PRELUDE: http://mrstanleynwabia.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-red-crude-oil-my-unfinished-authors.html

THE RED CRUDE OIL: CHAPTER ONE

THE MEETING

It’s a dark hazy December morning, two o’ clock in the morning, a nocturnal meeting like none other. The venue was an abandoned hill top guest house in Jos-Nigeria. A large bungalow, very spacious interior with well preserved furniture. Built in the 1960s, the parking space formed a circle round the building. As the moon’s reflection bounced off the roofs of parked cars in the premises, the meeting was set to commence. Total attendance was twenty five (the speaker not included), but not just any ordinary band of twenty five. These were Nigeria’s top twenty five business heavy weights, and their mission?

General Ben Musa looked at his guests, puffed his large Cuban cigar with an aura of satisfaction, as he welcomed them, “gentlemen and lady,” there was just one woman in their mist and she was putting on a complete burqa, no one saw her face. “This is no ordinary gathering,” said the General, “we are here to re-write history, not just for our country Nigeria but for the entire world.”

“For many years,” General Musa continued, “our country and continent have been mismanaged by our erstwhile colonial masters who used and still use our own ignorant leaders to perpetuate their evil exploitation of our resources.” As General Musa spoke, he walked round the gathering dropping copies of documents in front of the attendees. “Please have a look at the documents I’ve placed in front of you;” the General said, while opening his own copy. “As you all know we are at the dawn of a new world economic order, crude oil reserves have been depleted in most regions of the world. The Middle East is completely dried up, South American states are now net importers of crude oil, and Russian oil wells are now in control of some separatist movements though their reserves are also dwindling.” 

Some of the delegates at the meeting nodded their heads as General Ben Musa continued, “Go to page three of this document, my great people, and you’ll see a new report which suggests that Nigeria’s gulf of Guinea now holds the world largest oil reserves. As a matter of fact, couple of days back, our sources at Delta petroleum announced a new find of an estimated two trillion barrels of crude oil in and around the gulf of Guinea.”

General Ben Musa put down his copy of the document as his other guests did same. “My friends, each one of you here is a ‘mover and shaker’ of the Nigerian business arena especially in oil and gas sector and I tell you all solemnly that in the shortest possible time, you all are going to be the ‘movers and shakers’ of the entire world.”

Everyone got clapping except the lady in the burqa, as the clapping euphoria continued, the lady, acting as a spoiler interrupted the mood.  “So, why are we here, General Musa?” she said, “you’ve given us an analysis of the new global crude oil order where Nigeria will now be at the centre, so? How does that really affect our individual interests beyond increased financial profits in our respective oil related businesses?”

General Ben Musa, sipping a glass of water, stared intently at the lady in burqa as if trying to see through her dark veil and catch a glimpse of her facial expression.   “Ok, Hajiya Brimoh, now this is the main reason why we are here,” dropping his glass on the table, General Musa continued; “To cut the long story short, we intend to topple the Nigerian government and install ours, a new proactive and radical government that will take full advantage of these new realities in the global oil market. We cannot lose this opportunity of making our country a super power -” 

Chief Timi Ogbebo interrupts the General, “General Musa, cant we simply table our ideas on how to make Nigeria a global power to the incumbent president? Must we always adopt all this revolutionary clichés, getting rid of a government, violence follows, people die and at the end of it all, we are back to square one?”                                                                                                                   

While Chief Timi had been speaking, General Musa was busy glancing through the Chief’s portfolio; the General had the portfolios of all the twenty five attendees in his file. The chiefs portfolio summarized, described Chief Timi Ogbebo as the CEO Mangrove Oil and Gas, net worth $2 billion.  

General Musa replied, “Chief, I understand your fears but let me assure you that you have nothing to worry about. There’s going to be minimal bloodshed, as a matter of fact we are going get the President to resign voluntarily and the entire Nigerian nation will look up to us as heroes once our elaborate plans have been executed. You, Chief Ogbebo and every other distinguished person here present will become the most powerful individuals in the world. As soon as we take over the reins of government, all our nation’s new oil wells and blocs will be shared amongst us all, right here on this table, all I ask for is your unflinching support.”  

Mazi Nweke raised his right hand to ask a question with a deep Igbo accented voice, “so what exactly are your plans, I know you need our money to pursue this scheme but I am very interested in the execution, I really want to know -” the General cuts in, “patience, Mazi, patience, everything will be unfolded right in front of our eyes, just trust me, ok?” General Musa took a quick glimpse at Mazi Nweke’s portfolio, summarized; ‘Mazi Simon Nweke, chairman Nweke and Sons petrochemical, net worth $1.2 billion.’ 

Finally, Alhaji Dan Kuru got up, also with a heavily Hausa accented voice and said, “that’s fine, that’s fine, I’m very tired and I want to go get some sleep, General Musa, I am personally donating three hundred million dollars to your cause.” Just as soon as Alhaji Kuru made his pledge, an elated General Musa quickly glanced through Alhaji Dan Kuru’s profile nodding his head satisfactorily in the process, summarized net worth $11 billion. All the other attendees got up and also made more pledges respectively. By the end of the meeting, General Ben Musa had successfully raised over eight hundred million dollars from his guests; Alhaji Dan Kuru’s donation remained the highest. It was now time to set the ball rolling.

"Interested in reading Chapter two? Then let's have your comments, views, critique and opinions on this chapter. Your response decides if i'd still post Chapter two... just want to be sure that someone is reading." ***wink***