THE JOYS OF RECOVERY AND SOME GOSSIP

Dearest Buhari, 

You know, to be honest, the most difficult part about you being away is not being able to spend time with you in the other room. But I will manage. As that Zamfara man rightly mentioned, God punishes human fornication with calamities like meningitis. I slept wrong the other night and woke up with just a bit of a stiff neck and thought for a moment that I perhaps had a visitation of God for my bad thoughts. But then it went away — it is a relief that God doesn't punish us for thoughts. Are you having bad thoughts my dear? 

So I must tell you some gossip I heard. I don't know how true this is, but the wife of the Lagos guy, she went to church last weekend — she does so from time to time, praise God — and the silly pastor annoyed her. Can you imagine that he did not call her up first to be anointed with anointing oil? What if the oil had finished? What would she have told her husband if, after going to church and returning without getting something as basic as an anointing, he accused her of not being there at all? It is not like we have a video, and you know that without a video it did not happen. What if the Lagos guy started suspecting his wife of branching off to see some lover? What if this led to chaos? What if that in turn led to him doing something shameful that would lead to say, his impeachment? Surely that pastor put the great state of Lagos in great peril by not promptly giving that woman her anointing before all the other humans in the church. Humans are equal but some humans are more deserving of anointing oil than others. The biggest issue though is, I think that pastor should be arresting for peddling fake anointing and fake anointing oil. The news reports say that although she was furious, she still waited her turn to be anointed. Should authentic anointing not have quelled the spirit of anger inside her? Instead, right after receiving the anointing, she stormed out of the church, instigated the firing of the pastor and made her husband cancel events that were planned to be held at the church. An anointing that leaves one even more angry than before, is that one an anointing? 

So I am wondering, what is your deputy doing? He promised to finalize the investigation of your thieving former secretary a couple of weeks ago and has still not said anything. I like closure. He should come out publicly and tell us how much your secretary stole and if we need to refer the matter to the police or EFCC. Or are some people too big to be visited by EFCC? We need to show that we have no sacred cows even though, going by his size your former secretary seems to have consumed many many cows, sacred and non sacred. 

So I hear someone from our embassy has leaked to the press that your health has improved significantly. They say you are very close to being declared hale and hearty. I love it when you are hale and hearty. So let me remind you what hale and hearty people do. They talk to their darlings and the people who love them. Now that you are doing alright, can we at least do a FaceTime video chat? Nothing naughty, no nudes or anything — I know you may not have the energy for that. But just let me see your face my Bubu. Also, you know the members of your household who haven't seen or heard from you in a long while might need proof of life so that they do not go and start working for other people. Just a short 45 second video beginning with “Fellow Nigerians”. You haven't done that in a while and I know they will love it. 

One British man went on Twitter the other day announcing that you had died. He was even giving condolences to your wife! (I admit, as your preferred darling I was jealous). Imagine! He even tweeted at me to ask if I knew where you were, almost gloating that you had died. In my mind I said, it is your darling who will die not mine, nonsense!I wanted to tweet that but I didn't want to give him any room to say anything more so I just told him that we had WhatsApp’d and that you were doing just fine. Which is why I am happy that the embassy quickly leaked how you are doing ok and recovering quickly and all. I will just call it bad belle. What is his business with your health? What is his business if you have not spoken to us in a long while? Is it his family? He should go and face his Brexit and leave us alone jare. 

I heard one of your houseboys told the press that the reason we are still holding that Shiite man whose children we massacred is that we want to protect him. It sounds like a good excuse I must admit. But I still think that it is better if we just let him and his family go so that we don't have to give great excuses like that in the future. What do you think?

Again, your deputy is doing well but like I promised the last time, nothing he does will make me change my mind about you. Nothing he does will make me cheat on you. For one thing I am afraid of the Zamfara man’s God and of his meningitis. And another is that your deputy is too short and wears too dark clothes for me to abandon for my darling and follow him. I like tall men. Especially tall men who wear white. 

Yours forever

e.

SHORT MEN, LITTLE DICTATORS

Dearest Buhari, 

I think I am coping well with this long distance relationship, better than I thought I would. The tips I sent last week are helping. I miss you. 

This week so many things happened, things that make me worry for our house and for our future. I know you will not be able to run this house forever. Someone will have to take over when you retire but I do not like what I see. 

First off that little man who always swears that he loves you more than he loves suya, more than all of his wives — he is letting his position get to his head. He is arresting people who write things he doesn't like. He is threatening people. In fact it got so bad that someone took him to court recently and won. The court prevented him from harassing or attempting to arrest her for the things she has written. You know what baffles me Bubu? This man has the worst insults on his burnt lips. You know the man who used to run our farm before, the slow one, Jonah? Do you remember how the little one used to insult him everyday; you know, that time he didn't have work? He was on Twitter morning afternoon and night saying the vilest things about Jonah. Of course we mostly agreed, but no one said, “you this little man, how dare you abuse Jonah?” No one arrested him. Now he threatens people who write articles. Is it something about short people? Because I expect that now that he is in a position of authority and can sit on high tables and chairs, he should calm down. What if he is charge of the whole house? Will he start making people disappear? But then look at your deputy. He is also a short man. But he does not have that kind of gra-gra. He does not harass people who talk about him. He is short but he thinks before he speaks. So it cannot be about height. Not all short people are nasty. Having said that, I must say that I love that you are tall and there is no way I would have chosen anyone less to be my darling. Hugs. 

