Pᴏᴡᴇʀ

ᗯℰ were on the second of the seven rivers of Africa. The stupid song played in my head for quite some time. At the exact moment I got rid of it, Cynthia hummed it, as if that wasn't enough, she sang her own version:

'Azikiwe, Wolowo, Tafawa Balewa,

She then hummed it repeatedly, typing with all concentration on her phone.

'What does it mean?' I asked. She raised her head up to look at me with one of her brow raised. I almost melted. ' I mean the Onyocha something-something part o?'

'White man remove your hands from the king's crown.' she returned her face to the phone's screen, tapping it with her thumbs.

It was our first vacation. Madam Ajuma brought up the idea in a general staff meeting and everyone loved it. She was the Head of programs. I always thanked her in my heart for bringing Cynthia to me. Although we barely spoke to each other during the vacation.

'Interesting. Is a good thing they have removed their hands from the king's crown right?' I said with hopes that she'd pick up an argument with me, ' Where is the kingdom now?'

Yes! I ignited their spark. All of them. Sir Lamido stopped gazing into space. The question seemed to have a galvanic effect on him such that he quickly lowered his glasses down the bridge of his big wrinkled nose, staring at me with pupils at the top of his eyes as he gently pierced the hollow between his collar bone with his chin.

Cynthia clicked on the power button at the side of her smartphone and the helmsman reduced the volume of his music. The cruise just became lit.

Madam Ajuma and all other staff present showed interest except Gbenga the koala. The only thing he contributed was his irritating sleep song.

'In our hands.' Cynthia said, removing her cat-eye glasses, ' What a man does with his rightful inheritance is no man's business. No one should take it from him.'

' I would not say those hands are off the kingdom yet.' Sir Lamido said, ' The so called Whiteman still play footsie with us one way or the other. They wield the Sceptre to our kingdom, but we own it.'

' I'm in a pretty kettle of fish right now sir.' I said.

' I think I understand him pretty much.' Madam Ajuma said with a quick gaze before fixing back her eyes on the religious book she was reading.

'Well,' Cynthia said, ' I don't think that is completely true sir. I think does developed nations are doing their best for us. They always come to aid when necessary. They don't interfere when it's not called for.'

' My dear friend,' Sir Lamido said, ' that's the idea. That's exactly what they want you to think, this is exactly what they want you to say. Don't be deceived sugar, America fights only for America. Great Britain fights only for Great Britain. Should I mention Brexit?' He shrugged. ' Before I emphasize on Brexit you must first understand that these nations either create a problem for you and help solved them because of something they want from or they simply help you because they want something from you. Now or tomorrow. It's typical of us Africans to think about now, we're always about now, but those guys? They think about tomorrow.'

' You were going to emphasize more on Brexit sir.' I said.

'Yes, Brexit. Why Brexit? They give series of reasons, they say the European Nations did not address their economic problems. Rubbish, do they have problem? They should come to Africa to see the real meaning of economic problem. It's simply their nature, they want everything good for themselves, they really don't care about others. They want power! The European Nations are in charge of the wheels, they don't want that. Oh, so after all these years they just realized all of a sudden that the European Nations does not serve any purpose. You to know the truth? Immigrants! That's the truth, they believe immigrants ruin their economy. They are angry these immigrants share everything with them; there jobs, money, accommodation and perhaps women.' He sniggered, ' Do you know who majority of these immigrants and refugees over there are? Our people, our brothers and sisters, that seek to make something better out of life for themselves.'

His treble voice was like polythene twisting in the wind. His big eyes popped out as if they were going to fall off as he spoke.

Everyone paid attention to him. I was sure Madam Ajuma also did despite her face was buried to her book all through.

Sir Lamido brought out a grey tea flask from his bag, he unscrewed the lid gently, poured a little coffee into it, blew it a little and sipped watching us with the corner of his eyes.

The nutty coffee made me feel nostalgic. When we were kids, only my father had the right to drink coffee in our house. Nike and I usually hung around him whenever he drinks his coffee targeting his mug as if it were a bag of money. Immediately he finishes and walks out, the rat race begins, whoever gets to the mug first would have the remnant. Even though the coffee does not taste as good as it smells we get to stretch out our tongue to receive receive the last drop. The funniest part is when we are caught sometimes in the act of wrestling for the mug by mum, we'd claim it's because we want to wash Daddy's mug. She'd give a sarcastic smile and take it from us.

' I love people who are blunt. Straight to the point. People who are always themselves no matter what. If they black, they stay black, and if they white they are white.' The sage broke silence. Even though I understood his message, the only picture I had on my head was Michael Jackson's.

Cynthia had gone back to phone. I was into her already and wanted to talk to her by all means. I wished to have a private moment with her even if I had no guts to express myself. The thought of talking to her or trying to get her attention made my heart beat real fast.

' I know a lot of people detest Hitler, the dictator behind world war two right? Wicked man. That's a lot of people's perception about him. Well, I love Hitler. There are a lot to learn from the great man.'

I remembered that Madam Ajuma had created a group chat adding everyone of us that would be coming for the vacation, I quickly looked for her number in the group. She had no picture of her on her profile, only her blogs logo. I decided to private chat her immediately. A decision that haunted me for weeks until I got to speak to her almost a month later and asked out for dinner. I only sent her a 'Hi', it was obvious she didn't check it immediately, but when she did, whilst Sir Lamido was talking to us about his friend Hitler, she gave me a hostile look, gesturing something abstract. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to say I'm sorry but I thought I'd look so weak. I had already shown weakness when she looked at me, so I thought when she'd look back at me I'd wink at her with a smile- strength!

She never stared back at me. When she did, I was off guard.

' In the early nineties he vied for chancellor under a minority party at the time. The Nazi. Almost a hundred percent of Germans never voted for this party nor Hitler for a good number of years. During these years, democracy in Germany became demo-crazy like it is in our -' he gave a fake cough pointing downwards, we laughed. I quickly looked at her with the side of my eyes.

' Germans were upset, corruption was the order of the day, some major banks in the country crashed, the rate of unemployment was petrifying, many were forced to leave their homes. They lived a poverty and many of them committed suicide.'

We all seemed to be paying absolute attention, it was as if he was telling some midnight take to some children, however, I was sure he gained all those attention because he was the boss. Moreover, Cynthia was all over my head.

But his history lessons were really cool to me. The way he spoke about Adolf Hitler and the Germans with so much ardor as if one of the victims of all the anarchy had died in his arms.

' They began to cry for help. They were now desperate for a leader strong enough to lead them out of the mess. In 1932, Hitler put himself forward as a strong, decisive leader that would rescue the Germans from the chaos during their campaign. One of the most amazing thing he did was to let the people know during his campaign that he was going to do away with democracy and form a dictatorship. Yes! He had guts. ' Who cares about democracy! Just save us from this anarchy!' I suppose would be a German's reaction at that time. Let me disappoint you, Adolf the ' demon ' brought stability, confidence and prowess to the German economy. The fact is that the man had everything figured out. He had vision. '

Sir Lamido continued with his history lessons until we got back to the terminal. I'm sure even if we get to forget all that he had said, none of us would forget the Stalin Chicken story, which was most times attributed to Hitler.

I could not approach Cynthia that day. I only admired her like I was a bee and she was petals I could only buzz around. I barely slept that night. My eyes were shot, but my mind was open. She played in my head; he smile, the way she talked, walked, ate. I could even perceive her fragrance in my imagination. If I were a painter, I would have painted a perfect portrait of her that night.

Onye-ocha: Whiteman

Kofe dafun iyanla iya e ni: abusive words.