On Trial – Episode 18

On Trial – Episode 18

© Onyinyechukwu Mbeledogu

‘Mummy, good morning,’ Kaira greeted her mother. ‘ Kedu ka ime? ’ ’

‘ A dim nno nma .’ Her mother responded, then went straight to business as she usually did. ‘How busy is your next week?’

‘Next week is quite tight but it depends on why you’re asking.’

‘Have you heard of Pastor Iruka?’

‘No mum, I haven’t,’ Kaira responded.

‘He’s a very powerful man of God. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of him before. He’s the General Overseer of Bind the Devil Ministries.’

For real? Kaira thought, rolling her eyes.

‘He’s based in Asaba but will be coming to Enugu for a crusade from Thursday next week.’

‘And you want me to leave Port Harcourt and travel to Enugu just to meet the General Overseer of Bind the Devil Ministries?’ she rolled her eyes dramatically.

Koje chuckled softly at the name of the church and then looked away, remembering he wasn’t supposed to be eavesdropping on her conversation. He pretended to check his messages on BBM.

‘Yes. I’ve heard of the miracles that happen every time he has a crusade and I need you to attend this one.’

‘I don’t remember telling you that I had demons to bind, mum. Ekwensu anaghi achu m oso. ’

‘Well we have to bind all those spirits responsible for you not getting married, my dear,’ her mum simply said.

Kaira had been waiting for that. Ever since her twin sister got married nine years earlier, Kaira’s mother had kept on inviting her for one Church programme or the other in various parts of the East, for one reason: to destroy everything standing in the way of her daughter getting married. She was the typical Igbo mother. Her father didn’t have that kind of time. Thank God her mother hadn’t taken to going to prayer houses and had so far limited herself to regular churches. It was made worse when her younger twin brothers got married in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Now her mother seemed desperate that her ‘Ada’ must enter into a man’s house by fire. Living on her home, in her mother’s view, was part of her problem. If she had still been living with her parents she would have been in a hurry to get married.

It seemed like a taboo in Nigeria for a woman past her early twenties to remain single. Even when the woman couldn’t be bothered about that, her family took it upon themselves to do something about her marital status. Society also treated single women as though they were incomplete. Before you could gain respect, you need to have the prefix ‘Mrs’ in front of your name.

Kaira had worked hard to get to where she was without a man and when she finally settled down it would not be because she was under societal pressure to settle down but because she had made up her mind to spend the rest of her life with the man. Besides, who society help ? She wouldn’t settle down with a man who respected her independence and wouldn’t try to take all of her so that she lost herself in him and his goals thereby killing hers. No. After waiting for so long, there was no way she would settle for a man who would disrespect her as a woman and who wouldn’t support her career especially she intended to fully support her future spouse’s career.

‘You can attend on my behalf and also shout amen. I’m sure that with your faith the prayer would be answered without subjecting me to hours of listening to your pastor talk about my marital status. I’m not complaining and neither should you.’

‘Marriage is a good thing, my dear. If you and Erhus had gotten married, no one would be on your neck. At thirty six the two of you are not getting any younger and you know that unlike a man, women…’

‘One word about menopause and I swear I will disown you,’ she warned her mother.

The older woman had good intentions but she could be tiring sometimes in her pursuit to get her eldest child married.

‘Fortunately, your period started early so there’s no danger of menopause for now.’

‘I’m sure I’m not the only 36 year old single woman in Nigeria.’

‘True,’ Ngozichukwuka Madukaife conceded, ‘but none of them is my daughter. Before I forget, I had a meeting with the prayer warriors in church last week and your marriage was the prayer focus. It was an all-night meeting.’

‘ Chim o. Atokwanu m o !’ Kaira exclaimed and Koje looked at her, an eyebrow arched. She looked away from him. She could imagine how those prayer warriors were shouting her name and binding everything ‘bindable’ at her mother’s request.

Every holiday or anytime she informed her parents that she would be visiting, her mother always had one place or the other to take her to. Besides the different churches, she took Kaira to see her friends who had sons of marriageable age. At this point, Ngozi couldn’t care less if the man her daughter married was a citizen of Uranus as long as he married her daughter. Age wasn’t even a barrier.

