Tolu's Dilemma

Tolu’s Dilemma

Tolu’s journey to the psychiatric hospital had begun a long time ago but did not materialise until the bitter end.

Tolulope Haleemah Ajoke was the daughter and only child of the renowned business mogul, Alhaji Sulayman Olawole. He had four wives but none could give him the fruit of the womb despite many visits to the best doctors and hospitals the country has to offer. The diagnosis is always the same; they were all fit as a fiddle and only time is stopping them from getting a child.

One by one, the wives left him but only Kudirat Ashake stood her ground that nothing would move her from the house of the man she had known for twelve years. Hence, Kudi, as she was fondly called by Alhaji Sulayman, the erstwhile last wife became the one and only wife in his home.

One morning, a year after the last of the wives had left; Kudirat woke up beside her husband feeling sick. She was having this headache which refused to subside, she even felt as if she wanted to vomit.

“Alhaji, I am not feeling too well o,” she told her rousing husband.
“Woman, am I a doctor? You better head to the hospital and don’t bug me with your sickness story.”

With that he got out of bed leaving his wife and prepared for his place of work. Kudi got up grudgingly and dragged herself to the bathroom in preparation to visit their family doctor.

“Doctor, I woke up this morning feeling seriously unwell. But surprisingly now, I feel agile,” she told the doctor.

The doctor did the necessary questioning and examination. She knew the result will blow Kudi’s mind out but she said, “I will conduct a test on your urine sample, please come back tomorrow and come with Alhaji.”

With that, Kudi left the hospital wondering what could be wrong with her and as well necessitate the need for her husband to come with her the following day.

The next day, the result was handed to Alhaji Sulayman. He could not make a sense out of it after staring at it for close to ten minutes.

“Doctor, I cant understand what is written here o,” he lamented.

The doctor smiled and said, “Alhaji, the result shows that Alhaja is eight weeks pregnant. So, she needs lots of rest and little stress.”

“Doctor! Pregnant! Rest! No stress abi? All she will get!” said the jubilant father-to-be.

Kudi could not believe her ears.

” At last, Alhamdulillaah!” she shouted.

Seven months later, Tolulope was born.


Tolu grew very fast. She did everything at a fast rate which was why at the age of 15; she was out of secondary school and in one of the country’s private universities, studying Economics.

By twenty, she was through with her compulsory national service and working in one of her father’s companies.

Tolu had been brought up the Islamic way and had adhered to it all her life. Her father had made sure she never dressed too flashily and her mother had made sure too that she attended the Quranic school to familiarise herself with the doctrines of the religion. That was why she even joined the Muslim Students Society that was newly established while she was in school and never joked with the attendance of its programmes.

It was at the one of these programmes she attended while in her third year that she met Kola. Kola was a youth corper serving in the local government area where her school was located and had seen the mosque used by them as a chance to receive frequent lectures for the nurture of his soul.

He had approached Tolu after the programme and introduced himself in full name.
“My name is Yusuf Kolawole Akande. I am a corper around here. I just started attending this programme. Please could you help me with the society’s schedule sister…”
“Meet the P.R. O in the brother’s side and he will give you all you want,” Tolu had said and politely walked out on him.

Kola persisted and after two months of trial, he had hit the jackpot and Tolu had agreed to be his friend. The friendship had migrated into love and the love had blossomed into a romance which promised to become marriage.

Tolu had remained very faithful to him all through her educational career. One year after her service, at the age of twenty one, she had gone abroad to study for her Masters degree and Kola had patiently waited till her return.

Kola had luckily got a job immediately after his service and all had been going well between them. Both parents had known each other and all was set for the marriage between the two.
Tolu had looked towards the wedding ceremony with all gusto. It had been fixed for the third day after her birthday; both of them shared the same month, July. Kola was 15, Tolu was 21.

Kola and Tolu had decided to settle on the mainland for easy access for both of them to their places of work; kola works in Ikeja while Tolu heads her father’s establishment in Surulere.
Days rolled into weeks and months. Tragedy struck three weeks to Kola’s thirtieth birthday. He had been to the mechanic workshop to drop his Honda CRV for repairs.

He was going back to his office aboard a Danfo and had called his sweetheart that he would be coming to her office for both of them to go home together; they had practically been living together.

He sat beside a drunken Policeman who had refused to pay the conductor of the vehicle claiming he was a ‘staff’. The argument had become escalated when everybody had said that the Policeman should pay saying that it had been announced that nobody in uniform was a staff.

