remembered a certain story told one day by his father to a friend while he himself was still a little boy. It was the story told to Apapa, who was so poor at showing paternal love to his children. He heard his father relating the story to Apapa that came to lament to him how his own children had developed a strong obduracy in hearkening to his voice. ‘I heard my father saying …’ the colonel began, ‘lizard and the hen happened to be friends and they both dwelled in the same vicinity in those days. And would exchange greetings with each other in distance as each went to her business places and coming together as well in most cases to share personal issues and experience in a strong amiable colloquy. But at a point in time the hen was not seen in the street for quite a little long while. Lizard wondered what could have brought about that. All his thought was that the hen had relocated to somewhere else. But one day, after about two weeks, the lizard was in distance, at an opposite direction as she was heading to the market, and saw the hen. She found it so difficult to recognize her. And in a marvel, she robed across her face with the palm of her right hand, thinking it was her eyes that were failing her but as they drew closer to each other, she knew that what she had seen was just it, then she shouted with great concern. The one time chubby hen, with glittering plumage covering her body had now wore an emaciated body, looking unkempt all over. ‘What is it that has brought you this great calamity? ‘The lizard asked, having her mouth agape. ‘My friend, it’s the matter of children’, the hen answered with a faint voice. She had even lost the strength to speak audibly enough. I have been sleeping on my eggs so that I could have my children at the end of the days’, she added. Hearing this, the lizard collapsed in an uncontrollable laughter. She laughed until she was tired. ‘So it’s procreating children that has turned you to this?’ She didn’t wait for the answered before she busted to scornful laughter again and when she was tired of it, she spoke on again. ‘Hell to that! I have laid my own eggs inside hole and buried them there. It’s God who gives that also knows how to do the caring!’ Lizard shouted then busted again into great laughter. But you one too need to show at least little care to them’. The hen said.

‘Hell to care I say. I can never suffer myself to care for anybody except myself’, lizard again began laughing her friend in derision as she had just been walking away from her when she could no longer tolerate the ridicule.

At this point of the story, a thought stirred up in the heart of Mr. Ade. Through the last word said by the lizard in this story, he remembered his people. The primitive ones among the Yorubas. He had remembered them with one of their popular sayings about procreation. And it was even more than a saying to them but a notion. They would say Olorun nise omo, Olorun ni now". Meaning "its God who gives child who also responsible for the care. And quite often had these ones used this saying as a strong excuse of avoiding family planning and thus procreating children more than what they could care for. This notion had really impaired the efforts of the health workers sponsored by governments of the US and some international organizations like unicef that were been made to approach the local ones in the rural areas. They had always used this saying to counter them. The illiterate parents especially the old ones and the elders in the primitive societies had been so fancy of using this statement to speak to their grown up children who had reached the age of procreating but who were still waiting for when they would be blessed by God and secure all what it takes to establish a good family where the children would not know suffering at all but have good meals, education, good health and all the rest by which one could experience a vibrant life. Mr. Ade remembered vividly the last time he visited his old uncle. The immediate brother to his late father. That day, he came to meet him talking to both his daughter and her husband who had just came from the city where they work. He heard him telling the couple it was high time they gave birth to their fourth child. The couple had earlier told him why they had resolved to do family planning after bearing their third child. ‘Sir, we would be able to cater for all their needs; good school, balance diet, good clothing and good atmosphere wherein to live," the daughter had said to her father and her husband had also nodded along it to reflect support. See my children, its good to bear plenty children, you need them for errand and beside you don’t know which one will grow into a virtue child and prosperous one. If you have them plenty then you are hopeful to see one turning out to something good in life" Mr. Ade on the seat he was ushered into, heard the old men again saying to his son-in-law ,‘see your wife now, she was one out of the two prospering in life among the plenty of children that I have. See the beverages and food stuff she has just brought in for me. I have never tasted this kind of things in my life before, until she begins to send them to me’, the old man added then laughing seriously in mirth after he had pointed his finger to all the foodstuff and beverage his daughter had brought in for him at the visit where they packed them at one corner of the room His daughter had refused to join her father in the laughter as the father had expected; rather she began whispering some words into the ear of her husband. She knew it was a kind of laughter good alone for an ignoramus fellow. She remembered the number of them as children to this old man. They were fourteen is number and as the father had said to the guest, it was two of them all, who could account for the making of little success in their lives . On her own side, at least she had been happily married and managed to own a store in the city where she sold bags of rice, beans and verities of fruits. Including creates of egg and gallons of oil. But she had keenly attributed this little achievement to the fortune in marrying good husband .Her husband had been a meek one who worked as a driver with a reputable organization in the city. His last educational level was high school. He had been working for five years as a bachelor before he came across his wife when she was doing a servitude job in a certain restaurant in the city. She was there was washing plates to earn her living.

This mother of three but already tempting to become that of four, remembered what all her siblings had turned to as a result of poor upbringing which was induced by over procreation been involved into by her illiterate parents. More than five of them had scattered selves across the neighbouring villages, tilling ground in the farms of some averagely rich framers who paid them pittance with which to survive. The rest of them except one, who happened to be a commercial bus driver in the city, were thugs recruited by the ruthless politician that abound in all the land. This lady knew she would have been either a medical doctor or an economist should what that ought to be the strength of her background was not pulled down by excessive influx of children into the family. These two careers were those that she had aimed at in her first day in school. ‘After another two weeks", the colonel proceeded in his story and Mr. Ade cleared his mind clean of all the thought so as to be re-carried along to the end of the story this time around,‘ the lizard on her way again along the street had some images caught her sight. This time around it was so colourful. And when he stared out more keenly, she knew it was the hen that was leading her new babies along the road. The lizard stood still and watched them in little wonder. She had seen unalloyed pride of good life reflecting on the beautiful body of the hen. Indeed, she had regained her lost weight and so became so beautiful again. When she moved to the right, her babies fluttered toward her and when to the left they did likewise. And when she asked them to run or slow down or to take a hide from the reach of the famished kite in the sky they understand her sharply and obliged quickly. All these good gestures, the lizard had watched and felt greatly jealous. And out of shame, she jumped into the nearby bush to hide from the approaching queen of the avian whose pride had been glittering by the value her pretty babies had added to her movement as they kept her company along the road. The lizard strongly wished she had her own children bouncing along with her in this manner too. As the hen and her babies by passed, the lizard sneaked out of the bush and made for her house in great exasperation and sadness. Having reached home she cried out raucously to gather all her children who had scattered about in the far vicinity, minding their own businesses in disunity . She wanted them to come and stay round her so that she could speak to them on what she had just seen and loved about the hen and her children but non of them listened to her voice. And thus, she broke into sobbing disappointedly. ‘The next day she appeared before the hen in her place. The hen was somehow frighten of the degree at which sorrow wrapped her face and that held her into asking her of what was the cause. She told the hen how she had never been in good term with her own children. "They would never listen to me for once unlike how I could see your own children doing,’ she said with tears, and continued, ‘If I say go this way, they go that way and when I say it’s that way they leap into this way. In fact, they don’t regard me as their mother but rather disdaining me.’ ‘Is that all?’ The hen asked. ‘Yes my friend,’ lizard whimpered. Immediately she gave her answer, the hen busted into laughter. She laughed and virtually collapsed to the ground and having became tired of it, she opened her mouth wildly to speak to the lizard still standing moodily in her front ‘My friend, what one does not care for never yield for one. When you plant a crop and you don’t care for it, it will not grow at all or grow well. And who ever you don’t show care for would always lack what it takes to care for you in return. which means that whatever you sow into your fellows lives is what you can only reap from

them. You laid your eggs in the depth of the earth and you turn your back. my own children yield to me and care for me too because I have shown enough of care to them first. I started showing them care right from when they were still eggs .In starvation I covered them up under my wind for twenty one days consecutively. So go and show care not even to your children alone but to every one around you." The colonel ended his story and the D,G learnt great lesson indeed from it. But when he related it to the case of his own brother Supo, he wanted to loose little interest in the lesson learn from this story. His own brother was cosseted by his parents yet he grew to become an head-strong. So, he wanted to ask the colonel this, but before he could open his mouth a force prodded his memory and he remembered a singer in the years past who sang that too much of everything was dangerous. His own younger brother was not spoilt because he was not showing care by his parents but because he was showing too much of care. The D.G remembered as well how he could in many occasions hear the health workers educating people that too much of sugar, salt fat food, carbohydrate and others were not good but were dangerous to the health of man when they were taken too excessively. But non of then had ever said that these food are not good for the body if taken in moderate measure. And no doctor had ever said that thinking is bad, for many things had been invested through it and many useful ideas had also been pluck from it. But they had always spoken against the two much of it, which could lead to hypertension, madness ,emaciation and many precarious body disorder. Eventually, the D.G told the colonial what the visit of Ogoro and his son to his place that morning had brought to his heart before they finally left and which happened to be the major reason he, the colonel had come to meet him in such a great mood of sadness. The visitation had indeed stirred up that bad feelings he used to have on the case of his younger brother Supo. He then unveil the bad feeling surging in his heart to the colonel as he told him Supo had graduated from schools and had not been able to secure a good job. And how he had took this as an excuse to adhere to a thronged of guys of his nature in the city and whose desire was to be moving around gallivanting and engaging in illicit business like duping, especially on the foreigner on the internet and some other channels. "But you said he is a university graduate and also own his second degree?’ The colonel asked with much concern. "of course colonel, he owns B.A English and M. Sc in philosophy.’ The colonel nodded thoughtfully "Then why can’t we make him one of the lectures we are planning to employ for the adult education programme which will soon began here?" "And that is good sir. It’s a welcome advice. I have not just thought that way." There arrived on the face of the DG, a lively broad smile. His soul had been so exhilarated that the prodigal son of his family was going to be redeemed "That is the kind of place that it him sir’ he said to the colonel again, still beaming with smile. "That is where he would have nothing to loot except if he’s hungry for book.’ The two laughed. Mr Ade had earlier told the colonel that one of the strongest blemish adhered to the life of Supo was cupidity. "If we say he’s bad and we leave him alone that will be the worst. We need to do something before he becomes one of those boys of those bad politician who use them to hijack power on election days in vicious attack on the electorates; the press, the electoral officers and other monitoring teams. Or he become one of the drug pusher to the drug barons that abound every where or again he becomes one of the boys of the evil men that butcher and sell human parts in the forests across the land.

Thereafter, the two began talking about the profound interest that had been shown by the vice councillor and the senates of the reputable university in the city on the commencement of the affiliation of the institution in this remote area where education was greatly needed. They also discussed the high degree turn out of the people of the whole six villages especially the primary school teachers and the secondary school ones who owned the grade two teacher certificate and the national council of education certificate respectively, in obtaining the forms. They had put in to upgrade their qualifications. The emergence of this programmes was triggered off from the centre of the intent of the colonel to ride his entire people to the bright world of education where there lie, the sword with which man fights for his right and where he grows wings through which he could fly around and go beyond the world where undiscovered treasures of life still lay pretty in hide. He had travelled so much far with his men, reaching to many academics and other noble men in institutions of learning across the cities to advocate for this programme. The one for the people who hadn’t been to school at all had already began and people had poured into it exultantly. And people who had at one time and another dropped out of school had gone back to proceed. The regular speech of the colonel on the impotent of education at many forums he had always crated had opened their eyes and made them now foresaw all the benevolence abound at all ends in the world of education. Structures had been constructed after structures to shelter the students. Having spoken all that had to do with the commencement of the learning institution, and when Supo should be invited to the land to take up the lecturing work together with the other employees, the colonel launched out the real mission of the day which was what that brought him there. He unfolded the totality of his mind and the D.G understood it all, and then they began to break it into pieces in a fabulous discursion. After which the two had adumbrated what they had wanted the project of developing the land which they had embark upon for years now, to develop to in the nearest future, they went further by pointing out what they had presumed as the possible stumbling blocks they might encounter. In the course of the discussion, the D.G had spoken what was in the heart of the colonel towards the matter concern. He had unveiled the evil face of the monster of anti-development which he called bad roads and lack of power supply, in all the six villages. Lack of good Education was also part of them. Development project doesn’t quickly get to its apogee in a society where the proportion of the illiterates ones exceeded that of the educated ones. It could take a man who doesn’t go to school at all one good year to find a solution to a problem which could not even cost the educated one twenty-four hours. All these factors had really hampered the speed at which the development project ought to have moved on. And according to the men in discussion, should at this point the project been running so far had risen to, complacency was unscrupulously allowed, there would be absolute subjection of it to backwardness. For people in great mass had been rising everyday from both known and unknown places to incline their lives survival on the project. This was strong enough to speak for the need for expansion even at a great extreme. "you have spoken my heart Mr. Ade and I’m always happy that you’ve always shared the same mind with me. When I went deep in a thought to have a view of the scenario of this project I saw its expansion’s exigency and when I began to cogitate on how to get that achieve, I saw these two major problems you’ve mentioned and I was worried about their greatness. To put the rescue of that of about

four out of the six of the villages under our local government in the hand of the white vision farm, might lead to its liquidation" The men began brainstorming; seeking earnestly for the best remedy they could place on these problems in a very lengthy conversation. They got to a point where they become wearied and perspired profusely under the roof seriously heating hell by the fiery sun burning madly upon the surface of the earth. In this conversation, they had dug out with their brain some numbers of remedies which they later thrown off having seen their potency was so weak to what they needed. But at the head of all, they dragged the matter into the hand of politics. This was where they knew the kind of remedy with such a weight they desire could be found. But it was unfortunate that non of the holders of political post currently from the local government was responsible. They discussed some of them. "Since he had won the election, Mr. Ade said, " I had set my eyes on the councillor not more that twice and even the chairman. They seldom come here in the land to visit us. The first time I saw the two after the election was the day they came in their cars to express their gratitude to their supporters during the last election and the campaigns that came ahead of it. I was in distance ,seeing them, dragging out bales of money from their cars, segregating them in pairs and throwing them amid of the large crowd of the supporters which comprises young men and women, the old ones and the area boys at large and all twirling around the stage in ecstasy to pick up the notes of currency. ‘I wonder what our people would always enjoy in this chicken- feeds they are often given in dissimulation by those bad politicians’, Colonel K put in "our colonel, I don’t know you would say so. They are not using it to do any good thing than to use it on buying party garments or uniforms. Our people especially the women love attending these their local parties too much. They organize unnecessary parties especially that of their aged ones who have been dead and buried for over many years . Drinking & eating gluttonously without minding their children education and health’. The colonel at this point cut in passionately, looking so solemn, ‘but it’s our fathers that say "tying an head-scarf is not as sweet as knowing how to tie it well. And knowing how to tie it well is not as interesting as having it fitting", Why has our people began to tie head-scarves that do not fit them? I mean, why would they leave what they ought to have been doing and doing what that does not bring value or gain, even prestige to them in the future? Future matters most! "The other day again,’ Mr Ade continued ,‘was the day I saw the chairman in his black jeep. He parked it at the facade of Bawon’s compound’ Mr. Ade pointed toward the direction of the house of the political lord, who was the God-father of many political aspirants and the holders of political power in the land, ‘and asked his driver to park it very close to the mouth of the gate and afterward he by himself called out the area boys who were part of the compound to open up the boot of the jeep and to convey from it into the compound, countless numbers of the covert coffers smuggled out of the government house" "Colonel", Mr Ade called with much concern of the heart, ‘you can now see how our money are being shared. They are going into the purse of some bad set of people who have imposed their obnoxious influence on us. That is why people are suffering. If such people still exist among us, we can never find it easy to totally send poverty out of our land. Colonel .K had had his soul greatly depressed. He had been greatly felt disappointed over the greatness of the act of cupidity exhibiting by people who ought

to have been models in his land. But he knew if they should continue to discuss this bad habits showcasing by these politicians, years would pass years and they would still not reach the end. ‘Mr. Ade’, the colonel called, ‘I think solution to this problem is the paramount thing we need now. Having bad representatives in the government is a big problem. So, we need to assist our people in getting the right people there, those ones who are ready indeed to serve their people and not themselves and their faming alone; the ones who would help to turn this squalors to salubrious places" ‘Dear colonel, that is where lies another problem only if you will not agree to share this belief with me. It’s not easy at all to get good people there. In this part of the world, in the history of politics, there are these two things it has always constituted of and they are violence and chronic electoral malpractice. So, you will hardly see the descent men going into the world of politics here. They are very few. " But good ones are still here and there across our land. I think we just need to give them encouragement. "Colonel, get me right. I’m not saying all the good ones in our land are dead, but you will hardly see them showing enough interest in politic of the land except few of them. They don’t want to shed blood or get the law breeched or in order way round to involve into the deceptive acts known with our politicians. That is why the good Christians and people from other religious would never dream of venturing into politics. They have seen the political field as where the devil look into in his effort of choosing and crowning those ones he has seen as good servants of him. And the parameter by which he does the nomination is how much have these ones inflicted wickedness on the innocents and how much is the blood they have responsible for its shedding "So colonel, it’s going to take you too much of time to get this task of gathering good people for politics accompanied. It would even out passed the one you have been spending all the long while on the white-vision farm project. You might even not have gotten a specific destination to arrive at on the board when the vagabond would invade". The colonel was trouble in his heart. It was to him as if he hadn’t heard this very kind of saying before. After a brief thought, he breath down deep. It was to relief himself a bit from the heaviness of his heart caused by all those unwholesome reports passing their through his ears. "But I think I have such people around me, people I have for long been working with and knew what they could offer and also knew they could yield to my voice however angle I am speaking from’, the colonel said with much concern, calmly nodding to give more approbation to his statement. And the seriousness that followed it made the D.G knew the colonel really meant what he had just said. "Who are those ones you talk about colonel?’ "They are actually those of you who started this project with me and fortunately you are the paramount. Hearing this, the D.G laughed slightly. He had seen it as much of satire than a fact. How could he be told he was fit to join those ones who were more or less of a devil in his heart?’ The colonel began to pour out all he had in his heart. He spoke very long on why he had wanted the D.G to represent his constituency in the national assembly at the forth-coming election. He told him there would be much achievement in doing that. One of the tangible things he referred to was the infrastructure the land was really in need of for total development. But the more the colonel spoke further, so the

D.G shown great obduracy to it. He gave many reasons for that. He repeated to him all he had earlier said about those things that adhered to politics of the land: violence, malpractice and shedding of blood. "These are what I detest’ he said. "And beside, if I go into it, It’s a way of putting my life in hot peril’ He added. The colonel virtually felt wearied of the persuasion. The force in the defensive utterances coming forth of the D.G mouth had almost edged him out of the persuasion. But the fiery passion of helping his entire people from the bondage of poverty created by bad representatives in government, stirred up strength in him and he proceeded. With the powerful force on his tongue he dragged the mighty D.G through the word full of motivation and heartfelt passion of humanity. And at a point, his word was no longer looked like a thrilling admonition but very much of an overwhelming plea. Hanging the possibility of the total survival of his people from their predicament on the D.J just as God had hung on Jesus Christ, the responsibility of the salvation of man from the doom set out for him by the Lucifer, and also his live of eternity gave the D.G a great fear in his heart. "Thank God you are a Christian, the colonel said. "It’s the scripture that says we should equally love our fellows as we love ourselves. If you say you will watch your people perishing while you have in hand what it’s required to liberate them but choose not to do so just because you want perfect peace for your live It means you love yourself than them. "But colonel, you’ve called me in the beginning of this goal and I have answered you well. I have left my profession and joined hand with you in bringing succour to our devastating people. I think that is enough. If I should involve myself into whatever that can blight my live or shorten it, then it means I love my people than myself and thus, the equality rule is no more reckon but abused and which is what I think the Christ is speaking against". "That is not so my D.G. If you even show that you love your people than yourself and not yourself than your people there is much greater reward in that" This striking word from the colonel speed into the heart of the D.G and poured chill on the fire of repudiation inside. Thus, the D.G gave in instantly. Thereafter they deviated to the discussion some other issue. They talked about how the ceremony organizing by the entire six villages which notification had reached to the colonel, was going to look like. This was a ceremony of which the elders of the six villages had planned to tender their profound gratitude for all the benevolence the colonel had so far bestowing on them. This was also the ceremony in which different awards were intended given out to the youths and any other individual or body who had excel in one field or the other or who had lend hands toward the achievement of something remarkable in the ongoing project in the land. Thereafter the D.G disclosed some of the books he had intended at the ceremony, to present to some of the youths who had been showing strong interest in becoming great in life through clean ways; the ones void of dubiousness, mugging, drug trafficking, prostitution and many more, despite the hardship all had been passing through in life endeavours across the lands. They were motivational books, and one of them was the one titled. " The Big picture." It was a book that revealed the fact that the most failure set of people in life today could surely become the most fabulous winner by tomorrow if indeed, they could dream high and worked hard toward it.

The D.G further stressed how he had been so much adored this book. But, he could never give any brief account of its content without pointing to the very part that had always amused him each time he went through it. And that was where Ben Carson; the author of this book was describing how tough was the impecunious life poverty held his family into while he was still very young. He said his mother was a cleaner, riding a jalopy car and could at a point in time been able to purchase a new car with the dimes and nickels she had been throwing unwarily here and there of her room. ‘This has always amused me", the D.G said, "that is not the real poverty that is here in our land. In fact, here is the domain of that monster called poverty, haunting around with his devastating sword with which he kills everyday. Anyone who is able to afford even a used car here in our land can never be regarded living in penury. Here is where you will see a cleaner working round the clock and at the end of the day she is paid with the crumbs that fell under the dinning table of the master. Yet plenty of people are even struggling to get such opportunity so as to escape being the next death’s victim of poverty. "And the noble neurosurgeon also talked of the action of his loving mother against surviving through the welfare package made available for the indigents in their area by the government. This is not the kind of poverty that is here. Here, many people in rural areas even take shit for food. No job nor any thing worthwhile as a means of sustenance. And no government even thought of creating a place where they could get relief materials except the ones they use to deceive them during the elections. So, I urge this honourable fellow in person of Ben Carson: the author of the great book to cease limiting his visits, to south Africa but move into the roots of the Western African countries. Surely, without any bit of doubt he would have a new book of one thousand pages or more to write on poverty and bad government’, the D.G said and the two of them smiled broadly. Chapter 9 It was a very bright morning. A wonderful day amid of the week that marked it three years the big thing had kicked off in the land of Kajore. That week when the noble shepherd entered the land with a fiery zeal; the one of savaging his land from the agelong predicament. And the zeal that not even the strongest antagonist had been able to override of. The week that marked it the third year when poverty was first time in the land provoked, sorrow subjected to extinction and the banishment of total despair and depression. It was the week that signified the third year when bliss and mirth were assisted in a protracted agony to return to the whole six village from exile. For the lands were not created like that but made so by bad government formed by bad leaders. "Drums were rolled out in numbers and began beating by some young men with their deft hands. And they had began to be raucously heard of everywhere . The villagers leaped outside from their bed or mats and each standing on his or her corridor at the early our of the morning so as to discern the direction which the melodious sound, tickling their ears to the awesome joy of the heart was coming from. The drummers smacked on the drums in a very thrilling way with their palms already cooked done inside the pot of dexterity and thus it became explicit to every man staring from his pavement that the occasion was going to be indeed different and must as well be the first of its kind in the history of the six villages. About 2/3 of the entire villagers across the six villages had already known what was about to happen this morning. And they happened to be those ones whom the daily affairs going on in the lands were every now and then lingered in their hearts. They were the people that always prepared their ears for frequent news of

events and happenings across the lands. And they constituted males and female adults in the lands. The other ones were mostly the little ones and some laymen who were only after eating ,drinking and playing. And would never bother of whether the heaven was going to fall tomorrow or the earth would blow off tonight. The day became brighter as the entire world vibrated in an overwhelming bliss. The men who had suspended their main work of the day and activities, began expediting selves in one kind of the domestic work and the other which they knew were only essential. one of such was the cleaning of their surroundings. And the woman too jumped back from the pavement into their rooms, deafening calling on their children in sleep; forcing them out of the bed in ecstasy. Cold was outside indeed for it at the winter. It was such a time when even the assiduous and most punctual farmers would blight their promptness in arriving their farms. People slept as if there won’t be sleep again. And it was when children would not do without crying for more sleep as they would be asked to quite the bed by their mothers or the fathers or the elder siblings. The day was on Saturday, so every mother was seen dragging their children into the bamboo bathroom outside or at the back of the houses, depending where each was having that of her husband. Washing their bodies clean with warm water and the nice imperial lethal soaps they had always been distributed to, courtesy of Rose, the wife of the colonel. They did so and dressed them up for the occasion of the day. There was much of haze that covered the air, so, no one could vividly see how the happening had just started going on from far distance until one could come close to the scene. The melodious beat of the drum had been by now mixing up with the sonorous songs that had just been releasing by the troupers at the top of their voices, and moved high in the sky where it spread over, bringing joy to the hearts of the arriving guests. People had gathered so tick at the scene and the gathering had continually becoming thicker just the way the ants would converge that candy on the ways in their trip for the search of food. All the special guests had been made well seated. In the front, there were sets of chair on roles. And the colonel, in his white Agbada manufacture out of nice fabric of lace and his bluish cap matching up with the bluish pairs of shoes in his legs was seen in the middle, sitting on one of the chairs of the first role, having his face beaming with smile. His wife sat by him, dressing in the same way. She put on Buba top and a wrapper also manufactured from lace fabric. As more people joined from behind, the teeming crowd sitting and standing her and their in circular shape had their eyes gluing to the colonel, where he sat in the front. So they pointed finger after him at there, and each whispering one word and another into the ear of the one next to another. And there were lively smile on each of the faces of these ones. It was the kind of smile triggered off by a modicum of amusement breaded by the what their eyes had just seen. It was their first time of seeing the colonel who was the celebrant of the day in this manner of dress. He had always emerged in his up and down jacket or a nice trouser and shirt or a complete suit and at times in just ordinary Buba and Soro. At the right side of the colonel, there seated the king with his wife. The rest of the seats at the front, right from the second role to the tenth were filled up by the chives from the six villages, the grandees and other representatives from the whole villages. Mr. Ade, the D.G of the Agro industry with other personnel from there were also available at the front seats; occupying both the right and the left side of the colonel and the king. About three sets of dance troupe had set out one after another to pep up the occasion. Each group sang and danced for about twelve minutes, welcoming the

