LOLA OR NO ONE
“Lola or nobody! Lola or no one! Vote Lola for SUG president!!
These voices came from the campaign group standing outside the female hostel. I peered through the window; I could see several guys, very few girls and a fleet of cars. When I meant cars; I meant CARS.
My goodness! Various models of Lexus, BMW, Hilux, and the likes. I wasn’t surprised because several students in my school were wealthy.
I didn’t say “they had money”, I meant “W-E-A-L-T-H-Y.” A lot of them were swimming in money.
“Who are those ones again ooo!” Rebecah my roommate barked. She lay on her bed, her head facing the ceiling. She was this kind of lazy person who always complained or felt embittered whenever she moved a muscle or was stressed a bit.
The noise was getting too much. The SUG elections were in two days, and up until then we would never rest because Lola and other campaign groups would keep coming to the female hostel three times a day to remind us that it was ‘their candidate or nobody’. You needed to see the zeal which all of them campaigned with. As usual, they all thought they would win the elections.
“It’s Lola and her people” I replied; still peering through the glass.
Then she hissed and turned to the other side of her bed. She quickly searched for her AirPods and put them on. I watched as she adjusted the music volume to probably the highest decibel. That was Becky for you; a crazy lady, never tolerating nonsense and always direct. She didn’t like Lola, she had never liked Lola. I didn’t, I don’t think anyone did. But I knew Lola, I knew so much about her.
Her supporters outside consisted mainly of men, men and more men. One would think they were her brothers or relatives or that she had found favour in their sight. But No, when it came to Men; we all knew who Lola was. She was always a pun on their chessboard and would do anything to eat their money.
“All those her sugar daddies want her to win abi?” Kehinde shouted from where she lay.
We all burst into laughter. She was a clown and we all expected her to say something funny regarding the current situation; like she would always do.
“Normally naw, after dancing to their tune, what do you expect” another girl replied
“I can boldly say that one of those men is pushing her to go for this post”
“Me too, because how did Lola of all people, dream of being the SUG president of this dangerous university?”
“I feel sorry for her tho, I hope she wins”
“And if she doesn’t win nko?” Kehinde asked again, and we all burst out laughing.
No one had thought of what would happen if Lola didn’t win the elections after being carried around and supported by several men who owned multiple cars; men who were swimming in money.
“If she doesn’t win, then she’ll have to pay them for wasting their time and fuel all in the name of carrying her about for a lost cause.”
Rebeca voiced out to our surprise. We didn’t know she had removed the AirPods and was listening to us. We all burst out laughing in sympathy Lola.
“How will she pay?” Another girl asked
“Ngozi Are you daft? don’t you know how girls pay, these days?”
“I don’t know” she replied timidly
“She’ll sleep with all of them” the other girl replied.
“Ah! Abomination! Abomination! God forbid!” Ngozi shouted and rebuked both Lola and everyone in the room”
Everyone stopped and laughed at the little drama which she was acting.
We were brought back to reality by the shouts of the campaign group outside.
“Lola or Nobody! Lola or No one! Vote Lola for SUG president!
After a long while, the fleet of cars began to disappear. Some revered carelessly, raising so much dust that was so intense to blind anyone close by. Some of the dust particles flew into our hostel. And then all the girls in my hostel rushed to the window angrily to abuse them.
“Stupid men”
“Do you want to kill us because you have cars?!!”
“Lola won’t win this election! To hell with you all and Lola!” Kehinde shouted to them from the window and we all burst out laughing.
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I knew Lola when I was 13. I knew where she lived. We both came from the same village to the city to further our education in the university, closest to us.
We had attended the same secondary school where dad was the School principal; the highest official of the school.
Lola was proud. In fact she became proud when her dad was appointed principal of our secondary school then. We were in JSS3 and preparing to take our Junior WAEC when it all happened.
The sudden demise of the then principal gave room for applications for the vacant post, and fortunately; her dad was appointed based on his qualifications. Like I heard, he was the only applicant who had managed to bag a ‘Bachelor’s Degree’ in an institute of technology somewhere in the east.
By the time we came back to school for our Senior Secondary School studies, a lot of things changed.
The owner of the school who had appointed Lola’s Dad as principal, travelled out of the country. So Directly and Indirectly, Lola’s dad was the owner of the school.
