The Dilemma Of A Rigid Head Of Criminal Gang, By Anayo M. Nwosu

Captain Gbulie was not a military officer but a seasoned criminal who had a gang of young men that specialized in armed robbery, political thuggery and assassination.

With the return of civil democratic rule in his country, Captain Gbulie had been so busy with criminal contracts from politicians who needed to eliminate, scare or neutralize their opponents. He would sometimes kidnap a stubborn political opponent of his principal and release him after the election.

Snatching ballot boxes and fighting in the strongholds of his principals' opponents to cause a cancellation of votes cast are his specialty.


But elections happen once in 4 years.

Whenever elections seasons are over, Capt Gbulie would resort to his armed robbery business as he too had mouths to feed and other expenses to run. He was also engaged in giving to charity causes. All that required money and money he must make.

Sometime last year, Captain Gbulie started noticing some strange behavior in some of the key commanders of his gang. They no longer enthused to take orders.

The senior commanders, except those from Capt. Gbulie's village, felt that the empire was built through their commitments, blood, loyalty and efforts. They wanted Capt. Gbulie to review his compensation methods or allow them periodically undertake some operations on their own.

The commanders felt that they had come of age and had served their boss long enough to deserve some respect. They threatened to establish their own gang if their oga didn't agree to their demands.

They actually wanted independence in spite of their knowledge that their ancestors who had made a similar audacious demand were killed some years.


The experienced Capt. Gbulie, now in his late 60s, rounded up the arrowheads of the mutiny in his organization and shot them as a herdsman would kill a python trying to swallow a newly born calf.

The essence was to bring fear in the mind of the would-be defiant gang members who watched terrified as their mutinous commanders died while dancing like a python.

By so doing, Capt. Gbulie believed that any other gang member nursing such a mutinous agenda would repent out of fear, renew his loyalty, forget their agitations for a better compensation plan and begin to love his organization.

He was right.

Normalcy returned.

Every gang member painted his face as today's women do with heavy make up, with what their boss misread as change of attitude or renewed loyalty.

Guided by the Igbo age-long adage of "buru dike n'obi kwe ujo ekene" meaning "mask your bravery and stoop low to conquer", some smart leaders, who had dissent in their hearts, but rightly guessed the consequences of unprepared challenge of a leader with life liquidation equipment, quickly led the remaining gang members to plead their loyalty to the gang and to Capt. Gbulie.

Capt. Gbulie, though suspicious, accepted to de-escalate his manhunt for disloyal gang members on the basis of the pleas by his respected commanders. He was also afraid that police could come in and he would lose everything.

It didn't take a while before Capt. Gbulie noticed that most of his criminal operations were either unsuccessful or burst by the police.

He suspected that persons within his camp were sabotaging his efforts by giving out information to law enforcement agencies.

As hard as he tried, he couldn't identify the moles in his midst.

The sabotage continued and the big boss refused to listen to his lawyer's advice to have a heart-to-heart discussion with his senior gang members. He felt that doing so would portray him as being weak. He wouldn't condescend.

It got to a point when Capt. Gbulie himself narrowly escaped in the last robbery operation he led. He had to rely on his Odu Una or disappearing mojo for safety.

Right now, the criminal empire of Capt. Gbulie is at the risk of extinction. The proceeds due to the gang are no longer enough to fund their expanded operations.

Capt. Gbulie's advancing age is not helping matters as he can no long operate as a one-man gang. He needs gang members to be effective.