dignitaries to the ceremonial ground and each of the group constituted a score of girls and young men under twenty-one. Much of acrobatic dance was displayed. Bata beat was also presented and was impressively danced to. The groups had really appeared ebulliently. They seemed to have been keenly expecting this kind of an opulent opportunity. In fact, they were gratified that one wondered where such an inspiration had developed from. They danced as if dance would never be again and also sang till they sang the last song in Yoruba land. Applauses developed from every part and gathered high thick is the sky, making the entire world enshrouded in a massive mirth. After about forty to fifty minutes, the singing and dancing went down wholly and the entertainers dispersed to take their places. The M.C afterward began to address the gathering. He started by commending the young entertainers, then made for greeting all the dignitaries. He began with the king and to the colonel with his wife and over to the rest. Introduction of the special guest took place afterward. The M.C happened to be an average young man. He was of the age of forty or thereabout. Atanda was known across the land for his eloquence in communication. He was a man who understood the in and out of Yoruba language. And He would never say three words without beautifying it with a heart warming satire or a thrilling joke. People had often said that his world could heal a dead person and set loose the tongue of an age-long mute. And they had often felt rejoiced to be audience wherever Atanda Olohun Iyo was delivering his service. At one side of the show there gathered the group of representatives of the women across the six villages. They were dominated by the first-class market woman in all the lands. They came with their own band. It was in dancing and audible songs that they arrived the blissful scene. They had only waved the band boys as they arrived to stop for the moment so as not to cause too much of long disruption to Atanda Olohun Iyo who had already began speaking and cracking the ribs of the audience in series of jokes streaming out of his sweet tongue. These women remained restless still and appeared as if they should be allowed to take charge of the day. Gazing into the eyes of the M.C in their expectant mood. Atanda thereafter rounded off the introductory segment to pave way for the real business of the day. It was in the habit of the real people of Yoruba land to long for given big plaudit to the one who have done them one favour or another however little it was. There is this saying among them that "Eni ase ni ore ti ko dupe o da bi olosa a koni leru lo ni. Meaning. He who is done favour and could not in return give thank, is more or less a bandit. And another one that says "Bi eru ba dupe ore ana yio ri omiran gba" meaning ‘If a slave gives kudos to his master for the favour he has received today he has paved way for that of tomorrow. And that was what all had gathered to do this morning. The M.C thus, held little upward, a short note in his hand, which was the that contained the list of the programme of the day. He perused over it then unbend his brow. There was a little smile on his face afterward, as he stared toward the side where there sat the representatives of the entire women of the lands, who had indeed continually growing restless since they had arrived the show. Atanda had seen the desperation in their faces and had been tempted to let their will be done. They had wanted they were the first to be called out to tender their own gratitude streaming out of the hearts well loaded with glee. It was contrary to what that was in the programme list. "my audience;" The M.C called as he turned face to the position of the teeming crowd "you will have to agree with me that we call out our mothers that are here to take the lead of the day in expressing their own gratitude. As I can see them now they

have only a time second before they would we all descend their wrath on this fat gathering should they be delayed longer than this. Many of the women smiled broadly at this saying of Atanda and still looking desperately. ‘I have sweet on my tongue,’ Atanda continued, ‘but they have fire on their own. A consuming fire indeed! They have the strength to emit the one that can engulf here all’, the M.C said and laughter developed among the audience. ‘It doesn’t take the wife more than a few minutes to destroy the house which had taken the husband more than twenty years to build. Is that not so our mothers?’ He turned face to the women as they all busted into laughter rather giving the answer. "Okay, if you won’t answer this let me throw it to your children here,’ he turned to where the youths gathered themselves in mass and then asked. They all shouted no!. "I know you would surely support your mothers. But I must indeed tell you there is fire that consumes on the tongs of your mothers, if you like, take it or not. "It’s not so ‘this statement landed in the air from every mouth in the gathering of the youths. ‘ You mean it?" The M.C said alongside smile. And there was shout of ‘yes’ among them. ‘okay, you,’ he pointed to a young lady among them, ‘step a little bit forward and prove it to us now, because I can see your own shout of yes out passed that of any of your mate’. The damsel obliged immediately and smiling as he opened her mouth to talk, ‘our mothers have always have soothing words on their tongues. And they have always treat us with that each time we are in one anxiety of the heart and another. Unlike our father who would beat and curse us if we do little wrong which is not even worth the smallest hiss’, Bountiful applause was raised and by the group of women and made pour on the dams while she was still expressing herself. And they all laughed greater than the M.C himself and the entire people at the show. "Listen," the M.C said after the laughter had gone stale, "let me tell you this today and go and take note of it that any rebuke from the mother strikes the heart dead than that from the father. You may not believe now but it’s a fact. If your father calls you a bastard begin to laugh him even in derision in your private place. But if it’s your mother that calls you so, start to cry and shed endless tears in her presence for she has just told you the truth. And right, from that moment, be looking forward to that day when one wretched man, looking scraggy in his tattered cloth, wandering the Conner on the market road, would enter into the house of the one you call your biological father to come and fight him in his mission of claiming you back for himself as his child’, At this saying a massive laughter moved heavily round the crowd. Even some of the dignitaries laughed uncontrollably. "That is what women can do’, Atanda said when little calmness had descended upon the laughter. "And that is why I always say at any gathering like this that they; I mean our mothers worth worshiping as gods. I fear them so much and I always honour them. For those of you who fear your father than your mother, in my own case, it is the reverse. I fear my mother and love him than my father. But the fear is greater than the love. Ask me why? "Why? "All the youths shouted "Okay listen’, said the M.C smiling along, ‘my father has one gigantic house and two beautiful cars there in the city. And he’s wealthy enough to provide his family of four

kids with its favourite kind of food daily with any other necessities. But each time I found myself with the other sibling eating a well cooked yam and plenty fried egg in a beautiful dish, fear had always come to scatter my heart, as my mother would seat among us, monitoring us so that we eat without hurting our selves as a learning kids. It was fear that perhaps one day there would be discontinuity in eating this palatable meal which I really like and which I had always discovered what its scarcity had caused in the homes of our neighbourhood where there fathers have no money like my father. It was the fear I did face in imagining my self the possibility of being banished from that salubrious home that fateful day when I will mistakenly provoked my mother to the extent that she would be moved to tell my father that I’m a bastard belonging to one shabby man living in one squalor like that’, Akanji paused and the dead laughter rose high up again and waved round the atmosphere. People laughed and could not easily resist it. "So, in a moment I notice my mother comes around the dinning table, sitting and watching my mouth thoughtfully as I was impatiently dragging into the mouth, the pieces of hot yam decorated with some sauce of egg, tomatoes, butter, meat and the rest, and greedily swallowing it, I will quickly comport myself. I didn’t want she was provoked and loosed control as she would quickly go to unveil any possible secret she had within herself about my birth. The laughter stirred up again among the entire people at the show become more intense. But Atanda never paused for that this time around. He continued to speak into the laughter. ‘That is it my people, our mothers are the ones who know the total secret adheres to our birth more than our father. They know the every person, who pumped it out, that which hits that ball of egg in them into fertilization. "Let me narrate to you this case that happened recently in one area is one of our cities. It was the case of one medical doctor. This evil hiding in one corner of his life exposed itself twenty five years after his wedding. The doctor was married to a very pretty and the one he found to be very descent and sensible young woman . And they were happily blessed with four children seven years after their wedding. These were three boys and one girl. ‘One afternoon like that, the doctor was right there in his office attending to his patients when one of his nurses entered to tell him about a man who had come to seek for him. And because the man had tarried too long at the reception, the doctor boycott attending to his patients briefly inorder to attend to the man. As he walked into the office, the doctor thought everything of him. He thought of him as a lunatic who should had been directed by those ones who shown him his place to else hospital where his kind of case was been handled. The psychiatric hospital rather. On the other way round he thought again he was a beggar who had only come to beg for succour for freeing himself from poverty that had virtually pushed him to death for he looked so lean and walked unsteadily. He was so feeble indeed. His hair was very much and was very unkempt. The cloth on him was extremely tattered and had cuts all around and walked barefooted. "You are welcome our man,’ the old doctor greeted with a heavy heart, gazing into his eyes with suspicion, ‘Can I help you in anyway?" He added of course sir. But don’t you know me yet?" "I’m trying to do so but I could still not. You see me to have been around me some times before? "You are right sir. This is me, Tade, your one time driver many years ago". "As the doctor had his name and that he was once his driver he ran into a slight shock for a short white. "you mean this is you, Tade, my ex-driver"

"The man nodded, looking so piteous. "What is it that has happened to you that you become like this? This man of about fifty three year old told the doctor everything about his downfall. He started from the how he had disappeared from continuing being a drive to the doctor without any prior notification. He told him the challenges he had encountered with, from the bad company he was keeping then. How he was tempted not to reach contention again in the attractive salary he was been paid then by the doctor as a driver. And how at the end of the day he failed in his resistance of falling into the deep persuasion of his company and thus became one of them. It was the company of drug pushers and drug addicts. Unfortunately for him, his dream to become rich at once and for life exploded afterward and vanished in the air. He was arrested by the police abroad and sentenced to a long term jail. And at the completion of the fifteen years jail term, he was transferred to his own country and handed over to the government so as to be made finished the remaining jailed term therein. The doctor wept for him in a great compassion as he finished his story. In his heart, he afterward thought of those things he could do for him. He longed for huge things from himself with which to do the reformation of the dieing soul of this man. He had thought of finding for him a good home to dwell in, provide him with nice cloths, soap for good usage, food and later a nice job to do for the rest of his life. The doctor, having gathered all these elements of benevolence up in his heart, he resolved to first preach to the man of why he should be burned again. He wished he received first, the best gift life from the saviour of the world. The gift of the life of eternity, which could be, obtained through being born again. The best gift in the sense that it was the only one among all that had been planned to be offered to him, that can never perish or get consumed through out his life if received. But by the time he began to preach the word of God to him, the doctor got to know that the man was already born again before he finally left the prison. He became born again through the efforts of some evangelists that did go round the prisons to minister. Therefore the doctor deviated and revealed to him all the relief materials he was about to provide him with. But he was griped in a huge marvel as the man shown no interest in all these offer. "Master, what upon I have come here is different from these, "the man said solemnly. The doctor wasn’t yet set loose of the marvel. It shown glaringly on his face "And what is that very thing you mean my man," he asked keenly. ‘First doctor, sorry that it takes me time to ask about your family." No, never bother. They are all fine". ‘What about the three boys and the mother,’ ‘Fine’ the doctor replied, nodding calmly and was so suspicious of the manner the man had crafted the question, ‘why did he not ask for the only girl and the youngest of the children?’ He thought . Please Doctor has your wife ever told you anything’? "Please Tade, you have to be objective in your question. Why asking me question as if you are asking a pupil. My wife has always told me many things, so I don’t know which one you asked about,’ the doctor said contemptuously. "Alright’, the man said, breath deeply so as to gather enough of momentum inorder to hit the very word that had ever since suppressed his heart, ‘has she told you that she had been in love with me before?’ This question, having landed in the ear of the doctor was like a heady punch from the broad hand of the ogre.

"You mean my wife, my matrimonial wife? The doctor asked. Keenly, fingering his chest in great exasperation. That first thought that developed in his heart at his first glance on this man into his office, stirred up again and out of provocation it was moulded into a word of expletive. " Are you mad? Please tell me if you are? "He bawled. "Doctor, whether you take me for an insane or not I must tell you everything in my heart. It was when I was twenty four that I left your office into prison and now I’m roughly fifty-five without having any thing to point to as an achievement in life. But when I began to think about how I had spent my life since I was eighteen to date, I discovered that I still have something that I can still point to as achievements. Though they are secret ones and the ones obtain in iniquity but they are still something. I have told my friends the story and they had all convinced me they are achievements which I must not let go because there is no place for me to start again from in my life. "I have gone through the memory lane of my past over and over and I have prepared to reveal to you all that have been there. I remember that very morning when your wife led me to a place off-house and in tear that wet the ground, she expressed to me how she had suffered the anguish of the heart for not been able to procreate a child for the past-five years in her matrimonies home. And at the end of all, she entreated me to assist her in breaking this jinx. I, in return, told her I detested such thing and that I was too young for her. Then, I told her I was eighteen and some months after she had disclosed to me she was twenty-five .She told me there was nothing bad in that so far she could get what she wanted. Thus before I eventually left your office, she had already owned three boys through me. Instantly, as the disclosure waved into his ears, the doctor had his heart caught with fire and almost burnt to ashes. His body streamed sweat profusely. He was not of himself again. A very deafening shout escaped his lips at short intervals as he tightly held his head in between the two palms of his hands. His nurses scurried into his office in anxiety, pressurizing him to tell them what the mayhem was all about. After some minute, the doctor set loosed a bit of the apprehension of theshock. He quickly looked around in an aggressive mood and found a bottle of drink at one side. He shifted to it, picked it up and aimed it at the man but only to know he had already disappeared. And that pained him to the marrow and therefore ended up the remaining work of the day in endless biting on his finger. The third day the doctor received a court order. And the two appeared in the court. At the end the wife of the doctor confessed but the judge still asked DNA test should be done between the two parties by an expert doctor. At the end of all it was revealed that the three disputed boys who were now brilliant students in some of the best university in the cities belong to the ex-driver. The old doctor was allowed to go with the only girl, who was the youngest among the four children. At the judgment, the doctor collapsed and could not rise again. The big shame and frustration had really hit hard on his heart. This rich old doctor couldn’t even live for one more second to work on the changing of his will by inviting his lawyer." Akanji, the M.C ended his story. And some of who saw this true-life story as a joke laughed while others felt greatly for the hapless doctor. They saw it as the downfall of an hero. "So, when I say the house that takes the husband twenty years to build could be set into total destruction by the wife within few days, you people thought I was

gibberish. You can see the veracity of this saying now", he paused then turned face squarely to the women. "Our mothers whatever you hear me saying against you here, please bear it with me. I’m not meaning to hurt your feeling but to prove to the world how influential you are in our homes and across our societies. I can remember one of the saying of our people that the world is devoid of fun and pleasure if there is no women. And also dearth of sorrow if woman is not. These two statements appeared contradicting but they are factual ones. Time wouldn’t permit me to analyze them but let the wise ones find their own meaning to it". He turned face again to the youths, so if your mother called you bastards, begin to cry and prepare for that day when one strange riff rat would come in to your father to claim you for himself. But if it’s your father that calls you so, go to one corner and laugh him well, for he do not know it well like the mother does, the very first thing that hit the ball of egg at her ovary to the house of fertilization." People began laughing again. There was much of evidence when gone through Atanda’s profile that he was borne to live by word. After the audience at the thank-given ceremony has laughed tired including the group of women the M.C faced them again. "Our mothers, you are more than what people thought you are. You are the number one among those things that contributed to what our children become in their lives. So, that’s why you must be always given the first honour in any gathering. Hence, I want you to come forward for your own portion of the ceremony’. Atanda hadn’t said it all when they jumped to their feet. They indeed reflected that they had been tired of the long delay. As they moved forward to the open ground at the centre of the gathering, their band teem followed, smacking hard on each of the drums in their hands with great zeal. The blissful women twirled around to show all their good skills in dancing and through some powerful thrilling songs of appreciation, they poured out their plaudits on the elated colonel and his loving wife on their seats. As the song surged into his heart through the ears he had an unusual feeling within himself. He hadn’t found himself been made drifted into praising galore as such. The fire been put in it was indeed great. It ready helped to warm his soul under the chilly weather of the winter. As much as the women continued so was his sprit lifted and right on his seat he began dreaming of doing more of his philanthropic service. The women proceeded as if they would never stop again. Their souls had been overwhelm by the spirit of appreciation. They danced in a great zeal to every directions, calling the colonel different names. Those names that had to do with braveness, heroism and dignity. At a point again the noble men became worried in his heart. He felt he had owned his people more than he thought. They had through such an enormous plaudits paid him for the service he had never rendered up to. After about fifteen minutes or little more, the women’s leader stepped little forward, then turned round to her group that all stood behind her in their restless mood. She stretched out his hands up, waving at them to stop the singing and dancing for the moment. The drumming also ceased. She then folded the palm of her right hand; carried it to her mouth and coughed into its hollow briefly to clear her throat for words. Afterward, he stood firmly and bellowed. Her mates began chorusing her "Eyin egbe obinrin o! "o o o! (chorus) "Eyin egbe obirin o! "o o o! (chorus)

"Abi e o ni dupe ni! "A o dupe! (chorus) "Abi e o ti se tan ni? "A ti se tan! (chorus) "Eni ase lore ti ko dupe nko? "O dabi olosa koni leru lo ni! (chorus) There was a brief dance again among them after she had paused momentarily. She afterwards turned to the position of the first class people at the show. "Our king we great you well’, she said and all her mates immediate went down with her on their kneels. The king waved at them, with the goat-skin fan in his hand and beaming with a winsome smile. "And you too Olori’, she greeted the king’s wife and she too reciprocated instantly in a hot glee just as her husband did. she then turned to the king again squarely. "We great you well on behalf of our husbands, our children, the old and the young and all the unborn. We know your great impart in our liberation from the hand of that dangerous monster called poverty. After all, you were the one who receive the noble man warmly into our midst and you also agreed to cooperate with him when he was about to start off this project which has collected us all on that board of perfect peace and unalloyed pleasure. "The evidence of your cooperation was the land you have allowed them to make use of without scaring them away with the huge bribe we all know many of our leader for, when it comes to a mater like this. You did not even collect a penny nor enter into any pact with them for the money that would go into your pocket in the future. And aside of this, another think that had reflected your cooperation was the word of encouragement you had always used to amplify their faith in the course of actualizing the dream of the project. Thus, we thank you well our king for your true love toward us. You have convinced us to believe there is still true love in this world. Our political leaders have made us lost this belief before. Through dissimulation, they had fostered upon us an age long bitterness. Before and during elections, they would come to us under our husband’s roofs and in our market places to tell us they want to help us out of poverty if we would vote them into power. And we had always thought they love us indeed. They would smile at us and tell us different stories of heart relief and give us money that worth not than chicken feed. Some would share food stuffs also and offer us materials for clothing ourselves. But we are so blindfolded poverty and ignorance to know that these were ephemeral and that it was our birth-right they have been stealing from us. After the election, they would flee us. And it is then some of us would now come to our senses. It is then we would know we have been feigned. That the smile of that day was a sardonic one and that, their sweet stories were that of mendacity. And that the materials and foods were poisonous sweet. And our problem which we thought was about to be solved becomes aggravating. They parked our money into their pulses to live flamboyantly in salubrious places and to send their children abroad for schooling while poverty forced us to send out our own children abroad but for servitude jobs, prostitution, drug trafficking and to involve in illicit deals; duping the foreigners causing them to run into bankruptcy. And poverty had also made the indulging in illegal migration around the world; moving through precarious roads like some of them that are stampeding Libya where most of them had encountered death. Our children have all full many parts of the

world where evil has always wandered around with his sword thirsting for the blood of the foreigners. We have been so far put away from pleasure thus we cry every might. We cry not for ourselves. But for our children whose future have been made rotten away. It’s our elders that say "there is different between ripen fruits and the rotten ones though they may in one way or another looked the same". A fruit yield so good because the tree is subjected to the atmosphere where there is good care Such as regular weeding, fumigation and the right time harvesting. And a fruit again comes liable to low yield because its tree is subjected to bad atmosphere where there were pests, parasites and the flippancy of the owner toward its general care. "So our children are finding it difficult to have their future bright because our leaders have subjected their living to the environment where there are no money to pursue good things. Companies for work opportunities are so scanty here and there are no capital acquiring opportunity to start up smell scale business. The banks and other financial houses are using huge interest rates on loans and big demand of collateral security to scare our children away back to poverty. In fact, some of the financial organizations set up loan’s acquiring programme on selfish interest. They give out loans which interest would later on knock down the beneficiaries. ‘In the foreign lands where our children are been ferried to, to serve in modern slavery their masters there would ensure they exhaust them of all their strength in hard labours; such that can make one dwell in infirmity for the rest of ones’ life in the future. Moreover all the abysmal things they are exposing them to over there have been killing in them all the virtue we have instilled in them including those they were borne with. Therefore, when they return home on repatriation, you would never find them behaving like people who were borne or instil with virtues. They behave like the wild animals each time found on our streets. Moving around aggressively and looking for who to maim, steal or destroy. No education or even the paucity of knowledge of good trade. They become ruthless and impertinent. They are the one you will see among those ones smoking marijuana in all corners of our streets, taking liquor and fomenting trouble. ‘These are the joy of many of our political leaders. And why? It’s because they want them that way. They want to recruit them into their forceful political career as to undergo the training of hooliganism. They know they are the kind that fit to be conscripted and use to plot vicious attack on opponents at campaigns and elections. They are to intimidate and to kill the courageous electorates with gun, cutlass, axe and many other nameless ammunitions, including the ones they do collect from the voodoo or herbalists. ‘It’s amid of this age-long phenomenal that our colonel here returned to real work on it and he’s still working, for the work is great and still great indeed. Our land is more or less of mortuary and an infirmary built on one land together and which was formed out of the devil’s embassy where there are ghost of innocents, wandering about round the clock and lamenting the cause of their untimely death. And where people of moribund souls hang around, waiting death at instalment. That is the handiwork of poverty crafted here in our land by the bad politicians that full everywhere. ‘And our forests are no more managing by our government here as resources for income generation, but abandoned in the hand of the rituallists who use them as places for butchering and selling of human body parts to people who seek to win power, contracts or to become rich through the forces of the darkness. Many of

these ones are the politicians, top officials in both government and private sectors, great business men who want protection and greater expansion and some petty traders that want to dominate their territory." As the leader of the group of women mentioned this, it slightly struck Gbade in his heart .He was part of the audience at this gathering The motion was the reflection of what he had wrote in his poem which he had submitted with some other poets across the six villages for contest in award organized as the part of the ceremony by the colonel and his group of men. The women’s leader who had been spoken ever since spoke little more long and thereafter rounding off, ‘so we thank you well our king. We know we cannot pay you all with our infinity thanks but we and our children, even the yet unborn ones will never forget you for this great goodwill bestowed on our land. Posterity will always remember you for this even when you would have been to your progenitors in the great beyond. ‘What is it that we say you have done to us that has exhilarated our souls? Like I have earlier said, it’s that, you have received this noble philanthropist warmly into our land and you’ve chosen not to use any kind of bribe to scare him away which is the habit we all know many of our leaders with. You are so distinct, you collected no penny from him before he could work on the land in order to rescue us thus your kind of leadership is rear in our nation." The monarch waved again to then his goat- skin fan as he was beaming with winsome smile. This was done briefly, then the women rose from their kneels and shifted to the colonel and instantly going down on their kneel again in his front this time around. But before they could all have their kneels touched the ground, the colonel had shown sings of dissatisfactions; stretching forth his hands, waving them to refrain from doing so. Don’t do that please, ‘he eventually said when he sensed that the desperation of the women in doing this that they have in their hearts was so strong. "No our colonel. We need to fall for you because you worth it. We all need to rise and fall for the champion and for our hero. In fact, we have confidence in you. We know that if we even fall flat you are so gallant enough to raise us again. you‘ve already done so to us. You came to meet us inside the fetid pit of penury, awaiting death and awkward burial at instalment. But you picked us up in a strenuous effort without grumble or dominate with pride and you set us walking ebulliently on the surface of blessing with hearts filled with optimism. Thank God, no more such circumstance at present here in our land to push us into that kind of fall again. That is what you’ve done. ‘But this that we are about to do is a fall to bring our appreciation to the one it’s due for. For if we do not do in any way then we are ingrates and mostly bandits. ‘It’s the word of our elders that ‘If a slave gives kudos to his master for the favour he has received today, he has paved way for that of tomorrow.’ And again; he who is done favour and could not know how to give thanks afterward, is more or less a bandit. "Hence, our colonel, let us fall for you. You have not only repaired us but have also set the gloomy future of our children in repair. At your return, you told us that you will help us and you’ve been doing so genuinely. Therefore, you are different and a second to none in our land. You are for that reason our hero and we need to celebrate you. He who makes promise and fulfils it is an hero. It’s the matter of promising and failing which we’ve been experiencing from our political leaders for long that has virtually ruined us all.

