Comparative Study

By Majekodunmi Ebhohon

I am trying to decide,
in a quiet, after dinner,
which is worse for a country:
a corrupt government
or the bloggers who explain it to me.

The government steals, of course.
But it does so with ceremony;
press releases, ribbon cuttings,
anthems played slightly off-key.
There is a structure to it:
a desk, a pen,
a file that goes missing on schedule,
like a timid actor
exiting stage left.

The bloggers work from their beds.
They wake up professionally outraged,
scroll,
misread a headline over cereal,
and call it investigation.
No sources. Just vibes.
And a terrifying faith
in capital letters.

The government lies
with charts.
The bloggers lie
with emojis.

One installs potholes into the road.
The other convinces me the pothole
is actually a satellite dish,
receiving messages
from a rival nation’s weather balloon.

One studies emergency projects
for twenty years.
The other eats trust
before breakfast.

I expect disappointment
from officials.
It’s in the job description.
But the blogger looks me in the eye,
profile picture smiling,
and says: _Do Your Own Research_
after doing none.

Sometimes, I think
the government’s job
is to break the country into pieces,
and the blogger’s job
is to make sure we can’t agree
on what the pieces are,
or even what a “piece” might mean
in the post-truth era.

One robs the treasury.
The other robs the language
needed to complain properly.

By evening,
I am tired of my own thoughts.
I place the phone face down on the couch,
like the corpse of a useless man.

The government remains.
So do the bloggers.

I realize then
this is not a competition.
It is a collaboration.