Litany of Woes

By Dr. Tabowei

There is no available information at this time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Dec 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456838300

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Tabowei.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2010918860

ISBN: Hardcover    978-1-4568-3829-4

ISBN: Softcover      978-1-4568-3828-7

ISBN: Ebook          978-1-4568-3830-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

0-800-644-6988

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

[e-mail]

301338

Contents

Chapter 1: Litany of Woes

Chapter 2: A State of Disrepair

Chapter 3: A Pleasant Surprise

Chapter 4: The August Visitor

Chapter 5: A Conspiracy

Chapter 6: Renovation

Chapter 7: Great Disappointment

Chapter 8: More Allegations

Chapter 9: Accreditation

Chapter 10: The Expensive Corpse

Chapter 11

Chapter 12: A Vain Effort

Chapter 13: The Height of Ignorance

Dedication

To my lovely wife, Philomena Ifem Tabowei, and my children—Azubuike, Williams, Godfrey, Michael, Ada, Buchi, and Peremobowei Tabowei. God bless you all.

Chapter 1

Litany of Woes

My Sore Removal

The time was exactly 8.05 p.m. It was a Friday night, and I was preparing to attend a friend’s daddy’s wake ceremony in the next village. That Friday, we were very busy at a workshop organised by the ministry. I was close to breaking point due to exhaustion. As I was contemplating what to do, my wife handed a letter to me. It was one of those memos from the board on staff discipline. As a routine, such letters were not kept at home. I took them to the office for filing. This was to avoid them being misplaced. My children were young and energetic. The house was also congested as a result of the social problem of the extended family system prevalent in this part of the world.

To avoid the embarrassing situation of losing such an important document, I had to take it straight to the office. Since I lived within the hospital premises, no matter what time I got such letters, I took them straight to the office and filed them. This had been my practice. Slowly, I strolled to the office. I had wanted to eat before I made what turned out to be my last official journey as the medical director. Like a snail climbing a rock, I literally waded my way to the office. Halfway through, the lights went off.

‘Oh, this light! When will it be steady? There is never a time electricity in this region is on for twelve hours without interruption,’ I wondered. To aid my way in the darkness, I had to go back to the house so that I could pick up a torch.

Briskly, I climbed the staircase and got to the first floor in seconds. I dashed to my room and searched for the torch. Before I found it, suddenly the lights came on. ‘Oh, the power holding company of the largest black country is at it again. When will we ever have constant light and clean water?!’ I exclaimed. ‘Thank goodness the light is back.’ To avoid a repeat incident, I went along with the torch in hand.

Then it seemed I had recovered some of my lost energy. The power failure seemed to have infused some energy inside me. Swiftly, I moved to the office. On getting to the door, I discovered to my dismay that the security officer on duty had locked the main entrance. ‘Oh! What a day!’ I thought. Once again, I walked back home to pick up the spare key. It was not difficult to find it. Armed with the torch and the key, there was no other obstacle that could prevent me filing the letter that night. Walking carelessly, I moved towards my office.

The security lights were all out of function at that period. We had made several appeals to the authorities to come to our aid financially without any meaningful result.

‘Oh, young man, you are doing very well,’ they would always reply. ‘Put it up in writing. We will see what we will do this time around,’ they always reassured me.

‘Sir, but I just did that few weeks ago.’

‘Is that so? I cannot find a copy of your letter in the file. Kindly write another one. This time around, I will personally take it to the governor for immediate actions. We had a dinner last night together. We will be meeting again tomorrow for special discussions. So, believe me, he will sign the approval this time around.’

The corridor leading to the office was in darkness. It was the reflection of movement of a long object near the door that drew my attention. I took a close look at the floor. Behold, right there in front of the door were two snakes fighting.

At first, I thought they were mating. However, with a closer look, I discovered that these reptiles must have been fighting for supremacy. A few metres away from where they were tangled was a lifeless frog. ‘O ho! This might be the reason for their struggle. That was a fight for survival. It was a fight for life. The biggest and the strongest takes it all. The weaker ones live hungry and unnoticed until they are finally annihilated. That is life,’ I thought. ‘The survival of the fittest!’

I watched this apparent film-like scene with utmost interest. Since I was some metres away from the warring snakes, I was not perturbed by their actions. Finally, the bigger one seemed to be having an upper hand. Together, they crawled into a hole that resulted from a crack on the wall of the building. Satisfied that I was safe, I opened the door and entered the main hall.