‘You remember my daughter, Kairaluchukwu,’ her mother would introduce Kaira to a friend. ‘That’s the lawyer. She’s very intelligent, loves children and is still single.’

Who else on the entire earth introduced her daughter like that!

Her mother already had three grandchildren from Chibuogu and two from her two brothers with Chukwuma’s wife expecting a set of twins in March. She wanted more

omugwo opportunities and was taking the bull by the horn, as, in her own words, ‘if you leave Kairaluchukwu, she will join all those women liberation people and not marry o. And then she’ll spend the rest of her life alone and castigating men left, right and centre. Chineke ekwekwana ife ojo. ’

The day she clapped for mother was when the older woman sent her to pick up a package from a family that had just returned from the United States. The parents of the family had insisted on her having lunch with them and Kaira hadn’t been able to resist. It was a family of six, with all male children. When Kaira returned later, her mother wasn’t interested in the so called package but grilled her daughter about the four young men in the house.

‘Did any of them ask for your number? Which one of them seemed interested in you? Was it Chinedu? Or was it Azubuike? Or Eziafa or Uche? Biko ko lu m akuko .’

‘None of the above.’

‘If it’s joke, better stop it. ‘A na ekwu ife di nkpa I na ekwu ife ochi’

‘I’m not joking, mum. None of the men was interested and neither was I.’

‘Four young men and none of them even asked for your number!’ her mother had lifted her face to the heavens, hands held up and cried, ‘ Olisa bi n’elu igwe , please don’t allow my village people to succeed in my case. Don’t allow all the people envious of my daughter’s progress to succeed in destroying her destiny.’

So her mother had sent her there just so she could meet the young men. Nna, na wa o !

This present invitation didn’t come as a surprise.

‘I am going to be very busy with work mummy. The courts are closing next Friday and so there is much that must be covered before then.’

‘Excuses, excuses. That’s all I hear. You should know that I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t in your best interest.’

‘I know and I love you very much for it. I can’t attend the crusade but I’ll come to Enugu on the 23 so we can travel together to Obosi.’

‘Good. With Chief Amanze Okoye’s daughter wedding this Christmas, a lot of young men will be returning home.’ Kaira could almost see her mother’s mind at work. ‘Before then, send me your latest photograph through Whatsapp.’

Kaira rolled her eyes once more. Knowing how persistent her mother could be, Kaira had refused to teach her how to operate Whatsapp but she had forgotten about her cousin Golibe who lived with her parents. Her mother was on Whatsapp and like that was not enough she was also on Facebook and Instagram. She hated twitter and that was why she didn’t bother with it. Kaira had refused to accept her mother’s friend request on Facebook and her mother had called to ask her why, especially when she found that she was friends with her father on face book. The older woman had badgered her daughter until Kaira found herself clicking the ‘accept’ button.’

She enjoyed having her father on Facebook but her mother dey worry – o na enye nsogbu . Right now, if Ngozi called her daughter and she couldn’t get hold of her, Ngozi would chat Kaira up on Whatsapp and to ensure that she got the message, she would also send it on her time line on Facebook, not even Messenger!

You would see messages on Facebook like ‘ Zutalu m azu okponkwu ma I na abata Enugu ’ (buy me dry fish when you’re coming into Enugu). And then there were those messages copied and sent to her on Whatsapp. Every message sent to Ngozi ended up being dumped on Kaira’s page, even the ridiculous ones. Kaira only consoled herself with the knowledge that her siblings also got the same messages on Whatsapp. Recently, an Ilechukwu-Madukaife family group had been created on Whatsapp with Ngozi as the admin and woe-betide you if you did not comment whenever there was a post. Kaira had Golibe to thank for that.

Now her mother wanted her latest picture, to do what na ? Forward it to her friends so they could send it to their sons? Or send it to the man of God for prayers?

‘I’ll send it later, mum,’ she promised her mother for peace to reign.

When she was done with her call, she opened her Whatsapp page and found that she had about 19 unread chats.