"The mother-dog called her baby and said jumbo, why did you always fall for me? And the baby said, "Mother, it’s because you are the first who have fallen for me. "And the mother asked how? And jumbo answered "You’ve brought yourself down low to put your sweet nimble in my mouth, so I need to bring myself low too to clean your feet with my tongue in a play" "Our colonel, we are falling for you again because you are the first to fall for us. you brought yourself low by leaving all your prestige’s in the city where pleasure abounds for the rich ones like. And you came and dwell with us in this ghetto the home of suffering of all manners just to see you put the sweet nipple in the chest of beautiful life in our mouth to revive our dyeing souls." The woman spoke at a very great length and she had virtually exhausted the portion of time meant for her group. The M.C had began signifying her of this. Eventually, the woman fell on her knee in the front of the colonel, craving for total rounding off of her speech without having one thing and another that she had had in her mind untouched. Her mates fell with her. "We thank you well our colonel, you own the biggest thank of the day. And you are the world greatest we know now" There was a massive ovation that shook every in the gathering from the audience to the group of women as they rose to that feet, dancing back to their places at the show. From each of the six villages, one or two people were allowed to talk on behalf of their land. They were people sent by their monarch to represent their land at the occasion. They had centred their speech too on appreciation to the colonel, the king of the kajore and the wife of the colonel including all their disciples. This segment lasted for about fifty minutes. After each mouth representing each village had said one or two things the colonel himself was then given the chance to deliver his own speech. He thanked every one at the show and then told them why they should not thank him in a brief word, for any bit of benevolence he had offered on to them. "It’s somewhere that God had been living before he created heaven; so, I think the heaven was created because of the angels, the earth because of man and so the strong because of the weak. It appeared to you as if you are the one I’m actually helping but I know it’s myself. I m helping myself to secure eternal life. The bible says ‘do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasurers in heaven where neither moth nor rust consume and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." "Whatever you sow into the life of your fellow being is recorded for you in heaven. By given succour to your fellow in needs you are laying up your treasure in heaven because all would be recorded for you there and that is what you will go and meet on the last day in heaven "Christ promises his followers mansions in his fathers kingdom but not every one who follow Christ even the one with the greatest faith would merit this royal gift but those ones that give liberally. If you can’t sow something worthwhile into the lives of the indigents, then you don’t have treasure in heaven. Many of our wealthy men keep their huge money and luxury possessions until they die and bequeathed them to their off springs and kin. Out of ignorance, they are not keeping their treasure in heaven but in a place where all would in the course of time go into

perishing on the last day and their spirits would therefore remain poor and eyesores to the almighty God. "When I say ignorance, some of you might develop a different thought. You might think I mean the illiterate rich one in our land. But no, because you can be well educated and still be ignorant of one thing or another. That is why we should always seek knowledge till our last day in life. ‘In this our land it’s no more strange to us seeing our wealthy men having greatest delight in given offer to another wealthy one. They in most cases do this during occasions like birthday, funeral, remembrance, elevation in posts and the rest. But treating the poor around them like slaves. But they don’t know that he who gives to the rich while the poor are suffering would gain the favour of men but can never see the good face of God’. The colonel later turned to the youths when he had spoken enough. He had always been so concern about them at every heart-breath. He had always said they were the future of the land and so whatever they were moulded to for today determined what the land would look like tomorrow "My children, I great you too and I so much thank god for your lives. I mean for those of you who have chosen to make it in life only by clean ways. While you are in a great agony of life, wading through a much painful predicament that seemed endless just because you have made a choice of getting up in life only in righteousness, your mates are there already making it because they fear not to engage in illicit deals. They have gone into burglary, mugging, prostitution, drug trafficking, duping and many others. Don’t worry ,I know it’s not easy to maintain ones virtue in this kind of land where things are too hard for the downcasts. But you are the heroes of your generation. Don’t be shaken in your faith. Believe in your God and in yourselves too, that, what you’ve planned to be in life you will surely be it no matter how hard things are. "Remember nobody recognizes any of you as an hero now but until you win the battle and glitter with the crown of victory. I have told you sometimes that this life is a great filed of a burning inferno which only the strong-will ones can pass through to that length where the crown of victory is rigid. Many people stepped on the journey but cowered and leaped into atrocities because of its fiery heat that fell on their bodies in the course. These ones are coward and could never be heroes. "If I should ask you now which one is the highest mountain in this world, I know many of you would boldly tell me it’s mountain Everest. Ordinarily its, but philosophically, it’s not. The highest mountain in this life is the mountain of success. I mean the mountain where success lies. You may asked me where it’s located. But I will tell you it’s that one you can see in your front in a deep thought from a wellprepared heart. It’s that one you’ve been climbing since you were born and which you’ve not been able to reach its peak still. It’s not easy to ascend this mountain, especially those ones who have nobody strong enough be behind them for assistance. Think of the vertigo along the which symbolizes the tribulation we do encounter in our endeavour to become successful in life. ‘This is the second time of my meeting you in this manner and it has made me so elated. This is because I will have the privilege to continue to tell you what I’ve always told you. I’ve been telling you that, you cannot say you want to kill a beast by putting your head in the mouth of the beast. It will ruin you if you do. Many of you have been singing a threat around the streets that once you are chanced to rise to the mantle of power you are going to do more than the tenfold of what our present leaders have done to our treasure which has set our nation in an economic recession. It’s the

fight of revenge that you people have been calling it. But I will tell you that you can never revenge the corruption the politicians have used to set our land in darkness by putting in your heads to participate in the same corruption. Your generation happens to be the third generation since we have received our independent from the British. The first generation were those whom the governance of the nation was handed over to after they hand fought vigorously to win independence for the land. This very generation did very well and that was what we are remembering them for today. In strain and stress they laboured to bring to us fortune and they made it to a very reasonable length before they handed over the governance of the nation to the hand of those ones that emerged immediately after them and who also happened to be the ones who benefited the fortune these past masters had brought to the land then. ‘your own generation was yet unborn in those days. These people in the second generation enjoyed those fortune such as free education at rudimentary levels, mass scholarships at home and abroad for higher ones. Numerous spaces of work, good health care, good roads, uninterrupted power supply, regular founding of fruitful research institutes, regular giving of loans to young businessmen and women and many other success fostering offers. But it’s unfortunate that these people in the second generation that happened to be the real beneficences of those fortunes cooked done for the nation by the past masters were the ones who late sailed our land to the point of wreck. We were before on one board of one love, one destiny including equity and progress courtesy of our great fathers but now led astray by our present leaders. "You are the third generation and by everyday approaching the position of power but it’s unfortunate that some of you have already began preparing to go by the foot steps of these present leaders who had led us astray. Hence, I strongly urge you not to take the side of these ones but that of our great fathers. They were the epitome of good leaders .Talk of Obafemi Awolowo, Nelson Mandela, Sir Abubakar Martin Luther King, Tafawa Balewa, Wole Soyinka, Amodu Bello, Chinue Achebe, Muritala Mohammed, Albert Macaulay, Nmamdi Azikwe, Anthony Enahoro, Tai Solarin and some others. Try to be at their side and not at the side of that generation that had greatly brought us fiery failure which we still struggle since long to overcome’. It took the colonel about thirty-five minutes to fully address the youths and when he rounded off, the presentation of some motivational books, prepared ready by the D.G of the Agro-industry immediately began .About fifty of the youths benefited from this. The book titled "the Big picture written by Ben Carson, the world great surgeon was presented as it had been avowed by the D.G earlier before the day. The awards of the day kicked off immediately. There were categories of awards to be given out this morning. And it was the awards for the writing contest that came last. In the first place, scholarship awards were given to some numbers of students who has excelled in their West African school certificate examination. They were to be sponsored into any university of their choice for their chosen careers. Some other set of students who happened to be orphans in the hands of foster parents and some other ones whose parents still lived but were extremely, poor were also given their portion of the favour of the day. When it came to the turn of the writing contest, three of the writers across the villages who submitted their poems for the award were called. They stepped forward one after another as the names were announced, to the front of the colonel who was still behind the table of honour. The first person who was called out was a student

from the St. Francis high school in Kajore village itself. The colonel held the poem written by this young man in his hand and began to cite it to the audience with winsome smile in his face. "The title of this one is "My letter to lovelin", the colonel said, ‘and it goes thus:
It’s quite good that one looks before one leaps My darling lovein, Quite unfortunate this great trip have kept me, Long away from you, That day, in our land, I could remember vividly When in faraway we both smelled the sweet breeze Of that great far island. Lovein only if you would believe, The I will tell you our thought wasn’t quite right, Yes, in this foreign land, I have seen strangers: prince and princess, Working strictly like the hapless slaves Lovein only if you would believe, your noble husband Has become a factotum cleaner here, Taking care of the faeces of those ones; Not worthy to bear his club in his father’s kingdom lovelin, now my greatest bane is how to reunite with you, yes, dead sick has been my pocket for long, I mean right from the day my feet were off the shore No saving and nothing at all to be made a man what I toil per day goes down my belly per day No penny in hand to sponsor my return lovelin but I have gained something if I should tell you the truth, yes it’s a great lesson about life I have known that not all that smell sweet is good for the soul. This island is a little paradise good only for the son and daughter of the soil lovelin indeed no place is like home. Please tell them, tell them well, I mean the holders of political power to repair our land. Tell the religious leaders too, to disallow fat, Tithe and offering pressing down their tongues, From preaching the truth; Tell again to our people to cease obtaining bribe, Through which wrong ones are voted into power Lovein, there is different between ripen fruits, And the rotten ones, tell them better. The future of the land shouldn’t rotten away but ripen Lovein I’m sobbing over my missing you for this long This ugly circumstances has prevented me from you, As the Jericho wall to the warriors of Israel That this wall might fall I pray. Our land should be repaired, please tell them, I mean the leaders This is a job you must do greatly, If you still love me my darling lovelin.

‘You have written brilliantly my young boy and for that reason you have come first in this writing contest", he shook hand with the boy to congratulate him. Afterward the boy prostrated to receive the award from him. The person who came second was another student who came from St. Matthew high School in Olola Village. The title of his own poem was "The accusation". The colonel also cited it to the audience.
"Piteous is thine case oh constitute!

Thou upholder of the fundamental right of thine land. The sole inspiration of the activists, Who advocate equity in the land’s creams and candy. What thine mighty effort still turns offence At the rapacious pillars of the land And in collusion hath thou impose an accusation Accusation of an ailment, Ailment of the belly Drag to theatre Constitute inside the room Flatly on the bed Is this the theatre or an abattoir? But qualities are missing! Where is the lancet? Where is iodine? Where is spirit? Oh all are not! Is this a surgical operation or brutish slaughter? Why must knife? Why must cutlass? Why must dagger? Nerves are maimed! Muscle mutilated! Strength is off! Activists in mute! Equity is gone! Candy in danger! Cream in peril! Land dwellers in pain! pillars are fat! Oh constitute! Could you please recover, And becomes your real name- constitution?

Having got through with the reading, the colonel allowed the boy to come forth and say one or two things on it. The boy started doing so having greeted the colonel, the grandees and the entire audience. "The write-up of this poem was inspired to expose the ulterior motive of some of the bad leaders in some part of the world especially in Africa. These political leaders represented in this poem as the "Pillars" would having got to power make a self-decisions to raise the issue of constitutional amendment so as to cut off some of the elements that seemed impeding them to act on their wishes as against the citizens. Especially that aspect that empowers the activists in which one could find the labour union who fight for the entire working force know as the bone of every nation. This incident happened in my country sometime ago and pick up my pen to write in order to antagonize this habit". The colonel felt so delighted over all that the young man had expressed. He too remembered when the president wanted to use his office to silent the union leader’s president who led all the workers across the nation into series of strike action so as to stop the federal government from unnecessary hiking up of the price of the fuel and to make her yield as well to the endorsement of the increment of minimum wage across the nation. so when the president knew it wasn’t easy for him to subjugate the labour union , he resolved to fight them through constitutional amendment. The process in which the power of union would be totally reduced in the constitution Again, through this poem, the colonel remembered when the president having virtually completed his second term of eight years in office resolved to go for the third term, which was an attempt that wasn’t in conformity with what, was in the content of the constitution. And to get this achieved, he gathered men who were sycophants to him and who were in power and made them advocating for constitutional amendment across the nation in which at the end they had planned to changed the four years of two term method adumbrated in the constitution to that of four years of three term. He was so desperation at working this out until the good ones in the land rose up in mass and began criticizing the action, which they took to be too awful. He reined for eight years and the nation having stood still for a while began retrogressing rather than progressing and he wasn’t felt ramose in any way but rather worsening things.

His reign to his people was regarded as the worst. Some of them claimed that even the military dictatorship rules of the past in the nation were far better than his which was characterized with too much of political crises, electoral malpractice at alarming rate, brutal killing of the innocents, elevation of the thugs and hooligans in the societies, disregarding of the graduates in labour market and total collapse of educational sector, the abuse of rule of law, incessant missing of people for rituals, high rate of assassination and economic recession which induced abject poverty ,diseases, and many other calamities. "How can such a man thought he could rule us further even if the constitution allow third term. Woe onto the souls who pray for such a man again in our country", the colonel had this thought in his heart as he shook hand with the young poet and handed his award onto him afterward. Gbade, the argumentative friend of Akanji was the one who came third in the contest Gbade had finished his high school ten years ago but dabble into farming some years after as he couldn’t find someone who could sponsor his higher education. His old parents were so poor and the same poverty had also held down each of the member of his family from rising to a dependable fellow. But wherever Gbade found himself, his brilliance still followed him. And that had made him so admirable by any man who had ever come around him. And he was also assiduous and had strong belief about his future. He would always tell his friends that even though he turned sixty before he could raise enough money from his farming work that worth sponsoring his education; he was still going to be one of the best lawyers of his time in the world. And that he would use his office to fight for the right of the poor and ensure that thousands of politicians went to a long-term jail sentence. When he stepped forward, his own appearance attracted the greatest shout of joy from the teeming gathering. The mood of every one had really changed and all shouted praises on him. It had really impressed many of the audience that a nobody farmer could still rose to shine among the educated ones. The colonel was so happy to meet him and greatly liked his poem. The title of the poem was "Is my country better than hell" And the colonel began citing it in joy to the audience;
"Is my country better than hell? He who answers well saves many souls. Waking down the streets, The gutters around, are no more reeking of Rotten creams and candy, But the rotten bodies of the innocents In my country better than hell? He who answers well saves many souls. Gazing far into the forest, The place is no more a source wealth, But golden abattoir where the bodies of men, Are butcher for trade! Is my country better than hell? He who answers well saves many souls! Strolling round the roads with a keen watch people Are no more moving ebullience with their winsome smile, But heart that palpitate and necks that dangle around To void falling the next victim of death In the incessant melee of every day Is my country better than hell? He who answers well saves many souls!

The colonel paused then smiled at Akanji and that lighted up joy in his heart. "You’ve written a beautiful piece. Our country is not yet better than hell indeed, if I should give my own answers to the questions in your poem. But immense efforts have been vigorously putting in place to make the country not only better than hell but equal to the paradise. And one of these tasks is the one I’m getting done with my men now. So don’t worry; what that burns hell on our body now shall very soon pour every cool thing in abundance on us all. At the end, the colonel gave the disclosure of his interest in forming a political party through which he would fish out the right people that would take over the governance of the local government. Greatest bliss descended upon the teeming gathering as they heard this news and all began hogging one another in ecstasy. They were so pleased to have this done in their lives for many of them new that the source of all the bane they were dying of its scourge every second of the time was from bad representatives in government of the land. Thus, there was unprecedented blissful dispersion eventually at the end of the whole programme.

Chapter 10 The day after the general thanks giving service in the whole land, the noble man who had received the highest portion of the glory and honour of the day could still not exhaust the pleasure of the great joy been poured in his heart by his people. And so was his wife. This day he couldn’t pay any visit to any place even to the Agro farm that he wouldn’t do without reaching one of its departments each day. And couldn’t as well attend to those visitors incessantly creeping in and out of his compound in a full force of food parades nor engaged himself into any work. A massive mirth had indeed overwhelmed his soul. He had visualized himself impressively crossing the frilling bridge laid across the endless ocean of penury on the road of leading his people out of their state of despondent to the Promised Land. He had wondered how that meagre effort of that day been put in place had now turned to an overwhelming achievement. On his seat this noon, he thought backward to that very morning he returned to his land, when he stood out of his jeep on his way into the land at the popular bus-station located at the frontier of the land, and viewed across onto all the faces that had gathered there in mass to welcome him into the land. They had looked so gaunt, sickly as the ones surviving with just only one breath. They were so feeble and not with any sign of soundness of the heart. He compared this to what he had just seen during the previous day thanks given gathering. The faces there looked so chic, apparently healthy and they sounded optimistically in their speech. Throughout the day, the colonel had only freed himself from all physical involvement but was not emotionally freed. He was so busy with his mind. He thought of all he had done for his people and he was well pleased. Also, he thought of how they had in return shown him their gratitude and how immense they had put the measure and he was very moved in his heart to do far more. To him, it was like they had paid with something worth more than what he had done for them. But as he took more of his time to cogitate further and saw how the project he had set up had converted the sad faces of his people to more or less of something radically chick, blissful and healthy, fear struck across his merciful heart like the angry thunder across the face of the sky. It was the fear of how to gain permanence for his people in regard to this success he had just achieved for them. He knew this was one of the

major problem of the Africans. Many occasions had at one time and another arouse in which a government would come today and set out policy with great measure which the end result would bring great relief, joy and optimism to the people and tomorrow another government would come and with her own policy, chopped off all the gains and comfort the people had been deriving from the predecessor. And in the past and even present many philanthropists of both individual and organization had sprout out from both known and unknown places to initiate programme through which succours could be raised for the indigents but this issue of permanence had always be there problem. They grew and collapsed like the mushroom. The colonel knew he just had to get something great done. Something that had such a strength of throwing his people far beyond set back. And as much as he thought of this, so was fear sparkled fire in his heart. He felt so hot on his seat inside his sanctum The weather was cold but he was no more filling it and in that regard, he carried the cup of coffee already set in a tray on his table onto his mouth but at half of the way he withdrew it back to the table. It was still warm and even discharging steam in the air. the coffee was prepared and brought inside by one of the lady cooks in the house, on his demand. He had earlier wished using it coping with the chilly weather of the harmathoun of the day but the matter had only been the reverse now. He had already been filling hot now instead of cold, so he needed cold thing rather than the hot one he had already bid for. But he knew he could not make the new demand without encountering question like: why sir? or what for sir or don’t you think the weather is too cold sir? From the one whom he might chose to send the errand. So, he sought for something else and which must be something rigorous, able to quell his blazing heart at this moment. In the course of this he realised that it was not fever that had caused him this bad state of the mind but only what he had carried inside of the mind. And as he managed to understand clearly that it wasn’t something else that had brought unrest in his heart but the fear of how to secure permanency for his people in their achieve success, he realized that taking the hot coffee could not healed his heart. Thus he entered again into a deep thought to see what good enough he could make out of it and which upon he would place what that trouble his heart for remedy. But eventually, he found no new idea in the course of that than the previous one he had discovered and even discussed already. The day before the general thanks giving service in the land, when he visited the D.G. in his house, both of them had debated on the issue of what to do to secure permanency to the success the project they had embark upon had brought to their people and they had concluded that the only way out was to roll the project into a greater expansion. And after they had pondered over the possible problems that might risen in the course of actualizing this goal of expansion, they resolved to solve it all through having strong and reliable representatives in the government of the land. It was no more a fresh news but absolutely a stale one that the entire land had a great problem in the area of infrastructures which were actually needed for facilitating the project to it greatest height. The roads were not good at all. The common bike couldn’t be ridden through them fairly not to talk of motors. People who walk through them by their feet even suffered much before they could get to their destination. The steeps on them could tumble a man and the fissure and potholes here and there on them too could swallow a man leg from the foot to the ankle.

And also, many of the villages never knew what electrification was all about except few of their residents who had experienced erratic power supply in the city where they had travelled to. Before, they had been painfully suffered an age-long absolute inaccessibility to good water but was overcome in the moment the colonel stepped into the land. He had only came there to meet them in the situation in which the villagers would have to cover many miles with their pots on their heads varnishing into the far forest where there was a single stream in which they would have to struggle with the ravenous beast to fetch out water for drink and for other need. And it was when numbers of younger ones got missing at interval but later discovered been marred and eaten into particles by the beast before the place was declared out of bound for the children in the land. And the situation left the adult especially the women tiptoeing with palpitating hearts into the forest with their pots on their heads and fleeing back at every single success in the fetching. It was at the arrival of the colonel that all became evil of the past. He hurried himself into construction of the boreholes at each of the six villages in the local government. But now that there had occurred an outbreak of overpopulation in the land, this problem of good water which had earlier suffered decline immediately the colonel stepped into it, had now began rising gradually with striking threat to especially those one among the villagers who had experienced it before and also knew its bitterness. Now that the colonel had absolutely ruminated over all these inside his sanctum and knew there was no any other way to go about solving all these problems than the one, he and the D.G. had concluded upon, he then knew every reasons why he needed to begin the work now without delay. Something had to start to be putting together to form a new party and make the way clear for his candidate to come successful in the forthcoming election. And he made this kicked off this very day. In the course of this preparation, meeting were held over and over. It presented the king, the chives, all the grandees from the whole six villages the colonel himself and all his men. They all together in one accord planned things and sorted out issues. At each of the meeting, they poured out their joy and support. Many of them beat their chests and made oaths that nothing under this planet would cripple their hands from lending their everlasting support to the colonel and the about- to- be- born political party. They further declared that not even the huge money, gift of cars, and materials things from those politicians would bring them into such temptation. Within that week the colonel ensured that the conceived new political party was given birth to and was registered with the state electoral board. The news were promulgated every where across the whole six villages and armies of people trooped out to give their support and appreciation. These were people who understood things. They knew that all these been done by the colonel were not that which the ideas streamed out from self centred heart, it was all for their own sake. The day after which the colonel had returned from registering the party, more serious meeting began. The day fell on Tuesday for it was on Monday morning that he had made for the city for the registration process. Meetings were convened till Saturday and they had to rest on the Sunday. The meeting still often presenting the traditional rulers, and the entire people of the land who had shown strong interest. And issues were always raised, drawn and settled. Officials and representatives were elected. The process also affected the portfolio setting of the Agro industry at the top level. Mr. Ade was asked to withdraw his service as the D.G. for more concentration having been made the head of his party. Mr. Tunde; the geography teacher immediately became the acting D.G of the industry. Some other top officials in the

industry were also asked to withdraw their services for the main time. One of them was Mrs. Ephraim the biology mistress. She was made the women leader of the new party. The party officials at the meeting were appointed without dissension. The party secretary was the former manager of the palm oil factory which was part of the white vision farm at Olola village. The king of Kajore and his counterparts from the rest of the villages and the entire people reach the peak of contention in the selection. They had firm confidence and thrust in the calibres of the people selected. And arrangement to start off activities was about to be made but shifted to that of the next Monday. The last meeting of the week was held on the Saturday and when it was Sunday they had to use it as unusual for their resting day. The colonel this day went to the church in the morning and return home with his wife at noon. And having taken their launch both began drawing out issues and sorting it out in a lengthy discussion about the matter of the land. And as it was getting to the twilight a message was brought in to them from the palace. It was something written on a short piece of paper delivered to the colonel by one of the palace’s guard. He held it in hand and perused on it and knew it content. It was a piece of an invitation written and signed by Bawon, the political giant in the land. He was going to convene a meeting where he would like to meet all the elders and the grandees of the six villages. To colonel K, this was atypical of Bawon. Since he himself had returned to the land he had never seen where Bawon called for such a gathering outside the political world nor to find him honouring any invitation that had ever sent to him whenever the land organize a meeting in which to discuss and seek redress to any issue affecting the land. He had always disdain the cause of any gathering he was been invited to even the one arrange by the king himself. ‘How could such a man expect people to honour his own invitation too’, this thought surged through his heart as he still held the paper of the message in his hand. Thereafter, he extended it to his wife who had already been eager to know what was inside. Meanwhile the guard who brought in the letter had been allowed to return to his station. ‘But the boy said it’s the king that sent him this? This is Bawon’s name and signature I can see on it’, Rose said, with much of heart’s concern having read through. ‘That the king was the one that sent him was what he said but reading through it, I saw below it the name of the writer and signature and I knew it’s Bawon just the way you too has just confirm so. But what I think that has happened there is that, he himself tried to make the invitation reach to us through the king himself in his attempt to make it royal. I think he has been realizing what he has already sown in this land and knows as well what that is sure for him to reap, as whatever a man sows he shall reaps. He has known that no one would honour his invitation if not that he has pass it across through the king himself. ‘But what could he has gotten to say which upon he wants to convene the meeting? Rose asked with little wonder. ‘Until we get there, we can’t tell now’, the colonel said ‘I’m only asking this because this man is so delicate in nature and this is what everybody here in our land know obviously. He knows all about the good work you are doing for your people and which he really detested. So, he might choose to gather you all into one place and trickily set loose his hoodlums on you people in a deadly attack. So dear, for this reason, I don’t want you to go there. I want not your death

now and even for ever’, she said passionately staring into the husband eyes with much pity, even as if evil had befell the husband already. ‘Rose’, the colonel called, ‘Worry not for now, I’m still very far from death far. There is massive barricade firmly rigid between us, and so it’s to each of my men. I want you to know that all these things I’ve been doing for my people is not by my might nor my prudence but by the Almighty God. He’s the one I lean on, in order to obtain my safety and that of every one of us who has been a partaker in this lives rescuing task. ‘I will surely pull my people out of the snare of sorrow, poverty and death those bad leaders in our society have set for them. And most importantly, there is nothing to fear in those who can kill the flesh but who couldn’t kill the spirit.’ Upon all that the colonel had been saying to allay her of her agitation, Rose still felt discontented. She still looked so aghast and was very much nervous that her husband should listen and follow her own voice. ‘I know you quite well with your dauntless spirit since I have married you my husband. I have learnt in you that you are such a brave man whose type is not that common in the whole world. You front in war when you were still in military’, looking down on your own precious life whenever you sense there was an urgent need of freedom for the side you were fighting for. Your soul is of clemency and that has been always hulling you into all that is precarious in life endeavour. ‘Though it’s a common saying here in our land that the blood of war never dry in the body of an old soldier until his death; you still have to be wary in your involvement by avoiding strange callings. It’s our people that say, a solder who knows how to shoot but knows not how to dulge has a very narrow chance to be a valiant or a victor. ‘My husband, you will surely become a famous victor in this battle of rescuing your people, but learnt how to dulge unnecessary gathering. The lizard said; since I have learnt the havoc done by man on bird’s eggs, I have also learnt how to put my own eggs in perfect hide under the earth. This man call Bawon is heartless and destructive. He has responsible for the death of many people here in crisis and assassination’, Rose deeded with much more concern of the heart and the colonel felt it. He held his wife to himself, making her head leaning on his chest and he began robbing hand across her back slightly. ‘I understand you well my wife. I know the pot of love you brought into my house has never dry even little since our solemnization, so, I’m bound to hearken to your caring voice. But let us show little honour to the king whom the call was made pass through to us. And again, the news about the possibility of an outbreak of war looming in the air is not what a brave soldier should worry about but that of the strength of his weapon’. The couple eventually deviated to else discussions until it was dusk indeed. And they left the sitting room for the bed some minutes after they had taken the supper. And when it was morning which happen to be Monday, the first thing the colonel did after leaving the bed was that he went straight to the shelve and picked up the book in which he had always kept the record of his daily commitment which included where he was to attend and what that was on ground for him to supervise. At the previous day, he had already marked down two important places to attend at this very morning. The first place was where to meet with Mr. Ade and the other officials of the newborn party in a meeting. And from there he would eventually return and prepare with his wife to attend kaka’s marriage ceremony. Kaka was going to take in a new wife into his new mansion that had just been completed after about

two years he had lost his late wife to the stormy wind of a torrent rain. These were the two major commitments for the day that the colonel had gotten recorded already before the guard from the palace came at the previous twilight to deliver the invitation letter. And before leaving for the bed eventually, the colonel had ensured he marked down this one too in the book. As he stood by the shelve now, reading on the book, he re-arranged the programme. Before, he was to go first to Mr. Ade’s and after finishing with him, he would return home to prepare with his wife for the wedding. But now he would later return to the palace straight rather than the wedding so as to respond to the royal call and after which he would finally return home to set for kaka’s solemnization service. Thus, at this morning, colonel K had to leave the house very early so that he could meet up with all the three targets of the day. Rose inflicted some pressure on him in her usual act of overseeing him taking the cup of tea with three slices of a loaf of bread. Over the night, Mr. Ade too with his wife had carried each other along in a bogus colloquial. And when it was early our of this morning they had shifted from the bedroom to the sitting room to continue. They mostly discussed the political career its pursuance had been imposed upon him. The wife expressed much of the fear that had grew in her heart concerning this offer. The poor woman told her husband to do all he knew he could do to slough off, his body, this deadly imposition. She opened her mouth more broadly and told him about people who had started up well in life but ended badly just because they chose to go into politics thereafter. ‘The kind of politics they practice here in our land is nothing to tell strangers about. It’s so disgraceful. But we pray that God intervene, the wife said’. And before then she had put blame on the husband for accepting the precarious offer of being the party flag bearer on a ground of a senator. Mr. Ade cleared his throat well and told his wife everything about the acceptance. He told her it was colonel K himself who had called him into this and not even the elders of the whole villages. These ones had only shown him their multifarious support. ‘The man is too big for me to show defiance. He happens to be my real mentor in this land. Not even all the entire people of our land could have the strength to impose on me this offer which I see to be too precarious for me. For indeed, the impedimental of it is a very great one. So it’s some body who is great as well that stays behind me in the course of carrying it’, he said to his wife a where they both sat, on the long upholstery chair inside the sitting room. The former D.G had also exposed much of his fear over this offer especially when he looked back into his family and saw how little his children still were. They still had many years ahead to grow pass dependence age. It was in the course of this discussion that some knocks began bothering the door. It was colonel K who was behind it and he was warmly received into their midst. Mr. Ade felt so elated to meet him. While discussing with his wife, he had been thinking of reaching to his place after he must had taken his birth and his breakfast on the motive of informing him the venue of the newborn party conference of the day. ‘You are welcome Sir, Mr. Ade greeted as the colonel stretched out his hand to handshake him. ‘Thank you so much’, he turned to the wife afterward. ‘I hope you are fine my good wife? ‘Of course sir… what about your family sir?’ the woman said reflecting with a winsome smile on her face. She had already stood to her feet, waiting for her husband

