Emma listened to the banter between Bruno and Nii for a while until she interjected bluntly, “But Sana Sana has already shown us that these referees are corrupt and have been fixing the games, so what’s the point of all this argument?”

Nii Kwei sucked his teeth. “Stupid Sana. That man will die. They are trying to kill him and one day they will succeed.”

“Who is trying to kill him?” Emma asked.

Nii Kwei shrugged. “Take any of his enemies. They’re too many to count. Sana goes out and deliberately offers money to people and when they take it, he says they’re corrupt.”

“They wouldn’t take it if they weren’t corrupt, would they?” Emma said.

“But maybe they never accepted anything like that before and in a weak moment they succumbed to the temptation,” Nii argued. “It doesn’t mean they have been corrupt up until now, and to this day, Sana has not made any definite connection between the referees taking money and the outcomes of the match. So, it’s a failure of his investigation. The problem is he is too arrogant to admit it.” Nii looked at Bruno. “What do you think?”

Bruno shrugged, said nothing, and Nii winked at Emma. “He doesn’t want to disagree with you, so he won’t say anything, but I know he hates Sana.”

“And so, when Sana comes out with his new report about sakawa,” Emma said, “aren’t you afraid of how it will affect you?”

“What report?” Nii said, his expression and tone changing.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” Emma said kindly. “It’s all over GhanaWeb.com that he’s working on finding out all the police and government officials who are benefitting from sakawa.”

Nii shook his head. “He can’t prove anything.”

Emma studied him. “Really? So, it won’t affect you?”

“Not at all. Maybe he’ll expose one or two people, but it won’t make much difference.”

“Okay,” Emma said, feigning relief. “I was worried about you and this sakawa thing.”

“Is that so?” Nii said, his eyes softening with appreciation. “Thanks.”

“And so, are there sakawa girls too?” Emma asked.

“Of course,” Nii said. “Just not that many. But they are becoming more and more now. We guys want more of them because we often depend on women to help us attract the mugus.”

“What is a mugu?” Emma asked, aware that Bruno was eyeing her. What was her sudden curiosity surrounding sakawa all about?

“The person we target for the money in Europe or the States or wherever,” Nii said, in answer to Emma’s question.

“So, then, if for example I was a sakawa girl,” Emma said, “how would you use me with a mugu?”

“Why?” Nii said. “Are you interested?”

Emma nodded. “Chaley, I need to make some extra money just like everyone else.”