NICE WEATHER, BRIGHT BLUE SKY, FEW WHITE CLOUDS, ENGINES’ CHUGS, SOMEWHERE IN KANGAN. Dr Hope took Soyinka’s The Interpreters and a dictionary, and sat on a bale divan in his bungalow after meal. The dictionary was occasioned because the novel had quite a number of times suspended him into a quantum state version of meaninglessness and he has never lasted the tenth page of the novel, though he reads it like an old woman whose eyes have been squashed due to the excessive garri-intake. Suddenly his phone buzzed.
That was his president’s voice; the man who gave him a scholarship to study Organicity in Kangan. While on the call, President Nbong had informed him that his crucial experience would be needed as the rate of illicit drugs had put them on red alert. Since no matter how large a town would be that the whispers of Oro can’t occupy it, Dr Hope went to Kosovo, putting on a tailored suit two days later.
The four delegates sent by the president were enamoured of Dr Hope when asked about his journey at the immigration office. He responded positively as they made way to the meeting at hand which was to hold in Southern Kosovo. Though there was nothing than to inch along the cluster of colourful houses, Dr Hope ordered the driver to move to a newspaper’s vendor who he had spotted on the other side of the road.
Channelling through the newspapers, an item struck Dr Hope. AN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL RAPED BY A SEVENTY-YEAR-OLD MAN. How many times he read the item he could not say. All he knew was that it hurt each time he did and he sighed deeply subsequently. He was jolted back to life when the Minister of Human Affairs sitting right beside him peeped into the paper. The report then became a limelight in the car as the Minister of Humane Affairs blurted out while Dr Hope decided to gave a constant shoot!
‘This is highly pernicious!’ blurted out the Minister of Human Affairs who had slyly looked at Dr Sam’s paper, ‘the essence of being humans is fully for us to be able to express ourselves and if anything detracts us from having this sense of confidence then I don’t think we are humans anymore. All of us I mean!’
‘Let me quickly say that all the problems we experience these days such as rape, bigotry, kidnapping, religious extremism, xenophobic attack, starvation, racism, ideological extremism, reduction of dignity, enslavement etc., are complex issues. And for a complex issue, complex solution is required, meaning that different stakeholders must come together to solve it. And I must remind you all that it was the death of a single Black American some years back aggravated a reactionary feeling into the minds of the youths in a particular country like that to abolish their security outfits, SARs. Whichever way we have seen it, a reactionary attitude is needed to completely solve any problem. Likewise, I don’t think we are addressing the real issue if we think that either killing or jailing those who had raped is completely the way out. I want you all to know that moral conduct or what is called “ethics” in our society is two. The problem of rape is more of our society since we are by-products of this society. We live in a society where vices in the name of sexual contents are at the doorsteps of our youths, which have now become readily tools for Yahoo Yahoo scams. Unfortunately some parents indulge in these contents, and sometimes end in the hands of their children. If we really want a lasting solution to this disease we need a reactionary feeling and have to go back to our families and societies as these problems will keep changing…’
