Previously...

Inspector Raymond accumulates a lot of reasons to go after the seemingly mythical professor Otagburuagu, whom he strongly believes is real. After some little futile efforts at investigation, the breaking news is the president and his vice is dead!

PROFESSOR OTAGBURUAGU

EPISODE 2

According to section 146 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, when the President and the Vice President pass away, the President of the Senate is to hold the office of the president for not more than 3 months during which there shall be an election of a new president.

Inspector Raymond knew this provision of the law, next the Senate president is to assume rulership of the country, and next was the really interesting part - there was going to be an election soonest!

"Lucy, do you know what this means!" He had screamed. "All the dirty forest pig politicians are going to come out en masse right about now! There would be a dirty scramble for the seat of the president! The Professor would be invited to play for sure!"

And was he right! In the days that followed he started thinking about how to track down the professor in the midst of this all. He was sure some corrupt and desperate politician would contact the professor for advice on
how to go about clinching the presidential seat. When the professor is contacted, crime would be committed for sure. Raymond would get evidence that there was contact with the professor, and that the professor was a party to the crime. This way he'll be able to bring the professor to books.

He agreed he had to keep an eye on these politicians so he can find out when one of them is about to contact the professor. But these politicians were so many, and in different States of the country, how could he cover them all? He agreed he'll have to watch only a few, the ones who he knows are corrupt, powerful and most probably interested in the presidentship. But even the list of these few was so long and they were scattered all over the country. Was he going to wait until intentions and candidacies were announced? No, he thought that might be too late, one may not declare intentions until they have contacted the professor and by the time they declare their intentions they must've been through with all contacts with the Prof.

What was he going to do? He quickly made a short list of some notorious politicians whom he thought more likely. They were 5. Most of them even lived here in Lagos with him, so he set out to watch them from cameras he'll install around their residence.

Nigerians did not mourn the death of the president and the vice, they had hated his administration, on the contrary, they even celebrated it, just like they had done immediately after the coup back in January 1966. There was eating and dancing in the streets, and a person might do you some favour and when you're about to thank him, he'll say: "Don't mention, it's on the beautiful season, the president is dead!"

After asking for directions to a school where he will find a certain politician's house next to, Inspector Raymond found himself confused at some point, so he decided to pay a commercial motorcyclist who would take him to the school.

"Do you know Growth on Gold Secondary School?" He had asked.

looks him up and down and replies "Yes".

"Take me there, please, how much would you charge?"

"N350"

"N350? Is it that far?"

"Yes, it's very far!"

Raymond pays and gets on the motorcycle, and it moves for only about 5 seconds, then the cyclist motions him to climb down and take a look at something, he does so and the cyclist says:

"Here is the school"

Inspector Raymond sees the sign board and he was shocked. "Really? Man? Just here, and you had to collect N350?"

"You can let that go, brother, this is a happy time, the president has just
died. " The cyclist grins and drives off.

"What a crook!"

The inspector now looks opposite the school and there was an impressive house, that has to be the politician's house. He proceeds to inquire from people around and he finds that the politician was out of the country. Same went for every other politician he checked for that day, all out of Lagos, some out of the country and things like that. But he left cameras around their residence to watch the movements in the surroundings, 4 different houses. He was going to watch them from his tablet at home, the rich Inspector Raymond, The Nigerian Police Force didn't have so many gadgets, but Raymond made sure he had his, more advanced gadgets at his disposal, cameras were even the least and that was what made him stand out amongst other detectives. At the end of the day he was exhausted, and went back to Lucy who told him that he looked like an overly spanked butt and that he was on a wild goose chase.

The days that followed he watched the news and the houses, but he didn't get anything from either of them, no movements in either of the houses except for a bird that blinded one of his cameras with poop. He was going to go clean it up but he stopped when he heard the news. The date for the president's burial ceremony! There would be a lot of dirty politicians in attendance for sure, he thought, cliques and cabals would meet there for sure too, discussions might go on in whispers, someone might mention the professor to his clique members or something! How would he get to hear the whispers? He was going to be listening from an installed recorder.

The burial ceremony was in exactly a month after the death of the president, a lot of people would be in attendance, not for mourning purposes but so they'll be sure it was the president who was there in the casket and to breathe an extra sigh of relief when he's lowered into the ground and sealed with dust. The masses would be in a different section from the important politicians and the politicians would all be seated around tables.

On the day, there were many political cliques present, like a meeting, each politician sat near members of his own circle. Inspector Raymond was calmly seated by a corner where the live band was, he had installed recorders under the tables of all the politicians and he was listening to them through about 9 different earpieces. He had volunteered to help out in the occasion manual work and things like that, one of the men in charge had laughed and made a joke that he was really celebrating this death in a great way, by volunteering to help at the occasion.

Raymond's eyes widened. But he was wondering, what professor could it be?

The earpieces were many but he didn't need extra hand, or so he thought, once he sees anyone of the politicians opening his mouth to say anything, he'll listen to the earpiece that is connected to the table nearest that politician (he had numbered them so he'll know). He had this all planned out, he would have listened to them when he get back home, but how does he know which politician said what? He didn't know their voices. So he had to be watching and listening, that way he'll keep better track of who talked, even if he was listening to another while the other one talked.

It wasn't so tedious because many of them were quiet and somewhat solemn. But listening to the private talk of these men allowed him here some really dirty jokes and all sort of things. Then he heard something promising, a politician handed a piece of paper to another and said: "Here are the professor's things."

Raymond's eyes widened. But he was wondering, what professor could it be? He had to hear the name Otagburuagu. And he heard it. From the man who had received the paper.

"Damn, this Otagburuagu guy really charges a lot. Piece of cake though, I should be in touch with him soon."

Raymond knew he had his man, he looked up and studied the man very well, he was a big fat man - Chief Olu Bayo, a dirty crooked politician who was stinky rich but relatively new to power.

LINK TO EPISODE 1

All the illustrations and art contained herein were made by the ingenious @katharsisdrill.

This work is a collaboration between myself and @katharsisdrill, where I write the stories and he illustrates it with art as you have seen above.
Read my account of the collaboration here
Read @katharsisdrill's account of the collaboration here
This story about the Professor shall be finished with 6 episodes. This is the first one. Keep a date!

@katharsisdrill's illustrations are CC-by

This work
is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License.

While the text by @nevies is CC-by

This
work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

@katharsisdrill is a Danish painter, graphic and cartoon artist while @nevies is a Nigerian writer and humourist.