The Change We Seek
Act One
The New life General Hospital; inside a not-too-commodious hall. The hall is designed to serve as a relaxation center for inmates; mostly the fully recovered ones awaiting discharge, the ones already discharged but who are still around for reason relating to finance and other technicalities. The inmates, most of whom are youth (age between 15-35) suffer various degrees of physical and psychological ailments. Among them are orthopedic patients who aid their movement with the use of crouches, patients with bandages in different parts of their bodies, and some other patients whose ailment cannot be known from their physical appearance. Among the Inmates present are: TINA (23), a radiantly looking young lady who is dressed in what could be seen as a “seeing-through casual wears”, DURO (29), a young man whose head is cleanly bandaged, DOROTHY (32), a moderate dressed young man and a victim of chronic depression and some others. As the scene opens, all are busy with one thing or the other; some engaging in frivolous chats, some dressing their wounds e. t. c. Suddenly the door from the right side of the room opens and an inmate, WILLAIMS, rushes in gasping for breath. The manner at which he enters attracts others attention and make all present curious.
WILLIAMS: (Enters, panting frantically) My God! Arrgh.. .such a narrow escape.
DOROTHY: What’s up, man? Another bomb blast…?
INMATES: Bomb blast!
TINA: Bomb blast! Where?
WILLIAMS: Lavatory. .. Just the lavatory.
TINA: Bomb blast at the lavatory! (Everybody begins panicking, running up and down, finding a means to get out of the room. Some are already at the door when the door opens and reveals FELIX, a Doctor, who dresses in a green shirt and trousers. He enters in company of another man, CATRTHOS. Both of them are curious about the things going on as the inmates are struggling among one another.
WILLIAMS: what’s going on here? Where is everyone rushing to?
DURO: Bomb blast at the lavatory!
WILLIAMS: (Looking confuse and surprise at the same time) Bomb blast! Lavatory? Which lavatory? The one we use here? And we heard no sound, No crack? Nothing. What ridiculous news. (Inmates at this point feel relaxed and are coming to their senses)
DOROTHY: Paddled by a confused and ridiculous person.
WILLIAMS: And believed by a more confused and ridiculous person. Who even came up with such notion?
DURO: Who else if not the number one news maker of the New life clinic.
FELIX: Who could that be (all eyes are set on Williams who is becoming uneasy with the turn of event) Is that so, Mr. Williams?
WILLIAMS : Why are you all looking at me? I didn’t say bomb blast. Didn’t say anything of such. Did I?
FELIX: Mr. Williams, we, at all times, need to be reminded that we are in a hospital. We need to be mindful of the words we use and the jokes we make. I understand the need for us to be happy. A lot of us need to. But how do we make our therapy a causative of another man’s ailment. For goodness sake, there are hypertension patients around. If news like this gets to them you can imagine the foreseeable calamity. Please let’s be…
WILLIAMS: I am sorry, uncle Felix. It won’t happen again. Besides, this was blown out of proportion.
TINA: Which kain English be that one again?. Them dey blame you for using bomb blast you still dey talk “blown”. Una no dey hear word.
WILLIAMS: No mind me, Tina. That place is spoilt beyond repair.
DURO: The place is truly a bomb blast (inmates laugh)
FELIX: You guys should have get use to it by now. It’s a strange thing seeing you complain about our facilities.
TINA: (hisses) Even the pikin wey them born with toothache no go get use to its pain. Abegi.. (Hisses again)
FELIX: It isn’t our fault. That’s how we met it. We cannot help it. And for your information, New life still remains one of the best clinics in this continent
TINA: The best my foot.
DOROTHY : The best from the rare. (inmates laugh)
FELIX: (Clears throat to call inmates attention) Hemmn.. Now let’s get to the reason why I’m here. The person beside me is Mr. Carthos by name. He has come to…
WILLIAMS: Another political campaign? If it is, I will like to be excused.
FELIX (irritated) Mr. Carthos, permit me to leave you with them at this point.
