Roll out the Drums, please let’s celebrate our Prisoners

Everything under the sun they say has got its time and season. True this is the time and season for celebration and jollymentation in Nigeria, especially among our politicians and specifically within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. Oh! How I love this country during this season. I am always happy and thrilled with the various eating and dancing that come during political elections in the country, especially in the past ten years.  Believe me I have always made it a duty to have my ears and eyes wide open for any information on political celebration and enjoymentation. 
I wish you saw the sad  look on my face  last  week when I could not join the thousands of enthusiastic  ‘hired supporters’  who trooped out en masse to welcome one of our most popular convict back into the real world, after spending a few arranged years behind bars. I was not happy that I missed all the free amala and orishi-rishi meat that must have rained heavily on the large crowd, especially this time that the old General at Otta decided to lead the high profile political battalion to Kirikiri himself, alongside a large gathering of politicians, made up of well known past and present Amala Governors, ministers and other PDP top guns and aspiring politicians alike. The pictures of the home-coming displayed by various newspapers the next day were quite captivating and I was awe struck. I knew I had really missed something big.
Therefore it came as a surprise to me to hear people complaining and making big noise about this grand gesture by Baba to welcome his lost ‘Boy George’ sorry Bode George, back to the fold. I wonder what else all those complaining had expected, when  we  were supposed to have  rolled out the drums and join the owanbe and jolly away. In fact, all those complaining and reacting negatively to this kind gesture are not being patriotic. Did we not welcome convict Tafa Balogun back into our midst, after all the looted billions? What about the Grand Commander of Otta himself, he came back triumphantly from prison to occupy the highest position in the country, amidst celebration and jubilations. So why shouldn’t two birds of a feather flock together? What about that witty grinning senator that heard the murder rap of the country’s number one law officer hanging on his neck ;he won election from prison and went straight to the national chamber, where he is still grinning away and proposing law for all of us? Hope we have not forgotten a sitting governor who won election from prison, and his controversial naked pictures, or those indicted governors, legislators and ministers,  all by our barking but no biting anti- corruption agencies.
 Please roll out the drums and let us celebrate this great illustrious son of PDP that came, saw and conquered in prison.  Why are we complaining when we have just created a unique made in Nigeria brand of celebration? Who knows, other nations might be eager to copy our innovative idea of welcoming prisoners back home. I am sure the other prisoners Chief Bode George left in Kirikiri are happy for this new invention. They have nothing to worry about, as arrangement might have been concluded to roll out the drums for most of them when they finish serving their terms.
What a brand new era in the country’s democracy. Please let us roll out the drums to all the chicken and goat thieves in our prisons. This kind gesture by the PDP I believe should be extended to all the armed robbers, kidnappers and other condemned prisoners languishing in the various prisons across the country.  This is really a season of happiness and merrymaking. And I am happy for our local musicians and drummers. At least they are now more engaged and enjoying the dividend of democracy.  And for those still doubting the ingenuity of the ruling party, they should please rethink their stand. They should see this as a unique idea, never before experienced anywhere in the world and as such they should be commended and the initiators rewarded with the juiciest positions in the country.
What is wrong in mandating the National Assembly and all the state assemblies to enact a bill that would ensure that all criminals awaiting trial in our various prisons are monthly celebrated and special funds allocated to the office of the comptroller of prisons to celebrate their release? Music they say is good for the body and soul and thank God we have some of the biggest drums, kalangu, shekere and kakaki in the world. Let us roll out this instrument to welcome and honour all our convicted criminals both dead and alive. It won’t seem out of place if they are awarded some of the highest national awards and their offspring awarded scholarships, while a special retiring pension scheme is arranged for those still alive and kicking.
Let  us gyrate and jolly and feed our stomach with hot amala and palm wine, as we welcome the Grand Officer Commanding all the released and  yet to be released Nigerian convicts across the country.  Why are the opposition parties suddenly shouting blue, over this ‘illustrious son’, when all what the PDP is  doing is trying to  woo all the Nigerian prisoners to its side in the forthcoming general election. The fact is nobody or law stops the opposition from hiring some supporters to also mount sentry across all the prisons in the country and welcome any released thief, pickpocket, mass murderer and child molester as they step out from the four tall walls of our famous prisons.
 Please let them listen to the PDP and leave them alone to their celebration, fanfare and new innovation, or join them if they can’t beat them ; after all none of them contributed a kobo to the big cows and huge rams used to welcome ‘their convicted member’ back home. Or are they jealous? Well , they should go back to their drawing boards and learn from this innovative party and see how even some ‘men of God’  saw vision in organizing a thanks giving for this ‘ Omo Eko’. 
The opposition should be grateful that the party did not order for the closure of all major streets in Lagos for the owanbe welcome. But I am sure they will take the initiative when the next ‘big’ convict would be released from prison. My eyes and ears would be wide open this time around, because I cannot afford to miss this big one. And if the opposition doesn’t know, I think they should brace up for the mother of all celebration and owanbe party. This is nothing compared to the next celebration;they should wait till Madam Banker Cecelia Ibru is released from her ‘few months’ sojourn behind her luxurious bar. They should be ready to join the jollymentaion or keep quiet and watch; as many heads of cows and pounded yam are bound to roll freely away that day. Meanwhile let us roll out the biggest drums in anticipation of the home coming of some of our other illustrious prisoners.

NEW  NIGERIAN  ON  SUNDAY, MARCH 20,  2011

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