Women Endowment

Some people think that hectoring is a kind of terrorism which merited attention given to any other kind of terrorism: they talk, they threaten, they frown, twist their faces this way and that, without for once eyeing in the direction of the man they have in heart. Yet, the message is gotten clearly.

"You believe hectoring isn't part and parcel of this tribe's culture?" One LGA staff member who suddenly discovers ways of passing his monotonous time in the company of Mr.Johnson asked.

Mr. Johnson eyed him, trying to establish well where the man was heading to. Always wise to analyze people's words for their real meaning. The weather was so mild like never been for weeks, the air as usual was clean in this village, so, he decided to engage the man.

"You mean the culture of the tribe is rooted in hectoring?- and what is the reason for what I am witnessing here?" Knowing what's about to drop as retort before it did.

"When the man controls events in his house, including the supposed partner in the marriage with threat of bodily harm if he is defied, is that how they run a partnership in Europe?" Smiling to himself. "Some talk anyhow, act anyhow and yet believe it's his birthright as a male of the house, that no other male has the right to tell him how to run his household. That sounds like terrorism to me"

They were discussing how hard it's to buy land from willing sellers in Umueke community because, some elders suddenly became brutal in their proclamation of armaggedom on any family that sell a land to Mr. Johnson when they heard he was asking to buy some lands near the Eke Market square. None of these elders in their numerous meeting calls ever looked or pointed at the families he's interested in their land and yet, fear was oozing from these sellers in a manner he is yet to witness since he came back to the community. But, money is a puller, more stronger than any threat, any fear, any work at times when in good measure. "Once you persist, things always happen" he said to himself.

A few days later, the progress in this his latest strategy he's using in the elders he believes is far better than the plate-in-hand one he had been using since coming back. It failed to make any known dent on the adamant elders since he came back appealing to their common sense.

"You say this is an eye to an eye approach. But it's certainly nearer to one" he smirked as it came to his realization that it's something nearer to the same hectoring he was discussing with the LGA man the other day clearing was on in the land.

Sometimes, even the presence of uncommon common has a positive effect on people's psyche. The presence of the LGA buses at times in the market square has this effect on the villagers, especially the youths. They gather in their numbers to watch them come and go without knowing whose hospitality they are enjoying and why. They are used to seeing some bicycles. He hired an old tanker he saw at the secretariats to be delivering water to the site for the project, they gathered on that old fart that never missed to hiss out monoxides in their numbers.

On the nature of the project, he has refused to release those the project is for or the nature it will take. He knows that the conscience can be something else when played well. He wanted that conscience attack to continue on the elders, he knows the game and the affects it has in their minds.

"Yes, all the trees cut down should be heaped on one side, there are people it's meant for and some will be used for the work here" he said, eyeing them. "For those meant as fuel, the workers will go home with ninety percent, keep ten for me" he ordered them. He wants to share it to some families he knows will play a part in the game he has in mind.

" Mr. Johnson, we felt invaded like we have never been in this Umueke community for a month plus now, can you please tell the elders what you are up to in that our Eke market we have no other" the elders that can't control their inquestiveness asked him"

there had been excess buzzing in that market and the elders got more confused each day" he said when they summoned him to the king's place one evening.

He had decoded what they were into indirectly. They wanted indirectly through situational reports to control him and his project but he's not having any of that.

"Well, I have told you the elders that I am building a kind of technical school which some of your wards will benefit from with little payment" he halted as smirk spread across some of the faces before him" with just a few payments, your wards will be something in future and be able to stand on their own within days"

He watches them as laughter breaks from some who he knows counted him where they counted idiots. The man praying for his money to go kaput is telling them to make money for him. They concluded that the project would be an ideal one to waste his resources on and when no one showed up as a student, it lay in ruins after some months.

" we will from time to time want you to come to furnish us on the progress of the work and if there is little we can help with, tell us"

He thanked them for their care and went his way as faint snirkering followed his exit. They were still muttering as he's out of earshot. It's better they believed him idiot till they start to see who is what.

The laying of the blocks were on its first floor when it happened one wee hour in foggy Tuesday morning. In the morning, all the blocks were found in rubble as they were knocked down to ground zero. And the two villagers he employed as a security told him that about fifty young men came hauling axes and diggers and when they figured out what they were up to, "we have to run to escape being killed" one with little wounds said to Mr Johnson.

After surveying the damages on the ground, he decided that it would be better to contact the police because he is sure they will come again. The elders had been against boreholes in the community, after reporting the incident to the elders that seemed to be enjoying themselves, he started erecting police posts near the project site and boring holes for water. The elders summoned him again.