Everything seemed apparently normal as I entered the office. Without delay, I found the appropriate file and put the letter inside. Feeling triumphant and having a false sense of bravery after having watched two snakes fighting, I began to walk back, this time with caution and care. Again, my attention was drawn by some noise at the exit. Two wall geckos were engaged in a ferocious fight. One of them lost its tail in the process. I ignored these animals and began my journey home.

I noticed a shadow near the entrance to the main building as I approached the house. On getting closer, the figure became clearer. It was the shadow of a young man. He was resting his two hands on the rail of the staircase. Without fear, I went closer to him.

‘Good evening, sir,’ his voice echoed as he greeted me. ‘I have a letter for you, sir,’ he said, feigning a smile. ‘It is from the board,’ he continued. ‘I was instructed to hand it to you personally, without fail.’ As he spoke, he handed over a sealed envelope to me. As we were still standing, looking for a brighter source of light to sign the letter, my neighbour, a lady, emerged from her flat. We exchanged pleasantries as our eyes met. I guess the messenger must have stumbled on her before.

Everything looked blurred as I did not have my reading glasses on me. After two unsuccessful attempts, I signed the column.

Having signed for the letter, I handed it over to my friend to assist me read through it. I had no idea what it contained. It might have been a letter of invitation to attend a workshop. This was usually the way they came, especially when they were interested and hoped to fill the space if you failed to respond on time. Sometimes we got the letters weeks after we had come back from a conference. Sometimes they never came at all.

She scanned through its content carefully, frowning as she did this. Then she exclaimed, ‘Why should they serve you such a letter at this time of the day?’ This question sent a wave of fear through my spine like an electric current. My heart missed a beat, but I was in total control of my emotions.

‘What is it? Tell me.’ I muttered.

She hesitated, drew in a deep breath, and became mute.

‘Please, tell me the content!’ I barked fiercely. Reflexively, I withdrew the letter from her rather roughly. I tried to read the content, but the only things clear to me were the logo of the ministry and that of the board. In a moment, I began to sweat profusely. My heart was hammering away inside my ribcage. I began to have involuntary tremors. Tears like mist crystallised in my eyes. Thank God it was night. Her sight was slightly better than mine. She did not notice it. She was shaking her head in total disbelief.

With shaky hands, I handed the letter back to her. Bending down and turning around with the paper spread out, she changed her position. I guess she was looking for a brighter source of light. She took a deep breath, hesitated, and sighed. Shaking her head a few times, she thrust the paper forward. With a tremulous voice that was devoid of pity and any form of emotion, she began to read the letter.

‘We are grateful for the services you have rendered to us over the years. Accept our congratulations on the completion of your tenure of office  . . . Thanks.’ This was the concluding part of the letter.

‘Praise God for relieving me of this burden!’ I shouted. I said this with both hands lifted up to heaven involuntarily. ‘Almighty God, I thank you for everything,’ I said, unconsciously holding my breath and blinking fast as if stung by a wasp.

Then turning to her, I said in a composed manner; ‘Is that why you are behaving like the world has come to an end?’ I scarcely believed it was me speaking. The voice was calm and devoid of any form of emotion. However, I was quivering inwardly. My friend was watching for reactions. I guess she was expecting a total emotional paralysis and collapse from me. Perhaps she was too involved while attempting to read the letter. So she may not have noticed the acute panicky state that I went through a few seconds earlier. But I recovered fast.

My brain was scanning from one event to the other. I would not let this lady know that I was in any way affected adversely by the sudden change of status. That was a change from being the head to nothing. I stood there with her and discussed some social problems in the country. Satisfied with my pretences, I excused myself and then went off.

With unbelievable speed, I ran upstairs, jumping two steps at a time. Getting to the house, I went straight to my room. Luckily my wife was at home preparing the room for the children to sleep. Swiftly, I handed the letter to her. I stood some distance away, watching her reaction. She repeated the same words that I had spoken earlier to our friend downstairs.

‘God Almighty, I thank you for everything,’ she said, waving her hands in the air. ‘Let them take their hospital and run it. To be frank, I have been praying for a day like this to come. I thank God it has finally come. We will now have some peace and rest of mind. My ears are full  . . .’

The change actually did not come as a surprise. Events of the recent past had pointed to the fact that I had a few days to serve as the top executive of the establishment. Earlier that day, an insider had confided in me of a hearsay report about a plot to remove me from office. According to him, the letter for my termination would be sent to me soon.

Talking about me, they had alleged that, ‘He is becoming too powerful and arrogating enormous powers to himself. He runs the establishment as if it’s personal property. This should not be allowed in a public organisation.’

