TOMORROW ON SALE

Written by

Akintunde E.B

Address: Lagos, Nigeria.

Email: ebakintunde@gmail.com

Mobile: +2347086333388

Socials: instagram.com/ebakintunde

facebook.com/ebakintunde

twitter.com/ebakintunde
This screenplay may not be sold. It may however be freely printed and shared in

whole for personal or educational use, and may also be produced into short

film(s) provided the original author is credited but may not be modified in

anyway without a written consent of the original author.



Although inspired by series of true events, any and all depictions in this story is

by no means aimed at any particular people, tribe, region, clan, persons and/or

entity. All characters and personalities are fictional.

'Tomorrow on sale' is a mere parody of intent, an artistic illustration of a

writer's perspective of the Nigerian political fate, and of a future many like

myself believe is at stake if we sit back and do nothing. The real intent would be

to spur this generation into taking action and a stand because our tomorrow is

already on sale while suggesting my proverbial starting point to the kind of

change we all yearn for.

Hence, depictions should be taken as such, and not out of context of the

original desire of the writer.

Bless you.
FADE IN:

EXT. MOBIL STREET ROAD - 6:27AM

DOZE, mid-20s and of Ibo origin, is in a short pant, sleeveless jersey and
sneakers, with a faint impossible sweat on his face in the harmattan weather,
jugs along a typical Ibadan (Oyo State) street road.

PAPA (V.O.)
There are times I look back and regret
everything. The memories still haunts me.
Screams, deaths, blood, severed limbs,
dangling necks, everything. Here I am, a war
hero, begging to be fed while those who didn't
even taste the war live fat on pensions due for
the rest of us. And not even the slightest pity
for folks like me who never really made it back
from that war.

Doze slows and walks.

Papers and nylons flies across his path from a road-side PUFF-PUFF SELLER
who's struggling with the invading wind for her improvised serviettes. Doze
picks the items for her.

PAPA (V.O.)
What I've come to realize is that, it's the
common man killing the common man. The
vultures only took advantage of the bury
ground. Just like we still have in various level
of government today.

PUFF-PUFF SELLER
Corpa, thank you ooo.

Doze smiles and jugs on.

PAPA (V.O.)
 I hope this generation can be better than us.
But first, you must bury greed and banish
tribalism.
(sighs)
All the dirt you see around, both of your mind,
and of an ancient city like this one will
require...
(sighs)
Perhaps, I'll let you answer that one.

LEKAN
Uncle!

Doze looks at LEKAN, 9yrs boy, dressed for school and carrying a plate for food.
Doze waves back at him.

Lekan smiles with a broken tooth.

PAPA (V.O.)
Back in the civil war, there was a mother's act,
or maybe call it courage that I just cannot
forget. I look back now and I understand
better. We fought for nothing and died for
everything.

EXT. DOZE'S LODGE - CONTINUOUS

Doze throws the gate open and heads for the apartment on the rear of the
building.

DOZE (V.O.)
What happened?

PAPA (V.O.)
She gave birth to a baby girl all by herself,
alone in a settlement camp.

CUT TO:

EXT. DOZE'S LODGE - LATER

Doze comes out in a refreshed look, changed outfit and a NYSC Corps member
cap.

PAPA (V.O.)
Seeing she was too weak to walk or move, the
others must have left her to run for their lives
once the news broke that our troop was
advancing.

INT. INDEPENDENCE DAY PRIMARY SCHOOL - CONTINUOUS

Doze moves swiftly across the lawn and heads for a classroom.

INT. DOZE'S CLASS - CONTINUOUS

Doze halts at the door-less entrance, peeps inside and awaits his students to
stand, before walking to the centre of the class.

STUDENTS
Good morning sir!

DOZE
Good morning boys and girls. Who is the late
comer today students?

STUDENTS
Nobody uncle.

Doze smiles.

DOZE
Clap for yourselves then.

Applause roams.

Doze gestures them to sit, places his cap on a desk and starts speaking to them.

PAPA (V.O.)
She has her baby in her hands, in blood but
she was obviously near death herself. I pitied
her.
Doze walks around, collecting the kids' homework.

PAPA (V.O.)
The others didn't care. Not because life meant
nothing to them but... they were fighting for
their lives too...

Doze takes to the chalkboard.

PAPA
...their future, without really knowing what
they were fighting for. I wanted to try, to help,
and I knelt by her and tried to talk to her.

EXT. DOZE'S CLASS - CONTINUOUS

A goat milk-feeds her two young ones; both soaking hard at her breast.

INT. DOZE'S CLASS - AFTERNOON

Doze at the front of the class.

DOZE
Should you come late tomorrow, what would I
do?

STUDENTS
(echo)
Correct us!

DOZE
With what?