CARTHOS: Thank you very much, Mr. Felix (Felix exits) Why would you like to be excused if I may ask? (Faces Williams)
DURO: (Curious) Have you come to discuss politics or religion?
TINA: (Laughs heartily to herself) Another deceptive liar from the pit of hell. Please, no come spoil my day o.
WILLIAMS: You see what I mean? If you have come to win souls for your party ahead the coming elections I advise you go elsewhere because nobody here gives a…
CARTHOS: I understand your perception about politics even though it’s not supposed to be. Still I will…
DOROTHY: How then is it supposed to be? Tell us, we really care to know. Do we sit here and listen to the same old story, old sermon and preaches of generational lies and promises? Do we have to waste our time listening to deceptive campaigns of obviously disguised liars?
TINA: The thing tire me.
DURO: We don wise. Our eye don open. Go back to your party and tell them we ain’t interested.
TINA: Shikena. That thing wey go make me vote go first comot tears for my eyes.
DURO: I won’t even dare to. I find death by hanging more appealing and more honorable than voting. (Carthos mouth aghast)
WILLIAMS: No mind them. I am interested on condition of handsome payment. You pay me, I vote for you. No more no less.
ANITA: Abi, man wey go chop frog make him kuku chop one wey get egg for belly
CARTHOS: it’s comforting hearing this from you. It confirms that you guys are my exact audience.
ANITA: Leave grammar for the oyinbo dem. We no do. We no gree. Na by force?
CARTHOS: Well, I am Anthony Carthos from YRD, a society for youth rehabilitation and societal development.
TINA: Not a politician?
CARTHOS: Not a politician
ANITA: But you dress and look like one of them
FELIX: Thank you miss…
TINA: Tina
FELIX: Tina. YRD is a societal and youth oriented organization established to look into the plight of African and Nigerian youths, to identify their challenges and assist them in identifying their goals and enables them to be useful to themselves and the society.
WLLIAMS: I like that part which has to do with “being useful to themselves” but to be useful to the society is not compulsory.
CARTHOS: You see, youth, today, in Nigerian society constitute the largest percentage of the nation’s population. Yet more than fifty percent of their population is a waste, nuisance and mare objects of little or no worth. Why is this so? Because our youth get entrapped easily in vices like armed robbery, advanced free fraud like 419, yahoo yahoo, prostitution and… (Tina cuts in, indignation and irritation shows in her affectation)
TINA: Wetin oga! You come here come insult us? Prostitutes are waste ba? They are nuisance, objects of no worth yet you and your lots patronize them. See, Mr. Kathy or wetin you talk say you be, I no send you. I be prostitute. PRO-STI-TUTE. Professional one and I dey always proud to be (she saunters around seductively). Take am or make im be. Wetin you even want make we do. Prostitute are waste… no be you people deny us access to education? No be you shot door to the so called dignifying jobs? No be you deny us everything, every right we deserve as human? No be you? Yet, shame no catch you to insult prostitutes. If I no do prostitute, wetin you want make I chop, wetin go put food for my table? How I go take survive this country’s hardship. Answer, me, Mr. righteousness.
CATHOS: (Remorseful) I’m sorry for being hypocritical. Shouldn’t have presented it the way I did. (Tina eyes him with irritation) The point I was trying to…
TINA: If not for this blood wey no gree stop, why I go dey here de listen to una stupid talk.
CARTHOS: (Apologetic) I’m sincerely sorry, Miss Tina. I didn’t mean no offence. I was only trying to emphasize the motive of YRD which is seeing youth being useful to the society, seeing them piloting the progress of the country, seeing them using the best of their ability; their strength, their youthfulness, their talents, energy and life to benefit…
DOROTHY: (Cuts in with palpable irritation and annoyance in his tone) You lied. I can’t give anything worth my stress to this country. Why do I have to give my life or anything of worth to this country, this shithole! Why do I have to play any role moving this useless, stagnant, empty vessel to whatever destination it desires? Tell me, I need to know. Why must I put my life at stake to revive a world that is long dead before my birth? How do one make one’s shadow shine in a place where nothing grows? This country has done nothing for me why then must I be so stupid trying to please her?
