Victims – Episode 22
A Story By Rosemary Okafor
“…These are trying times for our beloved country, but I am confident that we will come out of this stronger. We have survived civil war, economic depression and some other negative situations and we will survive this. Today we lost well meaning citizens to bomb explosions and this should tell us one thing, Some elements want to divide us, they want to put fear on us, they want to Jeopardize this Government…”
“Son of a b****” The Opposition p@rty chairman cursed un-der his breath as he watched Mr President render his speech few hours after the twin bomb blast. He gulped his fresh Orange jui-ce and refilled his glas-s.
A well re-ad clas-sy sixty five years old man, he had always converted the presidential seat from the day he c@m£ back to Nigeria after twenty two years he spent in London. His father, the then s£nate President had wanted him to Join Politics
“It is our family business son, that is how we secure our generational wealth”
And so he c@m£ back with no knowledge of how Nigerian Politics was. He was a practicing Doctor which affected his way of life still, a vegetarian and a sports man. His father guided him into politics; he had gone from being a local government chairman to being a state House repres£ntative for his constituency. But when he saw Danladi Umar, his onetime clas-smate who dropped out of secondary school because he wasn’t bright enough to un-derstand the different between a verb and a noun, Danladi was alre-ady in the federal House of as-sembly by the time he c@m£ back. He had vowed to do all he could to get on t©p of the political game.
“…they have bridged our security system, they want to make you believe that you are not safe and that our security agencies are not working, I call those people ‘Enemies of the country’. And it is time to unite as one in other to fight terror and insecurity, you my citizens must help to fight our enemies; do not allow yourself to be used to perpetuate terror, report any suspicious activities…”
He had joined PPB, the ruling p@rty, as advised by his former clas-smate and against his father’s wish, he gave them his all, but when it was time to bring out a Presidential candid@t£, Danladi was chos£n over him, it was a b!ow but he stomached it well, and had threw his weight into ma-king sure that Danladi won the 1999 presidential Election.
He had sat with Danladi on the day when INEC called out the results, he knew he did his job well, he had rolled out p@rty money to those that nee-ded to be bought. They had hvgged like brothers when Danladi was declared winner. When Danladi moved into ‘Aso Rock’ he went with him and both had walked round the magnificent building with pride and uneasiness;
“You should be the one moving in here as president not me…you have all the br@ins and I…I have not even a school certificate” Danladi had said
“I must admit I was jealous when you were chos£n over me…I still am jealous…a little” both had laughed
He had expected something hvge from Danladi as compensation, but when it was time to appoint ministers, he was appointed Nigerian Ambas-sador to Chad, while Peter Thompson was made the federal Minister for Health.
“…our heart goes for the families that lost their loved ones in this wicked attacks, we mourn with you and we will do anything possible to bring the perpetrators to book, we will not spare them…”
He tapped the two girls slee-ping on the be-d, they wimped and ru-bbe-d their eyes;
“Get up, it’s time to go” he said r0ûghly
“Why so fast, don’t you want to go another round with us again?” the red haired girl said while moving her Unclad bu-tt, her brea-sts dangled like two medium sized water melons on a twine. He threw four wra-ps of Five hundred naira at them and the girls screamed with joy,
“Go fv¢k yourselves” He dismissed them with a wave of hand
It started like an adventure, now it was an add!çtion. One was no longer enough for him, he love p@rty and sometimes four girls on him, the best p@rt for him would be watching these girls fv¢k themselves. He still love his wife, but she was far away in London, doing what she loved most, Lecturing and visiting the children whenever she has the time. Only two of his closed allies knew this side of him, others thought him a saint.
His phone rang, he took it and saw the name on the screen, he waited for the girls to leave the h0tel room before he spoke;
“Are you watching Mr President make his condolence speech?” the voice from the other side asked
“That b******, typical of him to throw dirt on our faces” He said
“We threw at him first remember? Hahahahaa” the caller made a joke out of it
Mr chairman sighed and spoke again;
“So what will be the next action?”
“I don’t know, I delivered my message to Imam Husayn, he is the one navigating this boat now, but his demands…”
“I know what his demands are…we will give him some, and pl@yhim on the others”
“I hope this turns out fine, he is a dangerous man, and if he smells any trick from us, he can crush all of us”
He may not be as old as most of these men in Nigerian politics, but he was wiser and a game planner, they knew it. That was why he was re-adily accepted and was made the p@rty chairman when he defected to the opposition p@rty. Danladi was threatened by his defection, but didn’t voice it out.
*
“Nice speech Mr President”
“I told them what they want to hear at this time, it is left for the media and our security Agencies to do their p@rts” Danladi stumped the corridor to his office, followed by his minister for media and publicity, who also wrote the speech that was re-ad by the President.
“Put Ukachukwu throu-gh the phone, I nee-d to speak to him at once!”
“Right away your Excellency”
*
“If I have to do your Job then why will I be signing out hvge amount of money for security in this country?”
“Mr President sir…I don’t un-derstand?” Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ukachukwu said
“That I am paying you and your boys to do nothing while some undesirable elements set off explosives and killing people!”
“We are on it sir…”
“Look, I don’t care what happens in these small states and communities, but allowing this to get to the capital is the height of it? It will draw the eyes of international communities and that would be bad for us”
“We will fish out these elements sir, it will not happen again”
“Do whatever you have to do, get some people and make them responsible, parade some people and make the media carry the news, we must look good before the citizens and international communities”
“Copy sir!”
The Vice President walked in as the chief of staff was going out, the vice President gave him an acknowledging nod and walked into the office of the president, and closed the door behind him;
“I heard they want the 2002 beauty pageant that is to be hosted here cancelled” Danladi said without looking up, he had his hand on his temple, unconsciously mas-saging it.
“It is going to be a tough one, seeing the economic opportunities this is going to bring to us” Mr Vice president took the seat that faced the president
“Do you think it has anything to do with this bombing?”
“Probably…or what do you think?”
“I didn’t make you my vice for me to think what you should be thinking” Danladi growled
Danladi was tensed and confused and his vice knew it, so he forgave him for acting up, though it wasn’t the first time, but he knew his place, he was placed there by the p@rty to pacify his political Region.
“The protesters said the pageant falls on the month for Ramadan fast…” The vice president added
“Then get in contact with the minister for Arts and tourism, let him see how he can work with the organizers to shift the d@t£ from November to December.
*
The young Officer sat on his new car watching the girl, he had earned the car as a Job well done from the Imam, if things would continues getting better between him and the Imam, he would one day convince the old man to do away with Yusuf while he would take over the role of a commander.
He has been watching and marking his time for three weeks, by now, he alre-ady knew that the street is always lonely on Fridays, most of the women goes out in the mornings and the girl was always alone, he could tell for she was always coming out of the house and going in alone.
He watched her lift a basket from the ground, the shape of her little br£@st was almost visible, her n!ppl!s stood like tiny gr@p£s, she had no luxury of getting an un-der cloth yet. He li-cked hisl-ips again and gave his ba-lls a little squee-ze.
He had wanted to watched her ra-pped till she bleed to death, or to put his dagger in her v***** and slice it to pieces, but each time he hid and watch her, it heightened his de-sires and gave him a memory to hold on to while he jacked of when he was alone.
It was getting dark and he knew he had to leave, he ran his sweating palm on his crotch that had bulged out and was threatening to jump out of his trou-ser.
He decided to give it some time and enjoy this plea-sure, maybe he could even kidnap her and keep her to himself, The Imam would not object to that if he found out.
With one more glace, he turned the ignition and drove off.
To be continued
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