This
is a true story. It is a story of love that turned to hatred. It is a story of
passion that became an obsession. It is a story that began in the other room
and ended in the courtroom. The protagonist of this story must have read Khalil
Gibran. Of course you know Khalil
Gibran. He was a famous
Lebanese-American writer and poet. He was an engaging poet. I commend his The Prophet to you for your reading
pleasure.
This
is what Gibran said about love:
“When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions
may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
As the north wind lays waste the garden.”
The
protagonist followed Khalil Gibran’s directives. He followed his love when she
called. Her ways were hard and steep, yet he followed. Her sword wounded him,
yet he loved her. But it is not Onigegewura’s story. Let’s go to Ado-Ekiti via
Ibadan so that you can hear the story directly from the Legend who was the counsel
in the case:
The
husband was a most faithful, loving and dedicated man. He met his wife while
studying Architecture in London. The lady had tuberculosis and was treated and
became completely free of the disease. There was however a condition. The lady
was asked not to do any hard work in life.
The man knew all these but he
decided to get married to her and undertook never to allow her to do any hard work.
Upon
completion of his degree in the United Kingdom, they decided to move back to
Nigeria. When they arrived in the country, the man took up appointment as an
architect with the Ministry of Works, Ibadan. He bought a car for the woman. In
furtherance of his promise not to allow the woman to work, he also engaged
housekeepers for her. (I hope you notice that the ‘housekeepers’ is in plural).
The
woman would estimate the time when the husband ought to arrive in the office
and phone to confirm his arrival in the office to ensure that he did not call
anywhere else. She would also phone in the afternoon to know whether he had
left the office and calculate the time he would arrive in the house. If
the man was going for social engagements like Tennis Club, she would also phone
to ascertain whether he was there or not and when he left the Club.
On
one occasion, she suspected that the Secretary to the husband was friendly to
the husband. She then came to the husband’s office and beat up the Secretary.
She also ransacked the husband’s drawer in the office to check whether there were
love letters there.
On another
occasion, the husband travelled to England on an official course which was scheduled
for two weeks but never arrived in Nigeria until two days after he was supposed
to have returned. The wife then suspected that he must have stayed behind
because of a woman.
When
the man came back, he was tired and slept in his room. The woman went quietly
to the room and set the window blind on fire. It was the smoke that woke up the
man.
On
yet another occasion, the man returned from his overseas trip a day or two late.
The woman did not say a word. The following morning, the man went to the
bathroom to have a bath. He closed the door. The woman went quietly to the
bathroom door and locked it from outside. The man made efforts to unlock the
door but the woman insisted that she would not open the door.
She
shouted and told the husband that she was punishing him for coming late from his overseas trip.
The man remained in the bathroom for hours. As luck would have it, the woman’s
uncle came to visit her and asked after
the husband. The woman said the husband had gone to the office. When the uncle
was on his way out, the husband who was in the bathroom called the uncle that
he was locked up in the bathroom. It was the uncle who eventually opened the
bathroom door for him.
There
was another time when the man told the wife that he was going to visit his
parents in his hometown on a Christmas eve. The woman did not object. In the
morning, when he started his car in order to set out on his journey, he found
that the wife had poured salt in the engine of the car so that the engine could
not function.
When
the man found that he could not cope anymore, he decided to pack into a very
quiet, unknown hotel. He did not tell anybody where he was.
The
woman did not see him for weeks. She decided to look for him. She eventually
found that he was in that hotel. The man had left a message that nobody should
come except he had invited such a person. The woman knew that if she mentioned
her real name, she would not be allowed in. She then told the waiter: “Tell him
that his sister from Lagos had come to see him.” She gave the name of the
sister. The man then allowed her in. When she was the husband, she caused a row
in the hotel and the man had to follow her back to their home.
After
this incident, the man briefed me (Chief Afe Babalola) for an action for
judicial separation. The court granted one year separation. Before the end of
the period, the woman had become pregnant for another man. Surprisingly, she
sent a card to the husband which read as follows: “Congratulations. It is a
baby boy.”
In granting dissolution of marriage, the court held that she was a suspicious woman who was used to imaging things and acting on such imaginations.
Thank
you very much for reading.
Onigegewura© (https://onigegewura.blogspot.com.ng/)
Culled
from Impossibility Made By Possible by
Chief Afe Babalola
How do I comprehends this story? The woman was not faithful but pretends to be. The problems was that she was suspicious of her husband of her own waywardness
ReplyDeleteVery interesting story. So the woman was unfaithful all along. A pa ni, ko ni je ka mu ida koja lori ohun - a killer would never allowed sword to pass over his head.
ReplyDeleteI love that your adage...
DeleteHow come I'm just seeing this story today? I'm just laughing while reading this story - this life, this death.
ReplyDelete...her thought was, the man was doing the same she's investing on (prostitution ltd)
ReplyDelete