The Leader's Secret Wife

Gbenguze was the leader of the... club. I suppose
it is what you would call those pseudo-gangs that
seemed to mimic the mafia that UI was replete with
in those days. Gbenguze was a military brat and
was one of the high ranking awon boyz. In fact, to
be certain, it didn't get higher than him.

One day Gbenguze and Stefano, a scary looking but
Urhobo fellow, approached me and offered me some medicinal
herb in appreciation for playing "Mountain Dance" at the
Trenchard Hall and thus "toppling" the reigning piano
Maestro, Geraldo Pino's keyboardist... who now risked a
physical beating, they said, if he would dare come to UI
again and play mountain dance. The pressure was on, for
now these commanders of violence relied on my piano skills
to maintain their status as the boys to be. So I practiced,
not out of fear, but pressure. I didn't think they were to be
feared: Saffon, KK, Gbenguze, Big J, Stefano.
But so many others feared
them I began to wonder if, eventually, I ought fear them too.
One day Gbenguze approached me, but this time alone. He had seen
me with Nwanne and wanted to know about her friend, Ify. It is
how this story starts. How it ends, as
predicted by the god who introduced
Ify to Gbenguze, is today's biggest news. How could he tell, that long
ago, that today the love story between Gbenguze and Ify would
have become the most important story in Nigerian history. But then,
he was one of those... the alawada's... from National Theater. EKO
(not Lagos. Lagos is a Portuguese slave port.)