STUDENTS
Push ups, stoops and frog jumps.

DOZE
Good. Why?

STUDENTS
Because this is a rigeee...
 DOZE
Regimented-

STUDENTS & DOZE

Regime.

DOZE
Smart kids. Class dismissed!

INT. INDEPENDENCE DAY PRIMARY SCHOOL - AFTERNOON

Doze, with cap on, buys snacks at the school's mini-mart.

PAPA (V.O.)
The baby was the most beautiful thing I'd ever
seen. I told the mother I will adopt the baby
and care for her but she probably didn't
believe me.

He walks the lawn to PAPA LAWRENCE AJAYI, LATE 60s and Yoruba, who is
cutting the lawn with a machete.

PAPA (V.O.)
Or maybe she didn't understand me. I'm not
sure. My fellow soldiers walked on and left me
behind.

DOZE
63NA/7487...

PAPA & DOZE

One.

DOZE
One! I remember!

Papa smiles, perching his back with a hand as he stands erect.

DOZE (CONT'D)
You look bright today papa?

PAPA
 (sitting on a grass heap)
I should... no one has truly listened to the
wisdom of an old man in decades.

Doze extends Papa's share of his purchase to him.

PAPA (CONT'D)
(smiles)
You really need not bother.

DOZE
I insist pa.

Papa collects, retrieves the drink and extends it back to Doze. Doze uncorks it.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Where do we start?

PAPA
Start what?

Papa sips, sitting on a grass heap.

DOZE
The rebuilding.

Doze sits on a heap of his own just as Papa place his snack pack beside him.

PAPA
Start with the next person you see, the next
person you meet. Giving a hand to somebody
else other than yourself helps you avoid the
pitfall of looking inward. Rebuilding is a
process; it will take years if not decades. If you
look inward through those years, you will end
up being back where you started; segregation,
greed and corruption. We nullify each others
efforts.
(sighs)
It's better we grow together, trusting you to
help me grow while I help you grow.
 Relearning, keep going and growing. We are
passed I, it should be 'we' and 'us'. Tomorrow
is already on sale.

A NYSC CORPS MEMBER

Doze! We are going?

Doze turns towards his fellow NYSC corps member friends, gesturing him to
come with them.

DOZE
Will see you guys later.

They walk on sarcastically.

Doze pops his drink.

PAPA
Choose a side, I or we. Make a decision and
live with it all your life.

Both stares into the silence.

DOZE
You haven't finished that civil war's story.

Papa takes his time to stand.

PAPA
(picking his snack pack)
Let's go.

DOZE
Please. Tell me.

Papa walks away and Doze hastes after him.

Papa halts at a window to retrieve a transparent nylon pack at the foot. He

extends it to Doze.

Doze looks through while they both head for the road.

PAPA
 All my effort to assure her that her baby will be
in save hands didn't make any difference.
With all of the strength left in her, she twisted
the baby's neck right in front of me.
(beat)
It was...

Papa halts.

A carried away Doze walks ahead, probing through the military documents
handed him, suddenly realizes Papa's last statement and halts. Turns back to
Papa.

DOZE
What?

PAPA
It was...

DOZE
Why? Why would a mother do that?

Doze walks horrified to Papa, hoping for an answer but lets Papa comforts his
memory.

Papa sighs, let his tearful eyes clear and walks on.

DOZE (CONT'D)
(pitifully)
Why?

Doze walks attentively by Papa who said nothing else as they approach the
school gate.

EXT. INDEPENDENCE DAY PRIMARY SCHOOL - CONTINUOUS

Papa looks around to find and sits on a kerb just outside the gate.

DOZE
(stoop)
Are you ok?
 PAPA
The civil war was at its height. She would
rather spare her daughter the suffering to
come in the hands of the enemy; that enemy
was and still is us. The same innocent us
thinking we were doing our nation a favour.

Papa looks up to him and sighs. Papa slumps.

DOZE
God!

Doze reaches out but cannot break the fall. Smarks off his cap and all other
baggage to the floor.

Doze pulls him over.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Papa...! Papa...! Papa...!

Doze presses hard at his chest, screams at him while putting ear to his nostrils.
He does miniature CPR.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Oh God...

He looks up-road and blurrily sees the scanty people on the un-tarred road far
away.

TWO LADIES rushes to them just as he turns down-road.

The Ladies interrogates him but he hums.

PAPA (V.O.)
She would rather spare her daughter the
suffering to come in the hands of the enemy...

He gestures the ladies to stay with him as he races up-road.

PAPA (V.O.)
...that enemy was and still is us. The same
innocent us thinking we were doing our
nation a favour.
EXT. UP-ROAD - CONTINUOUS

He waves at vehicles for help tirelessly but none stops.