to fully say his own greeting to the colonel before she would say hers. And now that she was through, she at once made for the refrigerator inside the kitchen and fetched out in a tray some fresh fruits and beverage and deposited it on the table in the front of the colonel. ‘O, that is kind of you’, the colonel said smiling along , ‘I’m so grateful’, he added. ‘No mention sir’, the face of the woman too had been nicely enshrouded in a broad smile. ‘Your presence here has solved this little thing disturbing my heart’. ‘Really’? And what was that?" The colonel asked, as he began filling up a glass cup with a bottle of drink on the table. ‘I had been thinking of getting to your house as soon as possible before you came in. I wanted to come to inform you about the very venue we’ve chosen afresh for the party conference of this day. We have chosen the school hall of the St. Francis high school’. ‘But why are we not using the party house again?’ ‘It was yesterday, when I visited the place; I mean the party house, that I got to know that the furniture and the decorating work going on there haven’t been well completed. When I knew it, I called the party secretary and some other officials and we entered into discussion and come out with the idea of using this place aforementioned for the conference of the day. So, my intension was to come to your place this morning and explain all to you so that you would never go astray. That would have been done yesterday but I couldn’t because I was so fixed up throughout. ‘That is good. I too have chosen coming to your place this morning because of the message, which I received, from the king yesterday evening. The content was all about a meeting which is to be held in the palace today as well. So I want us to start our party’s meeting earlier so that you and I can join them early enough in the palace. ‘But, what exactly do you think sir, could have engendered this meeting at the palace. ‘I cannot tell now Mr. Ade, but until we get there. That the meeting was having the hand of Bawon inside induced great panic in the heart of the former D.G as it had also done in the hearts of all the elders across the six villages. The colonel and Mr. Ade had hardly taken part out of the fruits set before them by his wife when they stood to leave the house. They had strongly resisted as well the pressure impose upon them by Mrs. Ade that they should sit back a little for the table to be set for the real breakfast. ********************************** At the palace the chives gathered promptly. There hearts sparkled perpetually with huge panic. They look so worried as they tarried along for the king who was still indoor and also for the rest of all the heads which the gathering was specially set for. Every now and then, more people were added to their number until the whole seats specially set apart for the chives were filled up except one. This was the one that ought to be for Oluwo; the chief priest. And its emptiness was not strange to he chives for that was how it had always be. Oluwo seldom turn up for any of the meeting convened in the palace in which to treat the matter concerning the welfare of the land just as Bawon would do. ‘Has Bawon, the political maniac come out of his hibernation again?" Was the question that littered all the hearts heaving in tension at the palace this morning. A short while in this course, virtually every spaces in the meeting ground of the palace

was filled up by the earls from the six villages. And after another short while the king himself appeared in the midst of all and all rose to their feet to give the royal greeting. And they all took back their places again as soon as the king had sat himself on the royal seat. Two of the palace guards were beckoned to by the king and he passed some directives into their ears as they bend heads. And while this was still on, each of the chives whispering one or two words into one another’s ears. So when calmness had later properly took charge of the atmosphere, Balogun rose to his feet to talk. He began with a greeting that started from the king then to all the rest. ‘May you live long our noble king. You’ve always due for our honour and that is what that has made us to present ourselves here today. If not we wouldn’t have turn out. And why? It’s because it’s a strange message we’ve received this time around. When I say strange I do not mean we do not expect calls from you at any time but because there is a strange thing in the content of this one which has engendered this very gathering. ‘Those that brought to us the letter were people from the palace here and they had also told us that they were sent by the king. But when we gave them to our children who know book to read them to us, they told us the writer of the letters who was at the same time the one who call for this gathering was Bawon. ‘Now, this is what that has put worry into our hearts and lighted up confusion on our faces. We have also come here to learn that this delicate man who has desired our noble attention has filled this palace with drinks and food and has even sent some young and beautiful ladies who must to serve them to us all. And they’ve tried to do so at our arrival but we have restrain them from doing so. Our king, because a snake move to the middle of a busy pathway and slough its skin there so that the sons of men could pass and see it, does not make the snake a good companion but until he come out indeed and vomit all the venomous inside of its belly. Bawon can not use drink and food to cajole us that he is good to associate with but until we are sure he has stopped his wickedness’. ‘Thank you Balogun’, the king said ‘you’ve spoken wisely. And let me use this privilege to thank you all for making the calling as the obey-before-you-complain type that we do place our children on whenever we want them to do things which they seem apathy toward of’. ‘I thank you again. You’ve all done well. Now, let me clear the blur air so that you could see how it all happened. It was yesterday morning that Balogun checked into my palace here and told every thing about his plan to meet all the earls of the land. He has never told me what he wants to see us for but all he has done was to assure that all was going to be well. He has vowed not to come with the armies of thugs he is known with’, the king paused and Balogun took over again. ‘Now our king, you’ve said to us that Balogun hasn’t told you that which upon he has called this gathering. We know Balogun but for one thing quite well, he will never tell you where precisely he’s heading to. He has told you all is going to be well but we don’t believe him. He’s is a man who would do an undo and would never feel remorse. Not even in three occasions he had allowed his boys beaten up some of the chives in this kind of gathering of the past. ‘And beside, we’ve never invited Balogun and Oluwo to any meeting in which we intend discussing the matter affecting our land and see them turning up. So, what does he want us for’, Balogun said agitatedly and virtually every one on seat gave their support instantly through simultaneous nodding. The king opened mouth again to address on the issue.

‘If a strange man comes by your door at one morning to knock and when you opened all he could do was to tell you that you should go and prepare for the next three days when he will come back with his sophisticated weapons to fight with you. Will you blame God for allowing the man to come and give such warning? No, you should rather go and thank your God for confusing your enemy to revealing to you about the trap the enemy has just set down for you’. ‘Balogun has come here not only to tell us that he wants to meet us all but has also promise to come back with peace to tell us why he has wanted meeting us. So, let him come so that we know how to prepare ourselves for whatever it’s and not that we choose to reject him with the frame of his mind and he later hold us captive in our state of ignorance. How can we fear because a man we see as a trouble in our land is coming to visit us? Then what do we do if he had already killed our fathers and our mothers and coming to show us the sword of blood he has used on them?’ Our fathers are warriors, this is what we all know and we too are warrior not even because we have fought in war but because we are born to be so. ‘Before the king could wholly get through in his word, colonel K and Mr. Ade arrived. And unusual relief of the heart descended in the gathering immediately. They moved round, greeting and shaking hands with the chiefs and grandees one before another. Eventually they reached to the king, prostrated as they greeted him and afterward took their seats. But they had barely sat down proper when Bawon himself appeared in a very close proximity. He appeared with Oluwo, his lady secretary and one young man of about thirty-seven years old and who looked very much like him. The breeze of little astonishment moved round the gathering once more than half of the eyes in the gathering glued to his figure as he approached majestically despite the fact that he had actually avoided reneging the vow he had earlier made concerning his appearing at the palace for the meeting of the day. He didn’t bring along with him any of his dangerous boys who moved with him with ammunitions. But the marvel of the people this time around was all about his being accomplished by Oluwo. To the chives, such company was enigma. Thus, murmuring developed from one part of the gathering and went round as the arriving guests were ushered to their seats by those ones in charge. Meaningful look were exchanged over and over among the chives. The political giant was immediately allowed to unveil what he bore in mind which upon the meeting was convened. ‘I greet you all our honourable ones and most importantly our king. May you live long, we all know that as there is time for everything so there is signs for everything . When a baby cries, we say she needs comfort. And when there is stygian gloom in the sky we say it’s going to rain. My coming here now is a sign of something. And what is it? Great ones I will tell you that it’s a sign of the coming of an election, I mean the forth-coming one already knocking by the door. Thus, it’s to seek your support for my candidates that brought me here. Here is my son’, he pointed at the young man whose age is around thirty-seven. ‘I know many of you here do not know him among my children. It’s because he has stayed all this while in the United State of America. And for your information he’s in money and he has come to minister to your needs with it’. Bawon paused, smiling as he took back his seat to listen to the respond of the people. All the earls exchanged meaningful look. The one between Balogun and the king lasted longer than that of all and afterward he stood on his feet to speak on behalf of all the elders.

‘There is one question I want to ask Bawon, ‘Go on, go on’, the chiefs said in unison nodding along that reflected a full support ‘I want to ask him if this coming election the first one we have ever had in this our land? Why is it that he’s calling us together now because he wants to win an election. Why is it that he did not call us like this at the last election and yet his party won? Why can’t him do it the way he has been doing it before and leave us alone? We know that when election approaches, he would send out his boys in mass into every house in this land to interact with the people and sharing for them money, food stuffs and material things while asking them for their votes at election. Has this system failed him? These are my questions’, he said and sat back Bawon stood up instantly. He was so eager to give his answer; ‘yes Balogun, as you’ve asked, the system has failed us and that is why have resolved to be here before you now. When you pick up a stick of broom, you can easily break it to as many numbers as you wish. But when you pick up the bunch of the broom it becomes something not easy to break into parts. You people have cordially made your will to be one and fasten it like the bunch of a broom and it has become so difficult to break or split into pieces. my own people have gone to meet our people in their dwelling places as well as their places of work over and over to win their interest but they have strictly refused to receive us inspite of all the relief packages we parked to them. And again, we’ve even began our party campaign and non of them bother to look at our side except the few ones who are the founding members to the old party. They’ve told us it’s the land mark of their fathers who have made good names in their course of fighting for the goodness of humanity that they wanted to follow. They even mentioned to us Nelson Mandela of sought Africa, Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria, Martin Lutha King junior of United State of America and some other ones of this calibre. In a nut shell, they’ve refused to listen to us saying it is the political party their good fathers in this land tell them to follow that they will follow. And that is why I have come to you whose voice they have vowed to only listen to’. Balogun cut in at this point ‘did they actually tell you we are the one who forbid them from receiving you and your men warmly to themselves as of old? And if at all it’s true we have stopped them from collecting offer of food and clothes from you by talking to them do you believe that one could be enough to stop them from doing so?’ ‘A man returned from abroad to meet his dog eating shit and all he could was to curiously warned them not to go back to the shit. Let me tell you he will surely whip them tired and they will never stop going for the shit. Why? It’s because he has failed to do the right thing first. He ought to have first provided them with real food to satiation. And that is what this our man’, he pointed at colonel K where he sat, ‘has done to us in this land and that is why our people have ceased from going for the shits you politicians are using to still their hearts at election. ‘I call it shit because it is a food of deceit and doesn’t have any long value but leads astray into greater suffering. So, if you say we are the one who have stolen their hearts totally from you which induced their not admiring your presence again it’s wrong. Put the blame on yourself; for had it been you and your men have done what that is right first by genuinely helping them to absolutely kill the great ravaging beast we all know as poverty in this land, they would have known you to the end’, Balogun paused and took back his seat.

Bawon rose again instantly. ‘Balogun, I understand your present mood. If I say I don’t then I’m a liar. All that you’ve just spoken is from the abundance of your grieved heart. And perhaps you are put in this exasperated mood because you think I’m joking when I say this young man, Jide, who is my son and whom I say is in money, have come to minister to the lives of you people financially even to the brim. He has been in the United State of America over decades and he has for long become rich in his business over there. So, he has become one of those young men who commands money anyhow anywhere. ‘ As our old ones would say; when it comes to a matter of witnessing the eye is more dependable than the ear. For this reason, I will call him now to bring forth that big colanut he has brought for you people’. Bawon smartly bend his body slightly toward his son where he sat beside him and whispered two or three words into his ear. And that resulted to the calling of the secretary by the son. Having instructed her of what to do in a lower voice, the lady moved away to the Jeep which was parked at little distance away and dropped the message with the driver that stayed behind inside waiting for his masters. The driver picked up the key and fetched out a very big black portfolio out of the boot and carried it follow the lady secretary who led the way back to the meeting ground of the palace. At the end, he was told to deposit it at open floor in the middle of the elders and opened it. Instantly, all eyes at the gathering glued to the new notes of currency. They were all dollars. The driver closed it again and leaved it there but returned to his own place. ‘That is for you people. And this is not the real thing but just a cola’, Bawon said to them, and had his face beaming with smile, exchanging look in this same joyful mood with Oluwo and his son, Jide. And all the elders too began casting across to one another a strong meaningful look. They all looked so solemn and somehow confused of what to say and the one whom to say it. But Balogun took the situation in hand again as he rose to his feet. ‘Listen Bawon, no one can ever buy our senses with anything under this planet again. You have done it before but I tell you now you can never succeed again in doing it. Our eyes have opened and mainly our senses. Is this not bribe’, he pointed at the portfolio of money on the ground, ‘that you even have the audacity to bring to the house of authority built on integrity and in the midst of the group of the models of the land? I won’t blame you. This has shown how far we have messed up ourselves in the past while we still lived in ignorance. This is the man’, he pointed to the colonel, ‘who has led us out of ignorance and moved us into the light where we found wisdom. ‘You said your son is from United State of America and has money, thinking you can weigh us down with that as to succumb to your request but we will not! Our children are here languishing in abject poverty and yet you politicians are not moved to see that you repair the land. All you could do is to be sending out your own children to salubrious places in the world with our loathed money.’ ‘But why can’t you people understand simple things easily!’, Jide, the son of Bawon bawled as he could no longer hold his temper. And Just as that of his father, his eyes had become red in great anger in the likeness of a famished wild cat. ‘That is money here for you to do the simple thing you are told by my father. If you want more there are rooms for you. But do the thing you are told first. Talk to your people to give our party support. They’ve turned their backs at it, saying it’s the voice of you elders they would follow!’ Jide bawled more in great Ire.

‘It’s you and your father that are yet to understand us’, Bawon cut in again, ‘You’ve not understood that we have changed. Gone are the days you people would approach us with huge bribe to buy our votes and succeed. We are no more fools and that is exactly what you and your father are yet to understand now. ‘And let me tell you, non of our people can tell you that we elders in the land have imposed anybody on them to be voted for. We’ve only told them to stop collecting bribes and see that they open their eyes and senses well to cast their votes to the right people on the basis of their own choices. We’ve helped them to that level in life through this man’, he pointed at colonel K, ‘because we are trying to build a new world good for every one to live in comfort, equality, access to fundamental right without stress. To live in love and progress without suppression and injustice, and catastrophe of any kind. ‘Your father have promulgated your wealthy status here in our midst and you have felt elated at that here in our front instead of you to hide your face in shame. With all the money you claim you have, what can you point to that you’ve ever done to your father’s land which we can always remember you for? Many of your kind are plenty overseas. Since they’ve made it in life, nothing have moved them to show any love to their nation by doing something remarkable there. Not even the spirit of patriotism. But you will only see them setting up many great thing in their land of alien. I won’t call them bastards but they deserve such name. In a massive Ire, Jide rose up once from his seat just as if someone had pinched him under. Anger had apparently developed a tremor in his body, so the tall, huge young man seemed running into a straight fall in the course of rising to his feet until he managed to gathered his body and opened his mouth to throw out the heaviness of his heart as he faced his father who also was still in a furious mood. ‘Have told you father! I have told you not to let us come to this people. Have told you to let us go straight by using on them African politics. Here is not U.S or Britain. It’s in places like these two countries that they do follow due process genuinely and not with lips. Here is not America dad I repeat!. ‘Your boys which you’ve been all the while spending a lot of money on are there for you. Let’s plan to mobilize them toward the campaigns of the party and election of the land when we would set them loose on these nuisance that call themselves patriotic villagers, to coerce them into our interest! Balogun cut in again in furry. All the earls in the gathering including the king and colonel K watched his mouth in little wonder. Though they had all known him with the habit of not being tolerance to fear or a sense of reprisal while speaking facts or nagging on the one who had in one way or another shown his turpitude yet the action he took this time around was virtual more of what he was known for .He faced Jide, the son of Bawon squarely again. ‘What did you mean by using African politics on them? See let me tell you should you don’t know before. Nothing wrong with African politics if not that people like you are involving in it. People like you are the one pouring filth on it, so cease from given it wrong definition. ‘You talk of American politics and its goodness and let me ask you this; what makes the difference between African politic and the American politics? If you don’t know it I’m ready to tell you now. Aside of technology advancement and financial buoyancy, American people and their government do not give room for people that have bad record as your kind to dominate their political world. ‘This is bribe that you have boldly brought to the corridor of power to impress us to vote for you in election,’ Balogun pointed at the huge portfolio of

money laid on the ground, ‘can any man in America audaciously carry money of bribe like this to the white house or the national assembly in USA to bribe the president or the senators in order to impressed them so as to work for the endorsement of his candidature in whichever party they are? This is our own white house here’, he pointed at the ancient palace constructed with mud block in the ages past, ‘and you‘ve walked into it to bribe us all. That is one of the differences I talk that is between the politics in the two sides There would be peace in our politics here in Africa if the entire people of Africa begin rising to genuinely say ‘no’ and ‘go away’ to people like you as my people and I are doing right now. malpractice, assassination, crisis and the rest. But it’s people like you who have brought all these into it because of your selfish interest. You want to become everything in life. Africa politics is suppose to be of peace, mutual understanding, non electoral malpractice, equality before the law and good judgement.

America audaciously carrying money of bribe as this to the white house or the national assembly in US to bribe the president or the senators to work for the endorsement of his candidature in whichever party they are? This is our own white house here ‘, he pointed at the ancient palace built with a mod block, ‘and you have walked into it to bribe us. That is one of the differences I talk is between the politics we practice here in Africa and that of the one in a place like the U.S. If the entire people of Africa began rising to genuinely say ‘no and go away’ to people like you as my people and I are doing right now there will be a great change ‘Let me ask you, what did you even return to the land for? To help us or to rub us? I m sure every wise man here must have known the right answer to this question. For, the owner of the house does not enter through the window but follow the right way; which happens to be the door. The thieves are those that enter through the wrong way. Those of you who are coming into our political power through wrong ways are thieves and you are good for nothing but for destruction. Coming through bribery, violence, electoral malpractice and the rest are the act of coming in through the wrong ways to our political power. This is what we don’t want again in this black continent. ‘Those that rose politically into the mantle of power through due process .I mean as the law stipulated it ,are those we know as people who are ready to serve us indeed .The law does not say we should bribe, propagate or engage in any act that can encourage violence or that we should embrace electoral malpractice. ‘Or perhaps your business has begun to fail you there in united state. And over that, you’ve resolved to come back here in our land where politics has become the hot business of the day, so as to work yourself into power, where you will stay for some years and have chance to pack away mighty amount of money belonging to all and go back to your America where you people celebrate life everyday. Lavishing money on mundane things while your compatriot suffer here in multitude of wants’ How can you people be happy at trading politics? Bologun opened his mouth so widely to ask this very question in great wonder. ‘Political world is a field of opportunity for only the people who have strong spirit of serving their land in a strong unalloyed integrity. Working out for their people, life comfort, protection and bright future. And not where for the people who seek opportunity to acquire mansions, luxury cars and enormous amount of money.

‘Balogun! Balogun!!Balogun!!! Oluwo called in great furry as he rose to his feet peering keenly into the eyes of Balogun ah he gather up himself from his seat. His eyes balls had turned red, as if they would kindle the fire that would set the whole world ablaze. ‘Why are you talking as if you talk to the unknowns?’ He asked bitterly, wanting to proceed but Balogun put in instantly. ‘Oluwo, in the past, we all know you as the one who saves lives and the one who appease gods for the land, each compound and man. You care headache and heal bellyache .But in the moment democracy return to our land in 1999; your changing attitude was extremely shocking because it was to us as an unprecedented one. You become life destroyers because you want to become rich. You started sending out your trained boys all over our lands and using them kidnapping people into the forest where you butcher them and sell them in parts to those politicians who seek to win election through diabolical power. Including their violence boys who want charms, especially the fetish amulet so that bullets and sharp object like cutlass and broken bottle dare not penetrate into their body whenever they are in operation attack on people who are not by the side of the political party for whom they work. And also you sell the human body part to those who want to become rich through the forces of the darkness because they say our economy is bad and thus they are tired of continue living in poverty Therefore, I don’t expect you to even have mouth to talk in this kind of gathering. Go and meet people of your kind that full our bush and other hiding places and continue to suck blood and eat flesh of the innocent so that you become more fat and thus become a good meat as well for the devil on the judgement day old fool!’ ‘ Balogun! Balogun!! Balogun!!! So its me you are insulting like this? ‘Oluwo, this is not an insult but a factual saying. You need to be talked to. In fact, it’s been long I have even been keenly longing for this matter of a day. ‘You will regret it I swell! ‘You lied Oluwo! I say you lied!! There is nothing bad you can do me so far it’s the truth I’m saying to you. You are a warrior and so I’m. But let me tell you, a warrior who saves is better than the one who destroys. Ask me why? It’s because he who kill by sword shall surely die with sword. While the soul of he who saves will never lack the bunting blessing from the intercession of the saved ones, even when he leaves this world to the great beyond. ‘Balogun’, Oluwo called, his anger had almost fill to the brim of his heart, listen, you will soon knew that I’m that scorpion who stings man to death on his happiest day! ‘Away with you Oluwo! Away with you, I say. My title is Balogun; the head of the warrior of the land; the one who front in war. You should be ashamed of your self for calling yourself a scorpion before me. For I’m that great Ajanaku that cause the jungle to judder. Had your father never told you before his death that a scorpion hardly survive just a single footstep of the great elephant on it head? And that no matter how thick and srong gossamer is, it can never entangle the elephant from trudging into the river to abate its thirst? Oluwo cut in, in furry ‘the let leave the matter for the day of the show when the strongest will emerge within the view of the entire world. You say you are srong, then we shall wait to see when a single head will knock to break all the coconut on all the palm trees in the whole world so as to become the master of the day in the contest of the great valiant’.

Balogun came in again, ‘if you like take or not, a thousand foxes can never contend with the lion in the battle of the valiant. You and your trained hoodlums are many indeed but if you formed one, you are still not equal to my kind in strength’ As Balogun spoke on, he began to sound as if he would call a sudden war on his challengers. The chiefs and the elders stood in numbers, keenly throwing out of their mouth onto him, heavy words that had such a weight of mollifying his wrath. And that was what the meeting ended upon.

Chapter 14 When Supo arrived the land of Kajore from the city, it was already gloomy. He had since two weeks ago or thereabout received an invitation letter sent to him by Mr Ade, the former D.G of the white vision farm, who was his elder brother. And so, he had come to answer the call. Supo was greatly overwhelmed by the tremendous development he had just seen taking place in his home place. As he walked into the land majestically, he dangled his neck to every direction and could not restrain the jaunty smile swilling round his face having known the new things the one time endless bush and forests, which were the homes of armies of rodent and other animals, had now turned to. It had turned to a charming industrial area where gross of people were moving in and out of. Trucks were pushing around and vehicles hauling about all in the production mood. The young man walked down the roads to his brother’s place ebulliently. He had really fed his hungry eyes with new things. It was a big monumental achievement. Since he had been hearing while in the city, about the development that had been taken place in his local government, he had been zealous to catch at least the glimpse. Mr. Ade received his younger brother warmly as he eventually reached home .He was highly gratified that he had eventually turn up to his call. And in this mood, he led him to the colonel who also felt elated in the moment he was introduced to him. As the colonel turned round to order for soft drinks, Supo seized the advantage to survey across the body of this man who had converted their monotonous land to mighty wonder under a very few years. Aside of the industrial growth and development, social life had been virtually raised to a good summit. Many of the moribund houses in the land had taken up a colourful look. They had been renovated or converted to the modern day type. And many new ones had been built to create addition to the numbers of the existing ones through the given of loans and grants to people of the land. Boreholes had also been created here and there of the villages. Modern day clinics too were not left out. Each of the villages had at least two. And the great thronged of people into the land for work search had made the one time scanty population nature of the land dense and subsequently created liveliness therein. ‘He’s great and caring’, Supo said calmly to himself in a thoughtful manner.

‘You are welcome once again my young man’, the colonel greeted again as he returned to his seat smiling along. ‘Thank you sir and thank you indeed for the great work you have been so far doing in our land’, he too smiled ‘No mention my brother, God created heaven because of the angel and created earth because of man, so it is because of the weak that He created the strong’, he paused briefly, watching how the young girl who had brought in drinks for the two visitors was placing them on the table together with glass cups. I think your brother has told you everything about your call?’ He asked We have not even discourse when he asked me to leave with him for this place as I returned this evening. Nevertheless, I have read little in the letter he sent at me in the city’. ‘I wish you be the one to give him the details of the call’, Mr. Ade put in. ‘Alright’, the colonel said, facing Supo squarely again, ‘actually, your brother and I with some other men and women have been so far working on our land. Our aim is to take everything to its apogee in respect to the development of the land. We actually aim to kill the beast ravaging our people, which is the poverty. But in the course of going about this we discovered that, there is something else working hand in hand with poverty to suffer our people. And that thing is ignorance. It has really made our move of assailing poverty to be somehow slower than expectation. ‘The greatest percentage of our people are illiterate, thus, their visions are not so bright but blur. Ignorance has made them not to actually know their right from their left nor know how to discover new things that could be of good help for them in life nor know their fundamental right not to talk of how far it should go in life. They are farmers over ages and yet they are still under subsistence level. Therefore, we want our people all to be educated; both the young and the old, so that we could experience rapid development in our land. For a development move in a land where the illiterate ones are too much than the literate will be slower than snail in proceeding’. ‘That is very good sir. You have really done what no man has ever done in the history of our land’, Supo said and his face beamed with smile. ‘Now, we have oriented most of our barbaric people and told them a lot about the importance of education. Though many of them know this before, it is poverty that is pushing them back. They have agreed to cooperate with us. And we’ve put the programme in segment and levels. The one for primary and secondary educational expansion, where more schools have been built to increase the numbers we have been having in the land. And where many children and the youths roaming about the street as beggars and miscreants have been encouraged to come, by providing them with every thing they needed for free, including feeding and the provision of text books with note books and the school uniform. ‘And the other ones are those for the adult. It would welcome those who have not been to school at all among the adult and those ones who drop out of school. Many of them could not read and write. Lastly, the special one for the tertiary education. It would be on part time basis. And it’s mainly going to absorbed people who came for diploma and degree certificate. Such as our teachers who are grade two certificate holders, the N.C.E certificate holders. The institution is an affiliation of a reputable university in the city. So we need competent lecturers and trustworthy and assiduous coordinators who will take charge of this just as we been able to get skilful teachers and people of great erudition who have already started administering over

both the primary and secondary school which we have already started some couples of month ago. ‘Your brother has told me every thing about you in regard to you qualification. And so we’ve decided to employ you as one of the lecturer taking the grade 2 and N.C.E teachers who seek to advance their education in their degree courses.’ ‘Wow ….!!! That is gracious! Supo exclaimed in an enormous gratification, smiling broadly. ‘I hope you have come with credentials?’ the colonel asked. ‘Of course colonel’. ‘That is good. You will have to hand them over to your elder brother. He will work on the very fast and tell you thereafter of everything to do. Just feel at home and enjoy the entire offers that have been made ready for you. Eventually, the colonel have a fitful kind of discursion with Mr Ade and ended it up with telling him where they afterward to go home and pass their night. After they had gone, the colonel immediately left the quest room to join his wife in the bed. And it was around 8pm then, but when it was midnight dot, he rose and walked away into his sanctum. His heart was so heavy. A bogus thing had filled it up. One of them was the general meeting his party was going to have at the next morning in the new party house. A lot point were going to be raised and discoursed including the case of Bawon, Oluwo and his son Jide that led to controversy in the palace. Another one was the nomination of the party member who would emerge as the chairmanship candidates of the party. And after which some amount of money will be given to him including the senatorial candidate who will be representing the constituency in the national assembly in the person of mr Ade, the former D.G of the white vision farm. And lastly, the councillorship candidate of the local government. They were to use to equip themselves better and to haul far forward their campaign activities. In the same morning, he would also like to go and inspect all the agro firms in kajore and Oloba and send messages to all the contractors working on the new constructions going on about three of the rest of the villages. Thus, in that mi night he drew out his file and found papers which he began filling with words that was best understood to him alone from the abundance of his burdensome heart and he was on that till 4am when he now returned to the bed. When it was dawn proper, Rose persuaded him as usual to stay behind little so as to take little food to avoid moving around outside the house with empty stomach but did this again to no avail. The colonel had set it in his document to first reach the firms and do the inspection under a little length of time before crossing to the party house where his escort and his secretary would later come to meet him. He had always to leave them behind each time he was going out of the house very early in spite of their regular pressure to with him. He would always say to them ‘you are not sent for the carrying of the impedimental of liberating my people from poverty and bad government but me. So stays relax until you eat and drink your best in the morning and every other time, afterward you can then look for me’. The inspection was not new. This was what he did every fortnight. Thus, before he got there this morning all the farm officials and staffs had set to receive him. They would take him from one department of each of the firm to that of another. This was how they would lead him round until he would eventually make settled in the D.G

