The Contrasting side of a beautiful coin.
This is a tale of a beautiful Southern city in Nigeria, a city that you would most likely consider for a vacation, a place you would consider the safest to pass your NYSC program. It is a place you would like to start your business and do every other thing you desire. This city is one such that when you step into it, the smell of fried Garri and palm oil calms your nerves and takes away all the tension you brought from your own bustling city. You would feel very at ease, you would want to indulge in everything the town has to offer, the cuisine, the beach, the museums, the masquerade festivals, the street coconut water and the plaza .
Oh would you feel at home! Everyone around you seem so happy and distant from reality, not that they are not aware, but because there's no reason to worry. You would choose the most lavish apartment in one of the quartiers because it's unbelievably cheap. You would splurge on food stuff, street foods and parties, return home late because everything is very secured. Sometimes you forget to lock you door before leaving but you'd be surprised and even express to your neighbors how secure the city is.
You would go to the bar and discuss how beautiful the women are and how less ambitious the men are, how your tribe would have thrived in the city, how lazy the people of the city seem, how lucky they are to not always be in traffic. You could go on and on about the things you would do differently if you were to be part of the city, you'd even brag about the money you made from a certain election campaign you partook in.
And then, you start to furnish your small apartment, you buy an Air conditioner, plasma, a generator, a fridge, a DSTV decoder and perhaps a water dispenser and begin to notice that the people start to address you by your name, no more "copper" or "Ayen Unege", all because you’ve outstayed your welcome. They start telling you they don’t speak English and even reply you in "Ibibio" the native language. They try to make you speak the language and laugh at you when you make attempts. This does not discourage you albeit. You start searching for jobs but you’re met with these repetitive outcomes; either you don’t find any that’s good paying or you find one but they don’t pay on time. In fact, the most reliable job would be teaching but you don’t like teaching! You suddenly notice that food becomes really expensive. Transportation still easy, so you don’t feel bad about how much you spend on food. You also suddenly notice that the weather is not as good as you use to see, it floods and so you would have to walk in the water to get to your house. You start observing the clash of cultists around your area however it doesn’t bother you because you are aware vigilantes secure the houses every night.
Not until one night, while you and your girlfriend whom you had invited for the weekend are asleep, you hear a strange noise from your padlock but decide to brush it off. '’It’s nothing’' you would say to your babe. And so, you do not hear the footsteps on the woods in your ceiling, you do not hear them using a machete to break down your burglary. Unfortunately when you hear them, they are almost in your apartment. You stand up to shout near your open window so your neighbors and the vigilantes would come to your rescue but they beat you to it and ask you why you are shouting.
"Why you dey shat!", one mannerless robber asks. However you don’t mind and continue shouting, so he comes close to you and gives you a hard slap on your face with his machete. This shuts you up of course but it doesn’t take away the fear you and your babe feel. They ask you for money but you don’t have any because you don’t keep money at home. To your greatest surprise, the robber brings out a POS machine and asks you to transfer all the money you have in your account. Who are you not to comply? All that you think of is your safety. They take your plasma as well, your generator, your iphone, your wrist watch and your laptop. Then it dawns on you that they actually came prepared with a big bag to steal. You are almost relieved when you hear the sound of a police vehicle but realize the police isn’t even close to your house. The robbers hurringly begin to leave as they hear the sound of the police vehicle, you curl up on your bed once they’re gone. By this time your neighbors still haven’t come out, the vigilantes are not even close by so you lie there processing what had just happened, thinking about your life and all that money you had just given up and how you wanted to use it to start up a business. You place your hand on your head and begin to cry. It’s almost 6am when you hear the first knock on the door from one of your female neighbors who comes to tell you she heard everything but was scared to come out to your aid. She asks you what was stolen and when you tell her she exclaims, '’Jesus! Jehovah mmodim!". Somehow you feel she’s being sarcastic but because you are mentally fatigued you don’t think too much of it. You have somehow garnered a small audience who have come to comfort you by telling you their own experiences. Although you are not interested, you feign it. Someone then asks,"where were the vigilantes?" The question immediately gets your attention because you could have sworn you heard them before the robbery with their loud whistles but when you started shouting no one answered. Nonetheless, you remain silent while waiting for your landlord and searching in your mind for who you could call to help you in this ordeal.
Glossary
Ayen Unege- Igbo person
Jehovah mmodim - God of a great army
Author’s Note
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Nelly-Portia
Writer.
Precious Essien
Editor.
