Jamaica

Chapter 17

Three months after she took office as Governor of  Lagos State, Miriam Okafor had a mountain of problems, both on the job and in her own house. Her worries centred around the three men that had been assassinated in cold blood during her first week in office. This was a security problem that her government had to tackle. But more worrisome was the fact that her husband had sudden mood swings which sometimes made him burst into an outrage against her.

They no longer talked peacefully to each other. Each moment of discussion would lead him to aggressively shout at her. It got to a point where she had to shout back at him.
"Kayode are you sick, or what?" She asked him outright, one day.
"Are you, mad to talk to me like that?"
"If you are not sick, then what is wrong with you?"

This situation bothered her so much that she couldn't focus properly on her job. And it led her to postpone or outright cancel so many scheduled meetings. Her secretary wondered why she was cancelling so many appointments and called her while  she was in her office.

"Hello, ma hope everything is fine?"
"Yes, Sade, thank God you called."
"Hope there's no problem ma?"

" Please, cancel all appointments for today. I do not wished to be disturbed."

"Ah ma, but you have the women's conference by three in the afternoon. And also..."

"No," she interrupted. "Tell them something urgent came up."

"Okay ma, but..."

"Is there anything else?"
"We..ell, it is that journalist from NMC."

"Ah okay, what is her name?"
"Abisola," replied Sade.
"Yes, Abisola. And what does she want?"
"She asked to speak to you privately." The governor frowned at this unusual request, wondering why Abisola wanted to see her. With all the problems I am facing? However, since she had cancelled all other engagements for the day, she decided to attend to Abisola.

"Sade fix an appointment with her."
"She is already here, ma."
"What?! And how did she pass security?"
"She showed me the authorization you gave her, ma." The governor annoyed by this intrusion felt Abisola had overstepped her boundaries.

"Okay, let her in, but have her thoroughly checked."
"Yes ma." The governor cut the call and waited. Soon the door to her office opened and Sade walked in with Abisola.

"Thank you, Sade. You may go." Sade left closing the door behind her. Abisola held her breath as she stood face to face with the governor. Her problem for wanting to see the governor was simply to report Jamaica whom she still believed had shot her boyfriend at the restaurant.

  In the days following the incident, she still had the image of him bleeding, clearly stamped on her mind. At work she couldn't concentrate properly and this had attracted the attention of her colleague, Ojo. He felt she was getting too distracted and had wanted to report her to their boss.

But after his first attempt had failed, he vowed never to do so again. Instead, he came up to her while she was preparing to read the news and observed her closely. Abisola ignored him for a while but found that he was staring strangely at her. She looked up and told him,

"Ojo, don't you have work to do?"
"I do."
"So why are you hanging around me like you are my bodyguard?" Ojo sighed and raised his eyebrows.
"Abisola, despite all the disagreements that you and I  have, I will always be there for you." Abisola giggled and then looked him in the eyes. "So take your problem to be my problem." He added. Abisola sighed, as she carefully scrutinized him. And who does he think he is?
"Ojo, I already told you I have a man."
"That is not how I see you, o."
"What do you mean?"
"Abisola, every woman in this company that has a man is happy."
"So?"
"You are the only one who it seems is not happy with your man." Abisola was marveled by this observation, wondering why he kept focusing his attention on her.