Volume 29: The Dam Will Soon Collapse

The day dawned with the eerie quiet of a desolate field. A little wind blew this way and that, confident but lacking force. The distant dam was stretched beyond capacity and so it had been for upwards of 5 years straight. Turbines imported from Thailand were the culprit. Third rate they were, pawned off an abandoned dam in the confusion that was Post-Yeltsin’s Russia.

As that country faced an economic meltdown, its nuclear reactors, missiles, turbines, jeeps and AK47’s trickled into the hands of despots and shady businessmen worldwide. A large number turned up in Thailand, pawn capital of the modern world.

Lest I digress, the dam will soon collapse. Even the bolts that held the worn out turbines were rusty and brittle. The relentless surge of the Shilenka River had taken its toll. Who would bell the cat? Surely not Ike Nzenwa. What good would that do? This was the last year before he retired from his job as the dams’ resident engineer and he wasn’t looking to rock the boat now, definitely not now!

Though he sometimes had nightmares of the dam collapsing and Shilenka River sweeping his family away, he could only do what seemed reasonable: he sent his family to his country home, faraway from the Dam.

He would wait it out, confident that God would not let his career end with the scandal of a burst dam on his watch. He had typed a report on his assessment of the strength of the dam but would not file it with the Ministry of Works till he sent in his letter of retirement.

Shilenka River snaked a mighty course, bearing water that ran at such velocity that the state government had found it easy to secure a loan from the World Bank to harness it for power generation. Tunde Magbesheranwan had won the contract through his company Flaky Engineering. How? Favor from above. He had hopped on a plane to Thailand to source the major materials to build the dam. He found many good deals; his profit margin was truly impressive. He built the dam in record time though with faulty materials. At least, everyone that needed to be ‘settled’ had been settled.

Lest I digress, the dam will soon collapse. The residents of Crambani settlement were oblivious to the danger. When the dam burst, they would be directly in the flow of the Shilenka River. On a cool night two years ago, the residents stayed indoors as a youth corper was dragged screaming into the night by the local masquerade, screaming for mercy. In the dead of night, no one would leave the safety of their homes to come to her rescue.

Even when the Federal government sent in a team to investigate the case of the missing corper, no one in the town recalled seeing or hearing anything unusual. They looked at each other and exchanged knowing looks. But no one said anything. Slowly but surely, crime began to leap in quantum leaps in Crambani. No one had the moral courage to point out wrongs anymore. Kids became insolent with their parents. Something had snapped in Crambani. They had institutionalized a guilty conscience.

Lest I digress, the dam will soon collapse…