JEREMAYA: Ziki, how are you? It has been a long time, anyway, I don’t want to bother you much, I thought you will branch at my place yesterday, at least, if not for any other thing, we would have been able to take a decision on where and when to hold our next meeting.
ZIKI: I am fine, at least, am not in the hospital, but then, the rate at which strange things are happening in our town these days is alarming, and this is making me jittery and same time afraid.By the way, I would have been at your place, as you rightly observed, but I was expecting Beula to join me, so that both of us would have been with you in order to take the decision for the meeting.But unfortunately, I did not see him.
JEREMAYA: Beula to join you? Since the break for private retreat, have you seen Beula face to face? You never can tell; he may also have got the news about happenings in the town and was probably doing some spiritual intervention. Of course, you know that once he gets deep into a spiritual exercise, it is always difficult pulling him out until he is satisfied. So, looking for Beula to be part of this meeting is like waiting for Godot.
ZIKI: You are right, since that time, I have not seen him, not even once. Anyway, our decision to hold the meeting should be taken immediately, since we’ve resolved the case of Beula.
JEREMAYA: You know, he was the first person to relocate here, following the struggle we had with those stubborn khaki boys, back then, who accused us of 10%. Then, followed by my good self, then you, last but not the least.Anyway, that is story for another day, but for this meeting, we don’t need to waste time, let us hold the meeting right away.
ZIKI: We need to harness our resources both human and material, so we can send people home, in order to help out. The news coming from home is not palatable at all, we need to do something very urgent.
JEREMAYA: My brother, what is this information you are getting from home? Just tell me, I don’t have much time to waste, this meeting should not last more than thirty minutes.
ZIKI: What they were saying baffled me seriously, that there is hunger everywhere, that the whole town has been thrown into disarray of recent and nothing is really working, hunger is walking on all fours, this came to me as a big gargantuan surprise.
JEREMAYA: Why is it a surprise? Before we left the town, I mean myself and you, all the signs were all over the place, it was like an evil in incubation, waiting for the right time. It is now that the genie is out of the bottle. Immediately, those stubborn khaki boys chased us out, they, themselves went on rampage, forgetting what they accused us of, they came, destroying everything in sight, in the name of their own version of development, since they had given us a bad name.
ZIKI: Thank you jare, Jeremaya. I can now remember, it was my own blood brother from the rising Sun , who forcefully brought us together in the same camp, instead of leaving us as we were then, that time of healthy competition, that elicited development in every facets of live and living, it brought out the best out of everybody, every family was doing great, and nobody lacked, Beula was doing very fine at Wahrewa, you, Jeremaya, was our star boy back then in Westi, or have you forgotten your exploits? You built the first television house in Africa, you built cocoa house from your farmers’ sweat back then, you built very comfortable farm settlements, you made the farmers king. They were everywhere, contributing to the economy of your father’s house, nay the town, everybody was happy. But I won’t lie to you, Jeremaya, I can tell you now that we are here, you were the envy of every clan then. It was impossible for anyone to relax with the way you were running like you were competing with the gods.Everything, including food, was in abundance, nothing like going to bed on an empty stomach nor being hungry, we were also the envy of other towns, far and near. Our town became a reference point. You remember that I was familiar with the Gold Coast at that time. They envied us to high heavens. But now, all those things we had have gone to the dogs. The children back home now go cap in hand begging for food from those we fed effortlessly before. They even say they are treated like slaves downtown, in the city of Madiba!To add salt to decaying injury, people who are left in the town are now plodding the streets, shouting ‘Ebi npa wa o’. I guess that means, ‘We are hungry o’?
JEREMAYA: (Smiles) Yes, you are right. Why shouldn’t you know? Lagos was like a home for you now. But seriously, that is a matter for concern. Our people are hungry in this age and time. What did they do with what we started?
ZIKI: God have mercy.
JEREMAYA: Sad, my research also shows that things have gone bunkers. They said a worker’s take-home pay will only leave him at the bus stop. They say people now pray more than they work.Residents of the town no longer believe what the leaders tell them, because they have been deceived for too long. I heard that they even talked about cassava bread, stagged rice pyramid, and unveiled rice mills in Lagos and Kebbi, even some at your backyard, yet the man in the village cannot buy rice. I learnt that they designated some provinces as Food basket of the town, but nothing to show for it, people still go to bed hungry.
ZIKI: This is terrible. We must stop this sad news coming from the town all the time. So, please, will you be kind enough to give us the formula you used in those days? I will need to include it in our memo that we are sending to them.If they care to use what is in the memo, it may lead them, yet again to posterity and food security, and again, put them at the fore front of providing food for their brothers and sisters in far and near towns and villages.
JEREMAYA: Well, the formula is here, documented, just take, include it, maybe the new king, who christened himself a progressive, will listen and act before everyone is famished.
ZIKI: Jeremaya, ever ready! So, you brought the document to the meeting?
JEREMAYA: I know we must treat this as an emergency. May I ask, when are the people leaving? I mean our emissaries. I believe you need to dispatch them immediately, because the news coming daily is not good at all. I learnt the king is just putting some chiefs together, in order to give some palliatives, which may likely get back into their private stores instead of getting to the people.
ZIKI: The emissaries will go immediately. And since we don’t have any other thing on our agenda to discuss, thank you very much. Whenever Beula returns, we will brief him on all that happened. I pray he returns very soon.
JEREMAYA: Yes, we will do that, but I know for a fact, he won’t be a happy man, hearing all the bad news, after all he did for his household, before his relocation.Hunger, hunger, definitely, it won’t be very good news for him.
ZIKI: Thanks for your time. By the time our emissaries return, we will have to fix another meeting. Thank you once again and bye for now.