GOD AND KARMA AND MY JET LAG

Dearest Buhari, 

Hmmmmm! So, this is the jet lag rich people’s children always talk about when they come back from America? I am in New York o and when it became morning in Nigeria I woke up even though it was still night here. Ah, my darling, now I can also be like all the cool Nigerians who, (in addition to beginning every sentence with “in America” or “when I was in America”) for 3 months after they return from the US tell everybody about their jet lag. Will I be hungry? I will say, maybe it is that jet lag from 3 weeks ago. If I come out of our “other room” and I am exhausted, I will say oh, baby, I think I have jet lag. I will wink, and you will understand. 

Play aside baby, there is something you need to attend to quickly. In fact I have WhatsApp’d you just in case this letter doesn't reach you quickly. That crazy guy who works for us in Lagos is killing people in Otodo Gbame over land o. They are driving poor people from the only livelihood they have with fire and bulldozers and bullets. I know they or their parents must have offended God or karma somehow to be poor — it is not our portion — but we should not just keep quiet while he kills people o. I don't want poor people’s blood on our hands when we are peacefully enjoying our retirement. 

Hmmmmm! Did you just hear what I heard? The Zamfara Governor in his wisdom just gave us the key to all the suffering and death that has been happening in northern Nigeria because of meningitis. You know darling, to be honest, I did not take him seriously at first, and like the Emir of Kano, I thought he was wrong and all but I think he is onto something here. He said that the reason that people in northern Nigeria were dying of meningitis was not because we were negligent and failed to prepare for it but because of all God is punishing us for all our fornication. 

Darling, wait. Just look at things from God’s viewpoint. You know how how our northern Nigeria has changed and young people are now fornicating like never before, hooking up using BBM and 2go and Facebook and WhatsApp. The same hands they use to say their prayers they now use to touch each other (and even touch themselves, because technically, touching yourself is also fornication — I promise while I am away in New York I will not touch myself. These American people won’t know what to do if I catch meningitis). Imagine how you feel just reading this. Then imagine if you had the power to see all the fornication that was happening as if it were on one screen, like CCTV. You too would be quite upset. We should be lucky God did not send a flood or something like that. That would have been worse. The only thing I wish is, that God would turn his attention a little from punishing fornication to punishing theft. At least then that criminal grasscutter secretary of yours would not be whistling gospel songs every morning when we all know he is a thief. He would have been struck with meningitis by now, and by his twisted neck everyone would have know the thief. I am really just happy that we are both in a godly relationship and don't have to bother about catching meningitis. 

So I heard that the court has let go of all the people we reported for stealing from us. If you ask me the real problem is not the court but the foolish lawyers who handled the cases. Instead of them to settle down and do the work that we asked them to do, they prefer to do gra-gra and be boasting and then in the end, the court throws out our cases. 

Can I just say, thank God for small mercies? You know how we have been going through a rough patch recently, and with you being away and people talking nonsense about that, and us being low on food and kidnappers running wild in our neighborhood, I just realized the most unlikely thing to cushion the effect. Even on weekends when there is no food, or when our security guards kill someone, once there is football, all people are concerned with is whether Arsenal won or lost and whether Manchester United scored or not. I think we should make it easier for our workers and children to have access to international football. Also, this game called Big Brother. Even the most serious members of our house, they can spend all day arguing about what essentially is a game with a few adults locked up in a house where they drink and dance and fight and talk rubbish and some even say fornicate (I hope the God of Governor Yari doesn't visit them with meningitis). So, you have everyone glued to this game and even if there is no food, people will be fine once they can watch Big Brother. These things work like magic. (But now that Big Brother has ended have to find something else to keep the people entertained o).

I hear that people are attacking and killing our relatives in India and South Africa. Shouldn't we do something about this? Why do we let them just disrespect us? Me, if you ask me, I think it is the way we let these idiots run amok in our own house, thieves and rapists and criminals. If there was justice at home, maybe people would respect us a bit and not just think they can easily kill us wherever we are. 

I heard one of the guards, the man from the Navy, they say he shot himself. But we know that he was investigating other guards. And suddenly he turned up dead and some people want us to believe he killed himself. Please when you have the time look into the matter. 

I am traveling next week to America darling. What do you want me to buy for you? I know you don't like expensive things but I insist on buying something for you my dear. Let us talk about it when we see later. 

I hope you were able to see the doctors that came. Please don’t forget to take your drugs. 

Ps. I wont get tired of saying this. Let us release that man whose children we killed, the Shiite man. I don't want him to die in our custody. That would be bring bad karma for us. And me I don't like bad karma. 

Yours forever,

E.