Grimacing

Third page

Third page

Ten years had past since Femi's murder, the saddest part of the sad story was that justice was swept under the carpet... The police gave statements of accidental discharge, they charged my father with assault on the officer with the riffle and seeing he had no witness except a bereaved mother to approach the bench, the half baked law swung in favour of the police. My father was granted bail with the sum of five hundred naira, that was a huge sum of money at that time, a brand new car was sold at that price.

Femi's mother never recovered from that incident, she grew old so fast with every passing day, until she passed away just a year later without recompense without justice right under the bleeding blindfolded eyes of the law.

And now nine years after the death of Femi's mum and ten years after Femi's mother, here I stood a young lad who was now age fifteen with a heart that totally resented its government.

It was the year 1993, and the propaganda of the hope for brighter days had soaked our tv screens and radios with the campaigns of presidential candidates Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola aka MKO of the social Democratic Party and Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention... These men painted our hearts with promises with their sing along jingles that stayed glued to our ear drums we could even sing them by heart, the most popular of them all was the jingle for MKO

Na wa for this life o

Na so so palava

I tire for this problem

I tire for life oh

Ogini

No work

No food

No house

No light

The small water them dey bring na so so dirty dey full am

The small money I dey get na so so transport dey chop am

School oh na headache

Hospital no work

I tire for life oh

My brother Wetin you dey think oh

My sister helpu don come

SDP MKO Kingibe action

MKO Kingibe SDP progress

Na Em be the hope oh for better tomorrow

This jingle was easily relatable by every common Nigerian... And it was not of the part of him being the hope for Nigerians, because that part could be debatable by people, but the part that spoke clearly about our plight, about our sufferings and hardship

I guess those words apart from his wealth made MKO Abiola the popular candidate... I really didn't hear much about Tofa, I only saw him once or twice being interviewed on NTA (national television authority) and then I think for the sake of political banters, an exercise book was made with his name printed on it for students.

I was unusually interested in politics as a child, I remember I would sit by the door of the corridor listening with so much keen on the political analysis my father and his friends would give, and through all of these you could tell that the year 1993 the year of the election held so much promise in their hearts, the believe that one day everything will become better, the believe that we would have this thing the developed world called a stable vibrant economy with the dreams of "constant power supply" or "infrastructural development" this thing the civilized world called "justice for the common man" this thing humanity called "the good life".

I like many Nigerians at the time were hopeful... I remember back in school my school teacher used to make a boast that soon it would be prestigious to be a teacher under the New Democratic government... Yes my teacher; Mrs Alaka had to be so hopeful because at this time teachers were hardly paid salaries and even when paid, the pinch size sum made it difficult to call yourself a salary earner, I could first hand understand this plague because my mother suffered from the infectious irregular salary disease also and we had to bare most of the symptoms because daddy was a business man with dealings on car spare parts, and sales were hardly made simply because the price of goods kept on fluctuating like the power produced by the nation's electrical power company NEPA an acronym for "Nigerian Electrical Power Authority" one in which our frustrations with their skeletal power supply will now teach us to rename as "Never Expect Power Always" and then further rise to " Never Expect Power At all" Nigeria had always been one bag of mess when it came to our leaders but the people themselves taught themselves to always find humour somewhere in all of those hardship... But I bet someone like Fela Anikpulakpor Kuti could see far even before the rest of us that this our new behavior would only make the politicians feel we were okay with their constant raping of our country so he even before this time released the single "shuffering and shmiling" in 1977

Shuffering and Shmiling (Fela Kuti and Afrika 70)

Suffer suffer suffer suffer

Suffer for World

Na your fault be that

Me I say na your fault be that

Suffer suffer for World

Enjoy for Heaven

CHORUS: Amen

Christians go dey yab*

CHORUS: Amen

“ In Spiritum Heavinus”

CHORUS: Amen

Moslems go dey call

CHORUS: Amen

“Allah wa Akbar”

CHORUS: Amen

Open your eye everywhere

Archbishop na miliki*

Pope na enjoyment

Imam na gbaladun*

Archbishop dey enjoy (with chorus)

Pope self dey enjoy (with chorus)

Imam self dey enjoy (with chorus)

My brother wetin* you say? (with chorus)

My brother wetin you say? (with chorus)

My sister wetin you go hear?

My sister wetin you go hear?

Archbishop dey for London

Pope dey for Rome

My people – them go dey follow Bishop

CHORUS: Amen

Them go follow Pope

CHORUS: Amen

Them go follow Imam

CHORUS: Amen

Them go go for London

CHORUS: Amen

Them go go for Rome

CHORUS: Amen

Them go go for Mecca

CHORUS: Amen

Them go carry all the money

CHORUS: Amen

Them go juba* Bishop

CHORUS: Amen

Juba Pope

CHORUS: Amen

Juba Imam

CHORUS: Amen

Them go start to yab themselves

Every day – for house

Every day – for road

Every day – for bus

Every day – for work

My people my people my people

Every day my people inside bus

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Forty-nine sitting forty-nine standing

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them go pack themselves in like sardine

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them dey faint, them dey wake like cock

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them go reach house water no dey

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them go reach bed power no dey

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them go reach road go-slow go come

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them go reach road police go slap

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them go reach road army go whip

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Them go look pocket money no dey

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Every day na the same thing

CHORUS: Suffering and smiling

Suffer suffer for World

CHORUS: Amen

Enjoy for Heaven

CHORUS: Amen

Christians go dey jab

CHORUS: Amen

“ In Spiritum Heavinus”

CHORUS: Amen

Moslems go dey call

CHORUS: Amen

“Allah wa Akbar”

