HE IS EVERYWHERE - by Àdùní

Yes, He is everywhere I have gone to a place where needles are used to pound yam. I saw him there. To the land of àwon àlujàànùú A place where lamentation is their song. I saw him there, swaying his hips to the rhythm. As if that wasn't enough, I went to the land of the deads, thinking he wouldn't be there But I met him there, dining and winning with the dead. The sound of their chewing filled the air like the hum of bees in their hives. I could see their Adam apples moving as they gulped. Chants in the language of the realm whispered low like a whistling wind of the harmattan. At this point, it was obvious that he was trailing me. I was worried. But what made me even more worried is the fact that he was always there before me, despite leaving these places before him. Was he using a teleporter? In fact I dunno. I stormed out and went straight to the coven of my mothers. The ones who tie hundred wrappers and none touch the ground. The nocturnal whisperers that cut through the night like the sound of a kowe bird pierces through the forest. I still met him there. This time, totally in another form He was sharing the proceeds of the meeting with them. He took the legs, the heart, the head, the liver and other important parts of the proceeds and left the crumbs for them. “Ha! why would only you…..” one of the mothers was about to protest but he gave her the intestines before she could even finish saying a word. My eyes became red like a flame and my breathing became uneven. “Not again!” I lamented Then I left the metaphysical realm to the physical world. To my surprise, I met him at the helm of affairs. Sitting comfortably in the corridor of power. And yes in another form. The one I have never seen before. He was in Agbádá… He was in every office. Every organization. Every agency. Every household. The sacred places were not spared. He had spread his branches like an Iroko tree. He had brought forth and multiplied. Every society was engulfed by him. I said to myself “Here is his headquarters" I began to wonder if there was no where he had not been. I looked back, he was there. I looked at the front, he was there. I looked up, he was there I looked down, he was there staring at me. I put my hands on my head and shouted his name, “CORRUPTION!” I wanted to scream but who would listen to my voice? The king had dined with him. The elders of the land had shared kolanuts with him. The religious leaders had rendered prayers and poured libation in its honour. The politicians? Ha! Don't let us go there because they had made him and his offspring the members of the cabinets. They had dominated the chambers. Every common man who had rebuked him in the morning had secretly benefited from him at night. “To whom could I turn to or should I join him” Then I remembered the mothers at the coven The dead in their realm The men in Agbádá, sitting comfortably at the corridor of power And it became clear to me that he wasn't following me but I was the one searching desperately for a place he didn't exist. And yet, I had seen him everywhere. In the hands that collected bribes. In the mouth that made promise they never intended to fulfill In the eyes that saw injustice and looked away In the fingers that signed the document they never read because their stomachs and pockets will be filled In the lecture halls where marks were sold like tomatoes in the terminus market. In the offices where employment is based on who you know, not merit. Nobody was ready to bring him down. Then, I realized that He had become one of them No He had become all of them. @Àdùní

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