The Campaign Trail

Chapter Twenty

113 Chapter Twenty his new day was ushered in by bright weather. Chopli and all his companions of mirth announced this at dawn. The sun shone as if to brighten the charcoal and pieces of the broken Republic. And it penetrated into the minds of those that could mend the pieces. The public came out en masse, heeding to the call for talks from the chosen one, Yumfu. All footsteps were once again in the direction of the Catholic School field. But today the actors, participants and agenda were not the same. The key players were the youths of Nyumfu’s age bracket and neutral people in the former game. In the past, this arena had served as a starting point in the lead speaker’s political destiny when he survived the massacre of the launch. He and his peers who were born in the period of that memorable event, only knew about this place from the stories recounted to them by their parents and elders. And like any children born in the crises of a political epidemic, they had been inoculated with the vaccine of change. This, therefore, gave them the impetus to work as hard as they had done. When all was set, Nyumfu climbed on the elevation on which the flag post was affixed. Then in a very clear and authoritative voice he started delivering his message: “Uwooh Uwooh Uwooh!” he saluted. “Uwooh Uwooh Uwooh!” the audience responded in unison. This was the traditional salute of intimacy amongst young people. Then he went ahead, “I thank all of you who feel that this dear fatherland has to be saved from total destruction. I am no orator, no authority, but I am commanded from T 114 within to propose to my brothers the need to return to good humour and save our fatherland. When a man falls on a slippery road, he is always very careful not to fall on that same road a second time. The wounds of our democratic process should not be seen as ulcers that cannot heal. We are our own doctors. Let us give tolerance a chance. In this new consideration, no one is more a Kutumian than another one. Let us sit down at one table and right our wrongs. This time, we should avoid all the errors of the past, for we have learnt from our mistakes. In this new consideration, we must bear in mind that not everyone must be a leader. To rebuild the house, we have to get back to its foundation, by reviewing our constitution. I am thus inviting our eminent scholars of this domain to work on this document with the seriousness that it deserves before we go any further. The next step is that we need a steering committee to prepare for the new republic that we are setting up here. Let us be careful not to call it a conventional government so as not to provoke some wounds. The essence of this is that our state cannot remain headless like our mythical wutalumgha. This steering committee will handle the affairs of the country until real free and fair democratic elections are conducted. From the shame of the world, let us move up to a level of pride that can serve as a model to other nations. Our target should be to pass from the level of a developing nation to an emerging economy of prominence. Everyone has a chance to make it. We have the potential to change our position in the world ranking. Yesterday we were the beauty of the world, the princess that every colonial power needed to woo. They married us, but with time there was divorce through independence. Prior to this, we had blamed all our failures on the white man. Independence came 115 and put us to the test of self-rule. This permitted us to know ourselves, to understand our own limitations. We can see for ourselves that since independence, we have been responsible for our slow growth. No white man has ruled here since independence. We have our destinies in our hands, and it is left to us to take advantage of our fall and walk straight forever.” This talk was received with prolonged applause. It was evident that, after the period of broken pieces, everyone was yearning for peace. Proof of this was the fact that after his talk, no dissenting voices came up...