The story of Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi.
Story line:
The story begins with Mr. Ajayi receiving an invitation to go to his ex wifes flat for a possible reconciliation. At the beginning of the story Mr. Ajayi has been separated from his wife for the past two years. His wife Mrs. Toyin Ajayi had fallen in love with her husbands best friend Femi, and had been living with him for the past two years. Femi had left his wife Iyabo and their two children to be with Toyin jr. There is a brief attempt by Femi to reconcile with his wife, but he quickly decides that he wants to return to Toyin jr. In the meantime, Mrs. Toyin Ajayi sr. holds a luncheon and introduces Toks to a young niece of her friend . The young niece Yetunde is a beautiful girl the niece of Mrs. Olabisi. Yetunde attends university at Ife and is several years the junior of Toks. A swift courtship follows, which is briefly interrupted by a misundersstanding when Toks panics and runs away to think about things.
Femi marries Toyin and they go on to have four children together. Iyabo the first wife of Femi marries an older man who is widowed.
The setting is contemporary and is supposed to show the timeline of how Yar adua came into power, and how he was sickly and absent. In the middle of the narrative Goodluck Jonathan comes on to the scene as the president of the fed rep of Nigeria.Interspersed are allusions to current events.
　Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi: Who is he?
Tokunbo Ajayi is a late twenties year old engineer, who has been estranged from his wife of 4 years Mrs. Toyin Ajayi Jr. For the last two years she has been living with her lover, his best friend Femi in a flat in Ikoyi. Mr. Ajayi works for a company based in Lagos Island. He has been depressed for the last two years but now seems to be coming out of the depression and trying his hands at various things. He thinks of starting a contract with his friend Mr. Olumide but decides it is too corrupt. He is an honest intellectual who questions the activities of the government in regards to human rights violations, and he is an advocate for the poor and the disadvantaged who lack healthcare. He is introduced to a younger woman Yetunde a niece of his mothers friend Mrs. Olabisi. He finalises his divorce and goes on to marry Yetunde at the end.
　
　
Mrs. Toyin Ajayi Sr.
She is the mother of the hero Tokunbo, and to confuse matters has the same first name as the first wife of Toks who is designated by the name Mrs. Toyin Ajayi Jr. She is a widow of Mr. Olatunde Ajayi and lives alone in a fortified flat in Adeniran Ogunsanya rd. in Surulere. She is assiduously protective of her youngest son Toks, and takes it upon herself to see to that he has all he needs both spiritual and material. She is by all accounts a doting mother.
　
　
Mrs. Toyin Ajayi Jr.
The first wife of Toks, marries Toks only to meet up with the love of her youth Femi. She and Femi know each other from the boarding schools of England, and with this in common they tend to each other. She is a hopeless romantic, not bad of herself, but finds herself instead a victim of circumstance, and unable to overcome the attraction she and femi have for each other.
Femi Adetunde:
Was the best friend of Toks up until the time that he seduced the wife of Toks, Toyin Jr. He works for one of the Lagos banks in a high up managerial position and is wealthier from home as well than Toks. He leaves his wife Iyabo and their two children behind , and goes on to marry Mrs Toyin Ajayi jr. after the divorce is finalized.
Ahopeless romantic he finds this passion equaled in the love that Toyin has for him.
Yetunde:
A young student at University of Ife, the niece of Mrs. Olabisi a good friend of Mrs. Toyin Sr. Turns out to be a good deal younger than Toks, but in temperament makes an ideal match for him. They do have a setback where their relationship ends, only for the two to reunite and marry.
Iyabo:
The wife of femi who goes on to pursue a career and eventually marries an elderly widow.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
The Story Of Tokunbo Ajayi:　
The Daily Times headlines’ were starkly clear: “ Chinese oil workers kidnapped from a barge in waters off Bonny.”
Bonny a small sleepy coastal town sat at the eastern edge of the Niger Delta. It was surrounded by the murky waters of the Bight of Biafra. To the eyes of a Lagosian , it meant little more than a place. Or rather a place that spelt trouble. In that respect at least, Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi was no different from other Lagosians. He glanced over the headlines with a hint of irritation in his mannerisms, and muttered to himself. He made some indecipherable superlatives alluding to the fact that there was always someone or the other getting kidnapped in the Niger Delta. To him, this seemed for trivial reasons or worse still for no reasons at all.
The trouble, he thought to himself, was that they kidnapped all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Not that he could think of a good legal reason to justify any kidnapping of any sort. Yet the kidnappings continued. He could have cared even less about all these things except that he was in the process of pursuing a government post. For this reason he felt obliged to at least appear up to date on current events, even if he in fact was not.
