Once upon a time, in the land of Ozark in the hidden Island of Owllen, in the Pacific there lived a Mayor. He ruled this small Island by whatever circumstances that came across his way He was popularly called a circumstantial Mayor of chances.
For years, he tried to capture the leadership of this Island which eluded him several times. But he never gave up. He had one conviction that one day he must be the Mayor of this small but rich Island of Owllen.
The population of Ozark was not more than five hundred thousand inhabitants. They were noted by their neighbours as highly intelligent, resourceful and resilient. Moreover, their neighbours discovered their weakness that they are not as wise as they are intelligent. For this reason, their neighbors could easily outwit them on many national issues bordering on politics, commerce and industry.
Ken Stonny, an unknown birth background perse, but for sure he was an Ozarkian. He lived for several years outside his main stream kit and kin. But where he was, he was preparing strategies as to how best to make it easy for him to become the Mayor of Ozark. The city was full of intelligent and learned persons. But their pre-occupation was writing, discussing, trading, travelling, engaging in several meaningful and menial jobs. They did this in order to provide satisfactory living for their new breed of children. The people are very highly procreated population. Every woman takes delight in having at least ten children.
Once the opportunity came, Mr. Ken Stonny took it to his advantage and circumstantially became the Mayor of Ozark. His followers and himself did not believe how the victory came their way.
As a mystery man, he began plotting several mysterious means of hoodwinking the people. His greatest assets were that he was very intelligent, smart, slippery, he had the gift of the gab. He could talk to a doubting Thomas to believe whatever he could say. So, people walked along with him as fools and drugged persons. His tongue with sugar but with a virgin honey taste. A person of impressing personality, he was indeed a con man with magic wand in his hand to draw people to his side. Although later they would despise him, initially, he would trick them with magic tongue to believe even incredulous things which he told them yet, they foolishly hailed him.
His promises included, that every child in the country must go to school free of charge, fed in the school thrice a day, provide school uniform, provide free transportation for every school child, provide seats and every instructional materials including chalks, books and underwears for the children’s mothers. Furthermore, he promised to build dam out of the Pacific Ocean, a ferry tale that could not be believed even by the people with lizard brains.
But they believed him because his tongue was coated and coated with magic substance which produced credible aura as he made promises. Nobody but nobody doubted him. He only began to loose some supporters only after seventeen months when the people began to see through his inner eyes that he was a Superstar con man, chit and deceit who will always go for a big deal.
Further more, he promised that every citizen of Ozark would have medical supplies at his or her door step when needed. They believed him but did not even get a mosquito shelltox or an insecticide to flit their homes and banish mosquitoes that were ravaging their homes and offices. Yet they believed him.
His greatest stock in trade was real estate because he started life as a real estate agent. Borrowing money from City Banks, he would buy completed buildings only to turn to sell them off to pay off his loans yet with huge profits.
So when he became the Mayor of the Island, he did not spare any space in the Island for building construction even he promised to build a hall where local Chiefs and elders would continue to assemble only to tell jokes, discuss how successful they are in terms of number of wives and concubine they have.
Ken Stonny, like applause and cheering. In fact, he could miss his breakfast if only he will be cheered by a group already assembled for him. There was nothing that gave him happiness and satisfaction than people cheering him. He would therefore make arrangements for groups to gather on daily basis only to cheer him and to glorify him. One of his elders was once referred to him as “Christ incarnate.” Nobody, not even the Cardinal in the entire Pacific who virtually made him the Mayor, criticize this statement, who instructed his adherents to ensure by fair or foul that he was chosen as the Mayor.
Although he was reported to have embarked on several prospects and projects and programmes, the life of his people, it was discovered that indeed every project he embarked upon, he had a hidden agenda. He embarked on the construction of major and minor road projects, the quality of the roads was as thin as a blue school ruler and as soft as balloon. Painfully enough, he was fond of refusing to pay his contractors. Each of them he disappointed turned around to give details of the raw deal he received from him. Yet, the people continue to applaud him. The more he mesmerized the people, the more he was applauded.
Gradually, he began to loose a lot of support. Yet, he was being hailed and hailed particularly by teachers whom he strongly believed could help him come back to the government if elections were held. He did not know that he was losing a lot of sizeable support because of the type of alienation he was incurring. Yet, the people continued to applaud him. He never knew it was applauding in deceit. As his popularity continued to wane, he continued to behave as if nothing was happening. Because, in effect, several groups were being offended.
The street artisans who were the corner stone and backbone of his support he began to destroy their sources of livelihood; second-handed car and bicycle dealers who sent to campaign and vote for him in their harmless, he displaced them by sending them to the bush to start new life; all levels of health workers in his domain, he turned his back on them by imputing quack and ill-trained technical aides who came into the Island as doctors; the worst was that he involved himself into a messy problem of local leadership disputes by threading on the soil where devils refused to walk, thereby opening a plethora of violent struggles with deepening hatred and recrimination among the people; he, too, said that he had abolished the people’s age-long democratic institution known as the people’s life-line of democratic culture; in short, on and on, he behaved like an ostrich whose body is completely exposed to danger yet he felt very safe because he had secured his head in the sand.
As his popularity gradually progressed to wane, he did not care because wherever he went being applauded, applauded and applauded and applauded. One day, he ran into a soothsayer who told him that his popularity was on the steady decline. But he pointed at the numerous thunderous applaud and ovation he had continue to receive even when he went to receive the assistant Pope who came to the Pacific Island. Then the Soothsayer looked straight into his eyes and told him, “remember that those who clapped for you in error would mock you in disgrace.”
At that point, for the first time, he began to wonder what would happen to him if he became ordinary citizen again. He merely picked courage and murmur to himself, “when the time for election comes, I will still event another strategy to deceive the people once more. People are easily deceived as they are very gullible.” When another election came, he endorsed several falsehood to deceive and cajole the people. But he was disgraced with ignominy.
At midnight concert several months after he had fled into another Island of Kassako, he accidentally met the Soothsayer, who asked him as he appeared dejected. He asked him, “Mayor how are your territory and your people?” He sorrowfully managed to utter a word, “soothsayer, I don’t know how my people are but I learnt that they could not be fools all the time. I misread their psychology and over exaggerated their thunderous ovations.” The eminent soothsayer looked at him with pity and said, “my son, that is how life is reminding him that there are three things one can never recover. A lost opportunity, a fired gun-shot and a spoken word. My son, you cannot have that opportunity again. It has come and left for the Island of Ooze where the wizard of Ooze is in control. He walked away as this continued to trouble him for life as the society turns.