CARTHOS: That you are born, bred and live in this country is enough reason for you to make the country proud of your existence and appreciate its good gesture by whatever means you can. Being a citizen of a country and living in a geographical area makes some civic rights mandatory on you. Your civic rights and obligations to your country are your natural right.
DOROTHY: Count me out of those that will raise a finger to raise this country. Did I just say the country has done nothing for me? I was wrong? Quiet the contrary. This country has done me lots of harms; this country has broken my spirit, this country has deflated my zeal, it has betrayed me, it has truncated my aspirations… spoilt my future. This country has destroyed me! (He brakes into tears) This is me, Dorothy Hallowen, in New life hospital, a psychosocial patient. I am now a psychosis! Go to Brighter future primary and secondary school and ask of Dorothy Hallowen. No one beats my record, in arts, science and sports, name it. Go to University of Lagos, ask of Hallowen, that name is an household name. Nobody ever reached my feat. What is my offence? I let myself to be used, to be scammed and dumped. I stupidly believed in the lies sold to me that my country has better future in stall for me. That I am…
WILLIAMS: The leader of tomorrow
DOROTHY: is this my future? Is this the tomorrow I was promised? I should have known the truth. I should have known all was deceit when the country wants me to learn tailoring or become a shoemaker and a Berber after spending close to twenty years of my life learning to become an engineer. Is this my future? To be jobless, broken, depress and contemplate death. I now wish for death! Dorothy Hallowen now fancies death! How best.. tell me, Mr. Carthos, how best can I pay this country for her gesture towards me.
CARTHOS: (Sympathetic) that’s a tough one. But the point remains unchanged. If you understand me better you will know we are on the same page. We are saying the same thing. The country is horrible and hostile. Admitted. But how do we make it work? By sitting back and nurturing our individual pains and disappointments?
DURO: Mr. Carthos, we are not on the same page.
TINA: Not at all.
DURO: my resolution and that of most of us here is that the country is spoilt.
WILLIAMS: Beyond repair
DURO: Here, you are talking about reparations, amendment, correction, repair, restoration. All those words exist only in the dictionary of the uninformed. I used to believe in such but what do I have to show for it? Pain, regret, self-loath. Look at this head (He points at his bandaged head) I got shot while trying to vote, to support some old opportunist cargoes. I could have died. Civic right you call it. How many of us youths have been killed, maimed and brutalized while trying to exercise the so called civic right. There is nothing like civic right in a country that doesn’t know you exist. Nothing like obligations to a country that doesn’t care if you live. Those that still believe in such nonsense are languishing either in places like this, in penitentiary homes or are six feet down below my feet.
WILLIAMS: Don’t be offended, Mr. Carthos. We don’t mean to be harsh. We are just stating the obvious. We have to be frank in telling you your organization stands nothing to gain as its motives are not feasible. I don’t think there are still youths in this country that still want to lend any service to this nation. What has she given to us that exceeds agony, illiteracy, wants, disease and abject pain and poverty. I am here because I was sick. Look at me, I’m now alright. But I’m locked up because I can’t settle my bills. Where is the money? Even if I pay the bill where would I go from here? Here I have access to free meal. What would I depend on outside this wall? You see why many of us would rather leave this country even when the process involved passing through lion’s den. I would rather risk being buried inside the Atlantic Ocean than living miserably at home.
TINA: Who won’t?
