Mothers' cry (1994 - 1998) - Episode 7

 

Francis was reading a copy of Nigerian Voices newspaper, he was waiting for Salome to return from office, it was twenty-five minute past eight. Traffic in Lagos at that time will be heavy, he was hungry. He has checked the deep freeze inside Kitchen but it was empty.

Read " Talent on the Street " by the same author ( taiwo emmanuel )

. He had to settle for corn flakes he found inside fridge but he was not satisfied.

He heard his gate keeper greeting Salome when she drove in, she carried her bag with one hand and her high heeled shoe with another hand.

“Madam, why are you just coming from Office?” he flipped to another page of the newspaper.

“There was an emergency board meeting of my bank” Salome replied as she walked away, Francis rushed to the entrance of her bedroom, he blocked her from entering.

“What gives you audacity to walk out on me?”

She hissed, dropped her bag on the sofa close to her and sat beside it . Francis moved to her side, he sat close to her.

“I have resigned from the bank” she dropped the bombshell. Francis was dumbfounded, how would you take such decision without my consent as the head of this family? He was not ready for another round of brickbat over who is the head of the family.

He has lost appetite, he watched her going into her room

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. Why would she resigned from National Bank as an Executive Director? He remembered how she got the juicy job when they relocated to Nigeria. Her father called a serving General in the military that put her on the board of the bank.

Francis met the General when they arrived Nigeria, he learnt during their conversation that the General and her Father-in-Law attended the prestigious University Ibadan for their undergraduate study before his Father-in-Law relocated to the United Kingdom.

The General offered him an appointment with the News Agency of Nigeria but he declined his offer that he has gotten an appointment with the Nigerian Voices, he lied to the man, he hasn’t gotten any offer from the company because he wanted to practice in a private media house where he can write against any obnoxious policy of the Military Government.

He was speechless, he wanted to know the reason behind his wife’s action.

“Salome, can we talk now?” he tapped her.

She used back of her hand to wipe her face, both sat on the bed.

“Abacha will run” She looked at his face.

“Has he made up his mind?” Francis asked.

She explained to him that they are planning to use money to lure prominent politicians across the nation to support his bid, they will start a national demand urging the General to run, creating an impression to the international communities that Nigerians wanted Abacha to transmit to a civilian President. She resigned because they will use public fund for the campaign.

“National Bank, NNPC and CBN have been identified as financier of the project, the bank will collapse soon” Salome went to use the rest room.

When she returned, Francis asked her what her plan is.

“I will float a Civil Society group, Nigerian Arise” she brought out a document from her bag and gave it to hm.

“National Bank will collapse, depositors’ money will go down the drain and I don’t want to be part of it” she collected her document back from him.

“Can you survive Abacha’s guys brutality?” she stood up, cleared her throat and said “democracy worth a price we must all paid, even if it will take our lives for posterity sake”.

Salome’s statement was confirmed when Francis got to office the following morning, he opened his mail and saw a story reported  by the Washington Times where Abacha confirmed in an interview that he has the right to run. He read many times what Abacha said “The decision is my own constituency. It is not new in Africa, neither is it new in the sub region, where military people have stepped into politics”.

He forwarded the mail to Tayo and copied Edward, after he has called them on his intercom to demand for an urgent meeting. They agreed at the meeting to write their editorial about it the next day. He begged Tayo to allow him to write it because he wanted to raise national awareness about public fund with the National bank.

Edward told him to warn politicians to be wary of Abacha maneuvering to lure them into his game, five political parties have been cleared by the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria, NECON. Tayo was sarcastically in his response that both politicians and military guys are eating from this poisonous pot.