After a brief review of the paper, he neatly folded the paper and laid it on the table beside his steaming cup of coffee. Carefully and deliberately he went over the plans for the days meetings. At one p.m. immediately after lunch he would meet with Mr. Olumide, the powerful former minister for oil. They had planned to do a brief to prepare him for his meeting with the minister for housing and rural development. From there he hoped to end up his evening at his estranged wife’s flat, for reasons he himself could not fully account for.
Mrs. Toyin Ajayi Jr. had been estranged from Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi for the better part of the previous two years. In the beginning of the estrangement she had initially denied there being any real reason for the separation. She had stated vague reasons as not feeling loved any more, and of wanting to find herself apart from her marriage. As the duration of their separation had worn on it finally became obvious that Mrs.
Toyin Ajayi Jr. had in fact been having a long drawn out affair with her husband’s best friend Femi.
When all the chips had fallen on the table the breach between him and Femi became irreparable. Two weeks prior to this day, Toyin had called to say that it was all over between herself and Femi. She said that she wanted to “come back home”. In response to this request Mr. Ajayi now found himself in his old Peugeot 504 clanking through the pot holes on a dirt road in Ikeja.
A more complicated man would have regarded such an appeal with apprehension and caution. The depth and breadth of his love had leaped across the trivial boundaries of time and infidelity. An accompanying nostalgia had magnified the raptures associated with the love in it’s initiation. All this transpired to make him an eager and emotionally desperate man.
It had been near impossible for him to reconcile the unfaithful Toyin with the Toyin he had loved and wooed. The two years without her had passed slowly. In spite of the intense loneliness he had experienced he had resisted all urges to take on a lover in revenge. This was not because he had lacked a desire for human love. More because he thought too highly of love itself, to take on a lover without it. In his mind he had been convinced that love begotten of revenge was a poison and would only kill itself.
For many a sleepless night he had wrestled with this sorrow. Too proud to acknowledge to friends and family the true state of despair he wallowed in, to the world he presented a cheerful face. When he returned to his rooms at night, there the ghosts of his past resurfaced with a clockwork regularity attempting to drive him to madness. He continually teetered on the brink of the abyss to hopelessness.
Sleep proved no refuge either, for in his dreams the ghosts took on ever more spectacular and fantastic forms. Toyin was always at the center of these dreams. She was always running away from him. Inhis mind he kept asking that question that plagues humanity, that question that has no answer: Why? Why? He asked why to anyone who would listen to him. Even God seemed to have tired of him asking. He had thought that she had loved him as much as he had loved her. As for Femi, he would have trusted him with his life.
　
　
Chapter 2:
A NEW BEGINNING.Everyday is a new beginning, every moment, how ever fleeting, seeks it’s cause and effect. The moments strung together form a day and then a week and a year. Somewhere within there hides a purpose known to God alone.. Every now and then the purpose is seemingly deciphered, in so far as it can be to the mortal, only for the shimmering of illusions to overtake once again.
Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi was in a position that he had never imagined in his deepest dreams or thoughts. The two years of his separation had been hard on him and had taken their toll. Just as he had become reconciled to his fate and was beginning to take the separation in his stride, he was now being drawn into a reconciliatory meeting of sorts with the very perpetrator of his misery.
She was seated in the living room of her little flat waiting patiently for his arrival. Although she struck the pose with ease, a nervousness of manner betrayed that she had given the matter much thought and in fact laid much import to the course she was about to embark upon. Mr. Ajayi entered the room with a vague smile and she smiled back.
“Hello Toyin” he said. He continued, “ It’s been a long time since we last saw each other in this way.” he joked trying to appear calm.
Her smile widened. “ I know, I don’t want to go over our last meeting together…” she said.
He reacted with displeasure, “ You want us to avoid discussing how you told me that you and Femi had decided to be together?” He asked unabashedly.
“ It’s over between I and Femi.” She said abruptly gesticulating wildly with her hands.
“ So, because it it’s over between you and him, you want me to come over her. Then we can continue as if nothing ever happened?” He asked in total disbelief.
“ No” she cried,” No, I never said that.” then she continued “ I don’t think that anyone could ever expect that of you, or any one for that matter.” She pleaded “But you are still my lawful husband.”
He shook his head in disbelief, and leant against the wall with his free hand covering half of his brow.
“There is no denying that. Yes, I am your lawful husband, the lawful husband whom you betrayed, and yes, we have been separated now for over two years..”
“ I know,” she answered softly, looking away, “ Do you believe in forgiveness, in a new beginning? Can I ask you to dare to trust in me once more?”
He shook his head even before he could speak. “ Right now, I am not sure what I believe in. Yes, I believe in forgiveness, but to ask me to put this indiscretion behind me? I think you are asking for more than I can give.”
“ Why is that Toks?” she sobbed. “ Did our love mean so little to you that you have lost the ability to hope?”
