Tales of Betrayal

PART THREE

PART THREE

HERE OR THERE, AS UNSTABLE AS WATER

April 2019. Kogi State Governorship Election was drawing nearer and the stakes were Sky High. In Politics, November was not a long time.

I quickly developed a winning strategy. We are Progressives. Naturally, we appeal more to young voters. So, I made a plan to double or possibly triple our youth followership in Olle and Igbo Bunu with a total of three polling units.

Schools were in Session so Kogi Polytechnic in Felele, Lokoja was a catchment area for me. I therefore made moves to visit the students who were from my village in Kogi Polytechnic. We should have about sixty of them or more.

We met. Shared drinks and opinions. They wanted to belong to the All Progressives Congress (APC), because in their opinion, the APC was a Political Party of young people. Majority of them hitherto belonged to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) because their parents traditionally voted PDP, so they had always demonstrated parental loyalty in their political affairs. But this time will be different, they told me. For a start, they wanted me to come back with a load of brooms – the official symbol of the APC. They would like to decamp officially to the APC and follow it up with electoral votes in November. We booked another date for this and made it happen.

Getting these people to decamp and 'stay in Camp' was going to cost money. They were students with no veritable means of income. I prepared for the money. How many of them were doing Higher National Diploma (HND) and would be writing their Projects? Quite a few. I offered to pay for their final year Projects that month. Then those who didn't want to lose out from this Project Money quickly came up with needs and requests. I tried to meet up with their demands. Each time we met, there was always some money to share; hopefully it would go round small, small..... At least something for their Transport each time.

Of them all, there was this Youth whom I called Don Dee. Don was skinny, lanky and relatively tough. Among the lot, he was vocal and expressive. It would take me a while to learn that Don was a Student Unionist in his school. He was not new to Student Politics and the Nigerian brand of politics as we have it. He spoke effusively and had the potential to mold public opinion in a way. He was the sort of materials political players would like. I quickly spotted him out and began to delegate some roles to him with a thought that he could be a rallying point and glue the group together. I was wrong.

Many phone calls and Social Media chats came from Don. He had one suggestion or the other, which we must work on. They all cost money, big or small. A good percentage of his calls were also to identify members of the group who were not loyal to our cause. He warned me to be careful with those. Some of his calls revolved around being broke and money needed for feeding, not for him alone but for a number of them students. As uneasy as it felt, we tried to meet up.

Needless to say that Don did not waste much time before he created a w******p group for the Kogi Polytechnic prospective voters. To make them happy and keep them in 'Camp' (remember they decamped to our Party), I would occasionally release money to Don for internet data, for every damn student on that platform, 1,000 Naira each for all. Rumours had it that Don only released this data money to a few people and spent the rest on himself. That was a part of our politics though, so I ignored it, with eyes focused on the goal.

Election was a couple of weeks away. We had been working, visiting groups of people, spending money to keep people in Camp and win new converts. The stakes were high. The Election was a must win. Aside from other places we had won converts, we must win in our respective hometowns (Option A4 if you like) in order to keep our jobs in the Cabinet of the State Governor. That was the promise – one that further energized us. More money was needed to keep people together till Election Day. If you still don't know why some of us took loans to prosecute that Election, then you are a dead meat!

Schools closed at least 2 weeks before the Election. Don was now in my hometown like many of his colleagues. Unknown to me, Don, who was spotting disloyal members, was the king of disloyalty himself. Don was attending every PDP meeting and rally in the village. There was this man whom the villagers considered rich (in our polity, money is EVERYTHING). I choose to call him Mr. Money. He would come from the city, sway their opinion and walk away with the unsteady followers. Don had been swayed like many of his Team Members. 

The first giveaway of their betrayal was when they quickly grew cold and stopped talking on the w******p platform Don created. Don himself stopped being proactive. He no longer had suggestions. He no longer identified disloyal members. Judas and Iscariot were one and the same. 

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Then came The Judgement Day. 

My village PDP members had a rally in a nearby Community. Don must be present. He must demonstrate loyalty to the Money Bag, who himself led the Team. Mr. Money rode in his car while Don rode on a bike, excessively drunk like always. Midway down the journey, Don skidded, lost control of his bike, somersaulted multiple times, and finally took consolation in a nearby ditch. His bike went a separate way, battered and shrunk to size.

By the time Don emerged from his ditch, he was unrecognizable. The numbness of his alcohol had lightened up, but the scars were massive and they dotted every available space on his dull face. The nose had its portion. The mouth was not spared, nor was his forehead or his eyebrows. The good part for Don was while stitching up these open flesh, the Nurse declared with a suppressed anger: "You need no anesthesia. Your alcohol is enough of a pain killer". As the Nurse salvaged those flesh together, every thrust of needle yielded a mind shattering growl, which in itself was a sweet melody to my soul.

Three days later, Governorship and Senatorial Election held same day (to produce Governor Yahaya Bello and Senator Smart Adeyemi). We managed to win for the APC, either peacefully or by crises. A win was a win. 

For Don and I, the future lies ahead like an open sea. Never again will I be betrayed twice by the same traitor.