Name The Game

Muda: Hey Ikeh, you were on TV again! Pime Time. I was enjoying your robust defence of the economy when your people struck. I mean the power witholding corporation! We were low on diesel, so I refused to put on the standby generator. You were quite articulate, in parts; and totally loyal, in others. As when aren't you, anyway!! So, how did it go?

Ikeh: Yeah. Don't mind those journalists, my brother....They won't leave me alone. I tire o.

Muda: You know how it is, now.....You big shots! Na ya time, biko.

Ikeh: In a way, true. On another plane, tough. Pretty tough.

Muda: I saw your sister the other day, she was looking radiant. How's your mom?

Ikeh: I suppose they're all well...I haven't seen them for a while, now.

Muda: Haba, you bigmen are always over-working, over-travelling. Well, it...


Ikeh: No. Not really. Just that I needed to breathe. It is getting tougher these days.

Muda: I understand. Your father-in-law was on radio last week, praising you and your company. He is really really proud of you. Bravo, friend!

Ikeh: That is the problem!

Muda: What's wrong with that?

Ikeh: By last month, nothing at all. Last night brought home the past.

Muda: What? The rigs or the rigging?

Ikeh: You can't understand. Musa has published his memoirs.

Muda: So? He is a professor...what do you expect? It's never late for a top star like you. So?

Ikeh: He has stirred things. Stoked hidden embers. Set tinders. Opened vistas. He has...

Muda: Wait a minute, the guy is an academic...That's his store!

Ikeh: You don't understand. He is making the unmade, and unmaking the made. He is digging the dug, and covering the covered. And uncovering the wide-open, again. Even the...

Muda: You know your problem? Money-making and politics have blurred your school-sense. Musa is a scientist. That is his stock-in-trade. They are never satisfied or tired of exploring, propounding and enquiring. I suppose that's why they're seldom rich.

Ikeh: I wish you're with me! This is katakata. Explosion. Implosion. In fact, atomic bomb!

Muda: Is he now a nuclear scientist? The guy is a bloody biologist, which one you dey!

Ikeh: He has exposed me, don't you understand? He has told it all, can you understand!?

Muda: Understand what? How?

Ikeh: Just last week I was talking about life in the US. Just last week!

Muda: Yes? You were all mates, weren't you? I met you guys on your European escapades, so?

Ikeh: Yeah. That's the point. I never went back. I joined the guys from London, and that was it!

Muda: You're kidding me, right?

Ikeh: No kidding. That's why I avoid our reunions, despite being the highest donor. That's ...

Muda: Stop! Am chocking! What did you say? You mean you've been living the lie? A fake? All this while? Come off it, Ikey. Can't be true!!! What about the, those, all those...I mean, all the...

Ikeh: It is really tough, Muda. Tough.

Muda: Oh my God! Is the book circulating already?

Ikeh: This is actually the second of his three-volume memoirs.

Muda: Oh my....

Ikeh: We could have thought of......

Muda: Buying off an academic? Perish the thoughts!

Ikeh: Sure. I am now the perished. Not the thoughts!!

Muda: I understand.

Ikeh: No, you can't.

Muda: Hmm..