Flash Fiction


At the Villa: Vol 1


Buhari sat at his desk, going through documents upon documents, talking to himself. 'When everything I am planning materializes, Nigerians will understand and know why we had to go through the initial harsh times.' He stopped flipping through a brown file in his hand when the iPad on his desk beeped. "I have told Adesina I don't want this thing on my desk." He muttered under his breath before picking it up. It was a message from MTN advertising a new tariff plan. He exited from the message section and was about to put down the tab when he had a change of thought and tapped on the small icon of the globe on the top right hand side of the rectangular device. 'Let me even see what's going on with Nigerians today.' He thought to himself. He hadn't been reading a particular popular Nigerian forum for more than 5 minutes when he gasped in shock. "Kai!" Just then, a knock at his door startled him.

"Who is it?" Buhari backed out with his face screwed up in a frown, still locked on the Ipad screen.

"It's me sir." A male voice said, and then the person popped his head through the door with a nervous smile on his face.

"Ehen! Femi. Come! Come!" Buhari said, excited to see his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity. "See this picture of me, fa! Kai! This small children of nowadays have no respect." It was a photoshoped picture of Buhari which made him look like a monster with many missing teeth.

Femi Adeshina smiled at the picture as he shook his head. "This is bad. But sir, there is really nothing we can do. There is freedom of speech and expression."

"Hmm!" Buhari sighed, let the tab drop on the table and then slouched on his chair.

"Sir, I actually came here to talk to you about the young man you said I should watch on Facebook." Adeshina said.

Buhari remained silent for a few seconds, before sitting up all of a sudden with a puzzled look on his face. "Which person?"

"One Mr. Kayode Olumide Odus..."

"Yes! Yes! Odusanya, fa! Kai! I like that boy." Buhari said as he smiled and moved his chair from side to side. "He has said something new about my government?"

"Yes sir." Adeshina said and paused for a while before continuing. "But it is not completely positive this time."

"Ehn! Odusanya? Where is it, let me read." Buhari sat up and looked into the screen of the tab his special advertiser had in his hand. He read the Facebook post on a certain Kayode Olumide Odusanya's wall slowly and he became sad. "Kai! My boy is loosing hope in me." He said as he sat back on his chair. "But I have already spoken to Ibe and he said they have called off the NNPC strike."

"I believe so sir, but there is still fuel scarcity in most parts of Abuja and Lagos."

"Hmm! And the power supply...which area is Odusanya under?"

"I believe he is under the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company."

"Okay. Hmm! I will call Fashola now, but this Disco people are giving me a lot of trouble, Walahi!" He said and fumbled with his phone for a while before dropping it back on the table. "Okay. I know what to do now."

The End