POWER OF CONSCIENCE
(the spirit of Ekpeke Nwa Ewu)
I was in Jss 2 then, studying @the only secondary school in my town then. People from my village will understand the feeling of trekking from Okaa Omee to Uke Girls to & fro on daily basis & under hot sun too... With Hunger & tiredness from the long trek under hot sun, I made my way to the kitchen without bothering to remove my school uniform. Uncovering the neatly covered flowered plastic plate,,,,, the aroma of my mother's jollof rice made me forget about the whole trekking stress I went through coming home.
Since I was the only one in the house, I decided to quit the formality of eating @the dining and enjoy my food outside, so I could enjoy the fresh breeze too...... I totally forgot about Omaenu? (a.k.a Ekpeke Nwa Ewu), Ekpeke was the least amongst our 8goats,,, I personally gave him that name "Ekpeke" because of its stunted growth,, but every other person in the family & neighborhood calls him "Omaenu" because of his habit of jumping through the fence of the goat house, to either enter our neighbor's house or to loiter about the compound, looking for one crime to commit..
Back to the gist,,,,,,,,,The hot sun must have erased some of my memories, for me to have forgotten about the existence of Ekpeke when I brought out my plate of rice, left it on the bench outside and then went back inside the room to fetch drinking water for myself.
I happily returned with a cup filled with water for adequate digestion of my jollof rice,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Behold! My happiness was immediately turned into anger & sorrow,,,,, my plate of jollof rice has been turned upside down on the ground, half of it consumed,, courtesy of Ekpeke ?.... That day was the first day I understood that saying that "a hungry man is an angry ? man"... With that anger in me, I furiously pursued Ekpeke round the compound,,,,, the mischievous goat ?" na-aragharị m ọsọ "(I'm too angry to translate this part).
When it was very obvious to me that I couldn't catch him but was very ready to make him pay for his crime,, I angrily picked up a short but heavy stick from mango branch that the goats fed from and fired it at Ekpeke................. Ghen! Ghen!
There laid the poor goat breathing heavily.,,,,,, immediately my anger was replaced with fear,, I feared the goat was dead,,. Getting to the place where he was lying I discovered he was still much alive, only that the two hind legs have been crippled...... I'm in serious trouble,, Oga Aziki (my father) will skin me alive, he wouldn't listen to any cock & bull story behind my action, that I'm very sure of,,,,, for he is a no nonsense man.
I was not ready to be flogged with a twisted electric wire,,, I had to come up with a plan to escape the "11:30pm flogging punishment".
So I quickly carried Ekpeke into the goat house and quickly packed the remaining rice on the ground to eliminate any evidence that may point towards my direction,,,,, then I went inside & waited for my father's arrival.
Dad returned from work later in the evening, I didn't wait for for him to drop his tool bag before I reported to him that Otimpi(the oldest of the goats that enjoys bullying other smaller goats) had crippled Ekpeke(what a lie ?). Dad dropped his bag & immediately rushed to the goat house,,,, he opened it and allowed all our goats outside,,,, he carried Ekpeke up & confirmed my story........ Dad was so furious at Otimpi that he put her (Otimpi) under rope & flogged her mercilessly ?.... I was dying in guilt watching Otimpi paid for my sins. Otimpi remained under rope outside without food, while I helped dad construct artificial legs for Ekpeke using sticks from palm leaves ?.
As the days went by, Ekpeke's condition became worse,,,,,, & after 4 days of the incident, I came back from school to find the poor goat dead??. Dad sadly threw its dead body into Ofia Obodo (bush).
I regreted my actions, I felt so bad & remorseful,, but that didn't save me from the torture of my conscience.
Then began the the torment!
That night I dreamt that I was passing through Ofia Obodo pathway ,,,,,,, boom! Ekpeke came out of the bush and started pursuing me,,,, I ran,, & ran & ran until I got home & shut the gate, then I woke up sweating profusely. I suddenly became afraid of sleeping,,, The nightmare repeated for 3 more days,,,,, each happening around that same Ofia Obodo (the bush Ekpeke was thrown into).
So I totally avoided that path that passed through Ofia Obodo until Ekpeke was totally forgotten.
I can't help but wonder how people that kill their fellow human sleep @night,,, when I lost sleep & peace because Ekpeke died out of my anger.