He sits on the sidewalk, tries to look back at Papa but cannot see them from his
view. He takes his time, breathes hard and picks up a big enough stone with a
hand and stands like a lieutenant.

He slowly walks toward the centre of the road. The vehicles horn restlessly as
they try to evade him; some throwing curses.

He looks at the vehicles' flow and raises his stone at an incoming pretty vehicle.
The Vehicle screeches to a halt as other vehicles slows by it.

Doze walks closer and standing in front just as the vehicle DRIVER horns those
behind him into reverse while trying reverse himself.

He drops the stone and the Driver notices.

DOZE
(screams pitifully)
Please!

The Driver steps out and carefully approaches Doze.

DOZE (CONT'D)
(shouts)
Please there is a dying old man there and he
needs medical attention.

Doze catches his breath.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Can you please help us to a hospital?

FADE TO:

INT. DOZE'S ROOM - 6:00AM

Phone alarm rings beside Doze on his bed. He convulses.

FLASHBACK EXT. INDEPENDENCE DAY PRIMARY SCHOOL - AFTERNOON

Doze watches the Driver carry Papa into his car with the help of the crowd-
sympathizers.

He turns back to Papa's military documents nylon and picks it.

PAPA (V.O.)
Don't worry, I'll bring you my documents and
this hero's medal of valour. Perhaps, it will
help you write the kind of story you want one
day.

BACK TO PRESENT. DOZE'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS

He convulses with the ringing alarm.

FLASHBACK INT. HOSPITAL - EVENING

Doze stands by Driver, who's staring sympathetically at him as a DOCTOR tries

to find his words.

DOCTOR
I'm... sorry, he's gone.

Tears races off Doze's face and Driver taps consolation into him.

BACK TO PRESENT. DOZE'S ROOM - MORNING

Doze gushes forth from his sleep with the alarm still ringing.

He breaths heavily as he strays a hand to turn off his alarming phone, which
displays:
"Time for Exercise"

He scavenges the other side for something, halts on having a hand on it and
raises Papa's military documents to his face.

PAPA (V.O.)
Helpless people like me need a voice. A voice
loud enough to revisit the past, where answers
lie to buy back your future.
Doze sits up reluctantly, squints to brush off his sleep before putting on the
jersey by his bed.

He looks at a titled notebook at the foot of his bed, with a red pen on it:

"Tomorrow on Sale, a Nation on Stake"

He stands to pick up his sneakers, smells it poignant stink before slipping it on.

EXT. DOZE'S LODGE - CONTINUOUS

Doze walks out and takes to the street, starts jugging.

PAPA (V.O.)
I hope this generation can be better than us.
But first, you must bury greed and banish
tribalism.
(sighs)
All the dirt you see around, both of your mind,
and of an ancient city like this one will
require...
(sighs)
Perhaps, I'll let you answer that one.

EXT. OBA-ILE ROAD - CONTINUOUS

Vision remains cloudy as passersby shrink their garments to their bodies. He

jugs by a few people as he takes a bend that goes downhill.

Doze hears a wail and halts mid-way through the slope. Looks around until he
finds a dirty and stinking and wretched looking WOMAN near the dump-
ground to his right. He looks around but no-one else is interested in what's
groaning on the site.

He takes cautioned steps closer to the female, early 40s, who certainly looks
obviously insane (psychiatric) and is struggling with a protruding belly. He
turns away from the groaning mentally-impaired Woman.

He picks his phone and dials.

 DOZE
(on phone)
Emergency, there is somebody in labour by
the roadside on Oba-Ile road. She's having a
baby.

MEDICAL EMERGENCY PERSONNEL

Hello sir, there are two hospitals nearby,
please endeavour to get the patient to one of
them. In the meantime however, we'll reach
out to both. Please--

DOZE
She's in no condition to get there by herself,
she's...

Doze pauses, turns to the Woman, and gasps.

DOZE (CONT'D)
She's...

MEDICAL EMERGENCY PERSONNEL

Please find a way to get her there.

Doze protests.

PAPA (V.O.)
It amazes me when you hear the young ones
say, they wish all the elder statesmen died.
Why not understudy them and decide wiser,
than make the very same mistake the same
elder men made while agitating for
independence, and the mistake of the civil
war.

Woman screams and Doze turns to her again. He drops the call, sighs and walks
to her.

PAPA (V.O.)
Most of you have never seen a war and you
agitates for...
He drags her by the arm to a cleaner ground while blood traced their path.

DOZE
Help!

The Woman grows aggressive, almost biting him as he knees by her and places
a hand on her belly. It startles him.

He tears off his vest and makes it into a small parchment.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Help!

Doze forces her head and tied the cloth piece over her mouth, knotting it hard
as the groaning woman protests.

