One Chance VIII (Finale)
The Finale of the One Chance Series
ONE CHANCE
Mayowa Ojo
6/10/20269 min read
“What are you all doing here? Are you with them on this Jummy? Was this your idea?” Banjo asked after ignoring the order to serve them drinks.
“It was mine actually but…” NK started to say.
“Shut up NK. You’ve done and said enough. I’m talking to my wife.”
“Oh now I’m your wife? You mean the one you lied to all these years?”
“About what Martins said…”
“That was only one of the many things you never told me Banjo. I’m afraid I don’t even know you.”
“What lies has she fed you with?”
“You told me that up until my father sold the idea of being governor, you had never thought of it. You told me the girl you were dating when you met me dumped you because her father would not let her marry someone who was not from her tribe. You told me brown was your favourite colour but until NK pointed it out, I never noticed how many grey things you have in your wardrobe…oh, the big one. Tell me, how does NK know about the fact that I was drunk and wasted on our wedding night if indeed you haven’t been in touch with her since before we got married. TELL ME BANJO! Answer me.”
Banjo looked at NK and she winked at him. He could tell NK did not tell Jummy that he spent their wedding night in the arms of another woman. He knew he should be grateful but he was torn between the gravity of the decoy because it suggested that he was cheating on Jummy and it hurt.
“Okay, now that NK here has been generous enough to bring you up to speed with my past, what do you all want?”
“I still want to be the First Lady of the state. The dream is bigger than being married to you or getting a divorce,” Jummy said.
“You already know what I want,” NK said.
“Hey, I thought we agreed on a lesser penance when I got you out of prison,” Jummy replied.
“Well, I’m not sorry you were a fool to trust me.”
“And I want…” Osas started to say.
“You will have nothing. You should have considered the gravity of your actions when you went on national TV and tried to ruin me.”
“Tried? Banjo look around you, you’re wallowing in the rubbles of your ruin,” Osas laughed.
“‘He who is down’, Osas! I don’t care what you want and if you so much as try anything stupid I will leak every little thing I remember of your twisted family to the press. Tell me, does your nephew know he was the product of a rape or does your sister still lie to him?”
“Shut up Banjo,” Osas’ voice was stiff.
“Is your mom still chronically bipolar and roaming the streets now or is she in some fancy clinic where people like her belong?”
“That’s enough Banjo. I’m warning you,” Osas bellowed.
“I’m not done,” Banjo roared back. You think your psychology degree fools me? It’s more medicine for you than your sadistic patients, Doctor!”
“I’m warning you!”
“That uncle you told me touched you many times, isn’t he still a political figure in Edo state? Imagine what could happen if someone like him was exposed.” Banjo laughed. “You thought I’d forgotten? Don’t even get me started. How about…”
Osas launched forward at Banjo but Banjo moved to the side, following Osas’s face with a punch. Everyone in the room could hear the crack. Osas stayed down, trying effortlessly to fix his broken and now bleeding nose.
“Now, I want all of you to get out of my house before I have to call the police,” he said, shaking his hand to relieve the pain from the punch. “And that includes you Jummy,” he added as he walked out of the living room.
****************
Thursday morning Banjo woke up bright and happy. Elections were two days away but he was not bothered. He knew Liz and her team were doing a lot of damage-control while the opposition party was taking indirect swabs at him. Throwing out his unwanted guests the night before felt foolish but also felt, to him, like the right thing to do. So he called Liz and arranged for a meeting.
**************
Later that evening Banjo went on live TV and addressed the recent allegations made against him. He neither admitted nor refuted them. He simply put himself on the stand and confessed to having been a horrible person in his past. He painted an image of someone who was born into abject poverty and did just about anything to survive. He explained that he was a bitter child because of this and how much it affected him. He asked the citizens to evaluate the improvement in his life and he credited that to a dogged determination to excel at all cost. He urged the citizens to trust his leadership in taking the state to new heights as he is not like the regular politicians who hardly remember their roots once in power. He thanked them for their love and support. Finally, he extolled his wife with many virtues and mentioned his daughters for teaching him to be a better person in ways they will never know.
As he went off-air, he smiled when no one was watching. He imagined that NK would be cringing in a corner somewhere, wondering how he had the wisdom to blindside her. Although he was not a hundred percent sure his tactic would work but he was optimistic. Liz and the team did not stop flooding social media with more damage-control media content.
The plan was simple. Gain the people’s trust and deliver. Play dumb with Chief till he had enough structures in place to burn the man. Play nice with Jummy in public but frustrate her efforts as First Lady. He was not sure yet what he would do to NK after he became governor but he was certain he would find a way to make her pay provided she remained a resident of the state.
****************
Liz called Banjo early Friday evening to congratulate him in advance. The polls were looking good and she was confident. His speech apparently touched many people and they found him relatable. Some even pitied him because he managed to paint himself as the victim who was only trying to do good that some people wanted to sabotage for selfish reasons.
Banjo smiled. the evening was getting better. Earlier on Chief had paid him a visit with Jummy and their daughters. The man did not have to say it but his body language screamed of apologies for Jummy’s foolishness.