office where he would be entertained after he might have had a brief meeting with them all. As the colonel arrived, he hadn’t been through with shaking hands with his faithful servants when four policemen arrived. Two of them were in mufti and were harmless and the other two were in their black uniform with guns in their hands looking so solemn and appeared so vigilant. Smartly they exchanged greeting with the colonel and his men. Afterward one of the C.I.D officer nimbly deepen his hand into the pocket in his white shirt and fetched out his identity card and in the same zeal shown it to the colonel. ‘You are retired colonel kola sir’, he asked afterwards ‘Of course’ ‘Good. We are from the criminal investigation department and we are here to work on certain tip-off passed across to us this morning’, he said frantically. ‘And what is the tip-off all about?’ The colonel asked. ‘The police have been told there is a corpse buried somewhere which has also been described to us in this your farm. So we have been ordered by the D.P.O to confirm it and if so, to come along with you to the station’. The disclosure sounded like an explosion in the ear of the colonel and his men. He felt he had only had a nightmare. ‘Incredible! How could you just talk like that? Saying a corpse is suspected buried here?’ ‘Colonel, please you have to take this matter easy. Just cooperate with us so that we can do our work and go’ ‘See. I ‘m a man who had worked under the government for years and I understand the law of the land very well. I was not trying to hamper your mission here. I was only expressing the fiery shock I have received from that which you said. You are free to do whatever you are sent to do’. ‘All right sir. Now, could you please lead us to where your fishery farm is located here?’ ‘I will allow my men to lead you there. I’m not working here’ ‘Does it mean you don’t know the place? ‘I know it of course but they are in the best position to show you everything you desire to see. ‘But sir, we would have been pleaser if you can go with us as your men will lead us to the place.’ Alright’, he breathe down, ‘if that is what you want I will do it for you’. They left for the place immediately. The two police officers in uniform was lagging behind while the cid led the way and with much of a careful movement. As all moved far on the giant farm, they got to the point where the fishmeals were been produced and the dg stopped them. He faced the police and told them they were already where they asked for. The two CID officers then looked around the place and asked thereafter for where the fishponds were located. ‘Then we need to go down further’, the D.G said and they all left again. At the end of the long block of the fishmeal firm, which was many yards away from its entrance, there was a very large swampy ground where scores of fishponds were located. As they appeared there, the colonel and the D.G waved hands across the ground, showing the ponds to the police officers. The cid officer thereafter, moving proper onto the land with their keen gaze impose all over there. The two later took different sides, acting like a scavenger. And

when it was about ten minuets into this the one by the right direction beckon to the other one and become so serious at watching on what he had just spotted. This also caught the attention ot the rest and they all moved close and gathered there. ‘Please colonel; there is something beneath the soil here. We want it to be unveiled so that we know exactly what its. Now, could you help us to send for one of your labourers to come with a digger and a spade to render us the service?’ One of the CID officers demanded. ‘That is not problem’, he replied and asked one of his men to provide one of the labourers working in the firm. And it was not that long when one was led out and took to the spot. It was a very lengthy heap of sound that looked freshly dug out and used to cover up something beneath it. But oga, when has this thing got done here? We worked here yesterday afternoon and it was not there?. The labourer said as he was shown the lengthy heap and asked to expose it. ‘Just do what you are asked to do and return to your normal work. ‘Because the sands were net yet parched at all, the labourer found it so easy to throw up with his spade and he had never done up to eight throws when the thing underneath was unfolded. And it was an uncontrollable shock it had brought to the men who had been who had been watching in sinister while the labourer dug on. It was an horror. A body of a man whose two eyes had been pluck, hair shaved and his penis cut off. Colonel k felt hot blow inside of his body and he was stunned. A hot argument immediately ensued between the farm officials and the police men but became a very brief one as the colonel put in. he entreated his men to go through due process and thereafter agreed to follow the police to the station. The two police officers in uniform were instructed to remain with the corpse by their superiors in mufti, while they would go back to the station and send down men who would exhume it proper and convey it to the necessary place. Colonel k was a man whose life had a great influence on his little world. He had ever commanding an enormous interest from nature. Even the animals knew his steps and the wind had always desired being his voice even not only when he desire to remain speechless. Thus, before he reached the station with the police, the news about his apprehension had been widely spread across the six villages and it had brought a great panic in to every heart. It was a sad story everywhere. People gathered in group for revolt. ‘Sir , now that the evidence has proved it that a corpse is buried in your farm, we think you will have to be in police custody until the investigation is completed’, said, the DPO at the canter immediately after he had reached the station. ‘Point of correction officer, you don’t say my farm, it’s the farm of the people’, the colonel said as he was so perturbed. ‘But its you who set it up’ ‘It has been written that it was going to be done through somebody’, the colonel replied ‘In anyway, whichever way you’ve put it, I have told you everything. We police here know the farm as yours and whether you are pushing it out of you head because you are finding way to sneak out of having hand in the burying of a corpse in the farm we are less concern. And why? Because we have been instructed by a superior officer not to ask you any anything here nor permit you to say anything for whatever you say shall be used agaist you’

‘I wont blame you at all because this is nation where good people find it difficult to find a work space in vital places like this but the miscreants or those who lack morality and good conduct and who get ther because they know people that are in power. And this is able to be so because the mantle of power in our land is dominated by the ruthless people in our society. So that is why we can see people like you in service’, the colonel said solemnly, ‘what upon do you think I can show interest in killing my fellow human being?’ he added keenly The DPO smiled at the saying of the colonel, ‘why won’t you deny that you don’t know why people like you in our land kill people for. But if you want me to remind you of one, I will do. Now listen that farm there, hasn’t passed three years and it has risen to a wonderful level where thousand of people were there working. Millions of naira is realised there everyday. Tell me how you’ve done it? So, that s the answer to your question. Many of our investors use human part under the forces of the darkness to turn there business mighty and that is one of the reasons people are missing everyday in our land. The colonel cut in again, ‘you people have blur vision and that is why you can’t know how I do it. When you make a good move, God will surely be by your side. You police are number one among the government agent that has been hauling this land into doldrums. You present yourself as good people to the public in most cases through the mass media but do worst evil in the secret. You refuse to help the oppressed genuinely but follow the oppressors just because of our looted money, which they have sharing with you in secret. ‘You pretend not to see the bad politicians and there boys who rig election because they have given you bribe. You also help them to scare away with your guns those electorate who believe in using their vote to wipe off any government they have seen not favourable to the masses. ‘Even when you go over the too much of critics from the masses and the few canny politicians that we have in our land to arrest some of these bad politicians we talk about or their thugs having violated the rule governing election in the land, it’s fake arrest you do give them. After some minutes in your custody, you release them without taking them to court, all because you’ve collected bribe from them’. As this was on in the station, the news of the sudden arrest of the colonel had continued to move from one mouth to another until it was caste into the ear of the last person in the recess of the last village at the speed, which the famished kite would take to attack its spotted prey. And meeting was hurriedly convened by all the elders. Fear had fell mightily upon every heart at the gathering. Balogun was the one who rose to speak first after the king had left the way clear for someone to rise up for speaking. ‘I greet you all the pillars of our land of Kajore and all of you from the rest villages. This is the kind of gathering where we don’t need to tarry long. We have all known what that has just happen and I’m so sure we don’t need to be told the implication before we know it. This is a man who has been sent to us to carry the burden of revamping our land on his head in spite of how great it’s, which was apparently the good result of the granting of our age long supplication by the Almighty God Himself. Many of you still remember how we were before this man came to carry this enormous impediment of rescuing our land from dire poverty induced by our bad government. It’s not easy at all but yet he has been carrying it well and that is why many of us can still live to know today; for this is the land that death strikes everyday just because it must obey the of poverty which the bad politicians that abounds in our land have fostered its rein upon us.

‘The baby lizard asked her father one day like that: father why do you always nod your head to the ground without any tiredness of that? And the father smiled broadly and said, ‘my son I have always hit my head to the ground because that is one way of checking whether all the words of wisdom my father has instilled in my brain while I was growing under him are still there intact, for wisdom is power, once you have it, you have everything. My son’ the lizard added, ‘if a dwarf has wisdom he will surely break an ogre into pieces’’ So, what I’m saying in particular is that, let us not see this situation as that of a knotty trouble or hysteric. But the one which has emerge purposely to bring us together where we would unanimously bring our brain together and see if all the word of wisdom imbued in our brain by our brilliant fathers in there days were still there intact without having a bit missing. Our fathers are brilliant we all know it and we must prove that to the whole world here now. Let us take this gathering for that I urge you all. ‘Obafemi Awolowo was brilliant in his days we know this. He had proved this to all during the tough civil war in our land. Through a single statement he made at the war we know how that had resulted to the re-sustenance of the unity the three brothers were trying to break among themselves. Nnamdi Azikwe was brilliant too. Any one who had had privilege to listen to his interview would never doubt this. And also muritala Mohammed. We shall always extol Nelson Mandela for his brilliance and Martin Luther king. A single word from them to the frustrated ones serves better that a bounty offer of gold and silver. So, why won’t I say they are brilliant? Our fathers are brilliant and they have instilled much in us. ‘Now this is where I go, I want every one of us to dig into his brain and bring out the idea of the right thing we think we can do now about this matter which upon we gathered. ‘We are not saying they, I mean the police shouldn’t follow the due process but what we are fighting for are two. Firstly, that he should not be deprived of his freedom of movement because this is the time we need him most. ‘Secondly, that the case must not be transfer out of this state to the federal capital as we have heard the saying. Because this is where the allegation come from. If the investigation can be properly done by the police without hanky-panky, we shall surely smile at the end of the matter for we know whom we have been following.’ Balogun paused as there was a finger raised among the elders. It was Asipa and he rose just before his feet, cleared his throat in slight cough and gathered his body proper to talk. He raised his agbada up proper at both his shoulders, ‘my people I don’t think it’s mendacious to say that this thing that happen is the handiwork of the enemies. My people, we all know many of our police, we wont say them all because some of them are different buy they extremely few and difficult to reach . we all know that they are greedy as that child of nine years old who would not talk as he would watch the enemy who come in secretly, putting knife to the neck of his sleeping mother because he had been bribe with a piece of biscuit. At their station, they punish the guiltless ones who don’t have money for bribing them and exalt the law breakers because he has nourish their pockets. Truth has never tarried on their lips for a moment because they are greed. ‘They led many innocents into remind of indefinite term. And many of our judges too in the court of law are not known for anything good but for their flippancy at given good and quick judgement. They are so callous and sluggish and highly love the collection of bribe from the lawbreakers.

‘Thus, with all these factors I stated, I see no reason why we shouldn’t do everything to see that this man does not go and sink to the hands of our police or the shyster judges. Let each one of us go back to his hut, see that we in a moment reach to wherever we know we keep our money, bring a ransom immediately to the palace here so that we all gather it together, and carry go meet the DPO on time. So that he can release him to us before he will be thrown out of our reach into those hellholes, they have been using to take the lives of many innocents in lack of good care. Look at our prisons like the café of a chronic lunatic who has been in the condition for over decades. So, this is my own idea’. Asipa took back his seat. Some of the elders nodded to all he had said to give their support but it many of them were those that waved their heads to show dissatisfaction. ‘Thank you Asipa, Balogun said as he rose again. You have told us your own mind but there is one thing in all you said which I think we don’t need to heed to. And what it is? It is the issue of bribing the police that you suggested. Our own dog shall never eat shit even though the starvation is ready taking its life. What is bad is bad. ‘We are the models in the land and so, we need to be so sagacious in whatever we lay our hands upon. The younger ones are always having their eyes on us to be emulated. We’ have told them that we are building for them a new world. The one devoid of bribery and corruption, political crises, assassination, electoral malpractice, religion and ethnic crises and the rest. The world where there would be plethora love, peace, justice, virtues and every good tidings.’ Balogun spoke for a short length then allowed four or five other men to talk. Eventually they all agreed on the idea to go to the DPO in persons without any element of bribe and plead with him to grant their request of not allowing the deprivation of the colonel freedom of movement until their investigation would be well carried out. And that, should he turn down their request they should further their petition to the state commissioner of police in the city. Before they could even get to the middle of the meeting, the village women had eagerly formed a group of protest and hurriedly stormed the station.Their spirits were accompanied by one their songs of protest. ‘He who kills two demons has saved hundred lives! He who kills three withes saves thousands lives! He who kills four wizard saves millions lives! But he who smites one angel has destroyed generations! Police will see witch they will befriend her! Police will see demon they will worship him! Police will see wizard they will praise him! Police will see a kidnaper they protect him! Police will see the law breaker they will hide their faces! But when they see angel they shoot him! When they see angel they hang him! When they see angel they chase him away! He who does evil, evil shall follow him! He who does good, he makes life eternity! The song was sang wholeheartedly and very much raucous until they reach to settle in the front of the police station and were still very unrest. The noise attracted more of the policemen outside in the front of the station. The DPO too was there. He purposely came out to challenge them over the commotion. ‘What do you want please woman?’ He asked with frown face

‘Please let him be released to us, lucking him up in your cell is like lucking the hope of we poor!’ ‘No woman, that can’t be. This is a serious case, a murder one for that matter. But this man is a man of honour and has name, so he can never run away as you might thought of. Release him to continue staying among us until your investigation is done to the end. Truly, this our land is a land where even the big ones who have names are not even ashamed of involving in atrocity and also not ashamed of running away but he’s so unique!’ ‘I say no woman! No body is above the law, thus the rule of law must be obeyed’ The women especially their leader became seriously hack-off at the declaration of the DPO. ‘What are you talking Oga police’, their leader retorted, ‘and what are you trying to tell us? That you police are not hypocrite? Have we not known you for long as the major agent of the government that abuse the law of the land? You harbour the miscreant form facing the judgement because they have money but suffer the poor innocents. Can any body has all the records of all the havoc you police have responsible for in our election and our society? No, because they are too immense! You collude with the ruthless politicians having bribed you with a colossal amount of money and you pretend not to see their boys, as they would brandish their away those voters that are not in support of their party. And any one among these voters who try to show courage at casting his vote under the harsh condition, the political terrorist either cut into his body or shoot him to death. Without you police by one way or the other supporting them, they can never continue to exist in our society. You can’t deny this and if you ask me why I will tell you one. You all know that if you are even going to arrest some of these ones, its fake arrest that you normally give them just to deceive the public that are watching your actions. You put them in your custody and for a short while and then set them free having collected huge amount of money from their bosses who happened to be the bad politicians that dominated our politics here.’ Constable Paul’ the DPO called as he cut in, in a very great furry. His eyes ball had turned red. Yes sir!’ The constable answered and rushed to his front ‘Go and arrest that foolish woman and luck her up in the cell’ The police officer rushed to the woman and held on her, pulling her inside as she was resisting. ‘Please oga police, this is a woman you are doing like this,’ a man among the little crowd said, facing the DPO. ’tell your boy not to rough handle her’ ‘You too must be rough handle. You are telling me my action is unfair? Truly, she is a woman but she carries about the heart of a man. How could she posses the temerity of insulting the police? ‘We shall continue to insult you people until you have wholly stopped all the atrocity we know you with in this land. See us suffering in this land because we don’t have good leaders. You police are part of what that make the bad ones getting to the mantle of power,’ iya abiye, the women’s leader said with a quavering voice as the constable was still forcefully dragging her into the cell. While this was going on another policeman had scooted to the other man who antagonise the arrest of the woman, asking him to move as he would take to the cell too in the act of obeying the other of the DPO.

‘But you have already been doing what the woman has accused you of oga police’, the man said in anxiety facing the DPO. This is the law you are abusing. Why are you depriving us of our freedom of expression?’ ‘I think you are educated? Does it mean your teacher did not teach you in your school that there is a limitation to all the fundamental right of the citizens? The DPO said vehemently then turn his face smartly to the police who had already held the man by the trouser on his waist and called audibly, ‘Constable! Are you stupid? Did I say you should go and stand in his front and watch his dirty mouth? Please drag him into the cell and beat out all the nonsense he has in mouth ‘. As the effort of the village women of liberating the colonel from the snare of the police fell futile so was that of the elders of the land. They did their best but couldn’t clinch the victory. Thus they held another meeting and its striking outcome was that everyone of them should go where he could and come back within the shortest while, having gathered one or two things with which to support to the core the new born party and all its candidates.

********************************************* It was the fourth day that Supo returned to the land that he began the work he was called for. His elder brother ,Mr Ade, who was the former DG of the Agro industry and his constituency senatorial candidate for the forth coming election in the land, had actually done all what the colonel had instructed him to do on him. He had forwarded his credential to the university which affiliation he was to work therein and the senates of the institution had sent down the letter of the endorsement of his appointment. Supo had often had his face wrapped in a thick broad smile once he had knew this. He had seen it as a thing of a great pride to work as a lecturer in his father’s land where he was apparently known well among his people. Following what he had read in the letter handed over to him by his employers, one of the class he would be taking was the one dominated by most of the people he had passed through their classes while pursuing his primary and secondary education in the land before he left for university in city where he had obtained both his first and second degree. As Supo appeared this day in his first class in his lecturing carer , he was so proud of seeing himself before about two scores of average old men and women who were virtually grade two and NCE teachers who came to pursue degree and diploma courses. They had all gathered from the six villages for the study. When Supo began the work of the day, he told his students that his first class was going to be a debate on a theory he propounded on Africa, which he titled: Africa stunted growth- why?’ It was by the next class that the real course of study would kick off. This was what he told them. It took the young lecturer not less than twenty-five minutes to be able to hammer his own fact on the theory in the front of his student. He critically pointed at the poor inventive ability of the Africans as the major reason why African continent still lagging behind her mate in the world. And that was his own major point in the debate. He said, ‘Africa men are not good enough at critical thinking and that is why we are still unable to discover much of new un-existing things which can be of good help

to the continent in the sense that they would attract global attention to the continent than any ever experienced attraction’ ‘Our thoughts are too shallow and selfish. We thought of how to satisfy ourselves and our families and once we archive this on daily basis we are okay of that.. We do not think deeper to see that we dig out new ideas with which we can uplift our nation and the continent at large just as the Americans ,Europe and the rest are seriously doing,’ Supo added solemnly. He then gave rooms for whoever among his students who enthusiastic of debating him. And fingers were raised after fingers in the classroom. Some hammered on the issue of technology. And the argument was that the African government or rulers remain very poor in their performance of promoting science and technology in their lands, While other pointed and poked into the body of poor and inadequate education facing by people in many parts of Africa continent and the too much bad representatives in politics. None of these points sounded well in the ear of the lecturer. To him they were weightless but he continued to listen to them until a man rose to shake him with his own point that landed in body like an explosion. The man was seriously intended to rob of his point that Africans are thinkless or shallow thinkers and thus could not reach the boundary where new or un-existing ideas which could lead to new inventions that can help to attract global interest to Africa. ‘Mr lecturer,’ the man called as he stood up, ‘hunger is too much in Africa you can’t dispute this. And what do we know a hungry man as? A hungry man is an angry man. So, you can’t expect a sorrowful and un-peaceful mind to manufacture good things or good idea than the negative things like mugging, duping, embezzling, bribery and the rest. An angry man who is also known as an angry man cannot be good at tolerating the little wrong others have done to him except he is deeply godly. Therefore,, he is easily moved into an unnecessary actions. And that is why we kill one another saying you not of religion, not of my ethnic group. All these thing are just the problem causing our stunted growth’, the man paused And the lecturer could not recover easily from the hit of these points in his heart. He sought for his own fresh point with which to counter that of this man but his brain forsook him at achieving that. Thus, he continued to allow other students in the class to argue with their own points. And so the argument continued. One argument rose to quell another and the young lecturer was very impressed about the points his students were discharging. And especially how passionate and polite they had been putting them. He was as serious as he had been registering all the points in his heart. He had planned to work on them all as a fabulous project. After many a man and woman had talked tired, a man at the back stood up at once in such away that attracted the sight of all the students toward him keenly. He was an average person of about sixty. He smartly removed his spectacle from his face as he began to move forward from the back, looking voraciously into the eyes of the lecturer. The whole class thought he had come up with a very unique point to argue with. Perhaps the hot one indeed which had overwhelmed his heart .But when he reached to the front, he robed hand across his face again and viewed more keenly into the face of the lecture, ‘ were you not Supo Ogunlana James? He asked with great concern. Of course old one’, the lecturer answered. The son of that late old teacher, pa Ogunlana whose house is at iyana-Aba? He added with little wonder. ‘You are very right old one’

‘Do you know Mr Ajadi Bakare, the mathematics teacher in the st. Francis high school about twelve years ago?’’ ‘Yes’, the lecturer answered thoughtfully nodding, ‘I could still have his flash back. He was one of old teachers then. ‘Good’, the old man said pleasantly nodding, ‘so, it’s you that stand here with your sweet mouth asking us why Africa still experience an age long stunted growth ? Am I not the same mr Ajadi Bakare, which you don’t recognise again as the one standing before you , that you in those days when I was still worldly gave the sum of ten thousand naira, asking me to help you look for a mercenary to help you write your west Africa certificate exam and which I did for you ?. Were you also not the same Supo, who came to me after the result was out and having you got many distinctions include English and mathematics, that I should help you again to arrange for another man who would assist you in your university matriculation exam JAMB, which I did too and at the end you scored a very high mark that took you to the university?.’ The old man stood firm before the lecturer and watching him in the face in the wide-eyed manner while expecting him of his response. A great cold of embarrassment had freeze up the lecturer. He was shocked and baffled. He had never before dreamt of such a humiliation in his life. He juddered as his aged student who was once his best teacher was now dismantling his image. Feeling as if something could help him vanish in the air. His innards had really blazed hot that caused his saliva to turn thick starch that glued his tongue to his mouth and rendered him speechless. His mind became totally blank and that was the end of the day lecture. Afterward the broken class began blaming the old teacher for his action. They blame him for breaking a fetid gourd like that in such a public place but upon all the fumigations, he never felt remorse. ‘You should have not exposed this secret of this lecturer which was full of shame in public,’ a woman who was also a student said. The old man replied him eagerly, ‘but he was the one asking for why many Africa s nations were still backward in the world record and what I said was my own answer to that question. Go to our schools many of our teachers are not good again in class. They are only good at collecting money from students to help them for good result in exams. ‘A lot of our university graduates cannot write a short essay with good and correct English. Parents too are no more what parent used to be in those days. In those days our parents take it as a serious task to encourage us to read and rebuke us whenever they see that our performance in the school work are low or that we have developed the habit of cheating in the exams. But it’s shameful and unfortunate and even a bad omen to the future of our nation that our parent of nowadays themselves are also going for teachers or mercenary and pay them money to help their children pass exams. We inherited quality education from the Britain in our colonial days but our own people have gone bastardising it. Our students don’t read soundly again as of old. They have great zest for attending party, club and any scene of merriment but using money to pass exams. Those who are brilliant among our children are not finding it easy to gain a space to study in the University of their Choice because those ones who happen to be dullards but whose parents are rich are using money to occupy everywhere. They go for fine causes like medicine, engineering or law. This is one of the reasons our economy and the lives of our people especially the sick ones in the hospital are put in danger.

