AAs the breeze wheezed through the Costain-National Theatre surroundings in Lagos, cooling the effect of the fierce and scorching sun that Wednesday afternoon, a man sought shelter under a leafy tree on the roadside, surrounded by weeds and filths.
He savoured the abundant oxygen being released by the trees and grasses, damning the stench oozing from the gutters and dirt that surrounded him. His physical appearance and his filthy surroundings suggest that he was mentally challenged.
The mucky and torn Ghana-must-go bag beside him seemed to bear more eloquent testimony to the supposition. Or could he be a destitute? In the midst of all these thoughts, what fascinated the reporter was that the man was reading a newspaper with high concentration.
Not even the hooting of the vehicles and noise of the trucks that shake their trunk precariously across the Costain-National Theatre link to the ever busy Eko Bridge, Lagos, could distract his attention. Curious, Saturday Mirror spent almost an hour watching and studying the man’s reading method and desire as he flipped from page to page with the suaveness of a scholar. “He is not a mechanic. No mechanic would sit in this kind of dirty environment irrespective of the intensity of the sun.
At least, the overhead bridge across where he was sitting provides shelter. He is not mentally okay”, the reporter soliloquised as he carried out the sieving of the probable mental state of the man. “I like the paper you are reading.
That is where I work,” the reporter tried opening conversation with the reader. Unfortunately, the man continued reading with rap attention. The reporter cleared his throat, stooped and greeted, “Good afternoon”. The greeting cut his concentration. And He dragged his eyes from the pages of the newspaper like a hungry sleeping lion woken up by a prey. “What do you want,” he enquired from the inquisitive reporter in Pidgin English laced with Hausa accent. “I like you. I just want to know what you are reading,” the reporter replied. In this era of dearth of reading culture, what could have informed this man’s appetite for reading newspapers? Saturday Mirror decided to ask the man who later gave his name as Sani Ahmed, if he reads daily.
“The paper is not current,” he told Saturday Mirror. “It is yesterday’s paper. I like reading to know what is happening in the country. I read everything I see in the paper whenever I have time and access to newspapers.
I will, by the Grace of God, read today’s paper tomor-row. That is how I do it by the day. I enjoy reading” Sani said. As the conversation continued, Citizen Sani Ahmed, a truck pusher, showed that he is full of dreams for the country while proving to the reporter who had thought that he was a mentally challenged person, that appearance is not reality. The last page Sani was reading when Saturday Mirror broke his concentration, had a story on the crack down on Boko Haram insurgents in the north.
The page was still opened as the conversation went on. And when asked what his take on the insurgents is, Sani did not mince words in condemning the activities of the sect. “Boko Haram? Walahi! (exclamation in Hausa) they are not good people.
Why would they be killing people in the North? Why would they kill people when they did not do anything bad to them? It is not good at all. I do not support them because people would not be able to work and feed themselves as a result of their activities.
It is better they stop all these killings. It would not help us. Neither would it help them. All of them are spoiling this country,” Sani rued. Asked what kind of stories thrills him, he answered: “any story that is of interest to me thrills me, especially, stories about the nation. But I read everything I see in the paper.” As an avid reader, what could be Sani’s expectation from the nation, considering his seemingly penurious and pitiable conditions? His response: “I want the country to be better than what it is now. I wish that the country would become like America that cares and protects the common people. Things are not going well with us the poor people. We don’t have place to lay our heads.
We struggle so hard before we can eat. This is not how life is supposed to be in a country that cares for its people. We want the government to do something to change the situation so that we too can be happy as Nigerians.” Asked if he was conversant with President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign slogans, especially, “I had no shoes. If I can make it, you too can make it”? He said that he is not as he was neither watching television nor listening to radio during the campaign periods.
However, he further bared his mind on the state of the nation. “If Jonathan said that he had no shoes, now he has plenty shoes and he is not making us have even one shoe. It is not good. If you said that he promised that if he can make it we ordinary people can also make it, it is very clear that we are not making it.
The President should try and let poor people make it as he made it. If he cannot achieve this before he leaves as the President of this country, it means that he has disappointed himself,” Sani stated.
He seems to be conversant with the problem of the country, what is the expectation of Citizen Sani from the country? If he were to be in charge of governance, what would he do? “Me?” he wondered. “If I were the President of this country, the poor people would enjoy. I will make life easy for them.
I will ensure that their children go to good schools, graduate and have jobs to do. I will not allow people to steal government money. And I will use the money that the country has very well to the benefit of the poor people. I will build houses for the poor, build good schools, and construct roads. I will lead by example. Those are the things I will do,” he said, as he adjusted the paper he was reading and again and buried his eyes in it.
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