Lord, This Village Is Seriously Tough!

(Revised)

Dear Father,

Huh! Mmmm huh. Father I say it is not easy ooh.  The way things are getting ray, everything just tight nowhere to hustle sef- you turn so, no way. You go so, no way.

My son, dat jus now you know? Do you know how long some people been catching it in this village? It seems like you just started feeling the pinch ehn?

It is not so Father, it is just that some of us have been managing the little that we have, thinking that with time things would have gotten better. But instead, things keep getting worse. And you know the bad thing about it is that only few people pat boiling in this village every day, while most of us just keep smelling the scent of the soup but we can’t taste.

Father, the way things are going the old lady needs to do something ooh.

Dat only the old lady alone, what about the Chiefs at the Traditional Council?

Father, you believe in those people? The people can make noise in the day and in the night after 12 midnight, while the village sleeps, they work out their differences, whether it is in our interest or not, all they know- their pats should boil.

The noise they make here about the black gold, you saw how it (black gold) sailed through their hands easily without noise? So dat the people you will depend on.  I have always said the people are hustlers, whether you get or you no get, what they care anyway. You remember the other guys that used to be shouting around here about how they have come to sacrifice? Where are they today?

They are all around here hustling in disguise!

You know, the last time around my area at one construction site, I saw over eight young men begging to lay few pieces of blocks, while telling the contractors that some of them had come from as far as Barnesville to hustle to carry small thing home for their families.

Every day the people are crying no job, while some of the chiefs have stockpiled their offices with their children and other relatives.

That’s complete nepotism.

Yes Father, but at least some of them employed their own families in their offices, what about those who know they suppose to employ at least 9 persons but have just three, as they pocket the remaining funds from the village coffers.

That one is another form of corruption.

Yes, Father, but you know what makes me angry more?

No my son

It is the very few who has the little money in the village.  These people don’t care about our village. While we are suffering here, they keep their families in Uncle Sam’s village; have their children in good schools; paying for mortgages and getting good medical care with our village money, while 90 percent of us cannot afford to send our children to good schools. Most of us live in kitchens call houses and that’s what makes me more angry.

But my son, I taught the people say things are getting better in your village?

Yes, Father, things are getting better for the privileged few not for everybody.

Look, the last time I went to visit one of my friends,( he is a big man in this village), you know what he told me Father?

No, my son.

You know, when I first used to visit my man, I used to see his 5.5kva generator beating in the day because he works from home. And in the night, he puts on the 10kva to pick up his refrigerator and other electrical appliances, while giving few amps to his neighbors. But this time my man say to even keep the 10kva on for 6 hours is a problem.

So he is now using 1.5kva tiger to do his work in the day then at night he puts the 5.5kva on and after his room is cooled, he cuts it off to cut down the fuel oil usage. His business is no longer moving and things are just getting ray.

One oldma  who listened to our conversation said, “at least he can still put his generator on for few hours, but  I have to give my children the little transportation I have for them to go to school, while I beg to get to where I can do my lay hustle and at the end of the month it is nothing.”

Father, as I listened to the oldma, I could only imagine how many people in our village are catching it.

But you know, in all of these we have already sold all our little resources to people who are only coming to collect it and go. In the first place, our places of learning too do not have the capacity to teach us to become professionals. So everything just looking “basaal” like that.

Well Father, I leave my own with the oldman for now.