Premero Productions presents Joselyn Dumas (Hon. Elizabeth), Yakub Mohammad (Hon. Samuel), Dele Odule (Senator Smollet), Rashida Lobo (Batejo), Chris Iheuwa (Hon. Wenike), Tijani Faraga (House Speaker), Ahmed Abulrasheem (Assassin), Funky Mallam (Gidado), Umar Gombe (John), Deilalar Musa (Bakura). Director, Kunle Afolayan; Executive Producer, Wale Okediran; Screenplay, Tunde Babalola; Director of Photography, Kunle’ Nodash’ Adejuyigbe. © 2019
Hon. Elizabeth, (Josyeln Dumas), “Samuel, the patriot! I loath you for your naivety….If I wear you, Samuel, I will watch my maneuvers in the House. A lone wolf can easily be pulled down. Mavericks don’t last very long. After all, I did for you, I mean you bailed out on the caucus.”
Hon. Samuel Bakura (Yakub Mohammad), “I’m really sorry for that…Looks like everyone has a price.”
“Look, politics aside, we seem to get along…don’t we?”
“Of course we do.”
“Okay, since we are not on the same wavelength politically, let’s try something, like a relationship.” (looks about her). “Look at you, a grown man, living by yourself.”
“That will come later.”
“How about dinner tomorrow?”
“Have to decline; have something to do.”
“All I am hearing is you’re rushing to meet this rustic Fulani girl. Do you love her as I love you?”
“Am already into her, Lizzy.”
Hon Elizabeth (Beat), “Okay.”
To start this review with dialogue can’t be conventional, but I have to. We need to get acquainted with the two lead players and their interest in the story. Hon. Samuel Bakura of Kaduna State has taken an oath of office to uphold the constitution and do justice by it. As a freshman on the political stage, he walks into the middle of a cesspool of dirty politicians who want to impeach the House Speaker. He is standing in the way of extending the life of legislators in parliament to three terms. Hon. Samuel’s single vote and influence could sway the opposition to dethrone the Hon. Speaker (Tijani Faraga).
The caucus set up Hon. Samuel with Hon. Elizabeth Bello. She and Samuel have a one-night stand. Then, too, Samuel’s worth is $200,000 in a ghana-must-go bag sent by the caucus to be presented by their emissary, Hon. Elizabeth. He refused it out front, outright. He couldn’t bargain the law of the land by $200,000 in a ghana-must-go. Indeed Samuel did not take the bribe. After the exchange mentioned above, Hon. Elizabeth walks out in shame after literally begging for love from a colleague legislator. Her political karma of opening one’s legs wide and everything will fall in place didn’t work to her advantage this time. Oh yes, she did open her leg wide like the Suez Canal of Egypt for Hon. Samuel. But in Samuel, she meets her Asso Rock in Abuja, standing tall and unshakable.
Hon. Elizabeth Bello is seriously in love with Hon. Samuel. And it behooves any virile fellow to succumb to Lizzy’s sexual approaches. Her hind can create imaginable appeal to any man. She is lots of guys’ fantasy in the House. (come to think of it, she favors a neighbor of mine). We see how honorable Wanike demonstrating her guitar-shaped beauty in the air at the party. But Hon. Samuel has a sterner ambition to solve the land dispute between his people and the Hausas across the border. At a young age, Samuel witnessed his father killed by the Fulanis over the barren strip of land between Nobardo and Zukuri. Hon. Samuel turned down memberships of other committees but opted to be a member of the Land Reform Committee. Most members think the government should let Zukuri and Nobardo kill each other to the last man.
To get firsthand knowledge of the problem, Samuel visits the region. There, he sees Batejo (Rashida Lobbo) for the first time; this is what he says: “She came out of nowhere. Like a rainbow after a rainfall, like a bountiful harvest after a season of drought. Like a mirage in the middle of the desert.” He is captivated, enthralled, and swept away by the primitive beauty of the Hausa young woman. The washout and frail old Hon. Elizabeth couldn’t match the beauty of the “stupid goat herder’s daughter.” She still tried her chances, too bad, Hon. Samuel was already into Batejo.
The House Speaker, in the absence of Hon. Samuel to England accepts a bribe presented to him by the caucus. Shamelessly, he says to Samuel that everyone has a price tag. “Not me,” Samuel, disappointed in the Speaker. The House Speaker bought into the lie that the caucus has majority members in the House to impeach him. Patriot, as Samuel is already nicknamed in the House, though, mockingly stands his ground against the caucus. Samuel didn’t sleep that night but worked the phone and got most members on the Speaker’s side. The vote to impeach the House Speaker did not pass in the House.
When Hon. Samuel reneged on the agreement to support voting the Speaker out; his secret vision, therefore tolerating no obstruction, was to end the conflict in his region. He has Batejo he has fallen in love with, with an agenda to marry her and therefore cement the peace between the Fulanis and Hausas. The tenants of the house weren’t happy with Hon. Samuel’s decision to bail out on them. Hon. Arese Abulu (Abiola Ogunowa) visits Samuel at his home. She’s furious. “If we discover you lied about returning the money, somebody’s going to pay you a visit. It won’t be a friendly visit.” On a parting note, “What is today’s news headlines is tomorrow’s toilet paper.”
He had given back the money to Hon. Elizabeth, he said. Lizzy keeps the money without telling the caucus. So when the vote was passed and the caucus lost, Hon. Wenike (Chris Iheuwa), leader of the caucus, wants to know where the money is. He is confident, Hon. Samuel, a decent man he is, returned it. Hon Elizabeth is not hailing from the constituency she represents; her husband’s, Sanni Bello. Her late husband’s chair in the House was handed down to her on the platter; The late husband was a dedicated and honest loyalist. This could be a disgrace and scandal of her lifetime if the caucus found out she took the money and didn’t report it back to them. And to shot it all off, Hon. Elizabeth paid an assassin to “bring down the lone wolf.”
The subplot this writer weaves into the story brings the drama alive. Hon. Samuel almost denied his Christian religion for the love of Batejo. And as it is, the drama ties Hon. Samuel to Nobardo as a place where his birth-string (umbilical cord) is buried. The most exciting part is the Sharo scene when Hon. Samuel takes the traditional lashes as a completion of the marriage betrothal. Hon. Elizabeth couldn’t stay in the room for Batejo to finish her winning speech. As Hon. Samuel sits in the car on his way home, he looks at the headlines of The Light newspaper as it reads: “Third Term Bill Killed.” and “Kaduna Land Issue Resolved.” He is shot at close range by an assassin on a bike.
“Why must always there be a price to pay to be a patriot.” Honorable Samuel.