"Em! Mr Johnson, we are against borehole or artificial water of any kind in this community, there is nothing but poison and an agent of laziness to our youths and the whole community. What are you doing at that Eke market square with those machines?"

"You are witness to what thieves did to my money, millions were lost in that act and police is now to man the place and the rule is that they must be made as comfortable as possible and boring hole is one of their conditions" he told them with many angry faces staring back at him.

"Our land is our land not government land and we have rules on how we live and that rule says that boring holes aren't allowed for reasons you know. It will not only poison our youths but make our women lazy to go to the lakes for water"

" Well, the constitution says the government is your owner and owner of all you have. Some of you that kill themselves have no right to do that. If the government decides to act, those dead bodies hanging on the tree will not be returned to their owners. Some of us will go away forever and will not be back even in death" he told them as he sees some shifting and shuffling their asses on their chairs out of what he can only guess.

"well, you are the one to drink alone from that borehole, none of our community member is going there for any reasons, see how you handle it"

He smirked as he thanked them and departed their company. That is a good counter attack, any more attack will usher in more developments as punitive measures from them.

Months later, the five storey building stood in its majesty and furnishing was on when one sunny morning they started fire from the fifth floor and the officers were the ones that summoned the king and some of his cabinet to a meeting at the secretariats.

"We have our duty to the nation and the citizens to see through, our main duty isn't protecting Mr Johnson's project but protecting lives and properties, some of our members got burnt while trying to put out that fire. We don't see them come but we see them running into that village Mr Johnson came from, there is no way we can Pursue them on foot, we are building roads there with government resources to see how to curtail criminals activities from that village and we are starting from tomorrow"

"But officer, the youths swore to us that they are not involved, I am sure they are saying the truth"

" Then it must be elders at work if not youths, how many of your cabinet here came from that particular village?" The officer asked the king.

They started eyeing each other and the officer later reported to Mr Johnson that they perceived some offensive odour coming from them. That was how the roads they had been against got built in areas and manner Mr Johnson paid and intimated them and told them he wanted them.

With the equipping of the building through and hiring of the staffs done from mostly other villages and few that volunteered from Mr Johnson's village, all women, the elders called Mr Johnson once again to explain this women angle.

"We see that those being hired are all women above schooling age, what are you and the government doing in this community?"

" I don't understand the question, schooling is a continuous process and I have nothing outside security with the government. In fact, it's the youths that made them to still stay around here and now you see what they are doing?" He told them, eyeing them.

"We don't care if it's security or not, they have left us open in all four and we don't know where to run to if war with the neighboring community will ensue today. We are as open as we have ever been and now it's all women. What's happening here?"

"Women are those that volunteered the most, some males will be there too in one form or the other and no community is attacking you now government is around in Umueke community. They will regret it if they ever do, you are now also government properties that needed protection"

They kept arguing weakly and Mr Johnson can see their fear, it's so pronounced that even the blind can see it. He muttered something funny to himself as he departed their midst and can feel their angry eyes on their backs.

Generators came, electronics,sofas and office equipment, shelves cabinets were the last to arrive, all in their numbers. Then the books in their thousands followed before tailoring machines arrived in their numbers. The whole third floor was converted into a cinema hall and meeting hall while the fourth and fifth floors were converted into workshops and the first floor, mainly offices.

The selected women were given the regulations to study and Mr Johnson wanted to make sure they started from the dress code to change their minds.

"What one wears has an effect on one's psyche" he muttered to himself.

He imported from the city a tailor that fitted all the women with what he wanted them to wear and made sure that each has ten pairs of different attires they came to work each week with. He doesn't want them on wrapper or over size dresses. Learning whatever each one chooses has time, once they know how to use time, he has captured their minds half way. Must be a student of that place and they will all gather at the third floor to study. Within months, not only that there was noticeable change in what they do, there is more in how they walk and talk and some that started reading within months can't stop talking about one book "the Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.

"When you possess a great treasure within you and tell others of it seldom are you believed"

Whether they are referring to how the male folks treat them or something, Mr Johnson never asked them. All he wanted is for them to start earning and have got to challenge who is challenging them or be more important than who is rating them as second class humans, he knows that with them at the driving seat of exposure, the saying that if you educate a man, you educate an individual but educate a woman, you end up educating a nation, he found to be yielding advantage. With the little money he pays them, soon, they will be telling their husbands when they are coming back, not where they are going.

"There is hope for Umueke community"