We produce dullards as graduates and we want to improve technologically. All these problems must be dealt with first before this dream cold be archived otherwise we remain like this till eternity. ‘So my fellow student ‘, the old man stared across to the faces of the group of student who gathered in his front, ‘I cannot swallow back my words if that is what you people expect from me. What I mean is that I have no regret in laying my own points on the argument through pointing to one of the secret things of this man because his own kinds of people are still many in our land. And that is part of the reasons we are lagging behind in our economic development if he didn’t know before, I have told him now. Thank you all.’’ The group then broke into two as the old man walked amid of them away. One of the groups supported him for his points and the other shook their heads in negation, insisting that no matter what, he ought not to reveal such a secret. In the land of Kajore or in the whole six villages this average old man was one of the men who wad so desperate to the core, about seeing their continent hanging from bad to good or form good to better. He had often be found speaking to his children, especially his first son and likewise to other younger ones in his vicinity that they should chose to become something good in life to the world, and not to become dubious, bandit and greedy just because their little world has been made to be too harsh by the bad politicians that abound there. In their faces, he would condemn how the young ones have gone duping the foreigners around the world. Including those of them who do it through the internet. He said they had ruin the glory of their world and that any world which glory happened to be in shamble would continue to lag behind her mates until she could do something worthy to heal I back. ‘That is one of the reasons we are still facing great suffering here in our land’, he would say to the to the youths. So also he would also said, ‘we’ve lost our thrust in the sight of the foreigners into jiggery pockerry and any man whose trust is lost among his fellow human beings, would continue to miss his road in the journey of progress until he begins doing new and normal things ‘ ‘See that car passing there,’ the old man said to his son who accompanied him one day to the city. As they were by the major road leading to the state secretariat wherein he would like to submit an application, he pointed at the car keenly and his son gazed at it .The car was an ex class one. ‘Have you seen it well? He asked his son. Of course sir‘, the son answered meditatively. He never new what the father was try to point out of that. ‘How much do you think that car worth’, he asked his son. ‘Like 2.5 million naira sir’, the boy answered ‘That car you see riding away so worth more than that. Now listen, that young man you can see inside riding it might not have his life do a work that is up to fifty thousand naira or win a price that worth fifty thousand as well or inherited something worth that or win a lottery of such amount yet he might be the owner of that car. That is Africa man of nowadays for you my son. In the days of our father it was not so. We always like to reap where we did not sow. We are good at showing love at achieving things illegally and inappropriately. So my son, there is need for urgent change,’ the old man paused and led his son afterward into the secretariat having cross the major road that day

Chapter 12

As democracy struggled to immerse itself in the nation, argument were made poured out here and there among the people. People would gather at different locations(news papers sales points, restaurants, fields, hotels, street ground) to speak for or against democracy or military rules. At those atmospheres, there had always been the rise of people: individuals or groups and each would take the side of the rule they had preferred to the other one in one way and another .They would debate on them and argued tenaciously. At the beginning of each of these arguments there had always be a fiery fire on the tongues of both parties involving in it. But it had often been the portion of the few ones who did argue in the favour of military rule to have their tongues coiled up at the end of every argument. The points they had always made in their argument had often been made useless and thrown out in the air by the desperate oppositions who were at same time the lovers of democracy. People had begun to show their strong repulsion toward them openly. They cursed them many a time and try to spite phlegm on them on the street. And at a point in time they began to see them each time they appeared in public as the ones who were mentally retarded somehow. How could a man who has his sense well okay advocate for a dictatorship rule? Nearly all the native always carried in their hearts around this question. And whenever they come across those one extolling the past military rule in the nation or in the continent they would in distance hiss at them and brace it over with curses. One day at a news paper selling spot, where people did gather to peruse over the daily headlines (they were the combination of people who could not afford buying a copy of the papers to their dwelling places or office and people who naturally fancy such points of gathering where they would be privilege to meet with different people of different background and opinion whom they would share their own ideas with and also gain that of these ones to themselves,) a hot argument broke out between two fellows who were part of the gathering. The first spoke for democracy and against the military rule while the other man took the reverse. The young man who spoke in favour of democracy earnest his motion with two major points. He keenly condemned any form of military rule. The two points he had used as the arrow to shoot to death the possibility of the future existence of military rule in the land were the denial of the freedom of speech of the citizen and the too much of the brutal killing of innocents by the military despots. When it was the turn of the man, who spoke for the military rule to kick against the motion it was the same two points he too used as dirt to fire back. Though he admitted the fact that there were death casualty during the series military era in the land, he compare the rate of the death casualty been recorded during the military brutality and democratic parades. People who were been recorded dead at the series of the campaigns and elections held last dispensation under the democratic rule were very much higher in rate than any one recorded during the military rule’. The man said and he continued, ‘the

political touts fired their guns here and there in rendering their service to the politicians who had been paying them hugely for that. And having killed the gusty electorate, straight bullets on the other hand went far and near to kill the innocents on their ways and led them to an untimely death. Then what are we talking about? The man said vehemently. He continued again as he deviated from the first point to the second one which was on the deprivation of freedom of speech. ‘Even though democracy allows us to say whatever we desire to say but our government has fixed limit to it and put contempt ‘, What did you mean by limit and contempt?’ The man who argued for democracy asked worryingly. People continued watching them in the mouth as they expected the one who was going to clinch the victory. But most of them love the one who argue for democracy. It was not this man they love per say, but it was the love they had for democracy that they extend to him. ‘Now hold on and let me explain to you one by one what I mean by the fix of a limit and contempt to our freedom of speech in this land under the democratic rule you debate for. There is just little different in the boundary to which you can speak under the two system of government. the only thing you can say without boundary is when you praise the government on the shoddy work they might have done in the land. Were you not in this land during that time when the president by himself walked in anger into the press house at the colossal presidential villa to banish some news reporters because he wrote some articles on the weakness of the government?’ ‘But they are not constructive in their critics,’ the man who debate for democracy answered with a voice filled of disgust. The military defender put in again smartly, ‘then what about the two musicians who were intimidated by the president having released albums inside which the sang about too much of poverty, brutal killing in vicious attack, nepotisms and corruptions. Were you not in this land when the president himself came out in public to curse their mothers and afterward declared their albums not ot be broadcasted on TV and radio station across the nation? Is that not the contempt I aforementioned?’ The man asked the one he argued with keenly. And there was silence in the gathering as they all watched in the mouth, the man who argue for democracy as his tongue hustled to gather word with which to fire back. But the other man took the advantage of the delay to continue again. ‘So my fellow listeners, to buttress my point before you, there is one thing which I will like to link the kind of democracy we practice here with. I will link it to a woman whose child defecate all over her body in her absence and when she returned from distance, she dragged her to the bathroom and washed the soiled body but forget to wash the anus. Therefore, no matter how elegant she had afterward dressed up the little baby in fine cloths, the bad odour will still occasionally, if not often blow out from under her to the air and become pollution to her immediate environment. In a not shell, the democracy we practice here in our land have come to wash the already soiled body of our ruling but have not been able to wash the vital places. Let us go and send for the real democracy. The one capable to wash all the soiled body of our government clean. The one that can touch all the interiors part. Virtually everybody at the gathering gave a nod of support to this very part of the argument of this man. They were so impressed to listen to him further more. But he had not even expressed himself all that he found a very huge blow landed on his right cheek. And there was a great interruption instantly in his sight. He saw cloud

rather than images before he could regain form the staggering, the man who was responsible for the blow attempted to give another. People resisted him, and then dragged him backward. It was the man who argued for democracy. It was quite apparent on him that he had gone extremely crazy of molesting the fellow who seemed defeating him in the argument. The audience on the scene of debate were struck with marvel still as they strived to restore peace back to the atmosphere. ‘It’s your mother who will wash her child’s body and would not remember to wash the anus which was one of the secret parts of the body’. The assailant said vehemently, pointing finger keenly to the man who spoke for military rule as he struggled to free himself from people who was still holding him back from rushing again to this man he had hit in the face. ‘How can he say our democracy here is still a handicap, lacking the ability to perfectly wash clean our system of government? He directed the question to the audience as was still in furious mood and afterward casting a baleful look across to his antagonist who was still grumbling in the midst of little crowd that stood round him. ‘if democracy we practice here is not handicap type and has actually washed the soiled body of our government clean then why do we still experience bribery and corruption, poverty, brutal killing, malpractices and the rest of atrocity that abound in our land unlike America and Europe where they also practice democracy.? The man who debate for military rule asked at the top of his voice, trying to break through the circle of men that cage him in order to get close to his opponent in his mood of revenge but was not allowed by the crowed ‘My people we need to practice the real democracy! I mean the type they practice in USA and many European countries,’ the man managed to throw this out again and everyone in the gathering nodded at it in approbation. And that was the first time after the return of democracy to the nation that a military rule supporter clinched victory in this kind of debate. He had accepted as the winner not because people love military rule but because the man had given good striking points in his arguments. They were the kind of points they wished the state men across the land copy in their file and work on them. The gathering then continued preventing both of them from reaching to each other. And began as well to rain fulmination on the one who smack the other on the face. Telling him he was even having too much of the military he had spoken against in himself. They told him further that he had even contradicted his motion on freedom of speech with which he had earlier condemned the military era. Now, with this he had done by brutalising his fellow man just to stop him from furthering expressing himself was enough to stop to rubbish all his points in all the ears that heard them. People thought he belong to one of the political parties in the state but later they found out that he was one of the masters degree holders who roamed about the street daily as vagrants. He would always say it was the too much of the military rule the nation had underwent that had put the nation in too much of harsh condition. As democracy return to the nation, people regard it as a mirage. Hence, they were not moved to give it such an attention that a good host would set ready for his age long expected guest. And this flippancy was due to the series of the previous return attempt democracy had made to futility which was caused by the military hijackers.

Then it was learnt that even some military generals didn’t know the length and breath of the service they were call up for or they knew it but cupidity had only veiled their senses. They were to defend the nation against any internal and external aggression and not to rule the nation. Then, people saw them as a dog lying some distance away from a woman busy preparing her soup in her wooden kitchen immersed at the back of her husband house. On it crouch, it pretended not to see the woman as she was undergoing the stress of moving in and out of the kitchen, bringing one condiment and another , adding it to the soup to give it a very reach flavour. But when the soup was cooked and the sweet aroma pervaded everywhere, the dog sniffed through it, waged its tail and had his ears keenly erected. Then in cupidity watched voraciously at the movement of the woman and once it saw she had moved her feet to pick something from the other side of the kitchen outside, it become so fierce. It jumped to the other side of the road where he called three other dogs of it type and broke into the kitchen where they took charge of everything there. Having thrown down the pot of the soup form the fire, they devour everything inside especially the huge pieces of meats. And eventually, when the woman entered, they fiercely chased her away, wanting to tear her to meats too. Therefore, with this attitude of the army to the nation’s wealth people began doubting the stay of democracy when it return again in the land in 1999. And this was the state of the mind until they got relief from the news that was at a point spread round the nation. It was the news that the America government had sent some of her military dignitaries into the country to orientate the military. These one told them every reasons why they should cease from hijacking power. And told them what and what they could do to help the civil rule. As the election of the lands began to approach tenaciously, many activities did ensue among the politicians in the land. In zeal, they organise series of meeting and sponsored several campaign for their parties at home and abroad. This period had often been the time when Bawon would come out of his hibernation and he had done so now. His great compound had been much more filled up and extremely busy. There were great influx of people into it at a proportion far immense than how it used to be. Most of these guests were his political godson who had come to settle one issue and the other in regard of how to clinch victory in the close election. As much as the election drew nearer so was Bawon increased in strength. His zeal to hit hard on the winning chances of the opposition parties had risen so high. And so was the relationship between him and Oluwo tighten up glitteringly in a new dimension. They paid endless visits into the parsonage of each other virtually everyday, discussing one on one, what and how to do in other to excel as usual in the close election. This very election was so significant to Bawon than any of the past ones. It had really bugged his mind. And this was so because of the of the influence of colonel k on his people. The colonel had really changed the situation of things; economically, morally and politically. He had not only opened the senses of his people to the knowing loathing the precarious approach of the wily politicians but had also given them that which was strong enough to say a big ‘no’ to them. All these development were what that had in the time past put Bawon in a great distress, but in the moment that he knew this man who was the backbone of his people had been taken away into a remind house, he began to have sound relief for himself. However, Bawon sill not had total rest in his heart, for he knew it was colonel k who was taken away from his people and not the character he had imbued in

them. Thus, how to steal this virtue from them troubled his heart for if they still go by it, it was a big menace to his political ambition. Hence, as much as the election drew nearer he began to double up his effort. He arranged his boys and invited some powerful spiritualists from far away lands and made them to work on them supernaturally, exposing them to mysterious things that had great potency of bringing them above ordinary beings. Upon this Bawon was still not reach contention. He therefore gave these guys huge money and sent them out to enter into whichever place, whether near or far in which they too knew they could gain more of spiritual power to themselves. Seeking spiritual protection was not new to the politicians and their political touts in the land. This was what best day did depend on for clinching victory at elections. These ones did find their ways into the dwelling places of the herbalist or the voodoo that they believe in the potency of his medicine. Okigbe was one of the things they did go for. This one was a string made from animal skin. It was not ordinary but supernatural. It became so immediately the voodoo or the spiritualist had evoked paranormal power into it. The seeker would tie it to his biceps or the waist. It prevent them from any sharp object like cutlass, knives, axe, broken bottles cutting through their bodies during conflict. Another one was ayeta. This one could be evoke into the seeker by the spiritualist through many ways. It could be cooked as a portion and give to the seeker to swallow . And could be passed into his body through incision. And in some occasion it could also be done for the seekers the way okigbe could be done. Ayeta was to insulate the host from the penetration of bullets into the body at crises or attack. Chapter 14

Mr Ade had greatly felt feebly all over his body as extreme as to the marrow. His tiredness was induced by the series of failure he had encountered in his hustle to secure the release of the colonel. Since the colonel had been taken away finally in some days after his arrest to the detention in one of the prisons in the federal capital, the former DG been falling into weariness every now and then in his struggle. And it was since then too he had buried himself inside a very deep thought. As much as he went deeper in the thought so was fear surge round his heart. He had been committed to a great task and then how could he walked through such a valley of death and prevail when the enemies of progress had trapped the one who had been his backbone and his inspiration down. To him, it was as if he should withdraw but could not do so whenever the last statement that the colonel made to him came to his memory. ‘ I will never cease to be happy even though I’m put in fiery furnace if you will carry on to be a good sailor to my people not only at my mere absence but even at my death. I have built for my people that ship that would take them to their promise land and I have made you whom I so much thrust and have confidence in as the sailor. Don’t ever disappoint me please. The newborn party must not go dead prematurely’ this was the last word of the colonel to the former DG before he was taken away from the land into detention in the city at the state prison. And since then this statement had always stood as a force that had been throwing him forward whenever the D.G planned for retreat in his political carrier. At exactly one week of the mishap into which the colonel was taken away, the DG revitalised himself and triggered off fresh activities. He gathered all his men

together and entered with them into series of meeting. The outcome was that campaign for their political party was to start staging and this news was promulgated everywhere across the six villages. People heard it that the first campaign would be hold the following day at the sundown when every work activities must have gone down. Bawon in his colossal compound was so worried as some of his spies brought this news to him. What that troubled his heart now had just became two. He had just been totally down in sorrow before this fresh news was brought to him. It was the sorrow emanated from the woeful performance of his party in the campaign the party just held in some vital places across the land. His party had received a big shame, as it was only a very few people across the land that shown interest. Apparently, he had now known that this was not the party the people of his land were waiting for this time around. ‘They must have been waiting for something different and obvious’, he thought this way where he sat sorrowfully in his compound. And his thought went right away to the new party founded by this colonel before he was taken to the prison. ‘I think that is the one they wait for’ he said calmly and meditatively, afterward began to plan many things in his heart. At the following morning, people wake up of their beds to find series of inscription on the walls of their buildings. None of them could tell when exactly these were done but they guess it was at the midnight when all must had gone to bed. The houses on each of the streets across the whole villages was pick at random by these secret writers and with white chalk they had written something that was more or less of a warning to the natives. And each of the villagers who could read came around to read it thus-‘it is more safety good to be in your farm or your market place or your working place or indoors than to be at the campaign ground of the MOM party today’. The write up went so far that even the farmers who could also read perused over it where it was written on the body of the trees along the roads to their farms. The newborn party was such that had a very long arm that was capable of pulling to itself even the last person at the recess of the last village in the local government. The whole villagers were so fascinated to it. It was to every one of them the way a newborn baby would look like in the hand of an average old woman whom fortune had just helped at breaking the jinx of a long time bareness she had suffered in her life. And also like an angel whom the lot of the land or the destiny had been buried in his heart. Thus if pampers well and he feel it in his heart the land grow great but if otherwise the land wallow in endless suffering. So, whenever they heard the voice of this party, they hearken onto it and rushed toward its direction. Hence, this very morning though fear creped into every heart that heard about the write up that came alive over the night, they still determine to stand on their word. They must not just go back. And over this every one of them, this morning expedite their actions in the day activities in order to be through on time and find themselves at the campaign ground at sundown. The more the time schedule drew nearer so was the crowd became thicker even as none of the party officials had arrived. It really shown that these ones were really starved of the ‘Able’ kind of democracy, which they believed this party could land them into. They were absolutely tired of the handicap democracy practice in the land, which they had greatly suffered in. They gathered thicker and thicker tirelessly waiting for the host official who would lead them in their words. The wonderfulness of that day was even recognised by the suckling children that stared into the gathering from where they parch at the back of their mothers.

At this twilight, in the open grand which was sounded with trees purposely planted their for shields some centuries ago by their fore fathers who used the place meeting and a place for celebrating events or festivals, in group or pears tongue were moved in a rumbustious discursions. The major one was based on the handicap type of democracy that were been practice in many African counties and how shameful it was. The discursion grew from little and developed to something much greater and it was amid of this that the hosts and some quests arrived. And there was a shout of joy everywhere as these noble men walked through their midst onto the rostrum of speech at the centre of the gathering. And as they faced the crowd, it became apparent on their faces that they had been so overwhelmed by the greatness of this cloister of people who had came to give their support to the new born party. This was the party they believed would help to transform the handicap type of democracy practice in the land to the ‘able’ kind, which was very much known with the developed countries in the world. In the profile of the former DG, he had never found himself standing to address such an enormous blissful crowd craving hot to hear from him. Thus, a kind of joy that was so clean as crystal shown in his countenance. But this became to some degree as the thought of colonel quickly surged through his heart now that he was about speaking. If not of this painful feeling, this would have become one of the happiest day in his life. How he had wished colonel k, his noble mentor was by his side at this moment. As he realised again at the same moment that sadness could not help the matter of the day, he exorcise himself of the feeling and summon sound courage with which to speak beautifully to his people. As he started his speech, it was the name of the party he promulgated first to the entire gathering. ‘The full meaning of MOM is: the Mind of the Masses’, the former DG said and a great blissful shout shook the air. He added in the moment the shout went down a little, ‘whenever you search into the heart of the masses there are always there, the yearning for being loved, having bright future, to be placed above suffering, sorrow, tribulation, crises, the call of good education and all comfort of life. These are what this party is ready to provide and that is what that engendered that name-MOM! The shout stirred up again among the crowd in an overwhelming jubilation. But all of a sudden, it was as if this mighty shout of joy had broken the face of heave for it was sparkling now already. Every one out of fear jacked his or neck into his body in the effort of hiding their heads from the angry sky. As the gusty men among them managed to cast their gaze eagerly onto heaven, mighty fear mounted in their hearts. Everywhere juddered heavily. It was fire they had seen instead of a thunder blast. and a great melee ensued immediately. The area boys in operation never took it easy with the dissolving crowed. They in full force pursued every one as they shoot and cut into the melee and falling numbers of the escaping men and women. Walling stirred up greatly and no one dare wait to rescue the other so sympathise with the downcasts among them. That day in the whole six villages especially Kajore, sadness prevail in the palpitating hearts of all under their roofs after the narrow escape of the people as the news spread across the land. Over this, the call for an emergency meeting arouse among the chiefs. It was not a sit-down type of meeting. They all gathered on their feet in the front of the palace in an anxiety. They quickly called out one of the young men inside the palace and asked him to rush down to the former DG to know if he was among the fortunate ones to reach home. But this messenger had hardly vanished into this errand when they saw in distance the wife of the DG running forth and raucously walling. She had been much disorganised. She was not of her self anymore.

The wrapper on her waist had fallen off her waist on the run, and living her white underwear skirt exposing outside. Likewise, her headscarf was missing on her head. The poor woman had just heard the news of the mishap that occurred in the stage where her husband had appeared for the campaign of his party. She had heard this news from who had been able to flee home and she became so panic as she couldn’t find her own husband among these ones. Balobun quickly moved away from the rest of the chiefs to intercept the moody woman whose face had been drenched in tears. ‘Does it mean this man has not been seen at home?’ Balogun asked in great tension as he moved closer to her. Every one of the chiefs fixed his gaze to her mouth ‘They say, they have killed my husband my husband’, she said as she reached the front of Balogun proper. And was not patient at all to answer more of his question when she began skittering forth again and speaking this into her cry. ‘I have told him countless time but he wouldn’t here me! I have told him countless that the politics here is for the wicked and heartless people who love to see and drink blood often. Balogun was happy when he heard Asipa telling the rest of the chiefs that they had to summon courage and follow the woman to the scene of horror. But later he felt sad, as more than half of them had spoken one or two words to kick against such an action. ‘A land is indeed finished already once a war that break out has consumed the entire elders therein even when the war has not even been able to lay hand on mere people of the land’, The oldest of the chiefs said and added. ‘This shows how significant elders are in every land, so let us not put our heads there for there will be no one to rule over the affairs of the land should we go there and encounter our death.’ At the end, two guards from the palace were sent to the scene to bring them word about the present status of incident. As Mrs. Ade appeared in a close proximity, every one had already deserted the horrific scene. And it was then the police was just arriving in their Bedford which were two in number. On their way to the place, they had apprehended some seven young men. The poor woman became much more troubled as she ran passed three corpses laid on the ground while she rushed onto the platform of speech where she had sported a gory figure. And once she knew whom he was, she closed her eyes in pain and exclaimed greatly. Beating on his chest while on her knee in her effort and zeal to wake him up from the pool of blood. The former DG had been drenched in blood, lying lifelessly on the wooden speech platform. Not less than six bullets were responsible for his absolute knock down. Mrs Ade cried bitterly, throwing herself up and down of the dead husband. She was absolutely baffled and frighten of life. The five police officers worked very smartly on the scene. They smartly picked into the back of their vehicles about four dead men and another dead pregnancy woman and a boy kid .As they surveyed round the body of the kid smartly, there were bruise all over her face and some other parts of her body, making the body steaming blood. As it looked like, perhaps the boy was unfortunately crushed down among the crowd and was seriously trampled over in the cause of the melee. The police officers eventually shifted to the sobbing woman. Her sadness was too extreme. But the police officers courageously consoled her and afterward pulled her up and led her into their vehicle. It was then they were able to raise the body of the former DG from the pull of blood and had it carried into the back of the vehicle and drove off.

This was a very sad day to virtually all across the six villages. People wept in open places and in closets. Moreover, when it was night which came a few hour from the hour of the incident, no fire was seen been kindle for making of food and many souls under the roofs yielded not to sleep that night too. But it was not so in some few compounds especially that of Bawon and Oluwo. Right from that twilight, meeting was held after meeting by the elders of the land. They reached to the police for several days as the body of the former DG lied in mortuary, demanding that the perpetrators of the evil should be unveil and held to judgement. And in the cause of this a news was heard across the lands and even in the other five villages. It was the news of the promise made by the police. The policed and vowed that whatever it was going to cost them to fetch out the attack plotters, they were ready to sacrifice it. But all the people of the villages even in their grieves mocked the police for making such a promise. They said it was only the gullible ones that could take that from them. They said among themselves that the police themselves were the indirect perpetrators of evil across the whole lands. By taking bribes from many politicians who trained thugs, they would pretend not to see them on time when they would be shedding the innocent’s blood. The people earnest their points by referring to the day when the inspector general of the federation came out in public to proclaim his readiness of dieing for the executive president of the federation because he had added to the salary of the police and bought cars for many of the police top officers. He could not die for his country but could die for the president and it was not even long when the people of the land began to see this declaration manifesting in the nation. They had seen the police doing everything to see they save the party that the president belong to from been defeated in the election by the rival parties. After about two weeks, the corpse of the former DG was conveyed back to his land from mortuary in the city and the little world wailed in great agony of the heart. Over the time, the police were still not been able to unveil the face of the perpetrators. It was the other seven young men they apprehended on their way to the scene on the day of the incident that they still had in their custody. People cursed them in distance over this. The seven young men were known as some of the assiduous workers in the agro industry who had only shown for the campaign of the party of the day. They were fresh members to the party. And it was so glaring in every heart that breathe at the gathering that day that these young men were purely innocents. They were neither seen with any ammunition nor formally known with any form of ill manner across the whole villages. The day that the corpse of the former DG was brought to his people fell on Saturday morning and the people from the entire villages poured out greatly in an enormous sorrow to mourn him afresh. The funeral programme, which began around 9am, ran to 2pm before the body was then taken to the nearest cemetery for the final valediction. As his people watched his body taking down the grave, they felt as if it was their hope that was going to be buried for eternity. But many of them were able to get over this feeling later, in the moment the memory of colonel k surged through their hearts. They remembered that colonel k was not dead but only held captive. Thus, they had little relief in their hearts. That day after the burial, news was passed across to the villagers. It was the news that there would be a meeting of the MOM party and it was announced by the chiefs and the top party officials. The party was so important to the people of the land. They had indeed become wearied of the handicap type of democracy. So many of them who came from far

lands like Oke-gbaguda, oloba and Olola for the burial had to resolved to tarry behind till the following day so as to be part of the meeting for it was already night. This news went so far that every ear heard it. At the party house, the population of those who shown for the meeting was so extreme as it was another special day in the history of the party. It was the day when a new man would be nominated to replace the late senatorial candidate of the party. And also the day when in a joint discursion new strategy would be dug out from the perfect brains and prudent hearts that would gather there with which to place the new party above any further attack. Some minuets into this meeting all the members and the supporters were pleased about the one just chosen for the replacement. Though it was obvious to all that this man could not wear the very shoe his predecessor had left behind, they still so much love him. They loved him over his meekness, honesty, assiduousness. They had also said he was patriotic, loathe selfishness and was perfidious. This was in the person of Mr Tunde, the former English teacher of the St. Francis High School who was also one of the first class disciples of colonel K and the founding member of the giant white vision farm. Many issues were raised and settled in the day meeting. People were allowed to talk and they talk to allow the sweetness to keep them away from any memory of personal affair at home and at work. And not until it was night indeed that all was called a day. Those were not from the village had to return again with their friend, or kin acquaintance who had received them the previous night to their abode. They would pass the night there before leaving for work in their own villages the following morning, which would fall on Monday. That night again the compounds in Kajore were filled up with people than how it used to be. One or two guests were added to each family. And when the supper was over, the owners of the most of the compounds were seen outside their buildings with their wives engaging their guests into critical colloquia under the moon light of the night. Kaka was one of them. He sat on a long bench outside his abode with his elder brother who was from a very far land where he was working. ‘How can we really make it now? Or do we continue to agree it is just a mere dream that can never come to reality?’ Kaka in an enormous passion asked his brother and was seriously looking sad. ‘How can we make what? His brother asked in reply I mean, how can we work out a world free of political and tumult, electoral malpractice and every other manners of corruption? These factors are really dropping a dead blow on the growth of Africa’, he said much more passionately as if he would cry. ‘Kaka’, his brother called stressfully, ‘that won’t be easy to achieve except we go back to our background. ‘How’, kaka asked eagerly ‘Thank you my brother, you see Africa is still facing with problems debarring her from rising to the summit because we have not been able to look back to our background and washed it clean. My brother, we still have dirty things attached to our background and that is why we are still facing these problem we’ve aforementioned My brother let us consider these two points and analyse on them. I mean the parental and cultural influence on our upbringing. They are the two major factors working against our smooth growth. ‘Let me first speak on the parental influence first. Thousands of our people never know how to train up children. We give birth to good children but rear them up

in bad ways and they thus turn bad in life. Those of us who don’t have money give birth to more than the normal number of children we could manage to cater for, thus we give them no education. And those who have money among us give to their own children good education but could not imbue in them sound morality. ‘Most of our children hailed from polygamous family where they experience little or no care at all. And this is the kind of family or yard where the children have a lot of harrowing experience and part of which cause them to develop a harden heart. The children are exposed to too much of work at the earlier age rather than given proper education as, they would be forced joining hands with the poor parents at winning the daily bread of the family. They hawk around in agony. Again, this is a kind of family or yard where the children watched the father beating up their mothers in a feud caused by anger of hunger. Africa barbarian would beat up their wives the way sensible man would not beat a goat. Children are naturally made to learn anything around them. The children watch their parents and learn from them whether negative or positive and so they move into the streets to do likewise. ‘My brother, let our people learn how to give birth to just the few number of children they know can they cater for. The one they can give sound education and moral training. many of our politicians are not doing fine because when they were young their parents though give them education yet fail at given them moral training. Thus, they are shameless at practicing evil, corruption and that is why our continent still experience stunted growth among mates across the globe. ‘Many of our reach parents couldn’t oversee the lives of the children procreated by them. They claim it’s because of business or work too much or too much of commitments. Therefore, they put the affair of their children in the care of the nannies or the schoolteachers. These ones therefore over pampered the children because they do obtain from the rich parents. Any children been over cosseted do lack sound morality or virtues. And they grow to become bad and worst leaders to their nations, continents and the world. ‘Now my brother, as I have said, the second point is the cultural influence. In our culture there is too much of fetish things like too much of blood sacrifice. We love and embrace this too much. And I can tell you kaka, that these fetish things which were not naturally created in our culture. I mean the Almighty God who gave us this culture never responsible for any of the fetish things one could find therein especially the issue of blood sacrifice. This is what that was smuggled into our culture by the agents of the devil from the kingdom of the darkness. ‘My brother, there was this little boy who suffered an acute headache for several days without stopping and in anxiety the mother took him to a nearby herbalist and launched the complaint, the herbalist then seated the little boy on one old mortar which had been upend there over ages at his backyard. He had before then asked the mother to provide a white huge rooster and which she had done having dashed to the market and made back in the same mood. The rooster was collected by the spiritualist from the panic mother and placed it on the ground in the front of the boy having tied the arms. About eighteen strokes of incision were afterward marked on the forehead of the boy with some incantations. And having got through, the spiritualist smartly picked up the rooster, held it by both the head and the arms and forcefully tore off the head from the neck. With all agility again, he rubbed the gullet of the rooster where blood was gushing out on the forehead of the boy where there was blood too coming out of the incision. Having satisfied that the two different bloods had been well mixed together, he then inserted the gullet into the mouth of the sick boy asking him to suck it dry. The boy obliged.

