LOLA OR NO ONE (2)

 

Photo by Seth Ebenezer Tetteh on Unsplash

You’ve not read part (1)???, click on the link below.

https://www.nikeshwrites.com/2025/06/lola-or-no-one.html

[Continued from part (1)]

When I peered through the window that morning, I wasn’t surprised to see Lola, being supported by men; wealthy men. I’d seen such traits in her when we were much younger.

Anyways, it was the first of its kind in the university, for a lady to contest for such a post. This made the movement more unique, coupled with the loud music and noise.

I knew that her political aspirations were more of a contractual agreement. Whoever was pushing her to go for such a position, had something else in mind. Not just Lola being the president.

As I peered through the window that morning, watching the cars reverse and go away, I counted them all. Fifteen cars. Gracious!

Each car had a huge banner with Lola’s image.

One car stood out among the rest. It had a sport-like nature and shone so bright with its green colour. It was a Jaguar F-type, with an open roof.

That was the car Lola sat in, and from where I stood, I could see her smiling and acting all angelic.

“Jane, aren’t you inhaling the dust?! Are you okay?!” Rebecca asked and everyone turned to look at me. I didn’t notice that I was already covered in dust and had begun coughing. After raining abuses on the cars which poured dust into the hostel, they’d all left angrily to their beds. I was the only one standing and watching. 

“Yes I am okay” I replied Rebecca calmly and left for the bathroom to clean up myself.

“Since I knew her, I’ve never understood her personality!” Rebecca shouted. I knew she was referring to me.

“Yes oh! Slow poison, you never know what these kind of people are up to!” Kehinde added, and everyone burst out into laughter. Then several whispers and murmurings followed.

This was the one thing I never liked about my hostel members. Gossiping, about me.

I closed the door behind me and pulled off my dusty cloth. I scooped water from the bucket and poured it over my head. Then I foamed my sponge with soap and started scrubbing.

—————-————————————————-

That evening I stepped out to buy a new set of deodorants and body cream. I’d exhausted the previous ones and if I didn’t get them that evening, I wouldn’t have time to get them again due to the upcoming exams, scheduled to begin in about a week.

I dressed up in a blouse and skirt. It was a red blouse with several threaded designs on it; my favourite.

As I walked towards the cosmetics shop, I heard a loud honk behind me and turned just in time to see a green car almost hitting me. I quickly jumped off the pathway and landed on the ground. In such a tensed moment, I cut my slippers and also sustained some bruises on my knee and palm. 

The car didn’t stop. It zoomed past me and parked in front of the boutique shop which was very close to the cosmetics shop. 

I shook my head in disbelief and anger. 

“You stupid drivers!” I muttered as I stood up from the ground to dust myself. If it were to be Kehinde or Rebecca in my shoes, I’m very sure the whole world would hear about it. They would not let the reckless driver go until he or she compensated for the cut slippers and the sustained injuries. But I was different, I was reserved; an introvert. At that moment, I wished I wasn’t.

I walked down to the cosmetics shop in slight pain and discomfort. I had started regretting stepping out that day.

When I looked toward the green car again, I noticed that it was the same green Jaguar F-Type which I’d seen that morning. The one which brought Lola for her campaign the previous day.

The front doors to the car were pushed open and a guy and a lady came out. They shut the doors behind them and walked into the boutique. 

Then I saw her. It was Lola. She hadn’t changed so much. Her walking step was still the same even from a distance. Her light skin still glowed, and the hair which she wore that morning for the campaign was still the same. They walked in and shut the boutique door behind them.

The boutique contained only female clothing. So apparently, he was taking her out to buy her clothes. New clothes; Clothes for election; Election as first SUG president; the first of its kind. Because the election was the next day.

I hissed and walked into the cosmetics shop to buy my things.

“What would you like to get ma?” The woman spoke. She was way older than me.

Her being polite is what made me patronise her always. And she taught her other shop attendants to be polite to. So, they learnt to address any woman as ma, and any guy as sir, even if it was a four-year-old child.

“Cien”

“Cream or Roll on?”

“Both. I want both”

She nodded and went to get the products.

After several minutes, she apologised for taking so long.

“Sorry Ma, we just restocked, so it will take some time to find your Cien products okay?” 

I only nodded and forced a smile.

Then the door opened and two people walked in. I turned to look but regretted ever doing so.

It was Lola and a guy. That guy. That reckless guy who nearly took my life with his car, few minutes ago. 

I stopped looking at them and fixed my gaze on my bruised palm and knee, then I looked away.

Lola was smiling, her eyes seemed so cheerful and hopeful as she greeted everyone inside the cosmetics shop including the woman who was attending to me.

“Lola for SUG president!” Someone shouted.

I knew it was a student who would do such. The shop attendants wouldn’t; they didn’t care. They only cared about what Lola was going to buy from them and the money she would pay, that’s why they smiled back at her.

