Satiricus was looking forward to the Old Year’s Night gyaff. All year round, he’d taken a lot of stick from his friends at the Back Street Bar for his KFC party’s role in the Government. But now that the Oil contract had been released, he felt vindicated. It would be HIS turn to crow about what his party had delivered!
“Well, even though he is a Moses, ‘Nagga Man’ didn’t need to split the waters and deliver us to the Promised Land!” said Satiricus. “Trot Man did it this time!!”
“Promised Land?” asked Hari sceptically, he quaffed his beer.
“Budday!!” exclaimed Satiricus. “We’ll be getting milk and honey every day!! Trot Man negotiated US$1.5billion every year for the first five years for us!!”
“Fuh abee?” asked Bungi sceptically. “An’ how much fuh dem?”
“This is the same thing I always talk about!” exclaimed Satiricus. “You can’t prove Trot Man and the Government got any pay-offs!!”
“An’ afta two-an-a-half year, dem cyaan prove Jagdesh t’ief anyt’ing,” noted Cappo. “But da na stap dem fuh t’row talk!”
“But lemme ask you something, Sato,” said Hari quietly. “Do you know how much oil Nigeria was shipping for the past 25 years?”
“Nah! How much?” said Satiricus. “And what that has to do with us?”
“They were shipping over 2 million barrels per day every day!!” replied Hari as everyone around the table bent forward listening.
“Da twenty time mo’ dan wha abee guh produce!” exclaimed Cappo.
“An dem bin get mo’ dan two time de price abee guh get!” pointed out Bungi.
“Yes…and so?” asked Satiricus and looked forward expectantly with raised eyebrows.
“Just that the people of Nigeria are just as poor as they ever were!” announced Hari. “None of that money ever got to them.”
“But how can you be so certain the same thing will happen here?” asked Satiricus aggrievedly.
“If Trotman and your government can lie about an US$18 million bonus,” said Hari. “Imagine what they will do about US$5 BILLION!”
Satiricus fell silent.
