Journey of no return

That’s the thing about this city. What did you say? Are you talking to me? Yes Oga, I said that’s the thing about this city. I mean the heavy road traffic, even after 10pm, traffic in Lagos is still so tough. Philip wasn’t paying attention to the taxi driver that picked him up at the airport. His mind was in several places. He didn’t even have any clues as to which one he should focus on. He was concerned about getting to Dan’s house on time so he could call his wife and tell her he was already in his hotel room. He was also bothered about the huge lie he has told his wife before traveling down to Lagos. He sincerely hoped everything goes in the right direction so he could quickly return home. Then he began to worry, hoping to be able to get the direction to Dan’s house with the address on his phone. He only hoped he hasn’t changed his address recently. 

Engineer Philip left Nigeria since the early 70’s after he won a scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering in England. He has never returned home since then. He got married in England and has been leaving there with his wife and children. However, after much persuasion from his younger brother Dan who has been waiting tirelessly to see him, so he finally agreed to come to Lagos.

Dan leaves in Mushin, a rural like and ghetto part of Lagos which is known for its thug life and rough nature of the citizens leaving there. Mostly poor and lacks basic infrastructures such as pipe born water, good roads and irregular electricity supply. The city is known for its struggles which have also crafted the life style of most people born in that environment.

***

Philip’s phone rang about 7:18am, DST. His youngest son, Jeffrey picked it and ran towards his dad’s room. Baby, can you help me with this tie? Philip asked his British wife Ann. They’ve been married for the past fifteen years and they have three children already two boys and a girl. Ann who was already used to Philips scattered nature, he never leaves things where he picked them and Ann was always fixing his tie every morning before leaving for work. He had a way of knotting it that Ann was never satisfied with and they were doing their usual on a fateful Tuesday morning. They both heard a knock at the door, it was their son Jeff who wanted to hand the phone over to his dad. Ann reached for the door and collected the phone from her son. Who is calling? Philip asked his wife but Ann refused to answer. She had seen the caller that it was Dan, her brother in-law. Ann never had any issues with Dan calling her husband. The only problem was the repeated persuasion for Philip to come home that was her problem. She was never comfortable letting her husband or the children visit Nigeria since they met each other. Philip would have loved to show his family to his people in Nigeria but Ann wouldn’t agree. When asked what is wrong, she would only give the excuse of having a mixed feeling about traveling to Nigeria. 

Hello bro, good morning brother. I am calling to remind you of the arrangements. Everything is set and the lawyer is also ready this weekend. Alright that is fine. Thank you Dan and greet your family for me. Philip ended the call. His brother had advised him of the need to secure for himself some properties in Nigeria. It will be too risky to put all your eggs in one basket. Dan said. You know your wife is white and English for that matter. Incase anything goes wrong, you will be thrown out with almost nothing to fall back too. Philip suddenly liked the idea and planned a short trip to Nigeria for that weekend hoping to be back the following Monday night. All plans were well orchestrated to fit in to a short travel to oversee a company’s project for a few days during the weekend.

On Thursday night around 8:15 pm, shortly after dinner, Ann was busy packing her husband’s bag. It was a trip only for a few days so she had only put in a few casuals since Philip would mainly be working on the site and then return to his hotel room that have been booked for him. Unknowingly to her, Philip wasn’t going to China.

On Friday morning in Nigeria, there was a crowd at the junction of Dan’s house in Mushin. Everybody piled up like tubers of yam ready to be taken to the market so they could see what has happened. A young man has been killed in the middle of the night. It appeared the other opposing cult group have spotted him wandering around vulnerably the night before and had been trailing his movements before they waylaid him at night and dragged him to be killed at the junction so everyone could see. This means the neighborhood would not be peaceful for the next couple of days. The two cult groups would be hunting themselves and dead bodies would be on the rise for some time. Immediately Dan saw this, he knew it would interrupt him from picking up his brother at the airport and bring him to the house. Though Philip has suggested Dan booked him a hotel but Dan insisted he come stay with him in his house because his children and wife have been looking forward to seeing him since they haven’t seen him before. So he agreed to stay at Dan’s, it was a good idea after all.

Back at Ringway in Manchester, after Philip kissed his wife goodbye. He insisted she shouldn’t follow him any further because he didn’t want to board the flight to Lagos in her presence. He knew a nonstop flight to China will amount to the same hours if he would be flying to Nigeria. That way, Ann wouldn’t be suspicious of his journey as he would get to the same venue almost the same time and if there were any alterations, he could give the excuse of logistical planning and slight delays. 

Philip got to Muritala International Airport around 10: 13pm Nigerian time. He immediately called his wife to notify her of his safe landing in China and promised to call as soon as he got to his hotel room in Beijing. It was taking too long for Dan to show up. Dan has promised to pick him up at the airport. 

However, a few hours prior to Philip’s arrival, a strong rioter killing had erupted from the two cult groups following the killing of the young man that was discovered at the junction that morning. It has escalated to a thug of war between the opponent cult group in a bid to retaliate and payback the death of one of their members. 

Everyone has escaped to their houses and those who have any family member still out at the time or those who haven’t arrived from work were notified to stay away. However, for Dan and his brother, it was so unfortunate. Dan has been robbed while struggling to gather every member of his family. His only daughter was sent on an errand a few minutes before gunshot started. He had to go back outside to look for her. While running and guiding her from been hit or injured by other people who were also running for their dear lives. His phone was picked from his pocket by a thief. That’s the funny thing about Lagos and thieves; they seize every opportunity to steal especially in such odd moments where no one would suspect any activity of such going on. 

