“That is how I lost everything. Can you imagine that when the fire brigade finally got here, more than four hours after many calls were made, they said that they did not have any water in their tankers to put out the fire? What was the use of them coming if they did not have any water? What sort of a useless country do we live in ehn?”

“My brother, that is how they behave. This is exactly what happened to Chief Nwugo just six months ago. His whole soap making factory went up in smoke. The fire brigade did not even bother going there. They said that their engine had a problem. He had recently taken a huge loan from the bank to buy machines using his two houses as collateral. And you know all these greedy bank people, all they know is how to make money. They never want to hear any excuses o. they did not have any sympathy for the chief. They said he should have taken out proper insurance on the factory. Who in this country insures anything ehn? They did not waste any time. They repossessed his houses. That is how the Chief went from being a millionaire to being a pauper. Just like that. His Chi must have travelled on a journey on that day. Now people see him walking on the road talking to himself like a mad man and many of them do not understand what he has gone through. Where do you expect a man like that to start from? It is rumoured that his enemies had a hand in his misfortune. You will remember that he was competing with Chief Ezeani for that Ozo title. Not only that, but can you remember that last year he was dragging that big piece of land near the stream with Obinna Ezenwa?”

“Yes I remember. But that land had always been in the Ezenwa family for generations. Everyone knew that the land belonged to Obinna not Chief Nwugo.”

“Yes o my brother. We all knew it. But after Chief Nwugo had bribed all the elders, they said that the land belonged to him. You see how money can corrupt people. God only knows how many people he has oppressed with is wealth. I am sure that God was repaying him for his wicked ways when he sent fire to burn down his factory.”

“Are you now indirectly saying that I too am being repaid for my wickedness with the burning of my property?”

“Ah ah my brother, God forbid. How can I say a thing like that when I know how good you are to people? All I was saying is that sometimes when things like this happen, they are not all accidents or bad luck, some of them are the divine hand of Chineke God, visiting retribution on those who have been unjust and those who have used their wealth power and privilege to oppress others. That’s all I meant.”

“Okay, please don’t be angry. I am still touchy over the loss I suffered.”

“I understand my brother. This is the problem we all face. Practically all the infrastructure in the country do not work. Nobody cares about making things work in Nigeria. The people in charge of the various arms of government are only interested in how they can enrich themselves at the expense of the masses.”

“I know. There is corruption everywhere. Even a new born baby in this country starts to become corrupt from the day of its birth.”

“Hahaha, you are very funny my brother. But seriously, corruption can be said to be one of the national policies of this country. Can you imagine, over two months ago, armed robbers paid a visit to my neighbourhood. Thank God they did not touch my house o. But you need to see the way they operated; systematically. I swear, military operations would be envious of the way the robbers carried out their raid. There were over thirty of them, with guns and other weapons. Two of them even had that bazooka gun. You know the one they use to blow up things? They were totally prepared and though they moved from house to house with military precision, they did not even hurry at all. One would think they were not armed robbers but were they on legitimate business.”

“That is how they are nowadays. They act as if they are the owners of the land. It is even said that it is the police who supply them with all their weapons.”

“Eh-hen, is this true?”

“I don’t know whether it is true or not, but somebody somewhere must be supplying them with all these weapons.”

“You know, you may be right because if you see the way those robbers were behaving ehn, you would know that they had backing from somewhere. Do you know that when the robbers were busy operating many of us used our telephones to call the police but they did not come? Till today, they have not come and this is over two months later. I personally called them more than six times. I called the Rapid Response Squad many times too but Whosai, all they said was that one of their patrols would soon be on its way to us. If this is how long it takes a rapid response service to respond to emergencies, I wonder how long it will take the normal service.”

“So you mean nobody turned up?”

“My brother I swear, as Chineke God is my witness, nobody has come up till now that I am talking to you. It makes you wonder whether there was no collusion between the robbers and the police. On that night, Mazi Okoro’s son, Nnamdi managed to slip away for help. He ran all the way to this our Agogo police station to get help, wearing nothing but his short knickers. You would not believe that when he got there, the police station was empty.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes o, my brother. That is not even all. When the boy saw no one, he started crying for help in the station shouting ‘Police, police armed robbers are attacking us.’ You won’t believe that nobody came out for a few minutes. Later he heard somebody say ‘Na who be dat,’ but did not see anybody. When he heard the question again, he walked to where the voice was coming from and identified himself. It was only after he had given his name and address that he saw three police officers climb out from behind the hibiscus flowers that have grown thickly towards the front of the station.”

“Chei, you do not mean it.”

“My brother, I mean it o. can you imagine, people who are paid to guard and protect us, hiding like rats in the flower bed. To add insult upon injury, when Nnamdi begged them to come and see to the armed robbers, do you know what they said?”

