By Chief NoiseMaker
Yesterday a screen shot of a short story told by a parent was shared on a friends wattsap status and I just had to do a critical analysis of its implications. After studying the story I was so troubled that I took a screen shot of the writeup and decided to share it with my guys/neighbours at one of our weekend hangouts on saturday evening on the estate : The story goes in quote thus :
“when my daughter was in JSS 2 she was the best student. She was tiped to be school senior prefect come SS1. At first she declined but after much persuation from teachers she accepted to run. she had to present herself at the assembly to address the school why she had to be Senior Prefect. Teachers called me even the school principal that my daughter was fantastic. I even did campaign posters for her. After election she came home crying. She said she lost to a relatively low (placed) girl. While my daughter came second. Teachers were helpless. The principal was shocked. It was the students that voted. I asked her why she thought she lost the election. She said her fellow students (voters) latter came to tell her that unlike her oponent she refused to buy Gala for them”.
Take note Gala is a popular afternoon quick snack in Nigeria. Its also cheap. This narative once again brings to the fore the essence of our integrity and begs the question where does our value system lie?
So I shared the narrative with my guys during evening gist under the cool evening moon over drinks. Everybody begin vex saying it is a reflection of the society. Come and see argument
Uche naim start de vex “the buying of gala was a form of corruption as it can be an inducement….but in this case the timings seemed orchestrated by God plus it teaches a great lesson” Uche shouted.” posturing like he was giving sermon on the mount Olives.
Tobi supported “Gbam! Na de reality of today’s world be that. No one cares about your credentials, all they care about is the immediate benefits”.
But Steve replied “No be only for Naija e dey happen, na worldwide” angrily pumping his muscles almost spilling some of the precious Baileys in a glass tumbler he was holding.
Franco was like “other pipo dey do am but our own na anoda level, Naija no get mate for dis kain tin”
Imuwahen the lawyer (AKA Imuskilo) amongst us walked into the compound and enquired what the argument was all about. After receiving his briefing on comments so far he looked up at the sky as if examining it for a second, gave it a thought, while we were almost wondering if he had drifted away he came back to reality and was like “I have another take to this. In a democratic process, the electorate choose who they want to lead them based on what they feel is most pentinent to their agenda. Saying this… Na dem go face the consequences of their voting. E fit be say she was not sympathetic to their struggles. The fact say who buy gala fit be even better leader cannot be overruled. Dem never start, haunty don dey know who she better pass.”
Na why I dislike lawyers be dis. Too much reasoning.
But Franco still had a challenge “Why she no dey buy the gala regularly for them if she cares? Why she start when election reach? “
In my mind I said, “Franco why your papa dey pay your school fees when new term start dat year? Why he no just dey dish out the cash steady, mumu!”
Imuskilo retorted “where did you draw that inference from? Its called bias in law. One candidate spends money for posters and billboard, another went straight to the grassroots. For she to qualify for election alone, that should tell you something. How can you even verify the truthfulness of her statements? She claims she lost because the electorate was bribed but Na hearsay…. Thats like saying ‘I nor pass because teacher nor like me’ “.
The rest of the group eyed Imuskilo the Lawyer in anoyance for a while.
Belushi took the bull by the horn and decided to support Imus position “See. If u were there when she was giving her manifesto, maybe you for understand why the others went for her. Gala may just have been an additional incentive. Being smart doesn’t make u d best leader, u know…”.
Imuskilo agreed with him ” Exactly….as her papa nor get money for poster….she was able to think on her feet. Who does poster for secondary school election? Even teachers don dey collude with her papa dey push am to be headgirl. You suppose know wetin students go do na. Don’t underestimate our youth. You can’t use just gala to buy the votes of JSS1 to SS3 students… make we think am na!. .. na secondary school be this o!”
Indeed everyone chilled and gave it a thought for a moment.
Imuskilo noticed the impact of his logic so he added “…. so if person pikin tell am say e carry last for class cos the other children dey use jazz….make we just believe?”
But Belushi was not giving up his position so easily “dey there, many secondary schools now print posters, infact in my kids primary school dey make dem print posters and do debates”. For my mind I hala “Na wah!”
As we all stood up by 9:00pm to retire to our various apartments Belushi asked “na who turn e be to buy drinks tomorrow” and someone answered “na Imuskilo,…….he suppose add pepper soup join sef”, and Imuskilo responded “una go fit manage gala?”.
Everyone burst into a laughing frenzy!
More to come from the neighbourhood. Till then kindly drop us a comment.
