Lord, no matter how beautifully dressed a devil is, it’s still a devil

Dear Father,

You know, our old people have a saying that-no matter how beautifully dressed a devil is, it’s still a devil. Another version to this parable is when the chicken is white; it is white, no matter how you try to rub red palm oil on it. It still remains white.

Hmm, my son, you ready again with your old people saying oo. What is going on in that village of yours of late?

Father, a lot of things have been unfolding here of late: I know you heard about the passing of our man Yule Blunder, the noise which follows his passing and all of that. But the most pressing thing now is our poor village living condition-Father simply put it is tough! But you know. I need not to tell you it has always been and has continued to be tough.

What do you mean my son?

Father, I know when I was growing up, the only people I used to hear saying that they were broke were my father and uncles, but for our village to be crying broke, broke for the past three or so years it’s a concern.

And what is the Old Lady doing?

Good question, Father, maybe she is counting it as part of her legacy.

Are you saying, despite all the black gold deals, and those nice promises of your village booming and all that-I even heard how they crowned the big man for your Money House as the man of the year on your dark continent and all.

Hum, Father, you, yourself ya. All those things you’ve been hearing that just dressing, they have been dressing up some of those things. And they forget the sayings of our old people that no matter how beautifully dressed the devil is, it’s still a devil.

And you know, there are too many cooks in the kitchen pretending to be trying to sweeten the soup, when in effect the only thing they are doing is to spoil its taste. We all know that things are going bad especially with our village money. Contractors not getting their money, businesses provide services and they are not getting pay for those services. As for we the town criers, we are the least considered-But they still run behind them for taxes, I don’t know how they expect to collect those taxes when they are the ones doing the credits around here.

You mean with all of these happenings, they still get some people heaping praises on people around here?

Father, those are the people who are trying to dress the devil or rub red palm oil on the white chicken. They figure out that as long as they can get their generators beating at home, children school fees are paid and they have at least three square meals a day, ride fabulous  cars, the rest should be patient and things are not just bad at all-nonsense!

You know, come to think of it, the people responsible to get things moving, like the Old Lady sacked some people-apparently don’t care, after all we are a bunch of good for nothing war weary people who will always demand more like refugees. And surely most of us are gradually becoming refugees in our own village.

When you cannot afford to pay your children school fees, or get at least one good  square meal a day and have to think who will feel sorry for you for the next, what different does that make you from a refugee.

When rather than giving you what you honestly deserve and people expect you to beg just to make an end meet, tell me who you are? Aren’t refugees who beg?

Anyway they say what happened at the town criers party that was held in the Gbarpolu fiefdom?

Ay, Father, they say one of the town criers didn’t find anything to do but to go run after one of the villagers’ wife.

They say they say the guy was in the room with the young lady when the husband came knocking on the door. Instead of him being quiet to run, he threatened to jail the man. The angry husband too gathered some young and they beat the devil out of him.

I heard he ran to a night club butt naked where other town criers were partying to seek rescue.

Yes, oo, Father, they say my man had his thing between his leg like a scary dog  running for cover, begging his colleagues to shield him from the angry husband.

What a disgrace, when you don’t keep your stuff between your legs or always have your zip open. Anyway, I hope he learn his lesson well.