The last time Moseyn Ekiw saw his mother she showed no sign of ailment. That was just a week ago. At 80, she could still break bones with her teeth.
Now, he is on his way to the Garden City, the capital of Waters State to see Mama. He received a call early that day that she wanted to see him urgently. His heart was heavy. She is the only parent he has known for a long time. Though his father is alive, he considers him dead. The man is a good example of irresponsibility. He has 20 children from five women and did nothing to raise them. His own case was the most pathetic because he even denied his pregnancy. It took all kinds of persuasion for him to accept being his father five years after his birth. His emergence as a council chairman after the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) one-year mandatory service worsened their relationship. Every day his father would call him requesting for money and other material things. By the time he became the Controller of Staff to Governor Timiro Ihceama of Waters State, he was no longer on talking terms with the old man.
Soon, he drives into his house in the GRA. Mama is in the sitting room eating apple. Smile plays on his face.
“Thank God nothing is wrong with her,” he says quietly and moves closer to exchange pleasantries with her.
“Welcome my son,” the old woman says.
A minute of silence ensues before Mama takes the conversation to a level he never imagined.
“The Dame was here,” she says.
“Which Dame?”
“The most popular Dame in this country, the one whose husband you work for, the one who asked you to vie for governor of Waters State.”
“Okay, go on Mama,” he says.
“Her mission here is simple. She wants me to convince you to stop preparing for the governorship race. According to her, the mood in the state does not favour someone from the same place as the governor to replace him. She says it is the time of the Riverside People.”
At that moment, his eyes feast on the Dame’s picture on the wall. It is one of those her pictures taken by an ace female photographer which gave her beauty she can never have. His eyeballs become heavy with tears.
“I have been used and dumped,” he tells Mama.
“When she first asked me to go and be causing trouble for the governor all in the name of becoming the next governor, I pointed out to her that the mood in the state is that the People on the land have had enough. That by the time this governor finishes his tenure, they would have done 16 years. I told her the pendulum favours the People on Water but she told me to forget that. She said all I need to become governor is the Goodluck Charm with her husband and that she would get it for me. Now, two months to the emergence of flag-bearers she is sending my mother to me that I should drop out of the race. I knew they had no good plan for me when they refused to make me a senior minister despite all I have done to help them break the governor’s stranglehold on the state. They even made a man I convinced to dump the governor a senior minister. Mama, I have been humiliated by this woman and her husband. If only I had stayed true to the governor.”
Tears cascade down his face.
“Don’t cry my son,” Mama says.
“At some point when I saw that she was going back on the content of a statement she issued saying I was in charge of the Umbrella Peoples Party (UPP) in Water State, I got my loyalists in the parliament to issue a statement saying without me the party would lose the governorship of the state. Mama, I don suffer for these people. Where I go hide my face?”
His phone rings. The caller is the UPP chairman in Water State.
“Good day oga,” the chairman greets the junior minister.
“Good day,” he manages to sound alright.
“I just got a letter from the Dame saying the time had come for us to face reality. She said we must choose our candidate among the People on the Water if we hope to make any headway in this election,” the chairman says.
“This woman has finished me. She has finished me. She also came to see my mother to deliver a similar message,” he says.
“That is serious. What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
The conversation ends and he briefs his mother about why the chairman called. His phone rings presently. On the line is his Media Aide.
“Good afternoon sir.”
He replies the greeting.
“Sir, there is a report in Evening Monitor and Evening Enquirer quoting a letter from the Dame to the chairman on the need for the UPP candidate to emerge from the Riverside. Online papers are quoting it too.”
“I will talk to you later,” he cuts off the call.
His phone rings immediately. The second phone begins to ring too. The calls are from men who are looking forward to taking active part in his government. He refuses to pick any of the calls.
He decides to go get a copy of the Evening Monitor from the news-stand a few blocks away and right there on the front page is his picture with the banner headline : “UPP dumps Ekiw”. A bromide of the Dame’s letter is also on the front page to authenticate their report.
There is also an interview with an activist from the Riverside.
These words catch his attention: “ The Riverside people in Waters State have every reason to expect to have one of their own leading the state,based on history, fairness and balance. The People on Water are the largest ethnic group in the state with about 10 Local Government Areas and substantial populations in 2 others of 23 Local Government Areas. The other two have less than 5 each. The People on Water are 39.7 per cent of the population of the state. In 1999, Ilido emerged on popular Riverside support. Again in 2007 and 2011,the Riverside people gave the incumbent their mandate.”
He goes back to the house to show his mother the paper. As Mama goes through the story, he remembers he once told a group of editors in Lagos that he could never govern the Water State in 2015.
“I am from the same place as the governor,” he remembers telling the in his suite in a highbrow hotel on the Island.
“Never say never in politics,” he remembers one of the editors saying.
“I will be creating problems for myself if I start thinking about succeeding my kinsman,” he remembers saying to close the conversation.
Now, he has created problems for himself. He cannot go back to the governor. The trust is broken and he will feel sad if he remains in the cabinet.
“Mama, I need to take a break from this madness.”
“How do you mean?” asks the old woman.
“UNICEF once offered me a job in Paris, which I turned down because of my political engagements. I saw the head of the body in Geneva a month ago and he said they would still be glad to have me. I laughed then because I thought I would never need it. Now, I think I will resign my appointment as minister, move to Paris and start a new life.”
He hugs his mother and they both cry. An era has ended. A new one is beginning.
