The Political Divide

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The tongue is a very delicate little piece, so much that what took years to build can be destroyed in a few seconds. Sometimes it's baffling how powerful and strong it is considering that it has no bones in it.

Even the holy book warns that it's like the little rudder that controls the destination of a great ship, and also has the power of life and death in it. It is usually the part of the body which we pay the least attention to beyond just brushing.

It is what helps us to sing praises, and it's also what aids us to curse. It's what helps us to pray, and also what aids us in gossips. We use it in rendering adulations, but also in raining castigations. It's a double edged sword that when left unattended to can sever ties on either side of the divide.

It was the tool that took the centre stage that fateful Friday evening. An occasion that made me wonder if the curse of being mute isn't actually a blessing in disguise. The evening was chilly after a heavy downpour earlier in the day. It was barely dark when the frogs and their likes could be heard praising their creator in their hoarse voices.

There was very little movement on the roads and the whole environment felt deserted and calm. I and my guy (whom I considered a brother), after a long and stressful day in school had decided to pick a bottle or two of booze just to wash off the stress and counter the cold.

Here we were on opposite sides of the couch, fully charged up by the effects of the booze when the program "politics today" came on the television. It caught both our attention as we were both political enthusiasts and were very much involved in the game in school. It was a battle of wits between two opposing forces, both jostling for the same position.

Being sympathizers of the opposing forces, fueled by the energy of the booze that propelled our loose tongue, we went into fits of arguments of our own. The heated argument became more heated as the time wore on and I could observe his brows furrow which was an indication that I was getting on his nerves. But that only spur me on the more.

We both became quite animated that we started throwing tantrums without even noticing

"You argue like a nonentity who's never crossed the field of nursery school" he barked at me

"And you reason like you think with your anus" I retorted

"At least my anus is cleaner than your brain" he replied

"I guess that's what your mom thought too when giving birth to you through her anus, but look at you now, so full of shit" I hit back

That was when it became too personal that we both decided to just leave things as it were and retire to our rooms. But it hurt on both sides and for the next few days we barely talked beyond the occasional "Good morning" and "how far". We lived like both sides of a coin, always together but not seeing eye to eye.

Every evening we'd both just sit and concentrate on our phones like the other person doesn't exist. So this particular evening, I was browsing through social media and I came across a video of the two aspirants whose case was the cause of our conflict, sitting together, drinking, laughing and bantering. The same people that were almost at blows on live television.

I immediately shared the video to my guy's inbox and a few minutes later I could see him look up at me with a little shake of the head. Then the words excaped his mouth

"Guy we dey fuck up sha" he said smiling and shaking his head again.

"You don see am na (you've seen it)" I replied feeling foolish. "the same people whose differences is the cause of our rift are out there chilling together, while we sit here beefing each other like quarreling housewives" I added.

"Omo, leave politics. Bring drink make we shayo small abeg (bring drink let's drink please)" he concluded.

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