“Ronke, I assure you that you’ll get a husband very soon if you follow Pa Ogunlebo’s advice on how to use the juju he gave you,” Mrs. Adubi assured her beautiful daughter that sunny afternoon.
“But mama, I’m really tired and fed up with men and their tricks. They always use and dump me, when will this stop?” Ronke asked for the umpteenth time.
“You don’t worry,” Mrs. Adubi replied, “once you follow his instructions, you’ll not fail this time around. Pa Ogunlebo is a great juju man, skilled in deep occult practices. Don’t doubt his power and the efficacy of his juju. I assure you he won’t disappoint you. Never.”
Mrs. Adubi was a plump-looking trader and a mother of three children. Ronke Adubi was a young lady in her late 20s. She had all the qualities that could make men swoon at her feet for love. She was her mother’s first child. She was actually beautiful. She walked with the gait of a beauty queen. A lot of men had dated her in the past, promising heaven and earth, but at the end of the day, they always jilted her, framing one excuse or the other.
It was a mystery to her why men always jilted her despite the fact that she was beautiful and did her best to be nice to them. Some of these men would even promise to marry her, then when it got to the level of really being committed and walking down the aisle with her, they would disappear without making good their earlier promises. Sincerely, Ronke was an embittered soul and really suffered in silence. She was a graduate of Business Administration from the Lagos State Polytechnic.
Bello Aribigbe was the only man in Ronke’s life at this particular time. He was a young, successful businessman and he had agreed to marry the beautiful and delectable lady. Bello was 32 years old. He was really fond of Ronke and would call her ‘Ronky Babe’ and sometimes he would call her by the sobriquet ‘Sinbebe’. Bello was undoubtedly the fiancé after Ronke’s heart. But like many men who had dated her in the past, Ronke wasn’t so sure that Bello would marry her like he said. Since a lot of men had ‘tasted her honey’ and ‘eaten her forbidden apple’ in the past and vanished out of sight, she no longer trusted men. She tended to believe that all men were the same.
However, Bello had a special place in her heart and she believed that the young, ebullient and hardworking businessman was her dream man and ‘Mr. Right’. Bello was a tall, dark-skinned and handsome man. Actually, they would make a perfect match because Ronke too was a super-beauty and she tried as much as possible to be of good character to her new fiancé.
Ronke knew that all things being equal, she would be married to Bello because the young man had drummed it into her ears times without number that he loved her with his whole heart and soul. But all the same, you could never trust men. Only God would tell if Bello too had genuine love in his heart for the long-suffering lady who was fast growing in age.
“See me tomorrow evening,” Bello said to his sweetheart, “I have something lovely for you.” And he pecked her cheek lightly before parting with her. Ronke had never been so happy in her entire life. She wondered what was it that Bello really wanted to give her.
The following day was Saturday. Ronke was full of thoughts and anxiety for the next day to come. She was in high mood. She spoke to her mother about what had transpired between her and her fiancé that day and her mother was excited but she reminded her not to forget to use the juju Pa Ogunlebo gave her to charm him.
At the very last minute Ronke felt reluctant to use the love potion Pa Ogunlebo gave her but her mother pressurised her, claiming she should go ahead and use it as it would make her fiancé love her more.