Kola had laughed all through the action and all of a sudden, the driver had stopped at the next bus stop to support his conductor and collect the fare from the armed policeman. Kola had watched for a while before checking his wristwatch to see that he was late for Tolu’s office and it was nearing time to pray the Asr prayer. He decided to leave the bus and board another one.

He had walked only a few distance when he heard a gunshot behind him. He looked back to see that the Policeman had shot the conductor who was previously holding his trousers. The drunk man didn’t stop at that, he handled the gun menacingly daring anybody to near him to the exasperation of the shocked passengers. Kola felt pained as he saw the conductor in the pool of his own blood with nobody trying to rescue him from the jaws of death. He was pained and went back to the scene and bent to carry the limp body of the shot man. As he dragged the man shouting for help, something snapped in the Policeman and he shot at the conductor again.

Kola did not know what hit him at the back, he just felt something give way in him and he heard everybody shouting. He felt faint and dropped the man he was carrying before hitting the ground himself.

Tolu’s ringing phone brought her out of the small place where she prays. It was Kola’s ringing tone, she smiled as she picked the call but the smile soon disappeared as she heard that her beloved husband-to-be was dead before reaching the hospital. She screamed and went limp. It was her secretary who called her father who rushed her to the hospital. By the time she would wake up after three days in coma, she had lost her senses screaming “Why! Why me!”


Tolu never thought she would be a patient of the National Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba. But here she was!
Anytime she passes along the road in either her Toyota Avensis 2009 model, en-route Oyingbo, or in one of the numerous Danfos plying the route, she feels pity for those I the four walls of the hospital and prays that nothing in the world would bring her into that gate facing the popular Yaba  market, except visitation.
Dr. Abdul Hakeem came in for the check up and found her staring into space. She had been like that since yesterday. It’s a good sign and a big improvement from the first day she was brought in three weeks ago when all she could say was “Why me? Why me?”
He had come to develop a kind of bond with her.
“Tolu,” he said, “It is time for the Asr prayer.”
“Thanks Dr. Hakeem, I will join you now,” replied Tolu.
She came out of her reverie and headed out of the room for the toilet where she cleaned up and made her ablution before going back into her room for her prayer.
One hour later, he was back as had become his practice these last two weeks to begin his lecture to her.
“Tolu,” he called.
“What is your muslim name?” He knew it but the doctor in him got the better of him.
She smiled before saying, “Dr. Hakeem, I am Haleemah.” Then she added, “I told you I am perfectly fine now.”
“Then why have you been sitting up, not talking to anybody and always staring into space?”
She sighed and looked around the room that had been her home for three weeks. Her father had made sure she was in the private ward, all alone and far from the maddening general ward.
The room has a lonely bed, a bedside cupboard, which houses her provisions, and a single plastic chair on which Dr. Hakeem was presently sitting.
“Doctor, I am presently in a dilemma,” she said.
“I lost something or say, somebody, which was why I was here. I am now well as you said, can see and know but I am feeling that I am attracted to someone else. Dr. It confuses me!”

Dr Hakeem blinked and swallowed hard. He was afraid, but why, he knows not.
“Haleemah,” he said. “Can I call you that?” he asked.
“Why not? It’s my name.”
“Dr,” she continued, “When I got here, I knew nothing, but when I began to know something, I told Allaah to heal me up and guide my heart. I told him to forgivr the dead and lead us the living. Dr, the truth is that every minute, I become more convinced that my heart is right. Allaah has chosen the one to pacify me. And I am convinced that he is the one. The only cause of confusion is that I don’t know how it will sound if I tell him.”
“OK, Tolu, ask HIM for guidance,” the doctor said, more out of confusion that out of knowledge. His heart was beating wildly. He could feel some cords snapping in him. He doesn’t know where the conversation was leading to. His face became coloured.
“He brought you here for a reason, Tolu. He knows what we know not. Right from our mother’s womb up till our graves, he knows what lies in between the two as our daily lives evolve and we die gradually. So, ask him for guidance and like I always say, you will be discharged soon, most likely tomorrow, so when you get home, seek His face as you have always done and make it all known to Him. I am sure He will direct you.”

Tolu smiled. This man just knows what words to speak to cool down her fears. His profession is all in him and he is all in his work. She was more than convinced and she was more convinced that the best time to speak her mind is now.
“Dr Hakeem, He has directed me and has led my heart to its destination. You are right when you said my being here for these while is for a reason. I don’t know how it might sound to you, but I have to tell you that you, Dr Hakeem, is the one I am talking about. You are God’s choice of a husband for me and Kola’s replacement. You are he.“

The words stung his ears. Dr Hakeem couldn’t believe his ears. He wondered if he had heard right.


What should Dr. Hakeem do?