Soon everyone was chanting “Lola for SUG president!” Then after a few minutes, they all stopped, and that’s when I quietly heaved a sigh of relief. Such noise was giving me a headache.

“Here you go ma, it’s a total of ten thousand naira” the woman said to me.

After making the bank transfer, she packed my products neatly in a polythene bag and handed it to me. 

The mistake I made was to turn again to see if Lola was still around. Yes, she was. She was waiting for her turn at another counter behind a girl who was being attended to. 

Then our eyes met, and she quickly walked up to me. 

“Are you Jane?” She asked 

“Yes Lola” I replied. I pinched myself for calling her by her name. I should have just said “Yes”. Nothing after that. Nothing like “Lola”, “yes Lola”.

“Oh, I can remember that I saw you some time ago while I was in a car with my boyfriend” she said.

I could remember exactly what she was talking about. It was the first time we had seen inside the university. That fateful day when she denied ever knowing me, that her boyfriend -or so she called him- wound up the windows and sped off. Now the guy she was with, was a different person. With a different car. I wondered how many Boyfriends she’d ever had since then.

“I’m sorry about it, I couldn’t easily recognise you, and I tried so hard to remember where we had met before” she said.

I nodded. “Ok” 

What else did she want me to say? That was three years ago. At least now she could finally remember. Congratulations to her.

There were other things to think of; like the bruises which I had sustained while trying to avoid her car, and my cut slippers which I was holding with my left hand. 

“Will you vote me for SUG president?” She asked, smiling sheepishly. 

I knew it. I knew she never cared. I’d been wondering why she walked up to me, to make it look like I mattered to her. I didn’t. No, I didn’t matter to her. I was only important at that moment because she needed my vote. Even if I voted for her and died the next day, I could confidently bet that she would never care.

“Ehm, I don’t like doing politics”

“You don’t? You should. If you vote me as president you’ll enjoy your stay in school; remember we come from the same community ” she said.

I felt like flinging the slippers in my hand at her face. I had spent four years in school without her, so what was there to enjoy even if she entered the picture? She had suddenly remembered that we came from the same community, yet I didn’t even know her faculty, her department, I didn’t know what course she studied in school. I only knew that she was a student just like me. 

“Trust me, you will” she said, as she held me by my palm. I jolted to a sudden state of consciousness. It was the same palm I’d sustained injuries on. I removed my palm.

“Are you okay?” She asked. 

Everyone had already started looking at us. The reckless guy who had brought her wasn’t interested in whatever was happening. He sat on a chair close by and played loud music with his headphones.

“Yes I am, alright I’ll vote for you Lola” I said. 

It was a big lie. I wasn’t even planning to leave my hostel the next day, talk more of walking down to the student union secretariat to cast my vote.

“Thank youuuu Jane” she said excitedly and tried to hug me. I stepped back. Even if I lied in public, I couldn’t lie to such an extent. Hugging her.

“Bye” I said, and walked out of the shop; my cut slippers in my left hand, my products in my right hand, my bruised knees still aching.

————————————————————————

(Election Day)

The next morning we heard that Lola was dead.

It was 6:00 am on that Monday morning-when everyone was still snoring- that Ngozi raised an alarm.

“Ah! Lola is dead o!”

She said it three times until we all became conscious.

“Ngozi, are you okay? Did you dream about Lola?!” Rebecca asked angrily with sleepy eyes. Another thing she disliked was when anyone tried to disturb her sleep. She valued it so much.

“GistTV just posted it now. Wait let me show you!” Ngozi said as she got down from her bunk and went to show Rebecca.

GistTV was a WhatsApp TV that carried the latest gossip and news of everything which took place on campus. 

One would never know the importance of what he or she had until it was lost. So, when GistTv was banned by the vice-chancellor for leaking the sex tape of a physics lecturer and a female student; there was darkness in the school for quite some time; media darkness. 

His reason was that such a leaked video tarnished the image of the school. Of course, it was meant to, because our silly lecturers never ever cared about their dignity.

We were all in darkness throughout the time GistTV didn’t exist. That was in my second year, and the darkness lasted for the whole semester.

I can remember how many times my roommates played the sex tape. It was the talk of the whole school. In fact, in my hostel, Kehinde and Rebecca would never rest. Kehinde saved the video in her phone, in a folder which she named ‘Favourites’.

Except for official messages from the school, notifying students of exams, we didn’t know what was happening in a university which harboured over twenty thousand students.

So after much pleading from the SUG president, the Vice Chancellor gave a go-ahead for the TV to continue to function, but with monitored posting.

That morning, Rebecca took the phone from Ngozi and read it out loudly. It was posted 10 minutes ago by GistTV.

“Multiple sources have confirmed that there were several gunshots at G-Square last night, involving Lola, the presidential aspirant” 

Everyone was quiet. GistTV never lied. 

Many of us picked up our phones to confirm what Rebecca had just read. It was true. 

When I clicked on the next slide, I saw a lot of bodies scattered across the road. I also spotted Lola’s green campaign car, parked on the road alongside other vehicles. 

