Within the Walls of Hell (17 page)

Messenger:
A while ago, you talked of Achilles being killed because he criticized a government that was corrupt, noted for having bad human rights records and bad governance and so on. Could such a government be trusted to organizing free and fair elections?

Common Man:
I don't know but nothing stops such a government from doing so.

Messenger:
That was a very technical answer. You've just talked of the elections which were free and fair. If you can remember, you would confirm that during campaigns before voting, you went around distributing food and money to people who were pushed to the wall by the hard life the government had subjected them to. A good number of them could neither read nor write and you promised them more if they voted for the candidate you showed them. If I say something which is out of place, please feel free to stop me. On the Election Day proper, you were in charge of a polling station and you stuffed the boxes in your charge with the ballot papers of your candidate. You faked the signatures of those you were working with. You paid a good number of youths to go around doing multiple voting in favor of your own candidate. You promised money to those who went into the polling stations and came out with the ballot papers of opponents. What was free and fair about all that? The government you helped to maintain in power was already too unpopular. Do you know what doing that meant? You helped in sparking those clashes during which many people were killed. By doing that you frustrated the will of the people. He who frustrates the will of the people frustrates the will of my master. So far, have I said anything which is out of proportion?

Common Man
: No.

Messenger:
Good. You were the head of your community and financial aid was given for you to construct a bridge and a water point where poor members of your community could get potable drinking water from. Did you use the money the way it was supposed to be used?

Common Man
: (
Stammering
) I---I built the—the bridge and---and ---and constructed the water point.

Messenger:
You did construct the bridge and the water point. You sliced a good chunk of the money and put in your pocket after corrupting to be awarded the contract. The bridge was constructed using inadequate and substandard materials. It gave way just four months after it was opened. The water point at least was well constructed. The inhabitants were supposed to carry potable water there free of charge. But you imposed a fee claiming that it was meant for maintenance. The local council was taking care of the maintenance and treatment of the water. Were you really doing any maintenance?

Common Man
: I needed money and I was just trying to survive.

Messenger:
Well, everything you do has a reward no matter how small or how big. Being in need is no reason to be dishonest. That aside, who was Ricardo to you?

Common Man
: He was a poor boy I employed to help do some little jobs, in and around the house.

Messenger
: Did you treat him nicely?

Common Man
: I must confess that I did not treat him nicely. He came to my country with legal documents but after some months, they got expired and he did not want to go back to his country because conditions there were very bad. Having expired documents meant that he could not apply for any legal jobs. So, he had to work in hiding to survive. So, I asked him to be working in and around my house for one and a half years. I told him that I would pay him only at the end of the one year and a half. I made him believe that it was better for me to gather money and give him in bulk so that he could do something better with it than getting a little amount at the end of each month. I fed him once in a while.

Messenger:
Did you keep your promise to pay him in one year and a half?

Common Man
: No.

Messenger
: When the one and a half years came to an end and he came for his money, you refused to pay and asked him to disappear before you called the immigration police to come and arrest and deport him. Do you know what it is to work for one and half years without pay? Did you at any one moment try to fit yourself in that poor young man's position? What you did was inhuman. If you pleaded with him to work for you without pay, that would have been something different. But you promised to pay and at the end did not. That is called exploitation and slavery.

Common Man
: I'm sorry.

Messenger
: You would have been saying that to Ricardo and not me. There was this young footballer called Sebastian. What happened to him?

Common Man
: (
Remains silent
).

Messenger
: Haven't you heard the question? Should I ask it again?

Common Man
: (
Exasperatedly
) No, no, I've heard the question….there is no need to ask it again.

Messenger
: So?

Common Man
: He was a talented young man in the art of football and I…I….I….

Messenger
: Let me help you. He was a talented footballer and saw the game as the only route to escape the excruciating poverty he found himself in. He developed dreams of playing in one of the top football clubs in any of the wealthier countries, which was quite normal. What you did was that you posed as an agent having links to many of the top clubs who could sign a very juicy contract with him. You knew that was what he wanted to hear and you tricked him and his family to part with all the money and possessions they had in the whole world. Once you had everything in your hands, you told him that you were going to travel to a neighboring country with him and from there, he would board a flight bound for the land of his dreams. Once in that neighboring country, you abandoned him at the airport with no money, food, passport or visa. Have you ever bothered to know what happened to him or what became of his family?

Common Man
: (
remains silent
)

Messenger
: How would you have felt had someone else done the same thing to you? What you did what an intentional and well calculated act. Your intention was to get money while at the same time crippling your victim. In the eyes my master, that was very disdainful and do you know why? It was because that act was a direct violation of the 7
th
and 10
th
commandments. Now tell me, what was your relationship with your tenants?

Common Man
: I was really unfortunate with the kind of tenants that kept coming to rent my houses. They kept complaining of the bills that I personally handed to them to pay. My tenants did not like me much. I thought I was doing them a favor by allowing them rent my houses instead of the streets. But they hated me and I did not understand why.