In other news, his sources sighted NK at the international airport on her way to the UK. He thought it was quick of her considering his confession was less than 24 hours before. But then again if I were her, I would try to get as far away from me as possible.
***************
Banjo turned in early around 7pm, convinced he needed to rest ahead of the elections the next day. He would vote in the morning not far from his house then get security-escorted to Chief’s house where all the political goons would be gathered to monitor the voting and celebrate after his victory.
**************
Banjo was with Jummy at Chief’s house when the election results were announced. He won and there was absolute uproar in the living room. He and Jummy jumped on each other with excitement, their on-going differences placed on the back burner.
And then the party started. Champagne bottles were manufactured from corners of the house that Banjo did not even know existed. There was so much music his head started to throb at a point. He smiled so much his cheeks hurt.
“Thank you,” he said to Liz when she walked up to congratulate him.
“Thank you! The idea to go on live TV yesterday was genius.”
Banjo smiled, sipped some more and walked on to be greeted by other people. Somewhere in his heart he sensed that NK knew this would happen and all she did was prod him to success. Either way he was grateful for her interruption in his life.
The countdown began to his swearing-in and Banjo could hardly wait. Even if he ws not excited, Jummy’s excitement was contagious enough.
****************
You had one chance to do the right thing but you failed to.
Banjo got this email and immediately knew who sent it. He smiled because it was too late for threats or anything of that nature. He set his phone aside.
“I don’t believe this is actually happening,” Jummy said to Banjo in their bedroom as they watched TV.
It was the eve of his swearing-in ceremony and she was a more nervous that excited. She looked at the array of dresses sent in by designers from all over the country. She still was not sure which of them she would settle for.
“Well, you better.”
Since he won the elections, the tensions between them seemed to have eased a lot more and neither party seemed ready to start a fire. Things were peaceful enough.
Banjo increased the volume on the TV. The news was about to start and he knew that there would be covering of preparations across the state for the event the next day.
He and Jummy were soon greeted by the photo of a 12-year-old boy who, save a good plastic surgery, could only be Banjo’s son. The semblance was striking enough for a blind person to see. Banjo was said to have abandoned the boy and his mother (NK) after Banjo crept into her bed on the night of his wedding. There were copies of letters written to Banjo asking for financial assistance for both mother and his mother but returned to sender. The letters dated as far back as when NK first found out that she was pregnant and she informed Banjo but never got a reply. There was also a story about a group of concerned citizens who claimed that Banjo was involved in the cold murder of a fellow student back when he was in the University. The group demanded that Banjo step forward and defend himself.
“To be honest I don’t know which is worse. That we have voted an alleged murderer as governor or that we have voted someone capable of abandoning a child for twelve years? It is said that where there’s smoke, there’s a fire. Mr Adebanjo’s campaign has been trailing smoke from the very start. I cannot begin to imagine what will happen to the people of this great state if this man is sworn in as governor tomorrow. Over to you Judith,” the presenter covering the story said as the screen returned to the studio.
Jummy got out of bed and walked over to the outfit Banjo wanted to wear for his swearing in. she yanked out a pair of scissors and tore it to shreds in silence. Then she walked over to her bedside and called her lawyer asking him to draft divorce papers. Her head was spinning from finding out on national TV about what happened on her wedding night.
The entire time, Banjo lay in bed, numb. He felt like he was watching everything Jummy did in third person.
Jummy packed a few things and started to leave but paused midway to ask, “I don’t see the point in lying anymore so tell me, was I really drunk that night or did you drug me?”
“You were drunk,” Banjo lied.
From where he sat transfixed, he heard glass shatter all over the floor downstairs. He walked to the window and found Jummy smashing all the windows on his favourite car before she proceeded to the new car that the State government brought over earlier in the evening.
***********
The next day when Banjo woke up it felt just like any other day. All the excitement that he expected to come with the day was lost with the previous night. State security showed up but it was not to ferry him to his would-have-been but now-postponed Swearing in ceremony. It was to arrest him due to allegations against him with substantial evidence.
He knew only one person could have done this. NK was the only one who knew the extent of his past and that was his greatest mistake. He remembered her words from months before when he asked her why she wanted him to step down. “So you know what it feels like to have nurtured a dream that you laboured hard to achieve yet watch it get taken from you on the cusp of victory and be helpless to do anything about it,” she’d said.
Banjo moved quietly with the cuffs in his hands as he was led to the back of the car. Outside the gate the press was there clicking and recording away. He wanted to cry but lacked the energy to do so. His biggest regret was that no one would ever know how changed he was; not the state, not his daughters and certainly not the son he never knew existed until the night before.
Even if the powers that be found a way to discharge the allegation of murder against him, Banjo knew that his tenure would forever be tainted by this scandal. He was certain Jummy would not let him off the hook so easily and neither would the women in the state. He remembered the very powerful Mothers of Society group and he winced at the thought of what they were capable of.
He held no hopes. So far, NK had proved beyond reasonable doubt that she was capable of destroying him. He doubted that he would get out of this one easily, if at all.