A trip to Ibadan for an Owambe party

It was in this innocuous manner that Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi found his soul infested with an uncontrollable desire to understand the mysterious and beautiful room mate of his lover.  Although he was wont to admit this unhealthy passion to himself, nor to anyone else for that matter, his curiosity remained as a snake hidden in the grass of the lawn of his heart at mid day.  At best a nuisance to all, and at worst a potent lethal force which could decimate an erstwhile happy being and bring it to a sudden premature demise.  And as most people, he had no difficulty in excusing his weakness in a variety of ways; it was never that he pursued the friendship of Bola for his own selfish intentions, no, it was in the interest of his relationship with Yetunde that he ‘ felt a need to be friendly with the room mate’.  Furthermore, when he invited the girl out to follow the couple in a very unwholesome threesome, it was because it would be rude to ‘ invite Yetunde and not the room mate Bola’.   As such, the three could often be seen going out to eat on weekends together. The young girl Yetunde, in her inexperience did not notice any difference in her lover, nor did she notice that her room mate was more available than usual on the weekends when Tokunbo came from Lagos.  One thing had surprised her, and that was on the one occasion when Bola knew that Tokunbo was spending the weekend in Kaduna, a fact which Yetunde had not elicited until after the fact.   Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi continued relentlessly in this course,seemingly totally oblivious to the fact that the most beautiful girl on campus had a considerable entourage of her own suitors, of whom Bayo was only one of many.  In a strange sequence of events the situation finally came to a head.  As customary, Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi had arrived in Ife on a Friday afternoon, and had promised to take Yetunde and Bola for the weekend to Ibadan, where the girls would share a room and he had arranged to stay with a friend of his as his friends father was having a fiftieth birthday.  There was going to be a large owambe party, with a live band, and it promised to be a nice weekend.  He had also booked a day at the golf club and hoped that they could swim in the hotel pool.  On arriving in Ife he had discovered that Bola had gone to London for the weekend with Bayo.

“Hello, darling,” he had greeted Yetunde with a kiss on her cheek, and he cursorily surveyed the room, “ are you and Bola ready for our great weekend in Ibadan?”

Yetunde smiled, “I am ready, but Bola has traveled with Bayo to London for the weekend.”

“To London for the weekend? Who on earth can afford to go to London for a weekend? You keep talking about this boyfriend Bayo, but we never see him, and every time I have suggested that we all go out together there is an excuse for why he cannot make it.”

Then he continued with anger, and he slapped his hand against her desk, “This is exactly the kind of behavior that I hate; she promised to attend the party with us and I was going to introduce her to my friends. Why could she not just have refused the invitation?”  Then he was told that the invitation to London had come suddenly the night before, and this only served to deepen his suspicions even more.

“No one can afford to buy an airline ticket the day before the flight! Not unless such a person has a lot of money.  Who is this Bayo anyway? What is his last name?” “ “ What does he do?” And Yetunde, who had only met the man twice before, and knew none of the answers. And then she spilled the beans, the man was married, at least that was what she thought, and he her understanding was that he was one of the richest men in Lagos.

And Tokunbo mentioned all the popular names, one by one, and for all Yetunde could guess she did not think the name belonged to him.

“How can she have a man coming over here and none of you know his last name? For all you know the name Bayo may not even be his name at all, he could be operating under an alias.”

The young Yetunde who was by now nearly in tears, said nothing.

“Now tell me where in Lagos does he live?”

“I don’t know,”

“Have they never invited you to follow them out?  I find that hard to believe..”

“Actually I was invited once to follow them to a party in Ikeja, and ever since then I have refused their invitations. However, I am certain that the party in Ikeja was at his friends house, and of that I am certain because I saw the pictures of the husband and wife on the wall and the man was not Bayo.”

“Where was the wife of the host? don’t tell me that she was there because I will not believe it, this is beginning to sound like a sugar daddy party whilst the wife is out of town.”

“I came to the same conclusion myself, as there were many old men there and none of them with their wives, and all the girls were at least twenty years younger than all the men.”

“I cant believe that you Yetunde, of all people would attend such a party.”

“I can hardly be blamed as I was told that this was just a regular birthday party and to be held in Lagos.  It was after that that I suspected that Bayo was married, although he never said so to me nor did Bola ever say it either.”

By this time Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi found himself more flustered and piqued  than he cared to admit.  With a lost and disappointed look on his face he sat himself down on the chair by the desk of Bola, and unable to hide his emotions from his fiancée he said, “ Never mind, please forgive me for that outburst.  You are now seeing a side of me you never knew existed, I make plans, and I am rigid in their execution. I find what she has done to be dishonest, to say yes to an invitation and then to cancel at the last minute after receiving a ‘better’ invitation. That is something I could never do, nor do I tolerate such behavior in my friends.”

Yetunde who was surprised at the outburst had now recovered her composure, and she was wearing a white lace wrapper up and down  which was covered in small silver studs forming a picture of a small flower at regular intervals.  On her head she wore a sky blue head-tie, and she carried a cloth over her shoulder which matched the head-tie and was a blue lace. She stood before the mirror on her wall and applied the last touches to her make up, some bronzer for her cheeks,and a deep burgundy red for her lips.  With that accomplished she slipped her feet into a pretty blue satin slipper which matched the head-tie and scarf.  The transformation of the young girl into a woman of the world on her way to a owambe party was complete.

Fully aware of her charming transformation she sauntered up to her lover and placed her hand on his cheek, “Come now, Toks don’t tell me you will sulk the whole evening for Bola tonight.  I am nearly jealous of her, but I know you invite her out of kindness.  Believe me, Bola has no shortage of invitations…you have not met Alex yet.”

He seemed to not be interested in pursuing the matter any further, and he stood up and picked up her overnight bag and her small suitcase, and stood at the door to wait for her.

“You look beautiful tonight…” and he gave her a kiss which lingered on her cheek for a moment, “ Come to think of it, I have never seen you in iro and buba. Ah my fine wife..”

“I picked this lace to match your white agbada that you wore at your moms luncheon, nothing quite like doing a ‘his and hers’ with matching outfits to give your friends some excitement.”

Even he could not fail to see the humor that lurked behind the words.  He laughed, because today was supposed to be a big day where he unofficially introduced his ‘fiancée to be’ to his friends at the owambe party.  The introductions of Bola was supposed to have been a side track but for a moment had seemed as if it were to have been the primary event of the evening.