UNITY CHRIST EVANGELICAL MINISTRY (UCEM)

MY SOUL IS NOT FOR SALE

Raphael Oye Taiwo

“That beauty queen really took your fancy, Kama?”

        Kama didn’t seem to hear his fellow Security Officer. His whole attention was centered on a beautiful woman sitting alone behind a table laden with drinks and appetizing food.

Mid—twenties, attractive Fulani hairdo, fashionable attire that revealed a lot of her attractive ant-hill-color flesh and did nothing to hide the sensuous curves of her body. She was nursing a drink and ignoring the food, totally unaware of her secret admirer.

        “I say you are mesmerized by that beautiful piece of work, aren’t you?”

        Kama turned slowly to his fellow officer, a slight frown of disapproval creasing his brow. “You are talking to me, Abdul?”

        “I thought it’s only your eyes that were captured her,” Abdul’s face was wreathed in smiles of amusement. “Didn’t know your ears had also been taken over by her.”

        “What are you smiling like that for, Abdul? I mean what’s so funny?”

        “What’s so funny, man, is that you are allowing your eyes too much freedom.”

        “Looking at a girl is now a crime?”

        “Not to my knowledge, but…”

        “You don’t agree she is a charmer?”

        “Oh, I do. Very, very appealing and lovely! But, Kama, be careful, that woman…”

        “Oh, I see.’’

        “What do you see?”

“You want her for yourself. Is that why you don’t like the attention I was lavishing on her?”

        “Oh no, mate. You can have her! And whatever neck-breaking trouble that lands on your head when she walks into your hands.”

“Tell me, Abdul, where did that dove flown in? I thought only over-fed, rich women long past their prime got access to a special place like this.”

        Abdul did not answer. He regarded Kama for a moment, stood up and went to another table not far away. He spoke silently to the two plain-cloth Security Officers sitting behind the table. One chuckled. The other looked at Kama. As his eyes met Kama’s, he shook his head in warning, a serious expression on his face.

        “What’s all this nonsense, now?” Kama demanded, his voice thick with annoyance, when Abdul came back to his seat beside him. “Why are you people behaving as if I was planning to rape that lady in the presence of the Inspector General of Police?”

        “Ah, the Inspector General of Police! That’s very funny!”

“What’s very funny, Abdul. Have you fellows gone crazy?”

“Never mind about what’s funny and the state of our brain, the Corporal is signaling you to come.”

Kama followed Abdul’s look. A man sitting by himself behind a table not far away beckoned him. He stood up.

        “Must be all these unreasonable fuss you fellows are making over a simple man admiring a damsel he finds gorgeous.”

.       Kama stiffened to attention before the Corporal.

        “You were calling me, Corporal.”

        “Yeah,” the Corporal waved at a chair in front of him. “Sit down, Kama,”

Kama obeyed.

        “Why are you ogling at that Lady?”

        “I simply thought she was the most alluring and shapely woman in town.”

        “The most alluring and shapely woman in town,” the corporal repeated slowly, looking at Kama as a headmaster would a silly pupil brought before him for some act of silliness. He nodded several times. “Very poetic! But why don’t you wait until you quit the service before you begin to practice for your romance novel? If my memory serves me right, you are brought here to see that no one blows off the head of the Inspector General of Police with an AK 47 Rifle or blow these nice rich folks to smithereens, not to rape a woman with your eyes.” 

But, Corporal Musa, because I was looking at a woman didn’t mean I wasn’t taking my job seriously. As far as I can see, nobody here looks suspiciously like a bomb thrower or AK 47 rifle assassin.”

        “Stop flapping with your mouth, man,” Musa snapped.

        “Well, if it is an order.”

        Musa stared in feigned annoyance at Kama for a moment, then asked importantly. “Do you want to stay healthy, boy?”

        “I sure want to, Corporal.”

        “Then, take your eyes off that girl and look for someone else to unleash your lust upon.”

        “You mean she’s got HIV or something like that, Corporal?” Kama asked, torn between curiosity and alarm.

        “No. But you will do better to bear my words in mind and stay out of trouble. You won’t stay out of trouble if you don’t stay away from that woman.”

