BOJU BOJU

****

There was an uproar at Silver-Spoon International School the next day and the day after.

The prestigious primary school was temporarily shut down after parents and relatives of primary 4 Tiger pupils stomped into the school with bottles, stones and sticks. They were ready to shut down Silver-Spoon for good. All because of the smiling demon himself; Mr Kanayo Agu.

Meanwhile, in the police station...

“So what happened after Mr Kanayo was done with the game?” The police officers continued to question timid Mariam.

“I don’t know.” She looked at her mother at her side, “Mummy, I was sleeping before they finish the game.”

“Yes dear, you told me.” Mama Mariam replied then looked at the three police officers, “And she woke up in the bus on the way back to school.”

“What did you see in the bus?” Officer Ahmed asked Mariam.

“Everyone was sleeping beside me. And Mr K was driving us back to school.”

This caught the officers’ attention more. Officer Ahmed wrote a question on his notepad and looked at mama Mariam.

“Hajiya, please permit me to ask her this next question.” Officer Ahmed asked mama Mariam while showing her the writing on his notepad.

She thought about it for a while before she said, “This better be the last question for her.”

He nodded and turned to little Mariam.

“Did you see... anything strange? Like... blood?” He asked.

Mariam was puzzled, “Bl- blood? There was no blood. We were just all sleeping and tired from our play.”

The police officers all looked at each other and nodded suspiciously, before one of the police officers escorted Mariam and her mother out of the police station.

“She’s telling the truth.” Officer Sherif said to his senior, Officer Ahmed.

“I agree. Mr Kanayo’s offence here is not murder, its for drugging the children.” He admitted, bringing the truth to light, “He gave those poor children hard drugs to make them hallucinate. To see things that were not real. And the only reason Mariam was not affected was because she did not take the so-called ‘glucose’ he drugged them with.”

“Poor children. They must be traumatized for life.”

“Gaskiya (honestly). And you know that yellow pikin we questioned yesterday? He still believes his face has been stabbed by their teacher. He cannot look at the mirror anymore.”

Officer Sherif stared at his senior, “Officer, you never asked Mariam about the missing girl. The one that never came back with the other children.”

“Amina, ko?” Officer Ahmed called the missing girl’s name and shook his head, “We are still searching for her. She must have ran away, or worse... Mr Kanayo kidnapped her.”

It was neither. The police officers didn’t know it yet. Amina’s attack was not an imagination like the others. It was real.

Her corpse was inside the python’s belly.

“That basta-”

“Officer Ahmed! Officer Sherif!” The third police officer barged into the office with some documents in his hand. “Trouble dey!”

He slammed the documents on the table and slid it to Officer Ahmed’s side.

“What is this?” Officer Ahmed picked up the first document out of curiosity.

“Mr Kanayo Agu is a fake!”

All heads turned to the third police officer, Officer Idris.

“Mr Kanayo Agu is not a real identity. He’s fake! He is not even an NYSC corper!” Officer Idris panted as he slumped on a chair, “We sent someone to investigate on him after the parents complained of their missing children that night. And this is the report.”

“Oladeinde Kayode?” Officer Ahmed read Mr Kanayo’s real name from the front page of the document.

“According to the investigation, Mr Kanayo Agu is not a real name. He mixed the names of his two favorite Nollywood actors, Kanayo Kanayo and Chiwetalu Agu, to get his fake name. Damn it!”

“Even his credentials are fake.” Officer Ahmed said, while looking through the documents, “He never studied Agriculture in University of Birmingham. He forged his certificates and his NYSC PPA letter.”

“Do you want to hear the worst part?” Officer Idris said to both of them, causing a sudden silence in the atmosphere.

“What is it?” They both stared at him.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this news?”

“Speak up!”

“He is a native doctor.” Officer Idris confessed.

The officers began laughing and looked at him like he just said the most stupid thing a police man would ever say. He snatched the document from Officer Ahmed and opened a particular page before showing it to them.

It was true.

Mr Kanayo Agu was a babalawo.

“He is a native doctor and his late father was a native doctor.” Officer Idris narrated it for them, “He is a young babalawo who uses hypnosis jazz on his clients’ enemies.”

“So you mean, that ‘glucose’ wasn’t hard drug, it was... juju?” Officer Sherif asked.

“Exactly!” He exclaimed.

The two officers looked at each other in shock. It was over. It was truly over for those children.

Though they were not dead physically, they were dead mentally. Their brains could no longer function the same until by some miracle, somebody takes the juju away from their mind.

“And one last thing... He is no ordinary native doctor.” Officer Idris said, “He is a psychopath who hates spoiled children. This might not be the first time he’s doing this, neither might it be the last. He will appear and disappear when he wants to.”

Officer Ahmed’s blood was running cold. He could not believe his ears. It was all like a dream to him.

How could any of this be real?

“Where is he?” He squeezed the documents angrily in his hand, “Where is that babalawo?!”

Where is he?!

Omode (children), where is Mr Kanayo Agu?

I look at the Odogbolu village children after narrating the whole story of Mr Kanayo Agu and the 12 pupils to them. The unforgettable Boju Boju story.

“Do you know where he is?” I ask them again.

Some of the children have fallen asleep. Some of them are waiting for me to finish the story. Others are waiting to leave so that our Tales by Moonlight time will be over.

As none of them wants to answer, I know it is time to end today’s story time.

I wrap up the story, “Mr Kanayo was nowhere to be found, neither did the police ever recover Amina’s body from the forest. And that, children, is how the story of Mr Kanayo And The 12 Pupils ended.”

I wave the children goodnight and send them back to their huts. They all carry their mats with them and run off to sleep or reflect on the story I just narrated to them.

I stand up to take my stool back to my small hut, and as I am leaving, a timid Tope comes to my side.

“Uncle Kayode,” He calls me.

“Yes, smallie?” I answer him.

“Your tissue fell down.” He points to the item lying next to me.

I look down at the item and pick it up. My red handkerchief.

“Thank you, smallie.” I smile.

He stares at the red handkerchief and back at me then back at it, while trying to connect something in his head.

I pat his puzzled face and sent him home. He runs away immediately and I continue to pack my things and head back home.

As I walk back to my hut with both hands in my pockets, I begin to hum the lyrics to Boju Boju once again.

My smile widens as I get to my favorite part of the song, the last part of the song. The real ending I should have sang at that Sambisa Forest.

As it goes;

Si si sin sii. Eni to loro ba mu a pa je.

Open, open, open your eyes. Whoever he finds will be killed.

“O!”

—THE END—

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. All characters, locations, organizations and incidents appearing in this article are fictitious.