THE EXCHANGE
Episode 29
Baba T stayed behind, he looked at me with so much disgust in his eyes and said “This is the life you deserve, continue to live it…but if you dare touch my children again, I will use everything I have to fight you & your wretched family” & he walked out.
I just stood there watching them go; I couldn’t move or say anything, I could hear Olufunke Omolabake crying & asking for me as they drove away.
I had not thought this through bcos this was not the outcome I had envisaged. How could I fix this? A lots of thoughts flashed in my head. How would I get my children back?
Who would help me?
The following morning, I went to Laide’s place…I hadn’t taken public transport in a long time so when I arrived at Laide’s house the gate man didn’t want to let me in but when he saw me in the taxi, he finally opened the gate. Laide was visibly mad at me; she said there was no justification for what I did bcos there were better ways of handling such matters. She said I could have come to their house instead of absconding with the children & getting everybody worked up. She told me of the showdown between my mum & Baba T; my mum accused him of kidnap & murder, that he was only pretending not to know our whereabouts & Brother Dipo went physical with Baba T got made a huge scene at Abeokuta. Now my mum was worried sick, running from pillar to post to find you. How I got brother Kola(my eldest brother) fired bcos Baba T would not buy the story that nobody knew where I was. He even confronted us bcos we were your allies & confidants which has now caused a serious quarrel between her husband Bola & my husband, his cousin. The drama had also caused a considerable amount of friction between her & Bola bcos Bola found it hard to believe that she didn’t know where I was either. I tried to defend my action but Laide made it sound like I killed a fly with cannon…
“Are u kidding me? Moving my children away from a house where drug is abused openly is wrong? What would you have done if you were in my shoes?” I snapped back Laide kept trying to rationalize it “After all they are his children, you can’t just take them away like that…baba ?m? ló l’?mó.
Even your mother-in-law is not very happy with what you did; her state of health cannot handle such drama right now. When I spoke with her;
she said you didn’t inform her of what was happening”
“I didn’t inform her? She knew about all of this even before I found out. She hid the truth from me just to get grandchildren…” I went on & on about the things I had heard & seen; how they begged me not to tell anyone. All the dirty secrets I did not divulge earlier…even what happened in
London the first time.
Laide was speechless, she asked me to wait for her husband to return. She was mad at me for hiding the most important part of the issue. She scolded me for not making adequate preparation for this. She said that I should have alerted someone especially when he started using drugs in the house where there were little children. “When all this was happening, you should have informed me instead of covering up for them & going through everything outside your family. You should have informed me, she said again. We could have executed it better. We would have gather enough physical evidence, the beatings & injuries would have been photographed. We would have tried to get a bit of the drugs or even found some other evidence so that we can build a case against him. But now you have messed that up by keeping mute. Maybe you could have travelled abroad with your children, under the protection of ur mother in-law; we could have done a lot of things differently” “Did you even remember to take your passport when you left the house?” Laide
asked. That was when I realized I didn’t.
When Bola got back in the evening, Laide shared everything with him & he decided to go with me to see Baba T. When we got there, the gateman would not open the gate…he said ‘Oga’ told him not to let me in the house or he would lose his job. Bola had to get off the car & walked in through the small gate. He was in for a while & when he got back, the look on his face said it all.
He got in the car & said we needed to leave, that he would explain things to me on the way. I insisted that I wanted to
see my children; I started to cry & was banging on the gate. Baba T came out & threatened to get me arrested if I didn’t
leave. He said he was just considering the fact that I was the mother of his children, otherwise he knew exactly how to deal with me & I would never step foot in that house again.
Bola convinced me to get in the car, that we would resolve this.
It was on our way back to their place that he told me what happened when he was inside; Baba T almost fought him & finally asked him to stay out of his business. Bola said he also threatened to go to any extent to deal with me if I ever tried to come near his children.
When we got back to their place, Bola & Laide advised that I should have to get my family involved as I could not fight this on my own. I stayed there that night & early the following morning, my aunt, Laide’s mom came to see me. She also chastised me for handling the matter like someone who wasn’t from a family. I told her I was about to travel to Abeokuta. She said I should go but she would handle it from her own end but I should let her know before I do anything.
Bola had given me some money before he left for work, I guess Laide informed him of my cash situation but my aunt decided to take me. As happy as my mum was to see me, she still scolded me for doing what I did. In the presence of my aunt, I narrated everything this time, I did not hide anything anymore. She listened patiently & said “You should have seen what that lunatic you call your husband did when he came here. Of course, it had to be drugs. Normal human beings don’t act that way…I knew he was definitely high on something…
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