Have You Entered One Chance Motor Before?

“See where greed landed you. You wanted to make quick money. You should thank God that they did not use you for money rituals.”
 

 

I have entered "one chance" bus once. It was in my secondary school days. My school teachers went on strike and all the students were asked to vacate from the school. I went to the park in search for a bus going to Onitsha where my parents live. I met one bus loading in the park with only two passengers seated. Due to impatience, I decided to stand along the Awka – Onitsha road to see if I could see any car that is already on its way to Onitsha.

After a little while, I saw a bus coming and the bus conductor was shouting “0nitsha one chance! Onitsha one chance!” I waved at it and shouted Onitsha. The driver of the bus which was almost full stopped for me to enter. I entered and the driver drove off. As we were approaching upper lweka, the driver said that there was a serious go slow in the front and he diverted to another road which he said would be better for us.

 After the diversion, he drove for about 5 minutes and stopped. "Who get that big blue ‘Ghana must go’ bag in the boot?” the driver asked. One man responded "na my bag o”. The driver asked the man about the contents of the bag but the man refused to talk. The driver stopped the car and opened the boot. He unzipped the bag and shouted “Chineke mere mmadu ebe re o!” which when translated means “God have mercy on man“.

We asked the driver what the problem was but the driver asked us to come down and see for ourselves. We all came down to look. What l saw in the bag were bundles of 1000 naira notes packed in a big ‘Ghana must go’ bag. The driver said he would take the bag to the police. The man who claimed to be the owner began to beg the driver and said “I beg don’t take it to the police.” The man claimed that the money was given to him by a politician to share to people for their votes. It was that period Mbadinuju’s tenure was coming to an end and Chris Ngige was to take over as the governor of Anambra state. The man who claimed to be the owner of the bag of money asked the driver to share the money into 2 instead. The owner would take half of the money while the driver and the rest of us share the remaining half.

Oh my goodness! I was so excited. I began to thank God for this wonderful bus I entered. My share of the money would not be less than 100, 000 naira. The driver insisted that he would call the police but we begged the driver not to involve the police. Later, the driver agreed but said that we have to go somewhere to cleanse the money and also take oath. All of them agreed. I taught that they were all passengers like me but I don’t know that majority of them including the driver and the owner of the bag of money were all working together.

The driver drove us to a place that looked like shrine. He asked us all to come down from the bus and follow him into the shrine. I was scared but since other passenger were not afraid, l have to be brave. We went into the shrine which was an uncompleted building. One man dressed like a native doctor came out and asked “what can I do for you people? “ The driver told him that we have a bag of money that needed to be cleansed before shared and to take oath that no one among us would report this to the public or authority. The driver gave the bag of money to the native doctor. The native doctor began to do incantations and told us that the cleansing and oath would cost 120,000 naira. The driver asked the native doctor to take the 120,000 naira from the bag of money. But, the native doctor said it was an abomination to do so. Since we were about 12 in number, the driver asked us to contribute 10,000 naira each for the exercise.

Immediately, one market woman among us brought out the sum of 10,000 naira and gave the driver as her own contribution. One other woman there said she was the secretary of her church group. She said she has 10,000 naira belonging to the group and would go home and bring it. Other passengers made their promises. I wondered why it was an abomination to pay the native doctor from the money bag and the reason for the cleansing but I was not bold enough to ask the driver or the native doctor. All I had was 1000 naira so I promised to go and search my dad’s room and would surely bring the 10k. They seized my phone and asked me never to talk to anyone on the road nor tell anyone about this deal including my parents. “You will run mad if you tell anybody or if you fail to bring the money” the native doctor said. They told me that I was lucky to have this opportunity to be rich at my young age and should not mess up this opportunity. The driver wrote down a phone number on a paper and asked me to call the number when I get the 10k.

I rushed out and took a bike to Awada Onitsha where my parents live. Luckily, when I arrived home, my parents were not around. Only my junior brother was there. I gave him the 1000 naira note I have and asked him to buy 20 naira Omo detergent for me from mama Okechukwu’s shop. Mama Okechukwu’s shop was 5 buildings away from my home. And before they would get 980 naira change, I must have finished my mission.

As soon as my brother left, I began the “Guilder ultimate search.” I searched my dad’s wardrope, opened all his drawers and checked all his bags and pockets. I found no money. “Which kind poor man be this?” I asked myself. But he used to keep big amount of money in his wardrobe. I ransacked everywhere including my mum’s bags, wallets and baskets. I found no penny. I was frustrated. My junior brother came back with the detergent but said that Mama Okechukwu could not find change but we should come later to take the change. I asked him to send the detergent back and bring my 1000 naira for me. When he left, I then searched the entire house and found no money. Governor Mbadinuju was owing teachers six months’ salary. My parents were both teachers and it was a very difficult period for them.

When my brother returned, I took the money from him and went to a call center. I called that number the driver told me to call when I get the money and he picked. “You don get the money?” he asked. “I no see any money o” I replied. He asked me to go and borrow from somebody so that when we share the money, I would pay the person back. He asked me to get the money as quickly as possible before madness descends upon me. I was overwhelmed with fear. Who would lend me 10,000 naira? I asked and asked and asked. But no one agreed. Someone asked me what I wanted the money for. But I refused to tell. I don’t want to go crazy. Who would save me from this kind of situation? I cried. I decided to keep it to myself. There was nothing else I could do. I made up my mind. I did not call them on the phone again. The only thing I lost was my Motorola mobile phone which they seized. I had to lie to my parents that robbers stole my phone at gun point.

However, the trauma I had that period affected my WAEC studies. I was preparing to seat for my WAEC examination. I found it difficult to concentrate when I read. “You will run mad” kept echoing in my mind. The outcome was that I had three F9 including English and math, four P7 and two C6.

As one of the most intelligent students in my class, everyone including the teachers and students were surprised at my poor results. That was when I finally narrated the story to my parents. My dad said “see where greed landed you. You wanted to make quick money. You should thank God that they did not use you for money rituals.”

Since then, nobody, I repeat, nobody could entice me with material things again. The following year, I took another WAEC exam and cleared all the subjects. Today, I am a university graduate. I did not run mad and would never run mad.

Have you had a similar experience? Please, share your own story.