GodPraise:
Ko sa gbara to da bi to Jesu.
Ko sa gbara to da bi to Baba.
Ko sa gbara to da bi to Jesu.
Agbara, agbara agbara to j'agbara lo.

FairCritic:
Ride on.

Saturn101:
Ride on.

FairCritic:
Go on.

tonysunkan:




The Minister disconnected the line. I whistled to myself.

'Wow!'

I stood up from my seat. Things were moving faster than I had envisaged. I would have to go to Mr. I.D 's office to intimate the boss of the latest development. I picked up my phone and moved towards the glass door of the cubicle office. Before I got to it, Uche, the assistant editor who worked with me came inside.

Uche was all smiles. 'Congratulations, Tife.'

I was surprised.

'Yes, Mr. I.D called me to my office some minutes ago. He told me you'll soon be on your way to Abuja for a political appointment. You're to handover to me. Aren't you lucky?'

'So, you know already?'

How news travelled fast! The surprise was still on my face.

'Yes, I know.'

Uche shook my hand. 'Congratulations, brother. I'm happy for you.'

'Thank you.' I felt elated. Who would not?

Things appeared to move very fast the rest of that day. After I was through with the handover, I went to I.D 's office to thank the man for all I had done. His secretary said he had gone out for an engagement. I then called his number.

'Good day, sir. I want to thank you, sir, for everything. I've already handed over to Uche. I want to go home now and prepare myself for the trip to Abuja. I really thank you, sir.'

I.D laughed over the line. 'Don't mention. You just don't forget our deal.'

'I'll never forget, sir. Thank you, sir.'

Next, I called my wife. 'Darling, I've got a call from the Minister I told you about. He says I'm to resume in Abuja tomorrow morning.' I felt I should demonstrate my surprise at the urgency. 'Can you imagine that? The Minister wants me to resume work tomorrow morning by nine. That means I'll have to take an evening flight to Abuja today.'

'Congratulations, darling.' Fransisca said, trying to sound excited. 'Where are you now?'

'I'm on my way home. I'll need to pack some things.'

'Of course. I'll take permission to close early so that we'll see before you depart,' she said.

'Yeah, that will be alright. See you then.'


***

The last flight of Freshline airline would leave Lagos for Abuja by six p.m. Freshline was a reliable local airline that I preferred to travel with. I decided to leave home by half past four o' clock. Fransisca wanted to drive me to the airport, but I insisted on taking a cab.

I had told my wife that barring any change, I would be coming home every weekend to be with my family. Of course, I would always call her on the phone unfailingly.

'Be careful over there,' Fransisca said as she tried to curtail her anxiety. She never liked politics or anything political and had never hidden her disdain. Before now, she hardly engaged in political discussions with me, despite the fact that I was a political journalist. Now that my appointment was 'purely political', as she put it, she had a lot of reservations.


I smiled to dispel her fear. 'You don't worry my dear. I'm not a politician and neither am I going to join politics. I'm only going there to be an assistant to the Minister.'

'All the same, be careful.'


I kissed her good bye and left the house. She only drove me to the main road where I would get a cab. The cab I got was a new one, one of those distributed by the Lagos government in partnership with private operators.

During the drive to the airport, the driver talked a lot. He praised the efforts of the state government in trying to make things better for the people, but slammed the central government for its lackadaisical attitude towards development affairs. I listened to
him without saying much. To the driver, my taciturnity might mean I was apolitical.

Thankfully, there was no serious traffic hold-up. Lagos had one of the worst traffic in the world, but today was different. I got to the local wing of the airport several minutes before my flight. I went to Freshline airline office to buy my one-way ticket to Abuja. I then went to the Departure lounge and awaited when the announcement of my flight would be made.




Dangerous Love: https://okadabooks.com/book/about/dangerous-love/46639