“What?”

“They said that they could not leave their post. That their patrol van and officers were not around so nobody could come. When Nnamdi insisted that at least one of them followed him, they threatened that if he did not leave the station, they would put him in one of the station cells.”

“You are not serious.”

“My brother, I am very serious o. Nobody followed him back. When he even begged them to radio their patrol van while he was there, they told him that he could not teach them how to do their jobs. Nnamdi even said that as he was leaving they were saying that they could not come and die like fowl for one useless job. Can you just imagine that?”

“Things in this country have really turned bad. I’ve always said it that we were better off when the white man was leading us. At least in those days, things worked as they were supposed to. Look at the way we live nowadays, there is no light, no water. Our roads are in a deplorable state; do you know that just yesterday that local musician, Bobby Anochili died in a car accident when his car somersaulted, throwing him out of the windscreen after his tyre hit one massive pothole on the Lagos-Ore expressway.”

“Which Bobby Anotchili? Is it the Afro-Highlife maestro?”

“Of course, or do you know of any other Bobby Anotchili?”

“Heeyyy, Chineke God. And my wife really loves his music o. This is a big loss to us. His blood is on the hands of those contractors who were awarded the contract for repairing the road but who did nothing.”

“You cannot blame only the contractors. The truth is that there are some good contractors out there who are prepared to do a good job, but when they put in their tender for any job, they do not get it unless they are prepared to bribe the people who are awarding the contract. By the time all the people down the line has collected their own Egunje bribe, there is no money left from the advance fee to do a proper job. Even where the contractors use their own money to do a proper job, they are left roaming the corridors of the power that be waiting for their cheques to be processed.”

“My brother, the problem is that there is no accountability in this country. No system of checks and balances.”

“You are right. Also, the bureaucracy is just too much. I am saying it again, we are better off with the white man governing us. How many black African countries have you seen make a success of democracy? How many of them have no corruption? Just tell me.”

“My brother, I do not agree with you there. I think we are better off governing ourselves. When the white people were here, they constantly oppressed us. They felt they were better than us and treated us like barbarians. Their system of operation was one of double standards. One rule for them and another for us.”

“People like you always make me laugh. Every time, one person or the other comes up with how the white man stole from us, oppressed us or one thing or the other. Look around you. What do you call this? Is this not oppression? Look at how our leaders are eating all the money that is meant for us all. How can you explain that one person, just one person can embezzle billions of dollars because he is in office? Everyday, the few people in power are wining and dining, wearing expensive clothes, driving luxury cars while the rest of us starve. Look at Abacha, how can anyone explain that the man embezzled money that had been estimated to amount to about three million dollars for every day he was in office? What does anyone want to use that sort of money for? Even Bill Clinton did not earn a salary of three million per annum when he was the US president. I doubt his bare salary for the entire eight years he was in office was much more than the three million sef, that is if it even reached that figure. I am not talking of allowances o, just his salary. It is only a black man that would think of oppressing his fellow brother that bad. And while the evil genius was busy stacking all that money, he did not know that he was not going to spend most of it.”

“At least that was just embezzlement. He did not sell anyone into slavery.”

“What are you talking about? Just because they have not padlocked our mouths and put us in physical chains does not mean we have not been made slaves. Look at all the debt we owe the IMF and World Bank, it’s the kind of money that our children’s children would not be able to pay off. Look at the people in the Niger Delta, see how many of them live in abject squalor while their own leaders and our national leaders connive whilst lining their pockets with money that is meant for them. Many of them have been deprived of their means of livelihood as they are farmers or fishermen and all their farms, streams and river have been polluted by oil. Tell me, is that not a form of slavery?”

“You may have a point, but still those white people oppressed us badly.”

“Are you still on that point? Let me tell you, in the Abacha days, we all know that people disappeared and many were killed. Look at what happened to Dele Giwa in IBB’s time. Under Abacha, that Mustapha guy dealt with people ehn. Even school children were not exempt. Do you know how many student union leaders were picked up and tortured simply because they were against the government and its corrupt leaders? There are families who till today cannot account for some of their missing relatives.”

“Those were the Abacha years. Now we are in a democracy, there is much to be hopeful for.”

“It is easy for you to sweep under the carpet atrocities that took place only a few years ago, but you insist on hanging onto the white man’s actions which took place more than a century ago. Moreover, you are talking as if all the corruption in Nigeria is not still happening. Was it not just recently that that Bayelsa state governor was arrested in London and impeached by his State House of Assembly after he jumped bail and fled back here? If it is about killing people, what about the murder of hundreds of the people of Odi village in Rivers State where our dear Mr. President ordered the military boys to raze the whole community to the ground. In what civilised country will you find a president who has been elected by the people give such an order? In fact, which white president can give an order for a whole community of people to be wiped out and their properties destroyed? If that kind of thing was to happen in America or Britain, the president would have been impeached and they would probably then be charged for murder.”