CHORUS: Amen

How many many you go make

CHORUS: Many many

Suffer suffer for world

CHORUS: Amen

Well speed down to the lane of reasoning to this present day as you read the words of this book and you would find out that all what this man had penned down to sing were absolutely true and still very much true, the level of oppression and skim, the sordid kind of leadership from government, where he common human right in the country has become not so common anymore as it only now today resides in the bellies of the rich politician and his families... The austerity in the nation had so with every passing year increased, young graduates even with the best of results search for not so decent jobs like they were searching for a pin in a haystack and today all because of the level of demeaning poverty in the nation young men and even women flooded into the world of religion just to make easy money... Because here in Africa most people hold strong to spiritual convictions they see every situation, circumstance and phenomenon in their lives as a plan orchestrated by the spirit realm be it positive or negative and so prayers and more prayers along with offerings and sacrifices which cost money became a daily ritual for most Nigerians and this gave rise to the boom in religious businesses as churches especially now today have become huge money spinners for their pastors and general overseers.

And the Islamic world wasn't left out here as today as you read all forms of barbaric dealings and killings all in the name of God is carried out because we as a people have chosen never to question things but to just smile at every suffering and swallow every doctrine... Fela was absolutely right, Fela told it as it was

He was one genius who spoke reality no matter where and no matter to whom. His tight hold with the lyrics of his songs on the government and it's fellow politicians as corrupt and insensitive to the citizens landed him in series of troubles the height of such troubles led to his aged mother being thrown off the window by some Nigerian soldiers who invaded his home the injuries she sustained from the fall were fetal.

The insidiousness of the Government of Nigeria as it had to do with respect for human life of their fellow citizens has always been but alarming, there were extrajudicial killings and assassinations springing all over the place in those days, the gloom about these times echoes even into the twenty first century.

In the end our hope for a fully established democracy was tarnished, as no elected civilian was given he sit of power, the then declared winner MKO Abiola was put in prison by the nigerian government for welled up crimes of ........

And then Ernest Shoneko a civilian was hand picked and made president of Nigeria by the then exiting military head of state general Ibrahim Badamusi Babangida. It only took roughly six months for the man to be ousted and power snatched once more by the claws of the military under the leadership of General Sani Abacha... This man was the fire that boiled the soup of corruption that engulfed Nigeria,

The year 1994 for me and family posed the most struggle I was just finishing with my secondary education, I had written the WASCE ( west African school certificate examination) and had passed in flying colours in the shades of A1 and more A1 this didn't come as a surprise to my parents they had seen it repeat itself over and over again and so when I brought my result back home the only thing my father said to me was "good... Now we should be looking at the university now" he said it in the most unmoved manner like what I just showed him was

And it wasn't like they didn't love education and all of its acumen, it was simply because they too were geniuses and only expected the normal biological process of things to take place, an eagle to bring forth an eagle and not a chicken, and for the case of not being misled with the out of context, I should state it clearly that my parents so loved me dearly... And as an only child I totally enjoyed the love and attention that should have been shared equally among ten siblings.

It was the 12th of April that same year, the Nieghbour hood had woken up to a familiar cry late at night at about 11:45am, this cry although familiar was more piercing today as it aggressively ran it's way vigorously through the night sky enveloping the whole of our nieghbour hood... And so it was a call to wake up, we couldn't ignore it like we had done in previous occasions. It will not be the first time Haruna's mother would cry in pains into the night as her husband beat her senseless, it would not be the first time we would be awakened by it either, but today it was different, it was louder and more desperate, we had to go check. Other neighbors came out of their homes with their faces grimaced indicating that they too have had their sleeping journey cut short by the familiar element.. Some of them adjusted their wrappers on their waist the women hovered around one another analyze the situation even before going to see it

" this man go kill this woman oh" , " which kind animal be this self" you could see the resentment on their faces under the faint moon light As they spoke one to another.

I was old enough now to go with my dad and the other men with touch lights in our hands to help us navigate our way through the darkness of the night all the way to the door mouth of Haruna's house... His mother still crying and screaming like the bereaved... It was funny we could hear only her voice crying out so loud, there was no sound of fist to body, no yelling from Haruna's father and so we wondered could he trying to do something much worse to her, or himself we pondered.

" Gana open the door", the men along with my father in the scene called out her husbands name as we took turns knocking emphatically... "Gana will you come here and open this door at once!" my father called out. Finally after about close to 5mins of calling, knocking, and wondering what must have happened the door slowly opened, and standing at the door ajar, was Haruna his eyes teared up red, his face was not just of sadness but of sadness and petrifaction... "I didn't mean to do it" he whimpered out almost lifeless , we could see his blood stained hands, now the puzzle in our minds we tried to fix earlier on began to click but we weren't going to linger there to think more. we rushed into the house, the men along with my dad were so emphatic about getting in as quickly as possible that two to three men ran through the open door at the same time. The scene we saw in the living room was of pain and anguish, Haruna's mother was holding the lifeless blood drenched body of her husband on the floor as she cried out her eyes calling for help, there was so much blood on the floor it was like a pool of red and she was right in the middle of it, stained all over with it as she held the life drained body of her blooded husband close to her chest. On the floor close to him was a blood stained kitchen knife. Haruna had stabbed his father in the chest mistakenly piercing his heart with it, in an attempt to stop him from beating up his mother that night... The police made no time showing up at the scene that night, they carried out some investigations and then placed the handcuffs on Haruna's wrist and led him away in their black van, the worse part of the whole crisis came when the relatives of the slain husband came into the picture, it was one terror after another on the poor widow, she was blamed for her husband's death, they almost made it seem it was okay for a woman to be continually domestically abused and violated, her house was taken away from her, I heard she was made to carry out some certain rituals in the end all I can say is that; that was the last we heard from Haruna or his mother to this very day as I write.