JUST FOR A MOMENT

  JUST FOR A MOMENT...
        
            Written by EKeh Henry . K

      In a land far away.....
I believe that was how story lines began in the past, so many who read this story might the know about it. Whether that is true remains to be revealed or not. I will therefore advice that you grasp the information written between the lines. Happy following.
He was every bit of what every parent would want for a child, every woman for a husband, every offspring for a sibling, every leader for a follower, every congregation for a clergy and every landlord for a tenant. Though a regular Joe he was every bit a perfect guy except for what we call life.
Born into a family with good parents, and the second on the list of offsprings followed by a set of twins. A happy home they had , and as they grew the family bond strengthened, all four offsprings were intellectually sound but the prowess of one supercedes the rest yet he was the most humble, he would rather help his family members with what needed to be done than tag along with friends as such, he had limited friends save for a pretty damsel who no one knew what she saw in him. She would often than not come visiting but he rarely did visit yet she never complained because the relationship grew stronger. He gained admission to study medicine a dream he had always had. Everyone felicitated with him, as providence would have it he kept excelling.
In his fourth year in medical school, his mum was diagnosed of colon cancer and brain tumor at the same time; this was a great shock to everyone who heard about it because she was cautious of her health as she kept constant visit to her physician. Her treatment was started but she died after about eight months. Their hearts were broken they mourned her bitterly, six months later their father was struck with a strange ailment and in no time he too passed on. Life took another twist but for the wisdom of their parents who had opened educational accounts for each of them, they successfully completed their academic pursuits, then came the time to face the realities of life. The ladies got married and the eldest son also got married leaving the younger son who was the star of the family.
Despite the losses they encountered growing up they had become successful and prominent in the society. He somehow got reconnected to his childhood friend (Melissa) the only girl who had believed in him but at this time she had being married and had just come into the country for a function. He felt a sting of love and boom the fire was rekindled and before her departure they had developed a sexual relationship. Once again she found peace and happiness her parents and that of her hubby had been the brain behind her marriage but unknown to her own parents her hubby was a drug lord, the head of a dangerous cartel and he had a chain of prostitutes at his command. It took her three years to discover this and since then she started planning on how to leave the marriage. In no time her husband got wind of her relationship with her long lost lover. However, he sought ways to put an end to it but the more he tried the further away she slipped from him. He soon resorted to violence and in one swoop dealt a heavy blow on the young man ( kelvin) by eliminating his siblings and their families. It hit him like a bullet to the heart, it killed every atom of love and good in him. He became dead to the world but for reasons best known to him he refused to hurt her knowing fully well it was through her this disaster befell him. Instead he found himself going to seek the assistance of one of his close pals back in the days in the university; who happened to be a kingpin and cult leader. He narrated his ordeal to SCRATCH as he was fondly called and an all out war was declared on the perpetrators. But there was a slight problem because this guy ( Bobby) lived in another geographical location. So intense investigation and plan. The sexual relationship was intensified as Melissa constantly came into the country because her hubby had an on going project which she had to monitor its progress. Along the line kelvin discovered some anomalies in her test result when she was diagnosed of malaria but he didn't disclose it to her rather he corrected the error and ensured he got her pregnant. Sooner than not she was pregnant and the news got to her hubby, her parents and friends and hell was let loose..... But kelvin wasn't bothered one bit.

To Be continued....

DEMOCRACY AT ITS BEST

    The deed has been done, the long awaited elections have come and gone , and the handover successful despite the hitches. Before the elections and all that transpired, Nigerians were likened to a man whose wife was in the Labour room, his heart knows no peace, only anxiety, fear and worries, those wicked triplets that sure know how to deal with anyone no matter your status, age, religion or tribe.
    Agitations here and there, accompanied by political propaganda; the norm of our niche. The campaigns were nothing to write home about and I kept wondering to myself "why have we refused to be pulled out of this murky waters that get deeper and dirtier by every election year". Therefore, I ask; shall we continue to exist in this plane of electoral stupidity?
    This day and age, our politicians still go about with vote buying, thuggery and all what not. They don't even know how to sell their votes to the teeming populace. The few that even know how to won't even get half a chance to get to the seat of leadership. Every now and then, we hear of rigging!!! Why won't there be? We refuse to grant Justice to all.
   Some of the incidents reported during that period made me want to puke. That's how appalling the acts were to me. Kenya at the same time had elections but nothing of such was reported. Our politicians should cover their faces in shame. More so, INEC as a body deserves a slap because as the electoral body they have shown great incompetence, a returning officer stated that the results declared in a given state was done under duress. Politics of do or die.
    The truth be told, I am not surprised, that is why they never deliver on their electoral mandates, they are gods in their own paradise and the people have no right to question them, the members of NASS and House of Representatives are no better. They prefer to make laws that will further trample under feet the masses. I am yet to really see our legislators do their jobs, they only play to the gallery. They come up with constituency projects of drilling borehole water for the poor, put their pictures, names and write " Donated by Honourable ..,...."  How degrading and insulting, as if they are doing us a favour.
I hate the fact that none of our Journalists has come up to write extensively on such. You go to certain places and see patched roads that barely last two weeks and when asked how much spent, you hear outrageous sums of money. The police is underfunded, can you blame the poor officers when you see some of them collecting hundred Naira from motorists? That doesn't justify them either.
Our hospitals are a skeleton of itself, understaffed, under equipped, these people can only seek solace in foreign lands. So tell me; what kind of health practitioners will our institutions produce?  Hence, the saying "you only give what you have" . we have all along been walking on marshes, however, it's time to take a deeper walk into the murkiness with a closer look at our dying education and decayed research.
Show me a nation which claims to have good education without a research division and I will show you a day dreamer who will never wake up. The sleeping " GIANT" Nigeria falls in this category. As much as I hate to insult these leaders, the level of their intelligence is called to question.  Sometimes when I sit to watch their plenary I shake my head in disgust.
   People complain that they send their kids out to foreign lands for education, lol , why won't they? Do you think they will empower you? Know ye not that knowledge is power? I am of the opinion that our people are certified not educated, only when we merge study with research can we truly say we are educated. The level of harassment on youth is really going off the hook, especially by uniformed men who are meant to protect lives and property. Everyone is now a "yahoo boy", what happened to innocent until proven otherwise? Where is freedom of movement? Even when you identify yourself they will look for something to implicate you. No wonder the late FELA hated them so much. Poverty has driven families to things unimaginable, electricity is a matter for another year.
  In conclusion, i simply ask what are the tenets of democracy? Where is our productivity? Where are the industries, the farms, our creativity? We have suddenly become trend followers, like a cult. One person starts one thing the rest follow sheepishly. When will we have leaders and not rulers? We need to think outside the box.
Nigeria is not so difficult. Give us a better life, grant justice, let democracy thrive, eschew ethnicity and see if this nation won't grow. Let people get positions by merit not affiliation. Stop the suffering.
God bless Nigeria!!!

