LOUD WHISPERS: Pease Help Us Beg Them

Please help us beg them

I am a card-carrying member of my political party

I will vote APC with my full chest in the next elections

I will vote for all the candidates of my party

I know others will make their own choices too

Please help us beg them

The big men and women who lock themselves up

In their air-conditioned offices

Which they step into from their freezing cars

After arriving from their cold mansions

Where there is everlasting light and bountiful food

Where the taps never run dry

Please help us beg them

Those who have been to ‘civilised’ countries

Yet civilization is so far from them

Please help us beg them

Some of them have never contested for elections

Some wanted to contest but it did not work for them

Some of them are reaping where they did not sow

Some of them are the ones giving a dog a bad name to hang it

If we have offended them, we are sorry

We did not know that belonging to a political party was an offence

 We did not know that planning to campaign, mobilise and organise to vote and be voted for was wrong

We should have been told that anyone who intends to spend money just before an election must be a thief

Please help us beg them

We are patriotic citizens

We abhor corruption

We hate those who steal our commonwealth and deprive us of what is ours

We support any strategy that will bring back our stolen money

All our money in septic tanks

Unused farms

Underground caves

Built-in safes

Wherever our money might be

We understand it is approximately U$3b

We are happy our money is seeing the light of day

We agree with the new policies

Some of them make sense

We are tired of our money growing wings all the time to destinations known and unknown

Yet

Please help us beg them

Why does this have to happen now?

Why does it have to be this way?

What is the rush?

Why punish all of us?

Why endanger all of us?

We hear it is because of the elections

We hear it is to curtail ‘Vote and cook soup’

We understand it is to prevent the big men from buying Nigeria

Please help us beg them

Some Nigerians can be bought

Nigeria cannot be bought

Some Nigerians might be thieves

Nigeria cannot be held to ransom just to catch them

You cannot impregnate a woman this week and expect her to give birth on the next market day

You cannot plant yams and embark on a premature harvest

You cannot tap a palm-wine tree without skillfully climbing all the way up

And patiently climbing all the way down

Please help us beg them

Where is their patience?

Where is their conscience?

When they gathered in their comfortable offices

Who else was there?

Who did they consult?

Where were the market women, fishermen, hairdressers,

drivers, bricklayers, plumbers?

Where were those who live in places far from banking halls and networks?

Where were those who could speak for the millions and millions of unbanked Nigerians who certainly need to be using banks

But still do not deserve to be punished because they don’t

Please help us beg them

Now we are queueing to pay in our old money

We are queueing to collect the new money

We are queueing to buy fuel for our cars to pay in our old money

We are queueing to buy fuel for our cars to collect the new money

We desperately need money for many things

Yet we can’t get our own money out

Our lives are now at risk

Our children are now at risk

Our elderly are now at risk

Did you hear a pregnant woman died yesterday?

No cash and no network for the POS

Please help us beg them

We are suffering

We are crying

We are in pain

Please help us beg them

To show mercy

To have patience

To think

To plan

To consult

Please help us beg them

There is a strange coincidence paving the way for a conspiracy theory

Old money is in bank vaults

New money is scarce

Fuel is scarce

Tempers are many and rising

Some are losing it and stripping naked in public places

How come all this is happening all at once and all right now?

There is anger, frustration and agony in the land

Please help us beg them

If there is a plan for chaos, let them perish the thought

We cannot afford a plunge into the abyss

No one will be spared

There will be no more air-conditioned offices, big mansions, nice cars and fancy suits

Our bodies will be littered all the way from Kafanchan to Kumasi

We will carry the scars for the next four generations

If you think this is an exaggeration

Ask Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and others

Please help us beg them

That is all there is left to do now.

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Social Entrepreneur and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.com