RUMINATIONS

Gentlemen. Ladies. People. 
This is not a work of fiction. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Nor was it ever throughout the extensive phases of its development. I am not weaving tales today, as is often the case, where Fatima is concerned. 
It behoves me to confess that the product you are consuming is an unforeseen yet welcome consequence of multiple sterile attempts putting together a feature for my newest employer. A great friend of mine swore by his scrotal folds that my work, this one you presently ravish, falls under the category referred to as essays. I have accepted his words as true, and provided a befitting title to crown my words. 
Let us skip the niceties. They are almost always a waste of time. Without much doubt, you know me and what I do to maintain an honourable existence. In the spirit of cautiously craved success, I hereby begin our (fortuitous, I hope) relationship with a rendition of my truest thoughts; an autobiography of sorts if you will. Charles Dickens wrote Hard Facts. George Orwell exposed the danger of totalitarianism. Fatima offers you, her cognitive content on paper. 
You see, when the good people at Radio France International’s Mondoblog who deemed my application worthy asked what I shall be talking about on their platform, I replied: health, politics, and literature. To be quite clear, I fully intended to keep my word. 
But what can Fatima say about health that you do not already know? Consume less grease? Exercise more? Drink half a gallon of water per day? Disavow cigarettes and alcohol? A Johns Hopkins-led study found that those who don’t smoke, maintain a healthy weight, exercise, and make healthy food choices reduce the chance of death from all causes within that time frame by an astounding 80 per cent. However, if a tanker was to fall on you—and the probability of this happening in a city like Lagos is at worst significant, just like an overweight diabetic with cardiovascular disease, the angels will erase your name from their dossier before you ever set eyes on the gates of a hospital.
1. It is as shocking to me as it is to you. I read the acceptance email five times to be sure my glaucoma wasn’t jiving like that time it made me believe I was well on my way to winning the commonwealth’s five thousand dollars for a story I wrote in one week.
2. According to a 2021 census, about 3,000 tankers besiege Lagos state on a daily basis translating to an upsurge in deaths from trailer/tanker related accidents.

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