Nearly a Feast of Congo Meat
By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
There was pomp and there was pageantry on those two nights– the nights of Friday 8 and Saturday, September 9, 2006 respectively. The two nights, from all ramifications, were eventful. It was the yearly Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA) grand presentation ceremony. Venue was Ilorin, the Kwara State capital and I was part of the crowd. For a first time visitor like me and perhaps many of the delegates to the media award, Ilorin spells two distinctive features– damp, cold and lonely at the night, serene, meek, and shy in the day.
That was indeed the spectacle of Ilorin that stared me in the face in the afternoon of Friday, September 8 when we arrived the city. The same picture of Ilorin also played itself out later that night, before and after the interactive session/dinner which the State Commissioner for Information, Rasaq Atunwa treated us to at the magnificent Stella Obasanjo Multi-purpose Hall.
A bird’s eye view of Ilorin at night indeed made a bold statement of innocence and loneliness of a city. The “invasion,” so to say, of the city by hundreds of journalists for the awards’ presentation, as it were, was however later to reconfigure the night and day features of Ilorin. This was for the two days the ceremony lasted.
For those of us from the legendary “Lagos – Ibadan axis of the Nigerian Press,” our journey to Ilorin started at about 9.45 a.m from the National Stadium, Lagos. We arrived Illorin at about 3.30pm.
The lodging formalities were taking long in being concluded and already some of the delegates, including me, fatigued by the long journey, in no time started muttering protest. Soon, the reason for the delay dawned on us – the Kwara Hotels could not accommodate all us and consequently, some of us had to be paired in one room and others moved to a different hotel. It was at this juncture that the unthinkable happened. A certain daughter of Eve, whom I strongly suspected was not original member of our team from Lagos and who had all the while been casting inquisitive and probing glances at me, suddenly walked up to me, drew me aside and pleaded that should I fall in the category of those to be paired, she would not mind pairing with me! Tempting as this offer was, I nonetheless still mustered courage to refuse it.
At about 10.30 p.m, the dinner/interactive session was over and on our way back to our guest house, I had the wider view of Ilorin at night – virtually everything – trees, flowers, - excetera seem peacefully asleep. At that moment, I remembered Lagos, my Lagos, where day and night intermingle!
On the night of Saturday, September 9, the grand award presentation was held at the Banquet hall of Kwara Hotels. I approached the occasion with mixed feelings. This was because few hours to the event, I discovered to my chagrin that the N3,000 which I came to Ilorin with was missing. How and when I lost the money remains a puzzle to me till this moment.
The presentation ceremony over, I accompanied two of my friends who said they felt like watering their throat with some bottles of beer, in search of a bar. We found one along Ahmadu Bello Way. Time was 11.05 p.m. It was at the bar I was confronted with what could be best described as “temptation number two.” While my two friends gulped bottles after bottles of beer, I quietly occupied myself with a bottle of tonic water and then suddenly a daughter of Eve, a damsel by any standard who all the while was busy watching a movie in the bar, struck conversation with me. And before long, she had formally enwrapped herself on me, giving me no time to disentangle myself. Her name, she said, was Tope a “JAMBite,” whose greatest desire is to study medicine. According to her, she lives with an uncle, a businessman who shuttles between Kaduna and Ilorin.
Tope’s looks, her innocence, her youth, her angelic voice and the succulence of her skin triggered off currents of desires inside me, and thus transporting me to “Cloud Seven.” When it was time to leave, Tope passionately pleaded that I allow her pass the night with me in my hotel room. At this juncture, I had gradually regained the power of resistance and thus, I made it clear to Tope that passing the night with me would be futile and would not fetch her anything since I had no money to pay for the “services” she was obviously out to render that night. But to my surprise, she looked straight into my eyes and declared in a velvet voice, laden with desire: “You think I am a prostitute. I am not a prostitute. I am a decent girl. I admire you and simply want to pass the night with you. Pay no nothing . I am not demanding anything from you.”
But suddenly, in my mind’s eye, I could see the jealous and questioning but loving face of my sweetheart back home, the only daughter of Eve, who has sole franchise over my heart. I could see her lips more as she whisper into my ears “Chidi honey, you are about to betray me. Remember the love we share." At this, a quick rush of sanity and the power to resist, enveloped me and pronto, I hailed an Okada and fled from Tope.
That night as I tossed my tired frame on my bed, I thought of my missing N3,000, the Media Award and temptions that I had encountered and I shut my eyes. In the silence of my heart, I breathed a heartily prayer: “Lord, you are my pillar of strength, continue to strengthen me”.
Soon I drifted into sleep. Few hours later, it was Sunday, September 10. Time to go back to Lagos – to my work at The Source, to my sweet heart and to the comfort of my apartment. As I looked through the widow of the ABC bus, that morning on our way back to Lagos, Ilorin’s unchanging features once again, stared me on the face – serene, meek and timid to boisterousness during the day time. But then, it is bye to Ilorin and bye to Tope!, relieved I did not afterall feast on those poisoned Congo meat!