As my wife was busy thanking God for the successful completion of my tenure, the actual weight of what I was to go through overwhelmed me. It was as if I was suffocating, so I began to breathe with some difficulty. My nerves were jumpy, and I lost concentration. For a very long time, I stood and was lost in thought.

The first obstacle I had to face was the problem of taking my children to school and bringing them back home after school. It was over six years since I did that in Lagos.

Financially, my account was also in the red. I was investing all my earnings in the building and furnishing of my clinic. The problem became acute due to the news of the coming of the liquefied natural gas project to the area. Everyone around was gearing up to gain maximally from the project. As a result, the landlords were continually changing tenancy agreements. As a matter of urgency, I diverted the little capital I had to the construction of my clinic. Thank God the clinic was at an advanced stage of completion before the bombshell was dropped.

Moreover, I was preparing the clinic to meet any international standard so that I could go into partnership with the oil companies when they finally resumed operation.

Thirdly, my coronation as the king of my community was three weeks away. Although the coronation was supposed to be a community affair, the response by the sponsors was not very encouraging. I had a feeling that the whole expenditure might fall back on me. Quickly, I dismissed any form of anxiety arising from this. ‘If the worst comes, my family will bail me out,’ I thought. How wrong I was! I was merely building a castle in the air.

As she was still singing praises to God, an idea occurred to me. I thought of setting in motion the process of handing over. I braced myself and left the bedroom for the sitting room. There, my children were eating and watching television. They were not aware of the recent event. As I entered the sitting room, my eyes fell on the desktop computer that I was using. It belonged to the hospital. The one I bought for my family was taken to the technician for upgrading over a year ago. My children had made several attempts to recover it without success.

The computer technician had moved to a new site. According to them, the desktop was left in the store. Each time they went there, a new excuse emerged. They were tired of paying transport in vain to recover it. Frustrated, they stopped going to ask for it. It was a big relief for me when, in the course of renovating the hospital, I had converted to personal use the computer that was in my office.

I had to make a requisition for it to avoid any form of embarrassment that may have arisen. Like I mentioned earlier, I had to return the computer to the office, but I could not do it without involving the children.

With a stern voice, I ordered them to unplug, disconnect, and assemble the whole piece. Without questioning, the elder ones obeyed my instructions. However, one of the young and inquisitive ones had asked rather politely, ‘Daddy, where are we going with the computer?’

‘My dear, I have been removed as the head of this hospital. A new person, who incidentally is a friend, has been appointed. So I am returning those items which are not mine to the office.’

‘Daddy, what did you do before they removed you?’ he enquired again. I was expecting this question, so I had rehearsed in my mind the way to answer it.

‘You see, the headship of any government organization is usually rotational. Here the leadership is supposed to change every two years, but I have been here for five good years. So I was long overdue for change.’

‘Daddy, are we going to leave this house?’

I was not prepared for this and was caught off guard. However, I reasoned fast and gave a reply, stammering, ‘No, not yet. We will leave after completing my building in the village.’

‘Village!’ chorused the children as if they had rehearsed the answer. ‘Which village? I cannot stay in the village, ooooh.’

A wave of anger swept through me as they said this but I controlled my emotion.

‘When the time comes, we shall see,’ I replied with a solemn voice. They read the danger signal in my tone and stopped further questions.

Like bees going for honey, they shared the components of the computer among themselves. Happily, they carried it to my office. I was right behind them as they carried the monitor and cords. As we proceeded to the office, we met one of the matrons standing near my vehicle.

‘Why are you moving this item this night?’ she asked, smiling. By this time, I had recovered from the initial shock. I was now fully restored to my old playful self. However, her question really took me aback.

Thinking fast to avoid her suspecting the emotional trauma I was undergoing, I replied to her that I had to start the handover process immediately and that I had been preparing for that a long time ago. I concluded by saying that a minute delay was dangerous. I passed without looking in her direction. Behind me, I knew she was staring at me in utter disbelief. Quickly, I turned back and saw her gazing at me. She began to shake her head when I turned without notice. Slowly, her shadow faded away into the darkness.

There in the office, I began to organise my things: books, documents, and other personal effects. My children were not left out in sorting out my things and keeping the office tidy.

For the three days that followed, I went through one of the greatest challenges of my life. Thank goodness it was a weekend. I had abandoned my busy clinic to clean up the office. In that regard, my family was very useful and cooperative. I resolved to hand over a clean office to my successor. There was so much dust and dirt in the office. In high spirits, we worked throughout that weekend.

At the end of the third day, I had to sit down to reflect on what I was to expect the following day.

