\u201cThey\nwill not die well. Their children will die wretched. Their children\u2019s\nchildren\u2019s children will not prosper. Their first ladies shall become last\nladies. Vultures shall devour their eyes, and darkness perpetual shall descend\non them and their families. Their sun shall set in the afternoon. Their\npregnancies shall be aborted. I call on the blood of Jesus. Blood of Jesus. All\nthose who brought Nigeria on her knees shall die. Die! Die! Die!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMadam,\nplease offload\u201d, the commercial auto cycle rider charged as he ordered Ngozi\noff his bike. \u201cI can no longer bear these heavy curses. Wetin? What\u2019s it?\nTalking to yourself and raining curses. Haba!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mungo Park had been very reluctant to carry Ngozi on his autocycle, but having observed that her attempts to board a bike had been rebuffed by several of his colleagues, he took pity on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As\nshe mounted the two-wheeled auto, three-quarters of her large rear could not\nfind accommodation on the six-inch half broken passenger seat. The tyres were\nstruggling to support the three hundred-kilogram human load mounted on them.\nAnd if we were to add the one hundred-kilogram weight of Mungo Park, it was\nobvious that the auto might be having its last days on the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ngozi\ncontinued to mumble torrents of curses as she now had to rely on her legs for\nthe remaining 2 kilometres to the orthopaedic hospital where her daughter, the\neldest of seven children was battling for survival. \u2018They will die. They will\ndie. All those heartless beasts who chopped all our nation\u2019s money and\nconsigned the rest of us to this miserable penury will die.\u2019 As Ngozi continued\nwith her soliloquy of rage, her mind was steadied on her days at the University\nof Nigeria, Nsukka where she had studied chemistry thirty-five years earlier,\nand was wondering how in her late fifties, all she could show for her\neducation, her meritorious service as a teacher and retired school principal\nwas a daily agonising cruise on \u2018okada\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Esther,\nNgozi\u2019s daughter, was rushing to make it to the bank where she had just got a\njob after a painful six-year post graduation wait on the labour market when she\nfell off a speeding auto-cycle. While her mother was wailing outside the\nhospital, Esther\u2019s mind was also clouded by the horrible experience she had at\nthe first \u2018welcome on board\u2019 meeting she and her newly recruited colleagues had\nwith the Operations Director of Bottomley Bank. \u201c Look\u201d, the Director submitted\nwith an air of finality \u201c Gone are the days when customers are begging the bank\nfor patronage. You have to give whatever is demanded by your client to get us\nbig cash deposits. And I mean anything and everything. This bank will not\naccept excuses from any of you. Let me put it bluntly; if you must sleep your\nway through, so be it. And if your religion forbids you from performing your\nobligations to the bank, I advise you to seek your bread at your place of\nworship. Period.\u201d Tears started rolling down Esther\u2019s cheeks as nurses gathered\nround her to adjust her legs hung on bed poles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At\nthirty-one, Esther had not been lucky to find a man to marry her. In fact,\nmarriage had been the last subject on her mind as she was engaged in job search\nfor years, and at most turns, she and her friends had been taken advantage of\nin a country with well over 30 million unemployed. And in any case most men of\nher age and those five or even nine years older are not in position to marry.\nThey too are unemployed. They are frustrated, angry, and are constantly on the\nverge of seeking refuge in armed robbery and fraudulent activities. She\nremembered nostalgic stories of her father\u2019s days at Ibadan University. \u2018If my\nfather did not share a room with anybody while at Ibadan some forty years ago,\nhad his clothing washed and laundered by the university, served whole chicken\nat meals, how come that in my time, about twelve of us were sharing one room?\nWhy should a country be going down the slope with this terrific speed? Why on\nearth should a country that boasts the largest revenue earning in Africa be\ngroaning under the weight of poverty and want? Why should we be having\nauto-cycles as the commonest mode of transportation in this age and time? The\nhumiliation, the indignity of having to roll up your skirts past your knees,\nsometime revealing your underwear? A respectable housewife, a corporate lady, a\ncollege principal, all having to sit behind a stinking dirty Okada rider?\nSometimes body hugging. And the risk to limbs and arms?\u2019 All these thoughts\nrushed through Esther\u2019s head while ward attendants on the instruction of the\nward matron kept her mother outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese\npeople will die. They will perish. See me, I lost my husband on Sagamu-Benin\ncontraption called Highway. Nigerian road killed him before his time. Five of\nmy graduate children have got no job. And these useless government people are\ngiving out auto cycles on a \u2013hire-purchase- basis. That is their own wobbled\nsolution to unemployment. God will punish them. Do they give cycles to their\nown children and make Okada riders of them? They will die. Their great great\ngrandchildren will die wretchedly. The money they accumulate will not even last\na generation. Die! Die!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Die!\nDie!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ngozi\nwas given the sad news that her daughter had to be amputated if the gangrene on\nher two legs was not to be allowed to consume her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYe\nParipa!\u201d Ngozi screamed the phrase learnt from her long stay with Ijebus at\nOjota. \u201c I will die. Let me die.