Stampede

Maybe, it might be the fifth or sixth year I am reading and hearing about this same incident repeating itself. I am never the kind to scream blue murder when free things don't halt on their march in front of me even if that is its MO in front of others. I mean, there is this kind of "you're full of yourself" spirit controlling events in me. You recall that kind of spirit, right? The one that doesn't kowtow easily to material things, I have that in me.

Observing incidents of this nature, it comes a time you start reminiscing on the cause. Even, if invisible forces contributed, it can only work in this rate on the willing or the weak.

Not that I bought this logic or the spirit wholesale willingly, but, who am I to complain when it's what's pushing the ' the me' that defines me. It's the undisputable boss and I have no choice than to flow along whenever it decides to assert his powers over me.

Over here in Africa, I mean Nigeria, life is a jungle and there is no paddy in it. We are the kinds that don't buy organizations that ease or that lifestyle wholesale.Some folks here even see that as a sign of weakness or something reserved for weaker sex. But I can't swear they too like that thing called ordered living.

You see, those tiny creatures known as mosquitoes kill many each year here than any other known source of death in Africa isn't because the environment can't be kept clean or the inhabitants are prone to suicide or something, nah, I am not sure the leaders here want it otherwise for reasons known to them. If they wanted those suckers done away with, they know exactly what to provide for masses to do the swating.

But then, for the last five or six years now, it's as if the supreme cause of death in Nigeria had been stampede. People are not just in the habit of queuing up to receive aid from an individual or group during one celebration or something. The preferred wisdom is to push, shout, curse, drag to lay hands on it all. Marching up in a queue in an ordered manner without using threat to achieve the feat isn't in our character.

Melee of any kind in such gatherings always ends in ten or fifteen lives lost after it all boiled down and it has never failed to repeat over and over each year, same manner, same mindset, same demons driving those destined to join their ancestors running after free gift.

Reading each year about this kind of death makes me wonder at times if it's in the air or genes."why wouldn't people use their head for once" I kept asking myself. When the names of the dead are revealed, you will be amazed to realize that the greater number are those feeding two or three or more times daily. "What then were they there for?" I once asked my buddy. "Free things, na them de sweet pass" was his retort.

As poor as I am, I feed twice a day and that spirit in me never cares if the other fellow over there is feeding four or five times each day, good for them, I am okay so far with my twice, I am not complaining that much. This kind of mindset followed me around and across the border of this entity known as Nigeria twenty years ago when I found myself in Asia.

One thing always led to another and I ended up in prison in China and spent a doz there. You know, if you really want to know who anyone or race is, you enter their prison. You can even tell how civilized they are as a group from that side. Many things happen in the backyard or behind the camera. Most of those happening, genuine ones.

In the dungeon proper, you will come to know you are in another world. The officers are a group that don't like their beat being complicated, they just don't like it as a group. They don't like inmates giving them headaches, they want their day hassle free and complaint free, as smooth as it can be that they can do anything to you to pass a message across to others entertaining such an idea on them to drop it.

But then, different people have different routes they arrive at a particular end. Some cane, some carrots, some both. A little of this and little of that variation is the spice of their management strategy. In that prison when you're in any officer's good book, a carrot might be his preferred tool in dealing with you. You know, humans are funny creatures, we just like to dominate others or show them that even though we are in the same uniform, class still isn't the same. These kinds of inmates like to lord it over others, so they needed officers' goodwill to achieve that aim. They market and position themselves for a certain degree of powers the officers now and then cede to inmates and when you see the caliber of inmates hosting for such comfort; bank managers, fallen police officers, directors etc.then you know why at times, it goes to the highest bidder.

But you know the world we are in now is one hell of a mysterious one. People do all kinds of things for security reasons, imagined or real, you will always hear "dangers inherent in our work or dangers we face each day in our line of duty" refrain from the officers' camp angling for one benefit or the other from the management or the state. That line never stopped amazing inmates. From our side, it has always been:

"Which danger and which inherent?" The officers were the legal terror group the inmates all over the globe will swear anytime, anyday without qualms are the terror group in prisons. Those suckers have the right to maim, kill, detain you more than legal court ordered and even get promoted on that account.

"How many percent of officers over inmates lose their lives each year in squabbles related incidents around the globe each year?" The knowledge of this will tell you the camp to start seeking for terrorists in correctional sector if you're that interested.

Not as if those bulls are empty in the head or something, nah. They, by training are psychological animals, they can tell when you are after a favor or not from them. When you're positioning yourself for one favor or the other. They know those with problems they can blackmail them with in future, they file that away for personal or state sake. They don't deal in damage good like they refer to those inmates mysterious in their own way to them.

I am not made out for such angling, so, in their books, I have no doubt I am listed under damage goods side. That spirit I told you earlier in me doesn't have a problem over that camp I fall in in their estimations. They don't like that spirit, their training ensures that fact. They always want you to know you are at their mercy 24/7 and you are supposed to know that. Once such awareness isn't coming from your end, it's a sign that you're not just a damaged goods but a known enemy also. They will not fail to treat you like one. Some inmates that believe there is wisdom in making anywhere you find yourself a heaven by any means find out even after service that 'by all means' don't always translate into rooted wisdom all the times. They are the group that always accumulate negative karma deposited to be paid back in future while serving sentence. Probabilty future some of inmates refer to such a relationship with the bulls as.

These days that kind of probability future is on high. If you don't know yourself well, and panders to them anyhow, you will be tagged or question mark placed in front of your name in their file.

I couldn't believe that some that left the prison about five to six years before me and this is my fifth year of regaining my freedom, the prison and their allies still at times contact a man that has finished sentence twelve years earlier for one operation or the other for no pay. "You don't disturb me, I have finished my sentence with you and that terminates our relationship, I don't know you so, don't disturb me now" I heard one that left prison five years before me that had it easier while inside screaming when the bulls came to collect their due. "Do I know you,Em!, answer me, do I know you?" The guy was vomiting but the bulls are creatures that stick like glue when they are serious and desperate.

Months later, I saw him under the sun doing exactly what the bulls and their ally wanted from him. Maybe he finally knew them or something. How they achieve such a feat in the 21st century is the amazing part at times to me. Never start thinking they are sleeper agents or its equivalent, they pay them not but just to remain in one piece.

Anything free in the world we are in now is not what I will recommend for anyone with hope of future peace of the mind. Making one's abode a heaven is good, but by all means?, count me out. Such by all means hauls luggage along, invisible ones that come into the surface in future when you need your peace the most.

They appear erecting roadblocks like the king of Persia shrieking " It's time" buddy.