        Kama’s expression betrayed his confusion. “Thank, you, Corporal. Will it be permissible of me, sir, to ask to be let in on the secret?”

        “Tell Abdul I give him permission to tell you. We don’t want you to run into a hurricane.”

        “Thanks, Corporal,” Abdul stood up and went back to his seat.

        Abdul looked at him and asked, “Well?”

        “He says you have the gen. He permits you to break silence and let me in on the secret of the century.”

        “No need to be sarcastic, comrade. The secret is, that damsel you find so gorgeous, that bird you allow to perch on your gullible heart, that head turner who sits there acting so innocently, is the future wife of no less a person than the Inspector General of the Police Force of our great country - the king of the great Police Empire himself.

        Kama’s mouth fell open. He stared at Abdul, dumbfounded.

        “Don’t take it so hard, my boy, just make sure you keep out of her way. We wouldn’t want you to run into grief.”

        “But, Abdul, the IG has a wife who has already given him at least four children, the last of whom must be older than that doll sitting there.”

        “This is Africa, Kama. Here, polygamy is no bigamy.”

        “Yes, you are right. I only wish Gideon will muster enough courage to preach one of his hell-fire sermons at her. If she becomes a Bible fanatic like him, she may not go ahead with the arrangement.”

        “And that will give you a chance with her, eh?” Abdul derided.

        “That’s the idea.”

“Well, talk it over with him. He may oblige you. He is one of I.G.’s security details for this week. And he is fanatical enough not to keep his mouth and bible shut if he comes in contact with that beauty queen. The only problem is he won’t do it for you. But he’ll do it for his Lord.”

        “Well,” Kama observed dryly. “I don’t think there is any hope there.”

The ceremony was in full swing when the arrival of the Inspector General of Police was announced by police siren. The corporal jumped to his feet and the other plain-clothes officers in the hall followed suit.

The corporal strided towards the main entrance as two Mobile Policemen and a plain-clothes officer entered. He stiffened to attention before the officer.

“Welcome, sir,” he saluted.

The officer the Corporal was addressing swept the hall with his eyes, then looked at the corporal.

“This place o.k., Musa?”

“Yes, A.S.P.,” replied the corporal. “No suspicious characters.”

“Meaning no devil will try to have a go at the I.G. like they did at King’s Palace Hotel, last month?”

“No, sir… I mean yes, sir. We believe the place is o.k.”

“All right.” The A.S.P. turned to the two Mobile Police officers. “Get the I.G. in, then, stay outside with your men.”

The Mobile Policemen saluted and went out. A moment later, the I.G. marched in.

One hour later – one hour of speech-making, of buzzes of conversation and laughter, of backslapping, of cheek kissing, of eating and drinking – the Inspector General was looking bored. He stood up and came to the table where the curvaceous young woman, the object of Kama’s admiration, was sitting.

He bent down and whispered into her ears. She nodded. He straightened up and his eyes searched the crowd around him. The eyes came to rest on the A.S.P.

The I.G. nodded and the officer was before him in a flash.

“A.S.P. Madu, get that Corporal to get the best driver among his men to drive home Miss Rose Ambali. That young fella who was in the car with you…. What’s his name?”

“Gideon Darosa, sir.”

“He will go with them. Get our boys ready. We are leaving here in a few moments.”

Gideon’s head rested on the comfortable well-padded head-rest of the brand new Hover CUV which was cruising along at ninety kilometers per hour.

For a moment he watched Kama who was expertly handling the motor vehicle. He smiled when he remembered what Abdul had told him about Kama’s feeling for the woman who was now sitting like a queen in the back seat.

Abdul had come to him immediately ASP Madu had briefed him about this task. Grinning, Abdul had pulled him by the hand to a corner and told him about Kama.

“Watch that fella, Gideon,” Abdul had said. “Make sure he doesn’t get a chance alone with that woman. He is so hypnotized by her beauty that you never know what that love-sick moron can do if he gets half a chance. We don’t want him to get into trouble. After all, he is our mate.”