\u201d She was running up and down like some one\npossessed. And as she swooned, her sixty-inch buttocks danced the kpalongo\ndance. Mungo Park, the Okada rider, was at the hospital premises. He had\nbrought another visitor whose husband was a dying victim of the Okada. He\nrecognised Ngozi, but Ngozi was too dazed to have a recollection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMadam,\nplease take it easy\u201d That was all Mungo Park could say before Ngozi rested her\nfull weight on him like a drowning man clinging to life support. \u201cPlease take\nheart. I beg.\u201d Mungo park did not know what else to say. He too was a\nuniversity graduate who took to Okada business as a way of keeping body and\nsoul together. At 39, he too was still unable to take a wife. And each time he\nplied the university route and carry undergraduates as passengers he was\nmindful of the fate awaiting them on graduation. And the irony, as he once\nexplained to his mother, was that there were also university undergraduates\nwhose rich parents or wealthy men-friends give cars to as birthday presents!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomeday\u201d Mungo Park tried to console himself, \u201c a generation of revolutionary youth shall emerge that will query the bastardisation of our values, challenge the barrage of injustices, and bring to book, a la Rawlings, the so-called leaders who brought the Okada generation to our country. And God knows that if I had my way, I\u2019ll be the first to ban Okada throughout Nigeria. It is dehumanising. But for now, \u2018How for Do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey will not die well. Their children will die wretched. Their children\u2019s children\u2019s children will not prosper. Their first ladies shall become last ladies. Vultures shall devour their eyes, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":15756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[18791],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Tola-Adeniyi-new-pic-.jpg?fit=600%2C585&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":155545,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/10-things-to-do-to-be-free-from-spiritual-bondage-pastor-olukoya-reveals\/","url_meta":{"origin":127685,"position":0},"title":"10 Things To Do To Be Free From Spiritual Bondage \u2013 Pastor OLUKOYA Reveals","author":"Isaac Abimbade","date":"May 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"For some days now the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire & Miracle Ministries (MFM), Pastor Daniel Olukayo has been teaching his members and other Christians in Nigeria and all over the world how to free themselves from every demonic bondage. He called it Deliverance On The Airway. It\u2019s is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/MFM-GO.jpg?fit=802%2C433&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/MFM-GO.jpg?fit=802%2C433&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/MFM-GO.jpg?fit=802%2C433&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/MFM-GO.jpg?fit=802%2C433&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9186,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/buhari-will-die-unless-not-called-god-prophet-chukwudi\/","url_meta":{"origin":127685,"position":1},"title":"Buhari Will Die Unless I Am Not Called By God \u2013 Prophet Chukwudi","author":"Reporter","date":"February 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Prophet Emmanuel Chukwudi of King of Kings Deliverance Church has again prophesied \u2018doom\u2019 on President Muhammadu Buhari. The prophet also made startling revelations concerning the future of governance in the United States. Recall that Prophet Chukwudi, among his prophecies for 2017, had said President Buhari would die before 2019 ends.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media"","block_context":{"text":"Media","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/news\/media\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/prophet.jpg?fit=960%2C519&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/prophet.jpg?fit=960%2C519&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/prophet.jpg?fit=960%2C519&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/prophet.jpg?fit=960%2C519&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5941,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/kemi-olunloyo-angela-okorie-war-bobrisky-read-full-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":127685,"position":2},"title":"Kemi Olunloyo and Angela Okorie at war over Bobrisky [Read Full Season]","author":"Reporter","date":"January 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Y\u2019all remember last week, when Kemi Olunloyo shades Angela Okorie for making an Instagram post to diss Bobrisky. 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Read what she wrote: \u00a0 \"You wanted my attention, Now you can have it, I see your madness has gone to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","block_context":{"text":"Entertainment","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/entertainment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/FotorCreated.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/FotorCreated.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/FotorCreated.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2510,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/2017-nnamdi-kanu-will-released-buhari-will-die-prophet-chukwudi\/","url_meta":{"origin":127685,"position":3},"title":"2017: Nnamdi Kanu will be released, Buhari will die \u2013 Prophet Chukwudi","author":"Reporter","date":"January 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Prophet Emmanuel Chukwudi of King of Kings Deliverance Church, has released his prophecies for 2017, among which is the release of Nnamdi Kanu, detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. 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\u2013 10 Psalm 112 v 7 \u201cHe shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.\u201d 2 Corinthians 5 v 7 \u201cFor we walk by faith, not by sight\u201d Eph. 6 v 16 \u201cAbove all,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/adb2f71f-9562-421a-9b40-f0a8c83cde76.jpg?fit=1032%2C787&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/adb2f71f-9562-421a-9b40-f0a8c83cde76.jpg?fit=1032%2C787&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/adb2f71f-9562-421a-9b40-f0a8c83cde76.jpg?fit=1032%2C787&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, 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