THE VOICE

     The year 2014 in the month of December the 15th day, the Greenock mall, a haven of quality goods and services, was a beehive of activities, people trooping in and out in their large numbers, a clear sign that the festive season. The staff had so much on their plate. Orders coming in and going out, a very tough period especially for the department of sales and purchase headed by young Milton Kurt, a very intelligent and hardworking graduate of Business Administration. He had saved the company huge sums of money, little wonder was made Head of Department in just eight months of joining, even at 33years of age he was a beauty to behold at what he knows best to do. He could only pray for time to fly so he could quickly go home to relax for the weekend. Saturday shoppings were always hectic during ordinary time let alone festive ones.
       At about 10:30pm he drove into the car park, staggered up to the third floor of the five storey where where his apartment was located, tired and drowsy he flung himself unto the couch,managed to turn on the television set there wasn't much to view he turned it off and slept, still in his work outfit. What a wrecked engine he was.
  Beep!! Goes the alarm clock, he turned and saw it was 6:30am he jumped out of the couch, struggled out of his work clothes dumped them there and dashed into the bath and cleaned up, prepped for church. He started running helter-skelter looking for his church materials, suddenly it occurred to him that he left them in the car after the weekly program. He hurried out towards the car, on getting to the car, he remembered he had left his wallet in the back pocket of the trousers he wore the previous day. He quickly ran back to get it, he got it and at that time his phone rang, it was a member of his unit urging him not to be late. He told him he was on his way. He was beginning to sweat a little, he got into the car, got the engine running and because of the sweat turned on the air conditioning system as he pulled away. The church was about 20mins drive from his place so he did a 75km/h speed.
     Along the way, he noticed people gathered ahead so he slowed down as he approached and noticed it was an accident involving a family of four; a father, a mother and a set of twins , whose car had skidded off the road and plunged head on into a ditch created due to human errors about a week ago. He came closer to the scene and a voice said " that should have been you " he turned around but there was no one behind him, he remembered he was headed to church and left. As he drove all the way to church he felt uneasy and even while the service was on. His mind was fixated on the words and the voice. He waited after service to see the Reverend for a better knowledge of what had happened and the pastor was astonished at his tale. To help him understand better he asked if such had ever happened before, he paused took a deep breath and went down memory lane and recalled his experience at age 9 when he first experienced such but as a kid thought it was his mind playing games. It happened a few more times then stopped and became more constant about five years ago but none of those things happened to him except one and none was about death. He was still deep in thought when the pastor called his name "Mr Milton !!!"  He snapped out of the thought. Since you said only one happened to you, can you recall the incidences , were there others beside you? He said yes! Except on the occasion of the one that happened to me. OK! Can you recall who was beside you today, was it a familiar face?
He thinks for sometime and says " yes!" It was Mr Karmin, one of our customers at the mall. I don't drink nor do I smoke... You have to look for him and tell him to be careful. The pastor gave him some books that might be helpful and bade him farewell. He left but couldn't help what he had experienced earlier. He had something light to eat and sunk into his couch had a brief look at the books he was given but his mind was entangled in the events of the past so he opted for the option of watching the television. On comes the television and there was a new series on it was titled  Ghost Whisperer . He sought of picked interest and realised that the young lady had something close to what he was experiencing. He followed that episode and went further to find out what his case was called and he found it online;he was a  clairaudient. A week later he ran into Mr Kardim in the mall and told him what he experienced, he thanked him and said he had been noticing the signs.
Milton started reading the books and started enhancing his inert powers. He later became a minister using his gifts to reach out to souls .