The news of my removal as the director of the medical centre had gone to every nook and cranny of the state. Some of the members of staff claimed that they heard about the change more than a week before the news was broken to me. However, this information was kept away from members of my family.

I woke up very early that Monday morning and made straight for the office. I locked myself inside. Nobody knew I was within the hospital complex. As workers came in from various parts of the state after the weekend, the news of the change of baton was the talk of the day.

There were three groups of people. The first was indifferent. It consisted of people who were showing no concern whatsoever about what had happened. They believed they could work with anyone. ‘The young man has tried his best. He has done what many of us cannot do. He has transformed the hospital to a model. Let another person come and steer the ship.’ This group was made up of a handful of people, though.

The other group was made up of those who were happy that at last the long awaited change had come. To them, I was an obstacle to their progress. Things were not flowing the way they ought to be. ‘The board has made a good decision. Let him go. He has used all our meagre resources to cater for members of his family. Look at his house, always filled with visitors. How can a civil servant run such a large house? Let us see how he will cope now that he is no longer in power. Good for him.’ Those in this group were very few as well.

Some members of this faction claimed they had facilitated the change. ‘You know the chief in command is a cousin. When things were not moving on well and everything seemed static, I met him. He promised me long ago that he would withdraw him. He is lucky to have lasted this long.’

‘It is his father.’

‘What do you mean that it is his father? Is he a powerful man in the government?’

‘Oh, are you a stranger in Israel?’

‘Come on, what do you mean?’

‘If you don’t know, let me tell you. The father is a very powerful traditional healer. He has done a lot of magical things around this kingdom.’ Talking in a lower tone, the woman continued, ‘It is said that he is responsible for the killing of many people in his village.’ She looked around to see if anyone was within hearing distance. Satisfied, she continued, ‘They said he is not even a native of that village. They have driven him twice, but he refused to go home. Please do not say I told you.’

‘Is that so? If the father is so powerful and has all the powers attributed to him, why have they removed his son from office now?’ she asked mockingly.

‘My friend, are you a lawyer?’

‘No, I am not, but only being a little inquisitive.’

‘Everything on earth has its time and purpose. His cup is full, so he has to go.’

‘If that be the case, then his purpose for being appointed as a director has been achieved.’

‘That may be true. Every magic has its lifespan. It fades with time. Note that no matter how strange a medicine is, it fades with time.’

‘May be he is not meeting up with the terms of the medicine.’

This faction, though also few, was the most painful to deal with because the majority of them were those that I felt had benefited most from me. In my own eyes, I felt I had worked very closely and sincerely with them. Hearing such comments from them troubled my heart and drew me almost to tears.

Right there in that room, I came to the following conclusion: The world is filled only with sycophants. While you are on top, they pretend to be your friends. They eat, dine, drink, and play with you. Once you are out, you are cast to the ground and treated like a leper.

The last group included those who were not happy with the change. They had advanced all sorts of reasons for the change. Some reasoned that ethnic bias was responsible. Others said that it was due to mere jealousy by few powerful men who pretended to be my friend only yesterday. Yet others blamed it on the recent press conferences I had granted. ‘You are becoming too popular. They want to spoil your record,’ they reasoned.

As the debate raged, I was busy sorting out my documents. One of the staff who was elated and expressing his view was challenged by another. They began to argue at the top of their voices. At the height of the confrontation, I carefully opened the door and emerged. Automatically, the argument stopped midway. I passed through their midst smiling and pretended I heard nothing.

‘Good morning, sir,’ they chorused. Ignoring them, I went home to have my breakfast. Thirty minutes later, I went back to the office. As I passed through the empty field, I could sense eyes peering and piercing my back. Some showed great sympathy. On entering the office, a lady walked behind me. Briskly, I turned. As our eyes met, she broke down and began to weep.

‘They have killed me. It is me they killed. You have been of great assistance to me,’ she continued on and on and finally began to sob.

I allowed her to express her emotions. With difficulty, I consoled her. I reassured her that changing me was the beginning of good things about to happen. ‘Do not worry, my dear. When one way closes, many more will open. Remember, I have been elected as the traditional ruler of my community. Many oil servicing companies will be coming, so I will have time to source for jobs from them.’ After hearing these words, she left my office with both eyes red and swollen.

The sight of my half-brother standing by the door startled me. He was cautious not to enter the office without permission.

‘What is it?’ I asked with a quivering voice. I got up from my reclining position. ‘Uncle John has just come from the village. He says he wants to see you now.’ There was some measure of urgency in his tone. For a moment, I forgot my predicament and began to wonder what had gone wrong.