Sitting down beside the Red fence waiting for my plate of roasted Plantain – Boole – spiced with roasted fish and garnished with vegetables to make a meal out of it, quite different from how it is eaten in the western part of the country. I was in Port Harcourt after a long time away. The town looked different.
The traffic that is associated with the red fence was not there. People were scanty and the shops had more blue men than the traditional red army that keeps them alive. Activity was low and lacking spice. I looked around, I couldn’t see my regular friends that enjoy same meals with me every lunch time. Where are they?
I pondered and wondered, ransacking my big head for a response. I had entered the Red base for the first time in about 9 months. Things had changed. The lab was wearing a weird look – properly scattered and posing a good amount of danger to unsuspecting passerby. The base was empty and you could count people like the amount of oasis in the Sahara desert. Billboards and posters have been erected.
It was brought to my notice that a lot of these changes have been done during and after the internal self audit. The places looked cleaner and more focused but the people were lacking. A lot of my friends have been booted – no thanks to the industrial crises. Others were away in various location fishing for money. A couple were on vacation, enjoying with their family.
In all I felt alone. This was not the Port i used to know. This is the shadow. I had come to get my luggage ready for dePORTation after spending over 12 months in a foreign land – in the economic capital. I have been on the edge of change for quite a long time due to management’s indecision and high level confusion spiced up with wayo-ism.
Change is constant, even change keeps change. Delta T is never the the same. But God is unchangeable. I had to give thanks to him for still making me a member of the Red Army especially seeing that over 100 persons have been de-red-ed in the last 4 months with more to join when the forces that be decide to bear one name.
I am at peace as to whatsoever that happens in the future, not because of my abilities or my responsibilities but because my hope is on the Lord of Host, the Creator of the Universe and my Urstuff.
Where does your hope lie in trying times? where do you run to when everywhere is in chaos? Who is your refuge? Who will save you?
I smiled as my plate of Boole was served.
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