Lord, Is This Another Crackdown On Town Criers?

Dear Father,

You know, since the Old Lady vowed to go after certain town criers, these days, there is not an hour that passes by without a town crier or a town crier chief receiving a threat from one village official or the other threatening to deal with a town crier or that town crier’s institution.

The last time I was listening to one of the many town crier stations in town, I was not surprise to have heard how our village city center acting chief ordered some blue uniform people to catch two town criers like strayed dogs and put them in a kennel called prison for reasons well known to the village city chief.

Few days ago, another man who bluntly told one of our town criers that he was not ready and willing to talk to him about a story called back threatening to seek legal redress because the town crier ran the story at all cost.

Days before that another big man in this village who was also once a town crier called me complaining how one of our town criers also reported a story without speaking to him. When the big man was put on a speaker phone to face his accuser, he immediately changed the story and said “yes, you spoke to me but you did not ask, about this other allegation.”  Meanwhile, it was because of the very allegation he met and interacted with the young town crier in the first place.

When pushed to confirm whether the fact had now been established that he was contacted and that his concern now was that an issue contain in the story of which he was not quizzed, he switch off his phone. Several calls to continue the conversation were unsuccessful because he deliberately refused to answer his cell phone. Can you imagine this Father?

So, you really mean that the old town crier turned village official was only trying to be a village politician? Yes, Father because that is what politicians do, they lie through their teethes.

The latest one is a chief from the Traditional Council who misled his fellow chiefs to have wasted 30 good minutes of the village time to discuss an issue which was totally outside of that Council.

Father, this chief was heard screaming at the top of his voice telling his fellow chiefs how a town crier again from our end did a story that was damaging to his character and that he needed an immediate redress from his colleagues under our village oracle, the portion that has to do with contempt of the Traditional Council.

The shameless chief noted for scheming to paint himself white even went on further to claim apology, something which was never rendered to him. The man as if he would suffer a heart attack had understood the article to mean that he was linked to a certain man’s death, when in fact the article name him as one of those who last interacted with the man, something the chief, himself confirmed days earlier in an interview.

And what happened my son? What would really happen, the man only came back to say that the only problem this paper had was that it quoted one of his colleagues, (not him) without interviewing the colleague.

But my son he and his colleague who should be complaining? No, it is because he also wants to make use of the new opportunity to go after certain town criers. But the thing is Father, we also need to compare him to go before his colleagues at the Traditional Council to retract the statement to the effect that he had claimed that we link him to killing. The thing is his comment has cast a slur over our credibility and business wise we have suffered greatly.

But you know Father; all these tactics are intended to intimidate town criers here by scaring them away from reporting on certain issues. No my son this one not correct because some of your people are very reckless.

Father that one that true, sometimes we are very reckless and I believe this is from where the Old Lady was speaking but the way some village officials are taking it now is out of proportion.

Anyway, trust me, this gone voting was the last time I ever voted for people in this village without knowing their psychiatric (mental fitness) test result.  The next voting time that is coming especially where the village people are calling for the young people to take over, before you come to me to ask for my vote, you should make sure that you have your psychiatric test result in hand.

Why are you asking for a psychiatric test result my son?  Father, I have realized that one of the problems we have in this village is that we vote people to power without knowing whether they are mentally and physically fate to do the kind of work we want them to do; Whether the man or woman is a drug addict or not, we just vote for people because they make the loudest noise, and I will not go that route next in fact I might simply not waste my time.