Rebecca gave the phone back to Ngozi,

“I’ll continue with my phone” she said quietly.

“It was a night party o!!” Kehinde shouted from where she lay.

We all glued our eyes to our phones awaiting the latest news again from GistTv. Then it popped.

“An eyewitness reported that there seemed to be a rival group attack on the partying group in the early hours of the morning. The drunk group members were about to leave the hotel grounds in their cars when they were ambushed by another rival group.

Ten guys and three ladies were injured, while seven people have been confirmed dead; Five guys and two ladies. A total of twenty casualties, and the rest escaped.”

“Then how did you know that Lola was killed?!” Aminat asked. We all turned to Ngozi.

“Ehm” she coughed “I just had this feeling that she must have been killed” she replied shamefully.

“Feeling indeed, but you went out yesterday morning to pick money which was sprayed during her campaign” Aminat fired again.

Ngozi was silent.

“You big head! You should read information well and stop spreading rumours until it is confirmed” Rebecca said angrily. She put off her phone and went to sleep.

We all wondered what might have come over Ngozi. But I quietly prayed that Lola would be safe. Though I didn’t like her.

For some time there was silence until Ngozi shouted again.

“Lola is dead o!”

No one talked to her.

Some of us picked up our phones to check GistTv, and then Kehinde finally confirmed it.

“Yes! GistTv just posted it” she said.

“Yes o” another girl said.

Soon, everyone began to murmur; but Rebecca was fast asleep.

“The presidential aspirant Lola has been confirmed dead. She was among the two ladies who didn’t make it” GistTv reported.

I held the phone to my chest and closed my eyes. I felt a cold shiver down my spine.

“Oh Lola” I muttered. I’d just seen her yesterday evening. How come?

Yes, I didn’t like her, but I still didn’t want her to end this way. My mood changed, and I felt bad. 

I didn’t know I was shedding tears until some of them dropped on my lap, because I was sitting upright on my bed.

“Ah! It was a five-star hotel o!” Kehinde shouted.

“Yes naw!” Another girl replied. “Didn’t you see the type of cars which pulled up for the campaign yesterday evening?”

I wearily placed my phone inside my bag which hung on a nail pinned to the wall. Then I lay down on my bed to listen to Kehinde and the other girls gossip.

The second girl was right. I wouldn’t even be surprised if I heard that Lola was shot in Dubai. She had the money to take herself there; better still, she had the people to take her there.

“Haven’t you heard of G-Square Avenue?” Someone asked Kehinde. But Kehinde said it was her first time hearing of such a place and the five-star hotel located there.

“Why won’t she be killed? When she’s rolling with big men”

Some girls laughed. Then someone else cut in immediately.

“My own question is, how did the attackers know what time Lola’s group would leave the hotel?”

It was a deep question and Kehinde broke the silence after some time.

“You see, that’s why I don’t do politics; it’s dangerous, especially in a federal university”

“I can bet it was planned” the girl continued.

“Of course naw”

“Yes naw”

“Certainly”

The affirmative replies were so many.

“No one in their right senses would go partying, a night before a very important election in this dangerous university.” 

Kehinde said. She was right. 

“What is she even doing with so many men at that time of the night?” Another girl asked.

“Don’t mind Lola, her body keeps itching her” another girl replied and they all burst out laughing, except me. I was still grieving.

“I also heard that they drink Eliot Rum a lot” A girl named Kosi said.

We all paused to process what she said.

“Ah! Kosi where did you hear that one from?” Someone asked.

We all knew Eliot Rum was expensive and it meant a lot if someone took of it daily.

“Well, I just heard” she said, scratching her head.

“Continue hearing; don’t mind your business” Ngozi cut in. It was the first time she was saying something funny ever since she was assigned to our hostel. So, in order to make her feel belonged, we all laughed at Kosi.

There were still debates and news flying here and there about Lola until Rebecca motioned for us to keep quiet. Then she spoke.

“The SUG election has been cancelled”

We didn’t know she had woken up and had been scrolling through her phone.

We picked up our phones to confirm.

Yes, it was posted by GistTV about 5 mins ago.

“The vice chancellor is about to formally inform the students that the school has lost some of its students to the cold hands of death. Furthermore more the students will be informed shortly that there will be no SUG elections this session. The election slated to take place today has been cancelled. This is as a result of the threats which he received this morning from a set of men with unknown identity supporting a late political aspirant.”

We all knew it was because of Lola, and we all silently prayed for safety because it was going to be a day of riot and turmoil in school.

I bit my lips in dismay. No matter how distant and unimportant I was to Lola, it was so heartbreaking to imagine that she was no more.

It was real, I pinched myself to be sure it was real. Yes, it was. I would miss Lola. We weren’t close but I would miss her; I just wanted her to be alive, even if we never talked.

I came down from my bed and walked out of the hostel, I ran towards an Orchard area where several trees were planted. I fell on my knees and wept.

“Lola please come back”