Two days after Favour and Ifeanyi’s chanced meeting and discussion at Okokomaiko, the estate agent, as suggested by Favour in the second part of this story, found an accommodation for Ifeanyi.
The accommodation was located at the PPL area of Okokomaiko, not too far from the Okokomaiko Bus-stop. Favour, in line with her concealed promise, offered Ifeanyi the money with which paid for the newly secured accommodation.
Interestingly, Favour was the first official visitor to Ifeanyi’s new house. As one thing led to the other, their relationship metamorphosed from acquaintanceship into a full-blown bliss love relationship.
While living in his new house and hoping to find a job, Mother-luck came shinning on Ifeanyi. He miraculously secured a job without formally applying for it.
His employer was a transport company, whose vehicles plied Lagos to Abuja, Lagos to South-East and Lagos to South-South routes. It office was located at the popular Maza-Maza Bus-stop, opposite Festac Town First Gate, in the Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos.
As he began to flourish on the job, he started making plans towards getting married. With that decision came a challenge. His challenge was the difficulty of choosing between Favour and his secret girlfriend, Angela.
He thought of confiding his challenge in either his mother or in his bosom friend, but after a second thought, he decided to handle the matter all by himself.
At the end of the day, the lot of who to marry fell on Favour. It wasn’t because he loved her more than Angela, but out of sympathy and as a reward for all that she did for him when he needed help most. That led them to marry in the Catholic way.
As Ifeanyi continued to progress on his job, financially speaking, he decided to go back to school and acquire a university education. He had always had the dream of going to the university long before then, but the lack of finance by his surviving mother denied him that opportunity.
In pursuance of that lofty goal, the young man sought and secured admission into the Lagos State University, LASU, for short, where he studied Business Administration.
On completion of his first-degree course in Business Administration at LASU, he decided to go in straight for his Masters of Business Administration, MBA, programme, which he also completed in flying colours.
While Ifeanyi was recording all those successes, he was constantly advising and pleading with his wife, Favour, to go back to school the way he did, but she could not be persuaded. she was not even bothered that all of her siblings had completed their own university education.
With those enviable qualifications in his file and enough money in his bank account, Ifeanyi began to nurse the ambition of becoming a politician. While he was doing that, he accidentally met a renowned Nigerian politician, from his own part of Nigeria, who advised him to join a political party. The man later became his political god-father.
Soon after joining and becoming a card-carrying member of one of the major political parties in Nigeria, Ifeanyi, with the help of his political god-father, won an election as a Councillor in his constituency.
While serving as a Councillor, he continually prevailed on his wife to go back to school, but his wife would not listen. He became more worried at that, especially when he discovered that he needed an educated woman to complement and support his political career.
“How can I go back to school at this age,” protested his wife, Favour, “when I am almost 40-years-old, and a mother of three children?”
“What stops you from doing so?” queried Ifeanyi. “Did you not know that education has no age limit? And above all, don’t you know that going to school is sweeter and more comfortable when one is financially comfortable, as we are now?
“Please, note that this is not the first time I am making this suggestion to you on this matter. I hope you won’t later regret your action and put the blame on me, when the day of reckoning comes? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I won’t regret anything,” Favour retorted sarcastically.
…to be continued next week
