Thunderstruck immediately the clock struck midnight. I looked up from my laptop and waited to see if power would go out but when it didn't 5 minutes later, I went back to work. Just as I snuck into bed at half past 1 am, the power went out.
I woke up the next morning with loud banging in both my head and on my door.
“Aunty Treasure!” Only one person called me Aunty in my compound and that was my next-door neighbor, Onyi.
She peeked into my room and gave me a huge smile. “Can I come in?”
I opened the door wider wondering what she was looking for.
“Err Treasure, are you busy? I need to talk to you”
“Onyi talk. I'm listening” I was getting annoyed.
“It's about what happened last night..” I frowned my face and wracked my throbbing brain trying to remember what happened. It seems she noticed my confusion because she went further to explain herself. “The light issue”
“What's wrong with our light?”
“I heard the general transformer got burnt and we are all required to pay a fee of 6k so it can be fixed”
“Onyi, I don't have 6k at the moment and I'll not have it till the end of the month,” I said hoping that she would leave. To my greatest surprise, she just sat there with her head bent.
“Onyi?” When she raised her head, tears were rolling down her cheeks. “What's wrong?”
“Treasure, I too do not have the money to pay. And I didn't pay for compound maintenance last month because I lost my job.”
“I can spare 1k to give you for the compound maintenance but I really don't have 6k now”
Onyi nodded thankfully and raised her eyes to me.
“There will be a community meeting this Saturday because of this. Prepare yourself to attend” she said after I handed the 1,000 naira to her.
True to Onyi’s words, a notice was pasted on our gate saying that there was to be a meeting at the community hall on Saturday by 8 am.
It was Onyi that woke me up on Saturday.
“Come on, get dressed. You don't have to shower or do anything lavish. We're only going to be there for a couple of hours.”
I asked her to wait for me and went into the bathroom to pour some water on myself. I knew the meeting would not commence at exactly 8 am, so why the rush?
What I didn't know, however, was that we wouldn't find seats by 15 minutes past 8.
A bell rang as we came in and silence fell over the hall.
“Announcing the arrival of Obong Etim 1 of Nsukara!” a loud voice cried.
An old man in a native headdress and a wrapper walked in supporting himself on a walking stick.
“Please, sit,” he said and everyone had their seats. That helped those of us behind to see what was going on properly. “I greet you, my people,” he said,
There was a low chorus of “We greet you too”
“Report has come to me concerning the NEPA people. They said each house should contribute 6,000 to fix this transformer that got bad. What is our take on this?”
He was barely done talking when hands shot up from various directions. The young man who announced the arrival of the chief counted the hands. They were 14.
“We will take just 3 because of time. Yes?” The chief said.
One of the men in front stood up.
“Obong, I greet you. Please let us send delegates to talk to these NEPA people. 6k per house is too much!” Several voices concurred with him.
“So what is our own suggestion?”
More hands shot up in the air. Another 3 people were chosen to speak.
“Obong, let each compound pay the 6k instead” several voices rose to counter him. The bell had to be rung for order to be restored.
“Let each house contribute 2k….” The second person's opinion was drowned with objections. The bell rang again.
“Obong, let NEPA tell us the total cost of fixing a new transformer. We can decide on how much to pay from that”.
“My people, should we send delegates to NEPA to find out the cost of fixing a new transformer?”
There was a resounding “Yes!” From the audience.
“Okay. When the delegates are back we will converge again to decide how much to pay”
And just like that, the meeting came to an end. I had thoroughly enjoyed myself and was intrigued by the Neighborhood Dynamics. I made a mental note to ask Onyi to keep me informed whenever there was a meeting like this. I already couldn't wait for the next meeting to be held.
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