Doze observes people passing by and gazing at him at it.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Please somebody help!

Passers-by just keep walking.

DOZE (CONT'D)
What is wrong with this people?

PAPA (V.O.)
We ignore potential and immediate crisis
because we feel it does not affects nor
concerns us. What we fail to realize is that that
same negligence is the birth of chaos.

Doze gestures her to calm down and push.

She relaxes staring at him.

He gently moves hands around her stomach, controlling his breath for the
repulsiveness of her dirty skin and clothes.

He moves her legs to hold her knees up. The smell from under her chokes him
and he throws up.
On pulling himself together, she nearly knocks him out with a kick. He struggles
to find his balance.

DOZE
Just trying to help you!

He looks around to find onlookers standing and watching his playlet, among
which is an 8yrs old KADIJA.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Help her!

ONLOOKER 1
Can't you see she's a mad woman?

DOZE
She's having a baby for Christ sake!

ONLOOKER 2
She's mad!

DOZE
I'm not blind!

Doze hooks her legs with his legs to force open her thighs.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Relax... what kind of a government would let a
pregnant psychopath live by the roadside
anyway.

Doze peeps to see the increased crowd, with two more kids in school uniform;
his students.

Kadija's FATHER comes to lead Kadija away and the two other kids looked on as
Kadija is dragged off.

The kids turn towards Doze again and leap the roadside drain, heading for
Doze.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Push!
Doze struggles with Woman thighs while having his hands between them.

KIDS
Uncle.

Doze looks up to them, peeps at the crowd and back at the kids. He chuckles as
Woman kicks him again.

DOZE
Hold her hands!

Kadija looks back to see the other kids knee to hold Woman down. She snatches
off her hand from her father and races for Doze and co.

The Woman's scream and threat of biting from the peeling cloth Doze stocked
her with, scares the kids.

Kadija gets to them.

KADIJA
(from behind)
Uncle, what should I do?

Doze smiles at her.

DOZE
Make sure she doesn't bite.

Kadija gently sits on the woman's chest and locks her by the chin to secure her
head to the ground.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Common push...!

A luxury vehicle parks on the opposite side of the road and a lady, in her late
30s, steps out; her attire tells so much of her NORTHERN origin, with a scarf
over her head and a pen hung over an ear.

(Note: Northerner has a northern accent.)

Insane Woman groans as suddenly just as a baby's cry feels the air.

Doze smirks, then laughs as Northerner draws closer.

 NORTHERNER
Oh my God...

Northerner briskly paces through the increasingly nearing crowd, untying her
scarf.

The kids peep at the baby without losing hold of the new mother.

Northerner kneels beside Doze with her scarf openly folded in-between her
arms and calls to carry the baby. Doze places the wringing baby in her arms.

NORTHERNER (CONT'D)
Beautiful girl.
(peeps at Doze as the baby cries)
What a story.

DOZE
(throwing his hands)
I don't know what to do next.

Northerner hands the baby back to Doze, ties up her blazing dress with
bloodstained hands and knees to the mother.

The crowd is closer and a few looking to help.

Kadija's father walks to Doze, looking at the baby.

KADIJA'S FATHER
What can I do to help?

DOZE
(chuckles)
Keep the others away to give her room for air.

Doze and Kadija's father stares at each other.

DOZE (CONT'D)
Kadija did the most part already. Can you do
that?

KADIJA'S FATHER
Yes.
Kadija's father turns to the crowd.

KADIJA'S FATHER (CONT'D)

(in Yoruba)
She needs fresh air, please don't stuff her up.

Paramedic van arrives the scene to take over from Northerner, whose pen
remains over her ear.

Northerner goes to Doze who is still holding the baby.

NORTHERNER
I'm a news reporter, can I tell your story?

DOZE
(to the kids)
They are the real heroes today. Tell their story.
They just saved a future, maybe they can buy
back the rest of our future.

Northerner squats to the kids.

NORTHERNER
What are your names?

The kids look up to Doze and withdraw from Northerner to him.

More kids flood in, evading a persistent Kadija's Father who tries to stand them
off.

Doze squats to the kids smiling.

Kadija reaches out for the baby and Doze hands over. The other kids gathers
around her.

DOZE
(standing to Northerner)
Maybe we do have a hope after all.

Doze notices a shadow afar off and he sidesteps Northerner to look into the
distance.
Doze stares at a real flesh Papa Lawrence Ajayi smiles at him from a near
distance. He smiles back.

Northerner turns to see what so interests Doze.

DOZE (CONT'D)
(staring at Papa)
Maybe we do have a future.

Papa varnishes into thin air and Doze smiles.

PAPA (V.O.)
Our voices and unity can jump-start our
healing process.

A paramedic approaches the duo.

END