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The story sounded strange, but it was the state telling it. Four children identified as Chinweotiti Chimaobi (7, female), Nmesomachi Chimaobi (7, female), Testimony Chimaobi (4 male) and Godswill Chimaobi (2, male) had gone missing, but the circumstances were suspect. Their parents, Mr Chimaobi Agha and his wife Oluchi, residents of Umuagu-Ibeku in Umuahia North area of the state, had stormed the Ohuhu Police Divisional Headquarters on November 28 to report the case, and if the police still behaved like they did during the days captured in a novel by Nigerian writer Buchi Emecheta, Oluchi should have been given an entire congo of gari to drink with strict orders to leave no leftovers. Per the police spokesman, ASP Maureen Chinaka, the incident happened on November 27 when Oluchi, having taken the children to the junction of her street, put them in a commercial tricycle operated by an unknown person, mandating him to convey them to their school, Great Ambassadors College, located within the area. Said Chinaka: “No one escorted or went with them, considering that the eldest is seven years and the tricyclist is unknown. Unfortunately, at the end of the school day, the children did not return home as anticipated.” The police have since launched a hunt.

As I ponder the case of these four innocent children, the words of the Ugandan writer, Agona Apell, come to mind: “Today’s troubled homes are made by parents who want to have children but don’t want their children to have parents.” And let’s not forget the English philosopher John Locke: “Parents wonder why the streams are bitter when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.” It is beyond shocking that a mother, in these perilous times when death literally stalks the streets, mandated an unknown tricycle rider to shepherd her children to school. Folks!, women are fast disappearing from our society, gradually replaced by dolls, like the celebrity who recently told Nigerians that her marriage crashed because her husband actually expected her to clean up the household and to cook, whereas there were maids. The bimbo wondered why she had to cook for her family, yet she had got married in a glamorous ceremony. Now, where is the chore that precluded Oluchi from taking her children to school? The chore is now a curse.

What manner of parent toys with children in this callously carefree manner? My heart bleeds for the innocent children thrust upon a world of pain. The Yoruba say “Omo mi ku san ju omo mi nu” (It is better to know that one’s child is dead than to merely know that he/she is lost). Many are no longer parents, burdened by nonsense even as the traders in human blood prowl the streets, looking for prey. This is the same country where bloodthirsty demons abducted Chibok girls, stole Leah sharibu and army lieutenant P.P Johhnson, and literally butchered Private Gloria Mathew and her groom, MWO Linus Audu. Only this week, a fresh student of the Obafemi Awolowo University was butchered in Ogun State for the price of a goat. The streets drip with danger, the killers armed with daggers; only God can save. In the early 80s from Sango to Ekotedo, Ibadan, no one heard of the abduction of a pupil. We bought dankua, kulikuli, condense, etc, and partied our way to school.

Even if the Abia Four had got safely to school, the children of darkness could have invaded that space and ferried them away to silence, and so this isn’t just about careless parents: it is the story of a land clearing its path to hell. The lunatics who imposed themselves on the land through judicial electors do not care that the country is collapsing; their interest is power and more power wielded for retrogression. They will cry their usual hypocritical tears, distancing themselves from the monsters they made, but we all know the truth.

The killers are in clubs violating the ladies of night, dazzled by hypemen; they are in churches giving testimonies of business boom; they are in parties brandishing crisp notes and casting furtive glances at other bosoms; they are wrapped in robes observing Solat; they are in the streets building boreholes and providing transformers, hiding a life of crime under devious charity, proud offspring of the “directors without offices” that repulsed the juju singer I.K Dairo to no end. They thrive because the society, seized by the god of currency notes, has cast away questions and caution.

The streets must rise against these cannibals; the Abia four must be rescued. The police should search every bush path, every hotel and every abandoned building. The youth should troop into the streets. Let celebrities put their money to good use by splashing the children’s pictures everywhere. The children may still be alive. Let jingles rule the airwaves: the perpetrators will strike again if they get away with this sacrilege. The society should send them to the gallows. If the children are not found, their parents will freeze. As the Filipino writer Joyce Rachelle once wrote: “Some scars don’t hurt. Some scars are numb. Some scars rid you of the capacity to feel anything ever again.”

Nigeria’s new electoral college

Ritualists steal children, but judicial jagudas steal entire people’s futures as Nigeria’s new Electoral College. They are now party delegates, installing preferred candidates through indirect primaries: a bunch of depraved, hell-bound philistines. Smoking constitutional marijuana, they give horrendous interpretations of the law that will make even Lucifer the master of artifice green with envy. But in spite of themselves, they cannot avoid leaving evidences of truth in their poems of slaughter.

Lately they have promoted themselves, ensconced in dirty robes reeking of bribes and professional cultism. But even in promotion they rob the river to please the lagoon. Theft is buried in their blood. They rob and cheat in broad daylight, subverting people power and suppressing vast populations through jurisprudential terrorism, yet they wonder why we no longer respect them. The image that the wig calls up nowadays is that of Anini and Oyefusi. One delegate sacked an entire assembly, deeming the ruling party’s structure ineffectual, and awarded victory to shameless thieves now warming up to take seats that were never offered by the community. These characters have lost the plot, punishing populations with their newfound power to transfer power. They are the supreme curse upon a land ruled by robbers.

Re: Divorce is now aso ebi, when are you buying your own?

Sir! Your write up in Tribune on Saturday is not only an eye opener to one of contributing ingredients to causes vices in our society but also an emissary to the elevators and sponsors of bad representation of our cultural values. Honestly,many of these female actors ( males are not excluded) are a bundle of disgrace to the industry. “Igboro ti daru”, courtesy of whores in the entertainment industry in Nigeria. Bon courage, sir! (08136916802)

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