He noticed Kama studying the rear-view mirror. A car had been trying to overtake them. When it leveled with them in the outside lane, Gideon looked at it. Two men were occupying the compact, expensive Japanese racer.

It swished past them and got back to the right lane in front of them.

Suddenly, its red brake lights went up as the driver jammed on the brake. Kama braked sharply and cursed under his breath. Gideon jerked upright in his seat. A police-service pistol jumped into his hands and he watched the Japanese play thing with rapt attention.

The car’s brake lights went out and the car accelerated powerfully away from them.

“The idiot is only trying to avoid that pot hole,” Kama said.

“That’s very smart!”

Gideon looked back at the woman who was now regarding him with admiration.

“You were talking to me, Miss Ambali?”

“I said that was smart. You moved fast. Did you think he could be an armed robber or an assassin?”

“Well, Miss Ambali,” replied Gideon. “You never know what trick these guys could be up to and one has to be prepared for them at all times.”

“Just a month ago,” Kama said, “a toughie tried to put a bullet in the head of the I.G. It was Gideon here who foiled his plan.”

“Good God!” Rose shook her head. “Yes, the I.G. told me about the incidence. He made it sound so casual you would think it was the most common happening in the world. So you were the officer who overpowered the armed man bare handedly?”

“Training, Miss Ambali,” Gideon said.  “We are well trained for such task.”

“But were you not afraid? Didn’t you fear the man would get the upper hand and shoot you?”

“It’s an occupational hazard,” Gideon said, looking at the express road rushing to meet them. Then, he turned round and looked at Rose, a serious expression on his face. “I have another, stronger reason for not fearing, Miss Ambali.”

“And what’s it, Gideon?” she asked curiously.

“I am a follower of Jesus Christ,” Gideon declared.

Rose looked at him with a puzzled expression on her face. “Followers of Jesus don’t die?”

“Oh, they do. But when you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you don’t fear death. You have no need to.”

Kama glanced sharply at Gideon, a look of amazement and alarm on his face.

“Why is that so?” she asked, her voice serious and curious.

Kama shook his head, a smile of both amusement and wonder on his lips.

“Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, anybody who believes in me, though he has died, shall live.’ That is John chapter eleven, verse 25.”

“Doesn’t make a sense to me, Gideon.” She didn’t need to tell him that. Her lack of understanding was written on her lovely face and he could see it well.”

“It’s simple, Miss Ambali. Jesus is the Son of God. He has the eternal life of the Father in Him. You will find that in John chapter one verse four. You see, anybody who is in Jesus Christ has this eternal life in him. He has nothing to fear about death because death can only kill his body, but never his spirit – the real man.”

“You really believe this, Gideon?”

“I do, Miss Ambali. Millions and millions of greater people than me have accepted this as a real fact. In simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have received the precious gift of eternal life.”

        There was a minute’s silence.

        “Miss Ambali,” Gideon said. “Jesus loves you more than any man could ever love you.”

        “You mean that?”

        “Yes. To make the precious gift of eternal life available to you free of charge, He left the throne of heaven, divest Himself of the power and glory He had been sharing with His Father from eternity, left the throne of heaven and came to the world to suffer and die for the sin of every human being, including yours.”

        “I see,” she cooed.

        Kama glanced back at her curiously.

        “Miss Ambali, the worst mistake a person can ever make in the world is to reject the invaluable gift of eternal life that the Lord is offering everybody. Eternal suffering in hell, the lake of fire, is the penalty for such a mistake.”

        Another minute’s silence.

        “What do you say, Miss Rose Ambali? Would you accept today the precious gift of eternal life that the Lord is mercifully offering you?”

        The Hover CUV’s speed reduced perceptibly as Kama strained his ears to hear what her reply would be.

        “Yes,” Rose replied silently but firmly. “I want Jesus in my life with His precious gift of eternal life. I want so much to go to heaven when I leave this world.”

        “Oh, praise the Lord! Please bow down your head and tell the Lord your decision. He is waiting to add your name to His Father’s Book of Life. Kama you need not stop. We can pray while you have your feet on the accelerator pedal.”