He winced at her bluntness, the audacity of her statements were unspeakable,
“ How dare you, you of all people talk about how little our love meant. Whilst you were seeking solace in his arms, I was alone. Ah! There were times that I felt that I was on the verge of madness. No, it is you who make light of my affection, thinking you can approach me at will, and abandon me whenever it suits your fancy.
She looked away, emotionlessly and continued. “ I did not invite you here to quarrel. It was a peace offering and you can take it or leave it. But do not belittle the gesture. I will not humor you by indulging you in your self pity. Pfia! How pathetic can can a man be to think that it is by self pity you win love and respect.”
He turned around and walked to the door with his head hanging down. At the door he turned for one last look at the woman he had loved. Without a further word he walked out. He made his way down the narow stairs and found his care where he had left it at the gate.
Toyin’s agenda was to remain a mystery. Over the next few days he tried to rehash in his mind the preceding events. He tried to decipher what the purpose of the meeting had really been. Clearly she was not seeking to annul the marriage outright, at least not without a fight.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
Chapter 3:
THE SMELL OF BLOOD MONEY:“ The Joint Task Force JTF descend upon Bukuratu”. “ 1000 soldiers in Warri.” The head lines were back in the Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta had been at a stand off with the regime for the past four weeks. Reports were filtering out about entire villages once again being abandoned as the villagers sought refuge in the bush. Some rumors alluded to villagers being chased by machine gun wielding helicopters, spraying automatic machine gun fire after them as they escaped into the bush.
Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi was quite bewildered. He was not quite sure that he wanted to seek for the lucrative government contract ant more. It seemed hard to fathom what was right and what was wrong. Were the people running into the bush truly unarmed civilians? And how could one distinguish unarmed civilians from unarmed militants? So there was a good possibility that innocent civilians were being killed as well. Sometimes, he thought to himself, life becomes so cheap in equatorial Africa.
He arrived at Mr. Olumide’s house in the evening after work. Witohut much fanfar he insisted that he would withdraw his candidature for the contract at hand. Mr. Olumide could not believe his earts.
“ What is this you are telling me? “ He asked him “ That of all the people in Nigeria you are the only one who could turn down such a lucrative contract? What has gotten into you? I don’t understand, it was just yesterday you were all enthusiastic about the project. Can’t you see that we are talking about rural development for the people of the Niger Delta? We are going to build schools and a clinic for the people”.
Mr. Ajayi was not moved, “ I thought I could do this, but right now I feel like my conscience won’t allow me to participate in a project which will turn into another sham. You want to build a school when there are no school books; build a clinic, when there are no medicines. Nay the entire health system is in shambles. For God’s sake every high ranking government official in this despicable place gets his healthcare abroad. Truly, Kole, you cannot be the only one who does not know this?”
Mr. Olumide was furious, “ Something must have gone wrong for you to become so negative about the project all of a sudden.”
Mr. Ajayi shook his head,” No, not really. Well, I saw Toyin a few days ago and she said she wanted to “reconcile” and I said no to that too. Maybe I am just getting tired of all the lies around us, Kole. How long have we been struggling in this place? I should have probably gone abroad five years ago when I had a chance, but I kept hoping that things would turn around. Every year we kept saying surely it can only get better. Then things went from worse to even more worse. I don’t see these projects as a solution. That is the problem, I don’t see a solution. But I know the difference between right and wrong.”
Mr. Olumide got up from his chair and went over to the table and poured out two glasses of cognac.
“ Well, let us toast to the project that never was. I don’t share your scruples, and I will proceed with the project. Call it blood money if you will.”
“ I never called it blood money,” he responded exasperated, “ But I want nothing to do with it.”
“ It’s okay, I have no other work, since I was retired from my government position,so I don have the luxury to say no to a contract. Mrs. Must buy her lace, and take her annual trip abroad; it’s called life style. But never mind about that, tell me why did you reject Toyin now? I though you had been waiting for her all this time.”
“ I doubted the sincerity of her proposal. I fear that she and femi may have had a quarell and the last thing in the world that I wanted was to be dumped a second time.”
“ Toks you sound like a master of relationships right now.”
“I am hardly that. But I must admit that I have done my share of reading on the politics of relationships, and if she is sincere I will hear from her again.”
“ I saw Femi at the Ikoyi club last night . He was alone and looked rather dejected.”
“ You know Kole, all this is neither here nor nthere. My mother has expressly forbidden me from any reconciliation with Toyin. Ihave closed this chapter, and I am a man that is looking>“
Kole laughed “ for a man who is looking you don’t seem to be making much effort, you need to be out, socializing, meeting people. Believe me, Lagos is full of beautiful women”. Mr. Ajayi agreed, “ I know.” “ But right now I must be on my way.”
　
CHAPTER 4:
MR. TOKUNBO AJAYI HAS A CONFERENCE WITH HIS MOTHER