Messenger
: They did not hate you because you gave them bills. They hated you because you pushed all the bills to them including yours. You used electricity and water as you pleased in your own apartment. When the water and the electricity companies brought their bills, you took them and did not allow any of your tenants to see, even after protests. You then wrote figures on pieces of papers which when put together were far above what was written on the company bills and then gave them to your tenants. After collecting and taking out the original amount on the company bills, you then kept the rest as profit for yourself. Some of your tenants knew that was what you were doing and that was the reason why they did not like your actions. You will still tell me that you were just trying to survive if I ask you, right? By the way, who was Jennifer Jeanne to you and what happened to her?

Common Man:
Why do you keep asking me questions which you know the answers?
Is it intended to torture me?

Messenger
: I'm only asking you questions. They are not intended to punish you. You are right when you say that I know the answers to the questions I ask. Well, I will say the answer to that last question. Jennifer was your wife and you maltreated her in so many ways. First you dated her best friend and neglected her when she was pregnant. You pushed her by your infidelity and brutality to develop high blood pressure. You did not even go to see her in the hospital the day she gave birth to your second son. She returned home and was suffering alone with her children while you were having a nice time with her best friend. She died in the house alone out of too much thinking coupled with high blood pressure. How could you subject your other half to such a treatment?

Common Man
: I'm so sorry.

Messenger
: Since you were the head of your local community, you were fond of borrowing items from the young men and women who just opened little stores and were still trying to find their feet in business. When any of them refused to give you anything because of bills you accumulated, you teamed up with tax collectors to put him or her out of business. Where did you think they were getting the money to buy the items you kept taking without paying? Why did you team up with tax collectors who always collected more than they were supposed to? Those who do that would render account when they get over here and those who collaborate with them in killing people who are trying to survive would equally render accounts. (
Common Man tries to say something
) I know what you want to say. My master is not against the collection of taxes but it should not be done in a way that would cripple the person paying it or tax collection should not be used as a tool for revenge or punishment.

Common Man
: I'm deeply sorry.

Messenger
: You walked into the office of a young girl called Jasmine in Money Express Bank. She was not in when you walked into her office. She just stepped out to go and ease herself. Your eyes fell on some bank notes you found on her table. After peeping around, you saw that nobody was watching you and you grabbed the bank notes and slot them under the large garment you had on and walked out of her office and sat outside in the area meant for customers. She soon returned and discovered that the money on her table was gone. She raised an alarm but was instead accused of stealing the money and pretending to make people believe that it was missing. Jasmine pleaded with anybody who must have taken the money to bring it back in exchange for her end of month salary. You just sat there like a stone and did not even feel sorry for her. She lost her job over that incident which she knew nothing about. Have I said anything which was out of place?

Common Man
: (
Remains silent
)

Messenger:
You might escape the vigilance of men down there but you cannot escape that of my Master. Nobody has and nobody will ever escape the vigilance of my master. That was not all…before you left that world below your feet, you turned yourself into a preacher and opened a prayer house. Were you really out to serve your creator and prepare people for His kingdom?

Common Man
: (
Remains silent
)

Messenger
: Well, it seems you want me to go ahead. You opened your prayer house not to serve my master and prepare people for my master's kingdom but you were motivated by your love for money. Your principal targets were the rich families and rich widows. You employed investigators to find out everything about their private lives and you used the information they brought back to you to convince the rich families and widows to extort money from them. You claimed the information about their private lives was sent to you in a vision by my master. Was that true?

Common Man
: (
Remains silent
)

Messenger
: You planned and paid some young men and women who were very good performers. Their task was to behave as real cripples and you would perform miracles after which they would become whole again. You invited TV cameras during such performances and the tapes were multiplied and sold in many places around the world. Thousands of gullible people who watched such tapes abandoned their houses of prayers and flocked to you with various kinds of problems. You charged a fee before you could see them and after paying, their problems were not solved. When my master was down there too, He performed miracles as well but asked those who witnessed him perform them not to tell anyone outside. My master did that because He did not want any publicity and His miracles were genuine. Yours were not genuine and the filming and sale of tapes showing you performing was evidence that you were out only for business. That was not all….you teamed up with some of your religious business partners in neighboring countries and organized deliverance sessions in which you still performed your miracle dramas. You convinced the congregation to contribute money which you would use in carrying out developmental projects in their communities. When they contributed the money and handed to you, you disappeared into thin air and ran back to your country after compensating your co-organizers. You turned the house of prayer into a money-making institution. That was not supposed to be and any man who indulges in such horrendous acts must remember that they would have to render accounts some day. Because of your deeds, many people lost faith in the house of prayer and eventually their only chance of getting into my master's kingdom. Your disciples are now more than double in the world and they are leading thousands of people astray. Whatever the case, they are deceiving their followers and themselves. They cannot deceive my master because He alone knows who serve him truly. So far, have I said anything which is out of place?