WILLIAMS : That’s our true plight Mr. Carthos. If you stay longer than this you will surely hear the cry of agony of many youths, many okada riders and commercial bus who got involved in accident because of the state of our roads. What about those in prison because of their struggles to survive through illegitimate means, what about the youths on the streets who are defacing the face of humanity because the country pushed them to the mercy of drug addiction? What about them? How many of us have the free-will to contest for political offices. How many youth can afford presidential or senatorial ticket? What position does the system reserved for the youth other than that of sycophants and thug? The list is uncountable. This country has destroyed its youth. Why then does it expect anything from… (Dorothy at this point gives out a painful scream. He keeps screaming and scratching his head while others running helter-skelter, confused of what to do. Anita and Williams run out shouting “Doctor! Doctor!” while the rest are attending to him.
ANITA: Dorothy.. What is the problem!
DURO: Dorothy… Dorothy what is going on?
CARTHOS AND WILLIAMS (simultaneously) Dorothy… Mr Dorothy…
ANITA AND DURO: Doctor! Doctor! (They both scamper out and reappear with Felix. Felix with the help of inmates take Dorothy out. ANITA and DURO accompany him to the door while Williams and Carthos go out with them and reappear after a while)
ANITA: (anxious) What will happen now
DURO: I’m confused
ANITA: such a fine lovely gentleman.
DURO: Have they started attending to him?
ANITA: For where? No be New life clinic where Doctors no go attend to you until they are sure your case is beyond wetin them fit handle.
WILLIAMS: That is even a minor thing. It seems he will be transferred to another hospital.
DURO: Transferred? Why? To where?
WILLIAMS: No Doctor
CARTHOS: No Doctor?
WILLIAMS: The only Doctor that can attend to him relocated abroad last week.
ANITA AND DURO: (disturbed) So what will happen to him now?
WILLIAMS: I’m worried as well.
CARTHOS: You guys seem concerned about him. You feel connected to him somehow. But do you really care?
DURO: (nearly annoyed) What do you mean we don’t care?
CARTHOS: Do you really care? Do you? That is Dorothy, your colleague, he needs urgent medical attention but the only Doctor that can attend to him relocated abroad last week, in search of greener pasture. He is abroad treating strangers when his kinsmen are in dire need of his service at home. You just said it. Nothing beats running abroad. But tell me, how many Dorothys are on the street running mad because Doctors to treat them prefer life outside the country; tell me, how many Dorothys are in school learning nothing because teachers to teach them can’t bear staying at home, how many Dorothys are suffering and languishing on daily basis because capable hands to hold strategic positions in politics, economy and other spheres of life are either outside the country or inside, living in stoic silence and indifference. The country is hostile, the country is horrible, the country is bad, I ask you, to whose credit? Is it not to the credit of you and I? You don’t want to participate in politics, you don’t want to vote yet you complain of youth unfriendly policies. How many old and underage people are into armed-rubbery, militancy, terrorism and prostitution? How many? Are we not the ones involving in all these crimes? Yet, we won’t accommodate any gesture to save ourselves, save the unborn generation and save the nation from plunging into further anarchy. The past have betrayed you. Yes. But understand that you too are betraying the present and the future. If Dorothy dies… if he.. (Nearly burst into tears) if he dies, each of you, including himself, has share in the blame of his predicament. I leave you.. I leave you to be judged by your conscience (He is about stumbling out in annoyance and dejection when one of the inmates calls)
WILLIAMS: Mr. Carthos, (Moved to tears) I, Williams Odigie, offer myself to the service of your organization, of this nation and of the unborn generation (He stretches his hand forward for Carthos to take. Carthos looks bewildered)
ANITA: Mr. Carthos, I, Anita, admit I was wrong. I was wrong. But now, I’m ready to shun vices, discourage others from committing their lives to it and help rebuild this nation.
DURO: Mr. Carthos, I, Duro, I am ready to expend my strength, my courage, my wisdom, my life to the service of this nation. I am ready.. ready to stare a new course and struggle for the survival of the new and positive order.
CARTHOS: (impressed) So we are all ready to love ourselves?
All: (Simultaneously) Yes. We are ready to love ourselves, love our brothers and be the change we seek. (Carthos moves towards them. They all exchange brief embrace as the music “…teach us to love ourselves” is being played underground)
CURTAINS
The End.