Not long, and just as I had expected, we began to hear rumors about the new principal; that he was a selfish individual. He was all after money and self. He wanted all the good things in the school for himself and his family.
As such, he employed a lot of his relatives including his wife and her people, and every other person whom he felt he could help with employment, both qualified and unqualified.
In no distant time, everything about the school was centred around LOLA and her family.
She never read her books, she never did her assignments, she was always an hour late to school but she always came the First position in class. She was always given the award of the best student in her class.
But we never saw her reading, I never saw her reading. We all knew what was happening behind doors.
Lola would insult her teachers because her dad was the principal and she would still play the victim card before the principal for the teachers to apologize to her.
She also became selective; she decided who would become her friend or not. With her bad behaviors and every other thing relating to her, she became the talk of the whole school; a celebrity, a season she always wished for; recognition and attention.
It was when we were in our Graduating class in the secondary school that we found out that Lola was a thief. A money thief.
She was all after money. She was never satisfied with the ones her parents gave her; despite how wealthy they had suddenly become (by feasting on our termly school fees). No! She wanted more, She had the trait of her father; He always wanted more.
One day I came into the empty classroom during break period and saw her searching my bag. I’d kept part of my school fees in my bag earlier that morning; hoping to make payments at the Bursary Unit after school.
“Lola, what are you doing?” I asked
She paused, then turned to look at me.
Surprisingly, she hissed and continued with what she was doing. She found the bundle of notes in my bag, then she picked it up and walked away. Gracious!
After going behind the class to cry, I went straight to the principal's office; it was best to report Lola to her dad because I had no strength to shout or even fight.
As I approached the building, I saw her coming out of the office with her dad. She wore a sullen look. She must have been crying too. Crocodile tears. Serious Crocodile tears.
“Daddy, she accused me of taking her money and then she slapped me” Lola said to her dad, pointing at me.
I stood still for a moment trying to understand what was happening, and before I knew it, the principal bundled me into his office and flogged the hell out of me.
He warned me never to lay hands on his daughter again. Before I could speak and explain what had happened he sent me out of his office, and that’s how Lola stole my money from me, in broad daylight.
I knew that telling my parents wouldn’t make a difference because it was no more a school, it was an institution designed only for Lola and her family.
I cooked up a lie for my dad; I just had to take that risk, because, if he ever came to school to vindicate me, to defend me and scold Lola and her dad, I would never graduate. I knew I would never graduate from that school because Lola’s dad was the principal and I never ever wanted to enter into his trap or that of his daughter.
——————————————————————
When Lola lost her dad, she didn’t act like she did. We had just finished taking our JAMB exam and were preparing to enter the university.
It was the only university that was closest to the village where we lived in. It was situated in the city, and I was among the few lucky ones who had enough resources to still continue with education as at then.
Of course Lola had money to continue with school therefore I wasn’t surprised when I heard that someone else wrote her JAMB exam for her and POST UTME.
Lola’s dad died due to a prolonged illness which we never got to know till today.
Barely a day after his demise, Lola had already started hanging out with different guys who had cars. She wore the latest shoes and the latest clothes. She was becoming more beautiful and feminine. She was on top of the world.
—————————————————————-
I never got to know anything about her until we both saw each other inside the walls of the University.
My encounter with her again was as bad as anything one could associate it with. I won’t call it an encounter, I’d take it that we both were just passing by, but through different means.
I was walking while she approached in the opposite direction, sitting in a car. As usual, she was being driven by a guy.
The car windows were wound down and the vehicle wasn’t moving fast, so we both had enough seconds to glance at each other and recognize ourselves and our past. She hadn’t changed; the scar below her left eye was still there, and her pointed nose still confirmed the fact that she was Lola.
I felt uneasy; I didn’t want to see her. But it was too late. We kept staring at each other until I raised my hands and waved.
“Hello Lola” I said.
The guy who drove her, stopped and asked her
“Do you know her”
The moment Lola shook her head, he wound up the windows and sped off.
We never spoke again till our fourth year in school, that was when she was contesting for SUG president.
Anyways, at some point she was the talk of the whole university because she seemed to be that one girl who was friend to every guy in the university, and as a girl in the university; I knew what that meant, we all knew what it would probably mean.
Asides hearing about her ordeals with men in our university. I didn’t know where she lived, neither did I know her course of study, neither did I care about any of these.
(Continued in part 2, coming soon!!..)
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