When Philip realized he wouldn’t be able to reach Dan that night and he was also sure Dan wasn’t coming, he decided to take a taxi to his house. He remembered during one of their whatsapp conversations; Dan has dropped in his address. So he decided to trace his house through the address. In the taxi, he called his wife again and let her know he was on his way to his hotel room so her mind would be at rest.

Unknowing to Philip and the taxi driver, they had walked in the middle of war. They began to hear gunshots everywhere with no clue where to run to. Nowhere was safe for them to pack and either run on foot or hide. It wasn’t a familiar neighborhood to neither of them as any attempt to reverse and return to the airport further brought them closer to danger. Several thoughts began to pop up in Philip’s head. He began to appreciate his wife’s cold feelings towards coming to Nigeria and regretted every of his actions about coming home. He then remembered he had also lied to his wife he was going to China to oversee a company’s project in one of their sites. Now he began to imagine the disappointment he would bring to his wife and children if anything goes wrong that night. Then he remembered his brother, what his Dan going to do if something bad happened to him and then he began promising himself he would never return to Nigeria again after this is over.

All these thoughts were going on as the driver was trying to find his way out of one of the streets they were. They have been spotted by some of the cultists who were armed with several weapons such as guns, cutlasses and axes. They thought their opponent was mobile and was trying to shoot them in their hide out and run. Immediately they sighted the car coming, they pursued their vehicle and in the bid to explain who they were and what was their mission, one of the cultist who was so furious brought out his gun and……..

Ann on the other hand was already growing out of patience. She hasn’t heard back from her husband. It was taking too long for him to call. He should have gotten to the hotel by now. So she thought. She began trying his number but no one to pick up. Since she was not comfortable and couldn’t go to bed without hearing from her husband to be sure all is well. She decided to pick up some house shores. She went to the kitchen to re arrange the dishes that were already well arranged. All just to keep herself busy while waiting for Philip’s call.

All Ann could hear was the sound of broken plates that has slipped off her fingers. Her mind was not in what she was doing, she didn’t know when she dropped the plate. She was busy dialing her husband’s phone and her attention was so carried away in the process. Apparently, the moment the plate touched the ground was the same time Philip was shot by one of the cultists while he was trying to reach for his phone that was ringing. They thought he was trying to pull out a gun.

The following morning, Dan heard a knock on his door. With fear to reach for the door. He shouted in a bold thick voice ‘‘who is that’’? Just in a bid to drive out whoever was there and to send a signal to the attacker to be sure the territory wasn’t vulnerable for attack. It’s the Nigerian police force, please open the door. Dan knew there must be a big problem, though he wasn’t sure what exactly, but he was certain it wasn’t good. For the police to knock on his door the next morning following an all-night thug of war between two rival cult groups. There is certainly a big problem. He said to himself.

Are you Mr Dan Okoebor? Yes I am. He replied the police officer who was holding a phone which belonged to Philip his brother. We found this phone in a car parked across the road which has been vandalized by the cultists and the driver along with the passenger that was in the back sit was also killed. We went through his phone call log and we found out he has been dialing your number repeatedly. While one of our officers went through the whatsapp chats to see if we could find anything to point us in the right direction, we found your address in one of the recent chats.

Ann on the other hand barely had any sleep throughout the night. She hadn’t heard from her husband and she was sure something was certainly wrong. Series of questions flooded her head at the same time. She didn’t know what to do. She thought maybe she should go to Philip’s office to enquire if anyone has heard from him. Then she remembered it was Saturday, no one would be around except the lady at the reception. She wouldn’t know much as she wasn’t one of Philip’s direct colleagues. Philip didn’t have any close friend from the office that might be aware of his where about. Then she thought she could go to Philip’s boss’ house. She and Philip were there about six months ago to celebrate his recent promotion. So she picked her phone immediately and went off to Matt’s house. 

The words coming out from the police officer’s mouth were so heavy in Dan’s hears. It was the last thing he wanted to hear about his brother. He and his family had looked forward to meeting him. How will I explain this to Ann? What am I going to do now? He couldn’t even find his phone. The worst thought in his head was how he imagined Ann would feel and how she would receive the sad news. He and Philip had carefully orchestrated the plan such that Ann wouldn’t know Philip was ever in Nigeria but the unfortunate incident has ruined everything for them, especially Dan who was left to make the explanations to parties concerned. He knew he will forever be a traitor to Ann as well as his niece and nephews. How would he explain the part he played in the occurrence that led to their father’s death?

Ann was in a deep shock after hearing from Matt- Philip’s boss that neither he nor the management had sent Philip on any official assignment to China. In fact, we don’t have any office in China. This was the biggest blow Ann would receive in her entire life. It was as if strucked by a fast moving train. She fell to the ground immediately.

She and her children managed to survive through the weekend. She had broken the news to them that their father couldn’t be found. She waited patiently till the following Monday morning hopefully she could get any useful information from any of his colleagues. While dressing up to leave the house, Ann’s phone rang. It was Philip her husband. She picked it up immediately. She didn’t know if she should be happy to hear his voice or be angry at him for lying to her that he was sent on an official assignment from the office. However, the voice she heard wasn’t Philip’s it was Dan. She was surprised how Philip’s phone would be in Dan’s hands and why wasn’t he calling her himself. Hello Ann, am very sorry. An unfortunate incident happened a few days ago. Ann broke down and fainted……