My dear we have to talk about these your workers and relatives. You were clear when you were leaving that your deputy would take over and run things in your absence. I do not know why they are trying to undermine him. I tell you that little one gives short people a bad name so everyone is afraid that as a short man your deputy will also behave like the little one. But your deputy is not like that. They don't want him to sign cheques and things like that. They are keeping it until you can sign yourself. Me I have told them to let him do everything you used to do. Apart from love me that is. I am faithful to you my darling. But he has to be able to carry out all of the other duties of the head of the house. Otherwise what is the point of handing over to him? Please tell them to stop undermining him and to let him have to full authority to run this house properly. Especially about the budget. The house cannot wait until you return to get the budget. 

Albishirin ka! Wallahi, you won’t believe it! So, that senator who does music videos and has ten cars, the one who is acting bodyguard to the senate president, yes that one — he said he wrote a book about how women selling tomatoes in the market can be corrupt. Wait let me laugh small first. Kai! The book was about corruption and guess who was there? The senate president who is being accused of corruption. Jonah’s wife — not the one we don't know, I mean the one with the tummy tuck who they told us stole from us. She was there with her fine gele sitting on the high table. I am not joking. My only annoyance while I was laughing is that one of your workers was also there. You need to talk to your workers and assistants. This is not the kind of place people connected to us should be visiting. You cannot have a gathering of people accused of theft celebrating a book about how to stop theft. That is like your former grass cutter secretary writing a book about how to keep fit. I wanted to buy the book just to laugh at home but I thought now that you are away I should save our money and not use it to buy worthless things. 

I will end like always, to say, again, that I miss you and that you should take care of yourself. But also that we should let that Shiite man go home to mourn his children, the ones we killed. 

Ps. The weather is nice these days. I wish you were here. We would have taken long walks and all.  Do you know that I have lost weight? I went into one shop and tried the large t-shirts just for fun. You know I used to wear extra large and wallahi it fit! It fit! Now I have to maintain that weight and not drink too much fura before you return. Both of us will be slim together. I am excited. 

Yours lovingly,

Elnathan John. 

HOW TO MAKE A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP WORK

Dearest Buhari, 

Since you have been gone, I have been thinking. I have no idea when you will return. I have no idea if it will be like the last time when you were away for many many weeks. But I know for sure though that this time, I am ready. 

To enable me handle this without going crazy I have been doing research about how to survive a long distance relationship. I have summarized all the knowledge I have gathered and decided to share with you. Because sharing is caring. Both of us have to make this work. I know you have handed over the running of the house to your deputy but our love remains the most important thing to me. Please read this carefully and tell me what you think.

1.  Set some ground rules to manage your expectations

So, I believe this is pretty self explanatory. Ground rules are important. Without ground rules one of us will do something to annoy the other without realizing it. These are my ground rules: a.) Eat healthy. b.) Sleep enough c.) Don't talk to other visitors (like you did with the King of Morocco the last time) before talking to me. If you can receive visitors, then you can talk to me. d.) Be honest about your health and whatever happens don't let me be the last to know. 

2.  Make communication optional, organic and unconditional.

I was shocked when I saw this. I always thought one had to talk all the time. It is always good to learn. I have resolved not to demand that you give your family a regular broadcast — this was never your style. You have always been silent, talking only to your close friends and to America. I am not judging you for it. So, whenever you want, talk to us. Tell us you still care. That you still think of us. Of me. That you are still responsible for us. For me. Directly. Not through intermediaries. We know you are ill. We will not mind if you speak to us from the hospital for just a few minutes when you can. You know, any sentence beginning with “Fellow…”. I have missed hearing that from your lips. 

3.  Talk dirty with each other

Now I know you think I mean talking dirty the way white people do in all those bad films. “Harder, baby, harder…” That is what your enemies expect from you. They always want you to do things harder. Whether it is fighting corruption or the economy, they are never contented. They want you to go harder. But I am different baby. We can take this and make it a holy kind of talking dirty. How about I keep you updated on all the dirty things your staff are doing while you are gone? Like when someone is a thief or someone is abusing power or the security guards are harassing someone. You know, that kind of dirty. Let us try it. 

4.  Have a goal in mind

What is your goal? To carry on when you return until 2022? To retire in 2019? Let us think of these things so that we can plan ahead and people don't fight over our property. It will help all of us plan. It will also help us take time to decide who we want to run things when you retire so that you can focus on leading now. 

5.  Give each other pet names

This is simple. That is why I call you Bubu. What do you want to call me? Something nice and easy that rolls off the tongue nicely. I like it when I call you Bubu. Bubu…Bubu…Bu…Ok, I’ll stop. (See? I miss you.)

6.  Clarify your status

Me I know our status. You are my partner. You are my leader. You are my darling. And I will wait for you. But you need to do the same clarification. What am I to you? Will you demonstrate this by talking to me this time? Or will I have to find out about you from people I did not choose, people who are not responsible for me, people who have not sworn to protect me so help them God. You have WhatsApp. You have FaceTime. You have Skype. You have fast London WiFi. We have no excuse not to make this work. 

7.  Always have something to look forward to together

I look forward to you returning. I look forward to you building a hospital near the house that you can go to instead of always having to fly far. I look forward to training our doctors enough so that we can trust them to treat you. I look forward to knowing where I stand with you in 2019. I look forward to having that Shiite man released and having him off my conscience especially after we have destroyed everything he has and killed most of his children and destroyed his property. I look forward to having the herdsmen around the house and the farmers not fighting with and killing each other — there is enough land for them all. I look forward to these and more. What do you look forward to my darling?

Talk soon. (Ps. I miss cooking for you.)

Yours in sickness and in health,

Elnathan John