THE TYRANT

THE TYRANT- PART ONE
      There was pin drop silence in the lecture room as my favourite lecturer gave us his views on the present Government,  and my eyes followed his every move. We are stuck in a regime of backwardness covered in the guise of anti- corruption, he said boldly.  There is no doubt that the masses have other essential needs, needs that should be prioritised.  And his last statement ignited the nationalists in all of us, as some students were seen nodding like they were listening to a sermon given by their pastors, while others chanted "yes"  to his every word like freedom fighters ready to draw blood. I still wore the candid attentive expression on my face as I knew what was coming next.
       Our Lecturer Mr Akinbade continued his speech on nationalism, and students soon began to hail him like he was "a man of the people".  But the whole class soon assumed the status of a "national library"  when the "men in uniform"  walked in, and fear like the stench of death followed them; my God!  How they hated opposition. "I hope there is no problem here" one of the military officers asked, his Northern accent enough to send cold running down one's spine.  "no, not at all"  our lecturer replied immediately almost unable to hide the fear in his voice.
         "was just telling the students how you, the men in uniform have brought order to the state"  he said, patronising them. "I hope so" , the first man in uniform spoke again, obviously not amused as he nodded briefly to the others and they walked out of the hall, their powerful boots playing bully to the ground. I soon found myself gritting my teeth together,  a habit I usually carry out  when what I had earlier visualised comes to pass.  Indeed this was the regime of backwardness and cowardice as we had seen earlier.
    My eyes remained fixed on the blank position our lecturer was standing before he left the lecture Hall on the elapse of the time for his teaching period. My mind wandered to the event of the past week, and excruciating pain ran through my entire body like a killer virus. Yes, those men in uniform, those monsters! Had raped my Tamara. An action they had carried out in the guise of bringing order to her village, they exploit their oil, and invaded my girl too. But just before my heart could burst from the pain, a soft voice called out to me from behind, immediately disturbing my present thoughts and saving me from emotional suicide.
     "Enahoro"  she called out, and I turned around giving Jessica a warm smile, like no suicidal thought had crossed my mind the whole day.  And we talked about the usual "novels" and of course the boys she had recently  met .  The cross I had to bear for being a guy and a best friend to Jessica.
       I soon had a meeting with some of the others boys from "the Delta" as they planned a radical intervention on the men on uniform to protect our mutual lover. I am from "Bendel  state", a minority group at the time, of course I was on board with the intervention,  especially for Tamara. We made quick plans on our next line of action and took about 5 minutes to stare at each other with the realisation that we had just signed our death warrants.
        Thus the next day, I gathered the love of my life,  Tamara, into my arms as I informed her that I will be gone for a while and I would really appreciate it if she could wait for me.  But I also informed her that if I am gone for too long she should move on without looking back. All these I said to her, as I realised that the journey to safe our mutual sickly lover might be a journey of no return. Tamara held unto my shirt tightly, almost ripping it as she wept.
            "is she really worth it?" she blurted out, her face still covered by the Vale of her tears.  "yes she is worth it" I replied,  anything for our sickly lover... NIGERIA....

TO BE CONTINUED... NEXT WEDNESDAY