“My brother, there was nobody who was not shocked by that Odi order.”

“Exactly. Did you see all those old women and children? All rendered homeless because the president said that militant youth use the village as a base. So because a few people are unlawful, everybody should be punished?”

“It was said that the village provided support to the militants and aided them.”

“All that is hearsay. Was there any concrete proof? Nobody could show anything. This kind of nonsense would never happen under the white man.”

“My brother, you keep praising these white people like they are gods.”

“I am not praising them o. The evidence speaks for itself. Have you ever heard of any of these white people’s country where everyday there is no light? On the few occasions that they don’t have light, there is a good reason. Either that or a person did not pay his bills and has had his power supply cut off. I am telling you ehn when you travel on their roads, your car does not need any shock absorber. The roads are smooth like satin cloth. Abi you know that they even have bus and train that has upstairs.”

“You have come with all these your stories again. How can a bus or even a train have upstairs?”

“Look at this my finger that I have licked and touched the ground with, which I am now pointing to the sky. I swear to Chineke God that it is true. Oyinbo people call those buses double decker. It is not even a new thing. They have been there for a very long time.”

“Eziokwu. Still I hear that the white man still practices racism on us black people in their country.”

“Racism is practised everywhere. In this our country, that is what we call tribalism because we are of the same colour. But we still discriminate against one another in some form or the other. The problem with the black man is that instead of moving forward into the future, he keeps on holding on to the past. Do you see the Jews whining everyday about how thousands of years ago the Egyptians turned them into slaves? One thing people have to realise is that in this world, things revolve and evolve, and there will always be a country or group of people who would have the dominant hand in the world affairs. There was a time it was Rome. The Roman Empire was dominant in the world, now Rome is just one city in Italy, which itself is a small country on the European continent. The people the Romans took as slaves cannot be seen still whining about what happened in the past. I mean look at the British Empire that was the greatest a few centuries ago, it is just a shadow of itself. Once upon a tine, there used to be a saying that the sun never sets on the United Kingdom of Great Britain, but that is not so today. Today it is America that is dominating. I can almost assure you that in our great grandchildren’s time, it would be China in the seat of power. It is about time that we moved ahead with the times and stop burying our heads in the past.”

“My brother, you may have a point there, but I still do not think that it would be better for the white man to govern us than for us to govern ourselves.”

“I know you will never agree with me, but just let me say that I agree that the White man’s shabby treatment of us black people cannot be excused in any way, but some will say it is because we are different from them. What excuse do we black men have for treating one another the way we do? What excuses do our leaders have to live ostentatiously in opulence while the rest of us wallow in absolute poverty? In the jungle, there are different animals, but all are animals. The way the lion interacts with a fellow lion is different from the way it interacts with a gazelle. You do not see a lion turn on a fellow lion for no good reason and you do not see a lion start to eat another lion because it is hungry, but it will turn on a gazelle and eat a gazelle. That is the way nature works and the same thing applies to us human beings. Though we are all human beings, we are different. If one race’s abuse on another can be said to be because of the difference in the race, what excuse can be had for people of the same race turning on and mistreating each other? At least if the white man was to come back here, he would develop the infrastructure and try to give us a better quality of life. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that white people are not corrupt, I am just saying that they operate better than the black man.”

“My brother, let us agree to have a difference of opinion.”

“Yes, you are right. Anyway, I have to go. I just came to tell you that after I lost everything in the fire, I am relocating back to the village the day after tomorrow. There is nothing left for me here in Lagos.”

“My brother, thank you for coming to tell me. I will make sure I see you when I go to the village next month. May Chineke God guide your steps and protect you as you go. I wish you the best.”

“Thank you. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight my brother.”
About The Author
Ayodele’s Bio
BIO:

Born in Lagos, Nigeria and descendant of kin from the West Indies, Sierra Leone and the Republic of Benin, Ayodele Morocco-Clarke is a Nigerian of mixed heritage currently living in the United Kingdom whilst completing her studies for the award of a Doctorate Degree at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She is a multi-award winning Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who is devoted to the written medium. She likes to describe herself as a stubbornly unconventional individual determined to push the conservative boundaries of society whilst operating within the limits of the law and straddling the fence of decency. Ayodele’s short stories have been published and are forthcoming in anthologies of short fiction and literary journals or magazines and she is one of the authors at the e-zine “STORYTIME”. She is currently finishing work on a short story anthology of her own and has recently started work on a novel which she hopes to publish in the not too distant future.
View All Entries by Ayodele