‘You do know she has your best interest at heart,’ Koje told her.

‘Who?’

‘Your mother.’

‘That’s because you are not in my shoes.’

‘No I’m not, but I understand you perfectly. I’ll be 35 in March and as an only child for now, my parents want to see me married and have children.’

She had been right about the age difference. Koje was a year and seven months younger than she was since she would turn 37 next year August.

‘I did wonder why you weren’t yet married. A lot of Yoruba men I know got married in their twenties.’

‘So you can understand the kind of pressure I also am under. And it’s worse because of my present predicament. In fact at the last family meeting I attended, one of my uncles actually suggested that my parents pay the bride price of this girl he knew so that I could get her pregnant and continue my lineage before it was too late.’

‘That’s serious.’

‘And I have to face another round when I get to Ijebu-Ode for the Christmas holidays. I only hope they haven’t gone ahead to pay a girl’s bride price and brought her home as my wife.’

‘Parents!’

They both laughed.

‘I’ve been meaning to ask,’ he started. ‘Is the myth that identical twins feel each other’s pain despite the distance, true?’

‘Of course. My sister has three children and I felt the pain every time she went into labour.’

Kaira had only intended to spend a few minutes in Koje’s company for breakfast but ended up spending an hour and a half. She even got a free tour of his home.

As she drove home, several thoughts ran through her head and they all revolved around Koje Quadri. The fact that he had forgiven her so easily was proof that he was a nice man. He had invited her to his home when she was in that terrible traffic despite his being angry with her and had fed her supper and breakfast without any complaint whatsoever. If anything he seemed to have enjoyed having her there. As he saw her off to her car, he informed her that he had to work that day at Q-Tech.

She didn’t want to be nice to him because it complicated things. It was easier to look at him as a client she was compelled to represent. Emotions between counsel and client were to be avoided at all times. Why was she even thinking about emotions anyway? It wasn’t like there was ever going to be anything between her and Koje even if she succeeded in keeping him out of prison. The man was obsessed with Laide and she wouldn’t be surprised if he made further attempts to see her again despite the pending case.

Christmas was by the corner and it was her favourite time of the year. It provided the longest holidays and she could visit with family and friends.

She found her thoughts returning to Koje once more. Had he not been released on bail, he would have had to deal with spending Christmas in prison. As it stood he would have the opportunity to travel to his home state, Ogun. What he wasn’t allowed to do was travel outside the country until his case was determined, reason being that the courts didn’t want him outside jurisdiction. He might escape to a country which wouldn’t honour an order of court for extraction.

The transport aspect of his business would make great profits this season because a lot of people would be travelling to the south west and the transport prices usually increased because of the season. Fortunately for him, people were more concerned about the services offered by the transport companies that the identity of their owners. She had asked around and KTQ Transport was a good one, even covered Ilorin, Osogbo, Ado-Ekiti, Akure and a few other places you couldn’t get to on your way to Lagos. They utilised air conditioned Sienna which people were happy to pay for and the drivers were safety conscious.

A lot of people frequented night clubs. The business bound to suffer in the course of his trial was Q-Tech since it was one that was run on a perceived integrity.

Christmas this year was going to be a really busy one. She had so many weddings lined up. And that meant she would have to deal with questions about when she intended to end her spinster status. There would also be lots of visits to homes of family friends in and around Obosi, the main reason being for Kaira to meet her parents’ friends’ single sons. It was so tiring.

She would travel with her car so she could control her movement. The last time she travelled without it, she had ended up regretting it because she was at her mother’s mercy.

Translation

Kedu ka ime – how are you

A dim nno nma – I am very fine

Ekwensu anaghi achu m oso – the devil is not chasing after me o

Chim o. Atokwanu m o – My God. I’m in trouble o

Chineke ekwekwana ife ojo – God forbid bad thing

Biko ko lu m akuko – please give me gist

A na ekwu ife di nkpa I na ekwu ife ochi’ – someone is saying something serious and you’re making jokes

Olisa bi n’elu igwe – God in heaven

O na enye nsogbu – she can worry

To be continued

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