‘My brother this is now my point. How do we expect this kind of boy to grow and fear blood? Imagine a boy who have been sucking blood from his childhood, how can he be worried to see blood flowing on roads when he become a young man. ‘Our politicians don’t have confidence in winning election through the due process and as a result whenever election approaches they run to the spiritualist for help. And they are asked to shed blood in order to provide human body part to do the charm needed. Tell me how you think these kinds of politicians could feel bothered if seen the blood of the innocents floating on the roads in the states where they govern. ‘My brother we need to stop embracing fetish things in our society. Let us cease from blood sacrifice and most importantly, we should renounce the worshiping of the inferior gods and face the real God alone. He will never demand any blood sacrifice from His worshipers’ ‘We should also stop exposing our infant to blood that make them becoming fearless to blood when they grow and which subsequently making them involving in killing one another.’ This was how the discursion went between kaka and his brother until when it was few minutes to the midnight. And It was now that they had started pushing the head of their discursion close to the end that they began to feel it much greatly on their bodies, the pain of the mosquito bite. ‘I think mosquitoes of nowadays in our land carry dangerous needle in their mouth and no more the proboscis again. And they have also learnt not to move in single but in group and a full force of rebellion toward we human being’, kaka said worryingly as he waved round his body, a piece of cloth in the size of four handkerchief put together, whipping the air with it as he held it with his right hand in his desperate mood to kill some of the armies of mosquitoes perching on his body to suck blood. He added, ‘see how they have been besieging us outside here despite of resisting them with the cloth and broom we held in hands. I think this is the handiwork of the evil ones. They have poured out dangerous mosquitoes to bite us and our children to death’ Akanji brother smiled faintly at the saying of his brother, using the long broom he held in hand waved round his body without really letting it touching his skin before he opened his mouth to talk. That is what I have been saying ever since about we people. We have always thought in a fetish way. This issue of mosquitoes that full around us is not having anything to do with the hand of the evil spirits. They are not the ones who have inflicted that on us but our bad people in power. See our environment, as they are so worst. They claim lives everyday. Can we count the number of people who have suffered in malarial attack? And what bring about this? is it not that our environments are bad? Our government abandoned we poor and leaving us dwelling in squalors while they dwell in salubrious places Kaka and his brother continued with this segment of the discursion until the brother told him certain incident that recently occurred In the village where he came from. He narrated the story of a man who was a suitor in a compound he had visited that day in order to say hello to his in-laws and especially to tell them everything about how for far and much he had gone in the preparation of the forth coming wedding between their daughter and him. So, when he arrived, it was at the depth of twilight. And because he had trekked many miles down from his village along side other travellers as their was no vehicles

plying the road that day because there was a strike action in the land which was induced by the hike in fuel price. The young suitor became so wearied as he eventually reached to his in-laws. And having given water to wash his soiled body caused by the too much of the dust on the long untied roads he had trekked, he was afterward able to cut about four or five morsels of amala of to his mouth with gbegiri soup and snail meats prepared by the mother-in-law, he went straight to the bed. The young man was wearied than to stay among them that night and discoursed issues but went to bed already made clean for him by the young lady he had came for. The bed was the one made by bringing four planks closely together on the clay floor inside the visitors room and was covered with raffia mats, which was cushion with some pieces of rags laid underneath. This was how many of the guests in the past have been sleeping on it. But because the suitor was so special to the family that night the mother-in-law gave her daughter a clean white wrapper to lay it on the bed to honour her man. By the bedside, two nails that gaped each other with some yards were fixed to the wall and a rope tied across them. This was where the man had hung his cloth having off it, as there was serious hit that night, leaving his body with only the short on him. And that was the purpose upon which the rope was tied there. The guest room just as the other rooms in the house was, had its top not well covered. There was no ceiling and the ancient iron shits it was covered by were already too old. It was having too much of holes that made the small size room sodden whenever there was rain. Hence the poor condition of the house especially its openness had caused mosquitoes always having there ways in and out as they had wanted it. At the middle of the room, there was a glassless woolly lamp, made of a perforated thin. In the middle of the night, it was zealously discharging its smoke that looked like that of a burning tire. The young suitor was seen reflecting rolling from one side of the bed to another. He was so tired that he could not carry his arm up to wave away the cloister of mosquitoes that had been perching on his body. The mosquitoes felt so peaceful over this and with all patience sucking his blood. In their skeletal bodies, they succeeded to develop big bellies, which greatly increased their weight and made them too heavy to fly away. Thus, each of them having well loaded with blood fell off his body to his side on the bed and each time he twisted his body to change his position in the mood of the deep sleep, he used his own weight to crush them on the bed. He squeezed them like this in his unconsciousness in the depth of the night until the white bed shit was littered all over with blood. Before it was dawn, the bedspread was wet so much as, of what this young man had never experienced before in his life. Unfortunately for him, he was the only one that slept on the bed that night so it was not easy for him to quickly have access to the understanding of the exact thing that had cause such amount of blood from him that night. The betrothed daughter was only given the white wrapper to lay for the young suitor that night but was not allowed sleeping there with him. In Yoruba land, a proposed wife dare not sleep with her suitor until the wedding night. As he woke up eventually to see it all having looked round all over the bed, he was flabbergasted. And instantly he rose up roughly from the bed in tension, picked up the littered white bed shit and disappeared with it from the compound. When it was dawn proper and his wife-to-be and her mother reached the room to say good morning and appreciate him for the regard he had given to the family by affording trekking such a long mile to reach to them at the previous day, they found him not inside. And having searched round everywhere in the compound and the whole vicinity and its environs, in futile, they were griped by fear. It was a fear of

whether some of the marauders that abound in the land had broken into where he slept and held him in captive. In great panic, they alarmed all the family members especially the aged ones so, each of them began creating insight or ideas of how to do more thorough search on him. But when it was around noon, precisely 2pm and they could not find him yet, a meeting was convened by all the elders of the family. And out of it an idea was fetched. It was said that two well grown up men and women s including the motherin- law should be sent to the far away village where the suitor had come from. They were to report to the parents about the mysterious missing of their son over the night. But fortunately for them, this meeting had not ended when the suitor appeared with two huge young men that resembled him so well and an average old woman. They all look sad and aggressive. There was a sudden silence and a heart felt relief immediately all the family members in the meeting set their eyes on them. in a moment, all became restive, they wanted to hear from the suitor not only about what that had brought about his disappearance in the morning but also why his people who had accompanied him there had been in such an aggressive mood. The mother of the suitor was the first to talk, ‘so you people are still here lamenting your failure in your evil plan against my son? The average old woman shouted and became more nervous, fidgeting in the front of all in the meeting. She added, ‘Because your family is too poor, you want to use my son to make money. I can’t blame you much but my son, because I have warned him before to stay in our land and marry and not to come here and marry the daughter of a notorious witch like you,’ she directed this saying to the mother of the fiancée of her son ‘How could you talk like that woman?’ the mother of the betrothed girl retorted her in a great furry and rose straight to her feet to continue with her castigation. But the elder of the family restrained her. They calmed her not to take it hot. ‘what do you think you have to say that can justify you?’ the mother of the suitor said again still in anger.’ ‘This is the evidence here in hand’, she brought the white bedspread stained all over with blood from where she folded it under her armpit and spread it wide in the open air, showing it to everyone on seat, ‘is this not the white cloth you spread on your bed for my son to lay on it?’ And in the mid night, you used your witchcraft to command out of his body, this portion of blood on the bedspread with the hope that before it was dawn proper, you would have used your same witchcraft to collect away the stained white cloth from under him in his unconsciousness and afterward go your way to sell it to your people who need the blood of human to make money through the forces of the darkness or the immoral politicians who want to win election with all power. Thank God and my ancestors that woke him earlier that you do and saw it before you could come around to finish your evil work on him. ‘Woman!’ the oldest man in the gathering called, ‘truly we are poor in our family just as many other families in our land are. That our whole lands are in poverty, it is never fresh news. It’s a phenomenal caused by our bad rulers, we all know this and that is why we curse them every day while we pray for the land itself and the few good ones among the multitude that rule us. But I can assure you that our own family is not evil because we are lacking. Any one of us who happens to be the member is not among those ones among the people of our land who believe in drawing out human blood with fetish power to do spiritual medicine in order to make money’, the man ended

Each of the elders on their seat spoke on one thing and another to see they placate the wrath in the suitor, the mother and his two younger brothers but they couldn’t really achieve this. The white cloth was so stained with blood that one could hardly believe it was mosquitoes that could be responsible for it. ‘Imaging this again Kaka’, the brother of kaka said as he finished narrating this story. ‘You can see what our government are doing us? Is it not our men of God that would tell us that what God has joined together no man should put asunder? This is what God has almost finished joining together; can you see how our government has put asunder to it? They make us live in endless scourge of poverty. We suffer many things every day, both believable ones and unbelievable ones. Mosquitoes bite us too much because our environments are too poor. No impressive development. From there too we contact cholera, tuberculosis and many nameless deadly diseases. We find it difficult to get over all this because we don’t have better place to leave than this squalor our government have abandoned us in. what we are naturally endowed with we still suffer them. Through our God-given resources, we make millions of dollars everyday, yet we common people find it difficult to feed our family with just one dollar per day. What a shameful world!! ‘Look at this young suitor, things was so hard for him that day and he slept in the night and could not know when those dangerous mosquitoes that full our land were biting on him. But only woke up when it was dawn to think it was the witches alone that could do such an havoc. ‘The man that loved his fiancée like that, who could believe it’s the mosquitoes that would separate them in life? If he does not love his wife, would he not postpone the visitation till further notice instead of facing such an agony of trekking such a long mile as there was no vehicle plying the roads that day out of strike action caused by hike in fuel price induced the government irrational decision. Kaka and his brother wished they could talk through out the night till daybreak but that wasn’t so possible as the weather was continually becoming unbearable. The cloister of the mosquitoes outside was become more terrorising to their skins. Kaka brother had even gone tired of waving his broom round his body to chase them away every now and then. It was also becoming too cold outside, so the two left for inside. At the depth of the night, the weather was gradually becoming chill as the night breeze blowing so cool increased greatly. And the sky had begun to loose its beauty to the action of the moving cloud that had just covered up the bright moon and the galaxy through which it looked charming at the night. Everyone outside their compound had gone inside to rest their body for the night. It seemed it was going to rain. People buried themselves in their beds with peaceful hearts. It was really a very few of them that was afraid of the warning rain just because a great change had taken over across the land under the auspices of colonel k. for many of the houses now in kajore were strong enough to resist any kind of forceful pour of a torrent rain. The conversion of the old houses to the modern day own and the construction of the new solid ones sponsored by the colonel in the moment he return had helped the matter. The breeze continued to blow heavily across every direction as the rain prepared itself in the sky. Everywhere was starkly dark and engulfed with silence, which was occasionally broken by the sound of the strike of the wind on the trees and metallic items in the atmosphere including the chirrups of the insects and bird from the nearby bushes? This was how everything was until some moment later; around 4am precisely when a sudden shout shook the little world. The shout was repeated simultaneously. Kaka who was just swimming down into the sweet sleep in the

somnolent weather of the night rolled his body about on his bed until the thrilling shout sounded again the third time. His ear had really felt it now. He rose with little unrest in his mind, thinking the crazy wind had pulled down one of the houses somewhere down the street. Eventually, he moved out as the frightful shout continued. His elder brother followed him having also forced out of the sleep. Others rushed out of their own compound too to know what was amiss. It was a great melancholy and everyone of them in anxiety headed for the source. And as they arrived at a close proximity they saw fire in action and not even the wind which was the harbinger of the coming rain. In full force crafted by massive sympathy, every one dispersed, running helterskelter, jumping in and out of their houses to bring out any available water to pour on the great inferno. And it was amid of this effort that they learnt again of another outbreak of fire in another building of some distance away at the west side. Some other set of people had already gathered there, striving in tension to quell it and more people join them. Every houses around was drained of its water and much was rushed to fetch in from the nearby boreholes but upon all, the fire could not bee put out at both side of the incident. It rather burned as if it wouldn’t stop till eternity. The cold sky itself felt it up there. It burnt greatly as if the two houses had been for decades saturated in fuel. At a point, the uproar developed to a climax and dreadful weeping bestir. While the men were still moving in full force of panic to put out the fire as they brought in one thing and another, the women folk had gone tired. They could no longer bear what there eyes were just seeing thus they failed in strength and were seen in the reflection of the yellow light gathered at close distance, biting on their fingers and some were seen beating on their breasts and hitting their toes out of the pain of the heart to the parch grand. Since the fire had began no soul had been able to rescue out. The too much of the shout of orooooo! And ikunle abiyamooo! Woke up more children from inside and developed great fear in their hearts. They gathered in distance watching their parent in great trepidation as they still hustled to conquer the inferno. The woman yet drowning in sorrow looked up to the sky in single and pairs, calling and begging Olodumare to allow the gathered rain in the face of heaven to break upon the earth and consume the fire. But upon all, the inferno gone down flatly only when it had absolutely wrecked his anger. Everything was gut to ashes except the wall. It was sorrowful day again to the people of kajore and the rest of the five villages in the local government. Some of them said mr tuned who was the fresh senatorial candidate of the MOM party had been fortunate to narrowly escape the fire by running away to an unknown place before the group of miscreant that thrown fire on his building arrived. While others said, he had been burnt with his wife and the three children in the fire. In the case of the other house that was also burn, which was that of the acting DG to the white vision farm, no argument was generated. It was obviously known by the sympathisers that the he had been burnt to ashes, together with his wife and his only daughter. Everyone, even some of the children knew this havoc was the handiwork of the oppositional party or Bawon himself who was the godfather of the party. They suspected he was the one who must have sent these trained hoodlums to condemn these two personnel. He had seen them and their recent move as great menace to his ambition. He had keenly wanted his party win the closed election but was full of

doubt as colonel k and his men had changed the situation of things in the land from what it used to be. The senses and sights of the people had been unveiled, so they had now known which way they go and which way not to go. Their living standard rose up, so they were no more move to go for any food of deceit they used to obtain from the politicians. Their interest was no more in the party which ulterior motive was to use them win power and later dump them again into poverty. Consequently, this had made Bawon and his party failed in all the three campaigns and rally they had recently staged. The people had refused to give abundance to the party however, except the few people who were the member and immoral people in the society dominated these ones. A meeting was immediately convened as soon as the light of the day took over the night. Balogun was the first to stand to address all the wounded hearts that gathered with his sad face and a solemn voice. ‘Let us not see this as a lost but a challenge. My people let us begin to take our solace from that promise land we know we would reach one day. I believe we will surely get there one day so soon if we would persevere on and cooperate with our canny politicians who have been taking the lead. ‘We should not retreat nor surrender. It’s unfortunate that we are missing our great ones; the skilful navigator who have been leading us along to the new world where there will be good government, peace of all kind, love, free of political, religion and ethnic crisis, assassination, electoral and examination malpractice. Let us not be discouraged from fighting forward but be ready to shed our last blood to fight on the battle. It’s a battle of our freedom. We must be liberated from bad government’ handicap type of democracy. We must join the other part of the world like the Europe, America, and Asia where they practice ‘Able democracy’. It is bad the governments that do come into existence through the handicap democracy that has put us in poverty’. Balogun spoke at a great length and paused for some other chiefs to contribute. The king was the one who eventually rounded off everything. All spoke in the manner of Balogun, striking on many points. Immediately the people were discharged, the king together with chives held a special meeting with the MOM party officials again. They first discoursed on what to do as a tribute to their lost ones and planned to still hold another meeting after the rescue team must had finished working on the burnt houses. They were to thoroughly combed the in and out of the house to see if they could be able to pick up even the slightest remains of the burnt ones or any of their valuables or something with which they could traced the perpetrators of the evil. Though the case had been reported to the police since it had occurred, still they were on their way. Another crucial discursion at the meeting was on all the motives why the party officials shouldn’t loose their courage of pressing forward. The king and all the chiefs still promised them their supports. And told them afterward to see they never leave the space left by the demise of mr tuned to continue to empty. That they should appoint someone else to occupy it. But none them shown interest in this part of the matter. All was afraid. Emerging as candidates representing the constituency in the national assembly had resulted in the claiming of two lives, so no one wanted to be the next victim. Mr Vincent who was the chairmanship candidate of the party wasn’t around on this day of the incident. He had gone to the city on some personal assignment, so no one knew heather he would pronounced his withdrawer when he would return to hear the horrific news of the incident or he wood continue. All the

elders had thought this way and they had determined to see that they hold him strong to their interest with their powerful words should he attempted to take such a decision. When it was the following day, the situation of things became too awful in the sight of the elders. News reached to them that many of the personalities they had spoken to in the previous meeting had left the land to seek asylum in far places without their awareness. Among them were about seven first class managers from the different sectors of the white vision farm and some of the MOM party officials. Mrs Rose had left too. They were forced to leave by the fear of being the next causality. As things had gone this way, the earls then saw urgent need to no longer keep the entire calamity befalling the land away from the hearing of colonel k in the prison. They had initially resolved not to pass across to him any news that could add to his sorrow for the golden sake of his health. Chapter 15 Inside the cell in the prison yard, the news of the sudden demise of Mr Ade, struck colonel k dead in his heart. He was hearing it for the first time since it had happened. He remained startled over a long while looking so morose. His lips juddering while he released inaudible words from his painful heart. At a point, as he could not still regain himself, little fear creped into the hearts of some of his close companions among the inmates in the cell. It was the fear that perhaps something mysterious to them had knocked him into derangement. They didn’t know what exactly the matter was but all they knew was that some ten minutes ago, one of the prison waders came to inform him that some three men from his village brought him messages and after that, the gate was opened for him and he was led to the prison reception office. As he returned, he entered back to the cell speechlessly with red eyes balls. And it was since then that the friends had been persuading him to at least tell them one or two things about what was behind his bitterness. But he wouldn’t utter any word but rather biting on his lips. In an enormous silence, the colonel thought of everything. He thought of the day he met with this man and how he was so highly enchanter with his humility, brilliance, foresightness and generosity. He had put him above all his other disciples upon these motive. And when it was after years of their rapport he had never regretted the act of been bestowed on him such an exultation, rather he had often thanked his God for allowing such a man to exist during his own generation. The colonel cogitated further and reached where he found himself sometimes ago in the front of the late one in his house where he had had discursion with him and which in the course he introduced him to politics. The colonel wept so much at this point of the bogus thought of his heart. He shed tears like those that a newborn baby would do as he remembered some of the statement made by the former DG against the motion on that day. He recollected he had him saying, ‘ Africa politics is currently characterised with the act of shedding blood, electoral malpractice, and judiciary misinterpretation, so good people don’t want to put their heads into it but only the heartless ones’ The colonel heard him again saying, ‘my wife and my children are still very young, so I don’t want to die now because if I do, they will suffer, as the attempt of going to politics in this land wouldn’t fetch any God fearing man like me anything

good but bankruptcy or untimely death. For it’s the crook ones that are still having the upper hand currently in Africa politics’. The colonel went deeper in his thought. He again how strong the late former DG had attempted repudiating his persuasion on the same issue of participating in politics through which he expected him to secure the sword with which to fight for his poor people and liberate them from bad government. And also, how he had eventually used the word of God to incapacitate him totally from furthering his obduracy. He remembered telling him, ‘the bible says love your neighbour as you love yourself. If you are refusing to go into politics where you will be chanced to represent and help your people because you desire to retain peace and comfort for your life, that means you have loved your self than your neighbour which is a sin’ As the colonel said this day, he remembered the answer he was later given by the late former DG. He heard him that, his involvement in politics which could result to losing his life is an act of loving his people than himself and which was subsequently contradicting to the word of the bible which speak on the equality of love . he then remembered how he himself had in the course of time subjugated the obduracy.. he remembered himself saying to him who was the late DG that ‘if you can even love your neighbour than yourself, that one has the greater reward in heaven. At the juncture again, the colonel began sobbing bitterly. Would it be he had pushed this man to untimely death? How will his beautiful young wife and his two kids know any longer the rear joy of life been derived only from a good husband or a father? What is it that would be the state of the mind of this fellow wherever his spirit reposes today? Would he not have started cursing or blaming him for pressurising him into what his soul had greatly detested and which had eventually led to his untimely death now? these were all that griped his heart. As long as the colonel proceeded in the sorrowful rumination, so was his soul was becoming depressed in anxiety. He at a point widening the horizon of his thinking and generalising it on Africa as a whole. When shall Africa be free of falling and stumbling politically and economically? When shall the Africans stop killing one another to get what they want? Would this going to be possible at all one day or it would remain this way until eternity? He asked himself more than millions times and could not find answer to one. All this lasted for many minuets. He then deviated and used another thirty minutes or thereabout to lament the fire incident in which they said mr Tunde, the political successor of mr Ade and mr. James the new acting DG of the white vision farm lost their lives, families and properties. He bit more keenly on his damped lips. ‘This kind of thing is a very bad omen to the growth of Africa’, he said then added, ‘why should we blacks persist in subjecting one another to brutal killing and vicious attack like the beasts just because of politics, diversity of religion, ethnic group and languages’ But as the colonel sensed that if he should proceed with this bogus thinking, days would pass days and he would not reach a better end, thus he suspended it all and resolved to quickly act on the last part of the message which was brought to him this very morning by those three men from his village. The elders of the land had also sent them to inform him about the sudden caprice that had emerged at the white vision farm, which had been for long remained as the financial strength of the whole local government. They had told him about some numbers of the managers in some sectors of the industry who had just ran away for their dear lives. They told him how the vacuums they had left behind had instantly heaped might blows on the smooth running of the industry and how it had consequently coercing the whole land into an

economic recession. They mainly emphasized on that which the demise of the acting DG had caused. The colonel breathed deep down as he thought of what to do. But at the end, as he couldn’t discover in his heart the one who possessed the qualification required of directing such a huge industry, he resolved to send for Supo, the younger brother of mr Ade who had sometime ago banished himself from this part of the world since he had receive bitter humiliation from one of his old student who was also his old teacher in his secondary school days. The few ones that were educated in the land whom he could have elevated or put to that post had all ran away to hide their heads from death in far away lands, so he had no option than to work out quick return of Supo to the land to avoid the collapse of the industry that stood as the strength of the six villages. The wife of the late mr Ade was still passing her opo days or rites ,so she could’t leave her husband’s premises to anywhere until the one year period lapses. In Yoruba land a woman who lost her husband must stay indoor for the period of twelve months. Because of this, the colonel couldn’t ask her to go out of the land to the city for the hunt of Supo. But from the prison yard, he sent message to the elders and in acting to the content of the message, they sent two men to the poor widow to help in given details of where and how Supo could be traced out in the city where he was staying as she was the one in the best position to know his whereabouts. ********************************** The day Supo was planning his return to his father’s land his heart was loaded of many things. The day was the third day the two men sent to him reached him. Though they sweat before they could find him out, yet they didn’t exceed the number of days given to them to do the assignment. The colonel had given them forty-eight hours and paid them 2,500 naira per hour and they had spent thirty-nine hours. One of those things that occupied the heart of Supo as he was entering the village was the thought of the shame he had received from mr Ajadi Bakare in his first appearance in his first class in the course of his lecturing career and which was what upon he had quitted the land to return again now on another special call. It was a public assault, thus now that he had come back, he would do every possible thing to wash himself clean of such a filth. In the coursed of this bogus thought, he searched for what exactly had given room for such filth to be poured on him and later concluded that it was because he had brought himself somehow equal if not low to those under his teaching. Should not, none of them, whether old or young would have the temerity to give him such an open assault. Hence, now that something higher had triggered off his return again he would go perfectly by his worth and not even a little below it at any occasion. Indeed, he was so much elated about the sector he had now been posted to head over. It was the most powerful sector responsible for the growth of the land. Infact, it was the strength of the whole six villages in the term of finance. He would be the DG of this pull of money and no more a part time lecturer that lived alone by the monthly salary. Before Supo made for Kajore, where the headquarter of the industry was, he had already been to colonel k in the prison base on the directive the colonel had given to him through the men whom he had chosen to search for him in the city. And he had also reached to Mrs. Rose where she had quitted Kajore to stay in the city. He had been to her as the colonel had directed him in order to obtain some tip-off and documents based on the white vision farm, which would actually be useful to navigate further, from the juncture that the DG had rode it reach. As Supo arrived the land this very morning and in the moment, the elders knew it, they sent for him in the palace and they altogether with the king held meeting

with him. Though the meeting was such a brief one so that he could be given his time to begin his work fast enough; for the industry had really suffered much of administrative care, yet they made their points. The most important one out of the points was his need to be sensitive to any o sudden advance of the foes and how he would go about his protection having, they helped him to point to the foes. Another one was a plea. They had implored him to see that he acted very well to restrain the possibility of the downfall of the industry, as it was the financial strength of the entire land. And keenly entreated him as well to continue with all the best effort the late DG had been exhibiting in the sponsoring of the new party of the people. They had also made him to know how important was the party to them. ‘Aside of God who is the ultimate, that party you see so is our last hope. It’s that ship built for us all by our son, Kolawole the noble colonel and through which we hope to sail to our promise land. Give it what it require to ferry us reach the promise land’, said by Balogun Sola listened to the elders very well, vowed to them of doing his best, and thereafter left the palace to begin his work very well that morning. As this news went round the villages, peace and optimism began restoring to the heart of the people but many of them called it oluodan or a mushroom type of peace. It had always grew fast to vanish fast in the case of their land. They had never experienced a permanent or a long-term kind of peace over ages. The elders kept on with their constant meeting at the palace after this very one. They deliberated on issues and sought ways by which shame wouldn’t at the end of everything be their portion. And there were two specific things that were always noted in the mood of virtually all the elders each time their discursion reached the point of deliberating on what was going to be the scenario of the white vision farm now that its administration had been put in the care of supo. These were joy and confidence. They had transferred the love, confidence and hope, which they had, for his brother to him. They believe that so far he was the blood brother to the late DG he would share the same innate of birth with him and posses the same spirit of good conduct. Balogun was the only one among the elders who stood against this belief. In the years past, he was privileged by one way or the other to have an encounter with one or two things that had made him had series of brief association with the family of Ogunlana James, who was the father of Supo. Balogun knew much of his background. Though he hailed from a good family, yet he was not a serious student in his school days. He was one of those kinds of students who pretend to be serious but who were not. They were the ones who would use money to hire machinery in order to pass exams or bribe teachers, lecturers or examination supervisors to get good result. As far as Balogun was concern, these kinds of students were the onse who would in future grow to become miscreants to their country. They are the one who would rise to become bad and corrupt managers, directors of companies and institutions. And ministers who are so fearless at embezzling money and collection and given of bribe. They lack good administrative deftness but pretend to posses it. They were also the ones who would grow to become the bad ones among the politicians in the country and if they eventually emerged as whether state governors, president, or senators, they deliver not good service to their people as a result of sound morality of all kind, which do not follow them right from their youthful time. *********************************

According to the saying of the great Yorubas in the sought west of Nigeria, ‘attitude is very much like a smoke’. No matter how much it s covered, it will in the course of time expose itself outside. When it was exactly two weeks that supo assumed the office, he carried out a policy that virtually crippled the normal sense of thinking of the elders toward him. He had waked up at the fortnight dawn to declare the retrenchment of three hundred workers at the junior level in the white vision farm. About two hundred of them were from the cattle farm and the cocoa production and packaging firm at kajore village itself while the remaining hundred were the ones from the rice-packaging firm and that of the palm oil production at Arin Odo and Oloba villages respectively. At Kajore village, more than the half of the two hundred affected workers there happened to be the former area boys from the popular bus station and the street corners around the villages who were once bandits and drug traffickers. When the elders heard this, they knew it was a menace to the smooth running of the restoration of moral growth of the land. For the bus station and the villages streets had began again filling up with jobless boys and girls whom starvation or poor living standard had moulded to something that were often fearless of tapping the daily bread in violence; even the kind that involve the shedding of blood. At the following day, urgent meeting was called by them all and presided over by the king. Supo was made to appear in it and he was asked to account for his action. And by the time he opened his mouth and said about three or four words, the ire in the heart of virtually all the chiefs was able to be pacified. He had respectively gave his reason for the action and promised to sort out the matter in a day not that long. He told the elders that due to the encumbrance that the running of the administrative of the industry encountered in the past few days, as a result of the sudden demise of the former DG and the running away of some seven managers, the organisation had run shortage of huge amount of money. He further told them that in such situation, if he resolved to go otherwise of his action of retrenching workers, there would be a slight fall in the production capability of the industry and that would cause more sinking down of the industry rather than its floating up. Supo said everything and promised that after some couples of week, when he would have settled proper and rode the organization into recovering of all the lost, the affected workers would be called back and cheered up with some compensation which he said he himself hadn’t known yet but until after the seat of the board of the organisation. This very day, at the end of the meeting, Supo body could not contain the portion of the blessing the elders in their overwhelming elation poured on him. They were so pleasing with what he said to the degree that every one of them blissfully said one or two prayers into his life wholeheartedly. But things didn’t go the way they had expected when some months passed and there was no sign he was going to bring his vow to fulfilment rather, there was a wide spread news that the acting DG had been planning fresh retrenchment in the industry. This news was not as frightening to the elders as the rumour that followed it. It had gone round the six villages especially in Kajore that sola was seen more than one occasion seeing off some four men out of his office. These were men they said had been paying him regular visits since after the celebration of his hundred days in the office. Those four men were said to be some of the first class people in the compound of Bawon, the political warrior in the land. One of them was his P.S and

another one was a son to him while the remaining two were the head of the hooliganism force in his colossal compound. Upon these two sets of rumour, the elders again convened another special meeting, which presented Supo. Supo, when put in question, shed light on the veracity of the rumour. At first, he them told it was true that he had already planned to give his fresh edict on the retrenchment of another numbers of workers. And that this time around it was going to be five hundred of them. It was going to by now include workers in the milk-extracting firm and that of the cassava processing at OkeGbaguda and Kajore. Sola gave the usual reason for his action and that greatly poured sorrow into the hearts of all the earls, as they couldn’t find any point, way, or authority with which to hold him down from carrying out the action, which they saw to be too malevolent. And when it reached the turn to speak on the second rumour, Supo told the elders it was on business deal that those four men claimed seen with him in his office had came for. The excuse was so irritation in the ears of the elders. Thus, Balogun opened his mouth in his sad mood to speak on it. ‘But we have told you these people you mingle with in the name of business are dangerous people. They are the enemies of our land they can never deny not having hands in the death of your brother’, every one of the elders nodded at this statement of Balogun for support, as they longed to hear what supo would now give as a response. Sola rose to his feet again and said, ‘I’m sorry to say this to you elders, but I must say it so that you understand me well. I’m a university gradate and own master’s degree, so, I see no reason why I wont be sensible enough when it comes a matter of administrating. This is a business entity I have come to govern and not political entity where obvious enemies and those ones in dissimulation abound. If you haven’t known before let me tell you now, that the number one world where enemy is not count or give recognition is the business world. when you are doing business, if your worst enemy comes around you, you don’t need to ask him to go provided he does no come to buy from you with empty handed. For if you do so, then you are not business – wise. it’s to make your money that you should be after and not personality of the customer’ ‘You talk as if you’ve been to this world before us,’ Balogun cut in . You might have gone to school to learn many things of wisdom but what age, experience and personal research have taught us out passes all you’ve gone to learn. Let me tell you this case, a young lady one day return to her parents in the village to break the news of her scholarship award. Because she was so brilliant, she excelled as the best graduate of economics in her university that year and she was to be sponsored by the state government abroad for her postgraduate study. As she returned this day to her parents to cast to them this beautiful news she met the mother alone at home and she was afterward told that the father who was a poor farmer had gone to his farm as usual. while tarrying for the return of the father, her mother and some of her nearby friends who had heard about the news began to celebrate with her. Each of them in their individual husband’s house went into the kitchen and quickly prepared beautiful dishes and brought it one after another. Each of them ate and danced with the brilliant girl, who was the daughter of their friend in an enormous joy. ‘But after some minutes, this girl began to complain of belly ache. As much as all in the house ran helter-skelter to bring one thing and another with which to stop the

bellyache so was it aggravated. It was so amazing to the crowd of sympathisers, as they watched in great trepidation the most brilliant girl in their land inside the flood of tears on the grand rolling like a pig in the pool of mire. their expectation was that upon all the plenty of books they had been told this girl had studied, she should be able to know at least one little thing she could do to relief herself from this manner of ailment which had thrown her down like a pig. ‘The situation persisted until her father hurried inside having been sent for in the farm. And once he saw how worst was the state of the daughter , he jumped back into the bush and in all anxiety, hurriedly searched out two certain different plants and cut their leaves as much as he thought was okay. Having rushed back home, he washed them clean in water and grounded them until it turned liquid and was given in cup to the daughter. Almost immediately, the bellyache disappeared and there was a sweet talk again in the mouth of the celebrant. ‘My people, this is how the old, illiterate farmer saved the life of the most brilliant girl whom they said had carried the knowledge off all books in her head. That is what age experience and personal research had thought this old pauper. Balogun turned face to Supo again, ‘my son, knowledge has no limitation in life. No one can know it all but the wise ones learn it everyday and know it much more. My son, when it comes a matter of adversary, strategy and defence I’m not a novice in that area even as I didn’t go pass elementary school. My title is Balogun, the warlord of this land of Kajore. And I had fought in many battles and did not only conquer but gather plenty of experience. ‘enemy can penetrate into you through any channel, even through your wife, children, parents and any other kin not to talk of your work or business. You will only see them approaching as good companions or customers.’ This meeting, which lasted for many minutes, ended up leaving Supo insisting that he would never embrace any act of discrimination in his administration. Backing up his point by saying again that while the political world was that which enemies abound, business world is free of one. And at this statement, all the elders though were not contented chose nothing else than to still promise him more of their cooperation, so as to foster the unity of the people in working out more move to their promised land. As at when it was one-week interval, Supo released an edict on the second round of the retrenchment plot. This was no more new to the elders as it had already been heard of and discussed by them. But a certain rumour that came after it and one particular thing they had just noticed in the fresh situation of the land or in how things were going on in the land put them in some degree of anxiety. A rumour had gone round that Supo was no more only receiving the men from Bawon’s compound into his office but that he had also been seen paying constant visit to the compound of this notorious man. And the thing which was noticed by the elders in the fresh situation of the land was that, as much as the retrenchment exercise was repeated so was the Great People Party (GPP) gained more members and supporters. People who had lost their jobs especially the youths and who could no longer endure the starvation that followed it had gone to join the party. They knew this was where the members had access to the collection of tokens money and food stuffs for relieving themselves of pains pending the election’s day. Subsequently, as much as the G.P.P party waxed stronger so was the MOM suffered great decline. It had suffered finance and the lost of members and brilliants navigators.

Supo would always complain each time he was questioned by the elders about the fresh problem, that the white vision farm had gone greatly sick as a result of the same brief instability that occurred in the area of its administration before he took over in the past. And that once he had assumed the mantle of its leadership, the sickness had been put going through treatment, and, thus, no new thing could by the present time done but until it become heal again. ‘Please, let us begin to pray for its quick recovery. There is nothing we can do than that for now’. Supo would often say in the front of the elders. He had even seized many occasions as well to allege those managers that ran away from their offices of carting away huge some of money and that, this was one of the factors resulted to the malady. The situation of things got exacerbated for the entire people of the land rather than ameliorating, as at when the stay of Supo reached six months old. Two months before this time, he had stopped given the weekly grants be made available to all the earls of he land and the aged farmers who had been made to go on retirement by the colonel himself at the inception of the white vision farm, including all the royalties the farmers were due for. Poverty, which had actually faced the pressure of defeat in the time past, had gagged up again in strength. It had begun again to move in a full fresh force throughout the six villages. And the people were no more acting under one voice. Every one had began to be seen going in different directions with hearts full of worry to indulge in one thing and another: whether polite or not but just to gain access to that which could prevent them from being the next victim of death of starvation and poor health. The elders had conducted countless series of meeting that present virtually all the people from the whole six village until they were tired. They had wanted to maintain all the good standard and conduct of life, which colonel k had laboured tough to work out for them from the moment he returned to the land from the city, but the people would no longer listen to them especially the youths. The land had actually returned to its former state. Human traffickers had been moving in again in mass and parent had began given their children to them in order to get money to buy what to eat and wear. In the street, cases of mugging had aroused greatly afresh. And many jobless young men had filled in every space. And they were very much available for the drug barons who used them to ferry drug abroad. The exportation of girls for prostitution had kicked off again as well. It was a sad thing to the elders and a very harrowing experience. Balogun wept inside his room in the mid of night. He new it was going to be too tough for all of them in the land if the awful situation persisted. And he thought of everything from which solution to it could be plugged but this kept him round the clock without a vibrant result. As the land of kajore and the rest five villages had been now counting months in their state of agony, the election’ day drew so nearer. The GPP party rose high continually in achieving its goals while the MOM party seemed no more encouraging to the supporters to go on with. Its rapid movement had actually been crippled down by a great financial constraint that befell it and the fear of death by many of the official. And there was again a very wide spread rumour that the money that was to be spent on the party through the white vision farm was the one manifesting on the oppositional party. They said Supo, the acting DG of this farm had been secretly pumping money into the GPP party because he had been promised by Jide, the son of Bawon, who was contesting under the party as a senator in the national house of

assembly. They said he had told Supo that once he won his election and once he assume office; he would give fifteen million naira to him. And that he would never cease from doing this until he had also repeated it for three times at a short intervals. He had also promised him of many contract award opportunities. Time walked very fast and left the MOM party and its members behind. Infact, it was giant stride that time had taken while the party crawled behind it since the death of mr Tunde who was the successor of mr Ade. The party officials had been unable to find the one who would filled the vacuum. No one wanted to be the next death victim. It was in the process of striving to get this sorted out that the registration of the candidates of all registered party in the nation was ended. Thus with the name they were able to submit to the electoral board, they were only having the chance to go for the chairmanship election. Mr Wale Vincent, who was the chairmanship candidate, was still very much alive and healthy. And so was the young man who was contesting for the counsellorship. But people had always been seen saying it around that, had it been these two candidates hadn’t been instructed by the elders to go and hide somewhere in a far away land while the campaign continue on their behalf, they would have been dead too by now except if they too had gone to do as many of the ruthless politicians in the country would always do. Many of these politicians would have gone before the election to the spiritualists to do spiritual medicine or the amulet and charm through which they turn their bodies impenetrable to bullets and sharp objects. They would also recruit thugs or area boys whom they use to declare vicious attack on the opponents and also as guards for themselves. As the inability to produce the one to fill in to the space of the senatorial candidate of the MOM party became a great lost to its supporters so was how it was other way round a welcome development to the GPP party. Bawon and the rest of his people under the party celebrated it more than two occasions. So, when the senatorial and representative election remain few days, all the members and the supporters of the GPP party had their hearts free of anxieties. They knew that, as far as the constituency was concern, they had taken the victory already, as there would be no candidate from the other party contesting them. Thus, there was less preparation among the boys in the Bawon’s hooliganism force toward the election day. They had rather used their time anticipating the victory. And when the day eventually arrived their party won colourfully. The day was a sorrowful day to all the serious ones in kajore. A lot of them wept and shed tears as if the gland responsible for it had busted and they began to pray for the quick release of colonel k. many of them had always been seen saying it around that if he hadn’t been taken away from them things wouldn’t have gone this way. Chapter 16 Colonel k had been busy struggling for his release from the detention all the long while. He had really invested much of his personal efforts in this and also used his lawyers greatly on the other hand but indication had always come to him that there were the hands of some strong men in the society in the matter. He too was a man who knew people in power, but he had always liked to follow due process in everything he would do, for he was one of the few men in the land who would not debase the rule of law. Most importantly, he loathe the habit of given out bribe or collecting it. In the court of law, the D.P.O of the ;police station in Kajore, who issued his arrest warrant on the murder charge had written and even appeared more than three

time before the judge to plead that the case should be adjourn with excuse that the police hadn’t completed their investigation on the matter. Colonel k knew this action was a trick to whirl abuse him of his time. At a point in time, as much as the news of all the evil happening in his land began to reach him greatly, anxiety began to make him falling ill everyday. And when his lawyers sense that, they urged him to change his mind and use his personality to look for the eminent in the society who would come to his aid on a plane grand and work on his bail so as to ease the matter. Without any delay of time, the colonel yielded to the admonition. The group of lawyers took new steps. They provided every document necessary for the petition concerning the release of the colonel and forwarded it to the court of law. In the course of this, they got to see the good face of God. Colonel k attributed it to the ever-long supplication of his people in his village to their God; for this was the court where his bail had been once rejected more than three times since the case had began. *************************** The second return of the colonel to his people was very much glamorous than the first one. It significance arouse great interest among them. And once he appeared and they got to set their eyes on him indeed, absolute bliss engulfed them all. It was like a dream to them as they never hoped they could ever set their eyes on him at this period of time that they had almost not knew hope in life again as a result of the protracted delay of his release. People ran in uncontrollable ecstasy, throwing themselves on him. Children who were on errand flee home halfway to break the news to their parents. All works and involvement were all abandon. The market women in the land poured out in mass to join with others in the mood of welcoming him. Drums were also rolled out in numbers and were beaten melodiously. Kaka couldn’t control the amount of his excitement. He was absolutely mad joyfully. He threw himself flat onto the open ground, rolling round from one direction to the other. Infact, he happened to be blissful than description. And once he carried himself up, he skittered homeward so as to inform his wife of setting pots on fire. And having hurried her up enough, he moved to the backyard of his beautiful three-bed room flat and entered into the garden where he had livestock, especial goat and domestic birds. In the sane mood of joy, he took the fattest goat among the he-goats and slaughtered it. Kaka joined hand with his wife to make the cooking of pounded yam and egusi soup easier and faster. And once he had seen the dinning table was virtually set, he rushed out again to the spot at the entrance of the land to meet the colonel where he was still busy surrounded by the great crowd who had gathered to celebrate his release. Kaka whispered everything into the ear of the colonel as he forcefully broken through the teaming crowd to get to him. He did everything to see he persuade him to withdraw himself from the crowd and come with him to his abode where he would eat the delicious meal and has his relaxation of the day afterward. Before the colonel could yield to this, it took him some time. He would like not to disappoint his people who had greatly longed meeting him. Having addressed them in many ways, he followed kaka and they moved down to his house. yet two third of the crowd flocked with him but when they arrived at the façade of the beautiful building, they all tarried, engaging one another in discursion while the colonel with some four men that came along with him from the city went inside with Kaka. Most of the people in the crowd discussed this beautiful house that belong to

kaka, which was one time an eyesore and avoiding object to any man who desire a long life. Despite all the resistance of colonel k, still held him down in persuasion until he tarried with him all through the day in his house. He was so happy indeed to have him by his side. And he entertained him with many other guests with every manner of food and non alcoholic drinks. It was in his house that many special visitors who had heard about the colonel return came to great him that day. These ones included the king of kajore, the chiefs and some other monarchs and baales from the rest of the villages including their chiefs. When it was the second day, a special meeting was convened by the council of the elders of the whole villages. And the turnout was so impressive. It was none of its kind in the history of the local government. Because all had gone despondent of his return that had been too delayed, now that it had came to pass it moved everyone of them the way liquor would move its gluttonous drinkers. The return had fallen on the day that made two days before the chairmanship election would take place. Of all the elections, this very one was the most important one to all the people of the local government. Their land had greatly famished of basic infrastructures with which to foster their rapid success in their various endeavours. The two crucial issues discoursed this day in the meeting by the elders with the colonel was the arbitrary rein of Sola in the industrial sector of the local government including all the woes and dooms this had brought upon them all. Then they discoursed the death of the former senatorial flag bearer of the MOM party. This included the aftermath disorganization of the party and the financial crises, which resulted to the failure of the party at the recent national assembly election. And most importantly, they discoursed keenly how the wining of the closed election which was the chairmanship one must be secured for the party. At the end of all, when the talk of the day became the turn of the colonel, he stood to his feet to tell the elders what was his mind toward all they had spoken to him. He started from the ill manner reported against Supo. He said it was so shocking to him when he had it all in detail. And without any delay, the colonel told the elders he was ready to follow their interest in reacting to the matter concern. They had told him to sack Supo with immediate effect from the giant industry and should never spare him to leave with any modicum of luck. The colonel agreed indeed but entreated the elders and told them why he would only grant their request not until after two days. ‘Today is Friday while tomorrow is Saturday and which is the D-day. Thank God, I am here today. We are in our delicate moment now. As we have nothing much than twenty-four hours left, we have to maximise it as to plan all we could do so as to succeed in tomorrow election. This is our own chance. We must see that we do not miss it otherwise we are hauled back to our former state where many of us had died before their time’. At the end of the declaration, all the elders agreed with him. His word had made them not to be totally carried away from placing their mind on the following day election. It was a very crucial election to the people. They were absolutely tired of backwardness in life. But by the grace of God, I will fire the gun on Monday morning. He will surely be sacked without any consideration’, this was the last word of the colonel on this segment of the meeting. After the first meeting held early in the morning by the council of the elders had ended, the officials of the MOM party were then allowed to mingle with all the

elders and were carried along by the colonel k in other series of meetings. Mr Vincent who was the chairmanship candidate contesting under the MOM party were still told to remain in his hide in the city until he would be declared winner after the election and provide with state security. When it was around 4pm that day, the whole meeting ended but the colonel went ahead to meet more people while all the elders and the party officials had gone to their difference ways to begin administering on everything been committed in the hand of individual of them in regard to achieving their success in the following day election. The colonel first met with all the village women especially the marketers. He thanked them for all their support and the perseverance they had exhibited during his detention. He later condemned those of them who had gone their ways to continue with the dirty habit of given out their children for money. This was the habit he had told them at his first return to throw far away and never go for it again. But they had failed to continue with doing so amid of his detention. ‘This is a shameful thing,’ the colonel said worryingly. ‘if at all our enemies here in this land which we all know as the bad politicians, have gone beyond this level in spoiling those things we ‘ve put together before, and which have been making our standard of living fair, that is not good excuse for you to go back to the bad thing or habit you ‘ve thrown away. Those of you who have done this are no better than the dogs. It’s dog that would vomit away and could still go back to it’. This meeting head with the entire mothers in the land took virtually an hour. And immediately it was over, that of the youths followed. Still in his sad mood, the colonel surveyed over the size of the numbers of the youths that present at this gathering where he stood at the corridor of the palace and became sadder. The size was far below what it used to be. He had learnt that many of the youths had run to the streets and had persistently fomenting trouble for a means of livelihood. They engaged in mugging, drug trafficking , prostitution, duping people especially the foreigners .the one that pain the colonel most was that plenty of them having sacked by supo from the farm industry, had now gone to volunteer themselves to be recruited to the hooliganism force of the ruthless politicians who had been preparing them for the election. And many of them again had gone to sign contract with the spiritualists who used them to kidnap people on their ways and who did carry them into the forest where they butcher them for sales to the evil doers which included many of the politician. The colonel thanked this few ones who had chosen not to go that evil ways as they gathered in his front. Colonel k eventually went to the bed very late in the night. He was so tired but felt unrest in his mind. After the whole meeting he had appeared in the daytime, he still had to accommodate the officials of the MOM party in his compound from the twilight till around 10pm in the night. This was when they took much of their time to set plans on issues pertaining to the following day election. At least two members had been chose to represent the party as of to witness the conduct of the election at each of the pooling station across the six villages. They were to send reports to the party they represent about the how far and well of the election. In the middle of the while on the bed, colonel k body thirst for great sleep but his spirit was so trouble. The night thus became too long in his sense. He wished it was already dawn and the election has conducted and his party has already secured victory. And this was how many of the villagers felt that night. At the dawn of the new day, both joy and tension surged through the heart of every man in the land. The election was so significant to all. It was the last hope of the

people since they had lost in the two previous elections. It was a bright mourning indeed. Every works and involvements were totally abandoned. And there was no smoke of fire for food. Every one has fixed him or herself up in one pooling station or the other based on their wards. The children or those ones under eighteen were the only ones seen at home engaging in one casual thing and the other. Colonel k had gone to cast his vote just the way the chiefs and the monarchs had done and had returned and started visiting one pooling station and another across the villages but what he had been seeing were not pleasing to him. Before the election, through the mass medial, the government had promised a free and fair election. He had promised the secrecy of the votes of the voters and their solid protection. The one he saw at the pooling station at Oloba village amazed him. He wondered how the government could behave like the unserious fellow who only love to make names through the act of deceiving people. At this pooling station, the colonel came to see people casting their votes in fear. He saw some guys who looked dangerous. They held in their hands, cutlass, axes and some other armful objects. They had already caste their own votes but still hung their , monitoring the voters as they were falling in to vote, and reflecting threat through their actions and words. Colonel k even saw one of them barking on one old man and an average woman as he sense they wanted to vote for one of the rival party to the party he had voted for. Colonel k saw a policeman standing in the midst of the voters. He was a sergeant. In his hand, there was a black batting and he pretended not to see these guys or he was moved at all by their actions. And after some minutes that colonel k had arrived to the spot, a land rover was seen in distance driving toward the pooling station. It was filled up with mobile police. They look so desperate of detecting any body with any ill manner that contradict the law that govern the election. The desperation too was reflecting in the driving style of the driver. In confidence, he moved the vehicle fast in the gallops and portholes. Infact, there was a force in his driving. As the sergeant saw them approaching, he quickly walked away from the midst of the voters and tried to intercept them. The mobile police were happy to meet him as they stopped in his front and in one word, they ask him if there is any problem they could help him to solve smartly, but with a cheerful mind and a smile on his face, he told them everything was okay. The vehicle drove off immediately and faced another direction. The mobile police in this vehicle were one of the external forces provide by the federal government to move from one area of the voting centres to another, checking crises and any action contradicting the rules of the conduct of the election. Colonel k was so sad at this but he still not understood what to do. He new this sergeant must had collected bribe to support this party those boys were supporting. However, he didn’t allow this to stop him from still moving round to the other centres. The election continued and the people cast their votes in one way or the other. Some cast theirs in peace while others cast theirs in fear, tension and sorrow. In a nut shell, no one among the supporters of the MOM party return to say he/she was please with what he/she had seen or experience in the day election. Colonel k moved round all over the villages to witness the election and return home later in the day worryingly his heart had been troubled with all the unwholesome things his eyes had seen in the day election. As he reached home, he became much more worried. He looked around him and there was no body to share this with in order to secure a little relief in his heart. His wife, Rose was still where

she had gone to hide herself in the city. Since her husband had return from the prison, she hadn’t leaved the city to meet him but talk did talk with him on phone. As his heart was still too heavy than what he could to cope with, the colonel resolved to walked down to the palace, where he will meet the king and they would both share the experience of the day. Colonel k didn’t feel like driving, he was so sorrowful than to handle anything. Thus, he checked out of his house and followed the road that lead to the palace. On the path, he thought of many things that kept him more serious. But as he was about to reach the middle of the road some images caught his sight he upright his head better and looked straight to the direction. He saw some men who walked so fast on the bushy part of the road. They were five in number and were moving as robbers who were trying to escape with some items they had just stolen. Colonel k had seen them before they even new he was passing. Having gazed on them keenly and knew it was ballot boxes they were escaping with, he moved faster to intercept them. ‘Stay there!’ he shouted and it was then they recognised his presence. But they never waited. They were desperate at disappearing. The colonel noticed this and rushed to them. He was able to hold down one of them. This one struggled with him as the rest kept some distance, threatening and challenging him to let their fellow go. But as they sensed the colonel mean to conquer them in this battle, the one that looked like their leader smartly deepen hand into his pocket and fetched out a pistol that he pointed at the colonel in his mood of anger. Immediately, he began firing at him and didn’t stop until the bullets were all off and they jumped back into the bush. Colonel k fell to the ground, holding his chest in pain. The sound of the gunshot caught the attentions of the villagers that dwelled around the vicinity. The courageous ones among them especially the hunters made for the spot in tension and there was a great shout when they knew who the victim was. Alarm was raised and more people raced to the spot. Balogun bit on his fingers in pain. Otun, the oldest man and chief in the land wept like a baby. The kind rushed there and virtually fell on his way. A great cold befell them all as they washed the colonel in the pull of blood on the ground. ‘Who could have done this to us’; Balogun sail tearfully as he went down on kneel to embrace the colonel on the ground. More fear griped the people. Since they had known Balogun in the land, this was the first time they saw him crying. Even when he lost his first son, he didn’t cry at all. Seeing him weeping now, they knew evil had indeed befallen them. As Balogun went down to pick up the colonel, the colonel held him in the arm wearily and began to mutter. ‘ I see those politicians, that great oppressors of the masses , rising to destruction in years to come, perishing by the retributive instruments which that God of mercy shall present to those children that will emerge in the coming generation. ‘I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and in their struggle to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. ‘I see the lives for which I lay down my life peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in this land which I shall see no more. ‘ I see the day when these trees you see in the road side and forests will be tired of drinking the blood of the innocents used for rituals, and in anger they shall uproot themselves one before another to fall on the passing vehicles of these bad rulers in our land and their convoy.

‘I see the day when absolute change shall return to Africa and the people will no longer value the spirit of religion than that of love. For love is what that God wants and not religion. ‘I see that day which is even already at hand, when the air shall be tire of containing those evil hearts that fly through it to hide our looted money abroad, and in anger it crushes them to death in dangerous wind’. The colonel paused and closed his eyes for eternity. The worst fear immediately befell the gathering. Balogun wept like a kid. He raised his head to his bosom, shaking his body as if to wake up. He thereafter carried his sodden face up toward the sky and from his painful heart shouting words in the air: ‘The evil sky has opened mouth! And the fiery stone of atrocity Has dropped out and hit upon our little world! Thus, our world has broken into pieces! What that holds us together has been smashed to no remedy Hence, sorrow has sent in again, anguish is back, And inequality has come! The gnashing of teeth has risen again! Oh, lord! Dear lord! For how long again, Shall we tarry to get another perfect dentist! The End.

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