All I wanted was my wife; but what I got was a corpse

My wife is a beautiful woman.

I first met her when she was just 16 years old; she lived in the same community as my mother in our home town. I was there one day when she came to help my mother with cleaning the house.

I was surprised because young girls her age are mostly after men to buy them phones, chewing gum and short skirts but this one seemed like she was from a decent home; she was helping elderly people. Even though I know my mother paid her but compared to all the work she did for my mother, the money was quite small. So I told my mother I would be sending her money to increase the payment.

More so, I had begun to like her. So, I told my mother to take care of her for me, that she would become my wife. And I meant it. When I spoke to her, Hajara, I asked her what she wanted to do, since she wasn’t going to school, she said she wanted to learn to make hair, you know, work in a salon. I said ok, I gave her money to go and learn it in that area.

Since she was still a small girl, I decided to wait but after one year, I told myself, be there waiting, one small boy will come and make this girl pregnant and make her useless for you so I went to my home town to tell my mother to prepare to follow me to Hajara’s family, so that I can make my intentions known. That I would pay her dowry and wait for her to be old enough and marry her.

From then on, at least I knew I just had to work hard, to earn enough and marry a fine girl like that. When she turned 18years, she left her father’s house to start living with my mother, that was when I started touching her but we didn’t do anything because I wanted to make sure I did everything properly.

I moved into a new house, a two bedroom flat because I knew that once my wife came home with me, we would start having children immediately since I am not getting any younger. I was already 33 at that time. I was working with a Chinese firm and making small money, though those people can work you to the bones for small money. But anyway, I was a store keeper and I was doing good, I wasn’t spending y money anyhow and I was careful with Lagos girls.

By the time my wife came to join me, she was already 19years old. In fact, I made sure she was that age because I didn’t want someone who would be too young, shebi you get?

Of course, we had done the Nikkai, done the necessary things and so, there was nothing stopping me from sleeping with her.   

We were quietly enjoying our lives. Until, one day, it was a Saturday, I oever heard my neighbor talking about some cult boys in the area. You see, before my wife came, I was a bachelor who never stayed at home. What was there to stay home for? So, I left the house every day, including Sunday. But after marriage, I wanted to get home on time, and stay indoors all weekend.

That was when I began to hear about the cult boys, how they harass shop owners demanding for money, how they harass okada riders and keke napep people and all that. I never knew I would soon be a victim.

How did it happen?

I told you my wife is very beautiful, I should have made her an eleha, the one who wears a veil to cover her face, maybe I would not be in this sort of trouble.

One of the cult boys saw my wife and began to follow her; before I knew it, he somehow got himself ingratiated to her. Yes, I don’t know how up till today but somehow, he began to visit my wife at the salon where she worked.

When she came to live with me, we got her a salon not too far from the house where she joined them and began to work, she had learned a few things about making hair in our home town.

The wahala began when I would get home before my wife!

I worked on the island, I would rush home to come home to play with my wife, only to have to start waiting for her. We lived in Ikorodu, o. How could I be getting home before her, her salon is just about three streets away from our house!

I didn’t like it at all, but she would say, her customers came late, one thing happened, one thing happened. I didn’t complain at the beginning bit after sometime, I couldn’t stomach it because weekends too, she was away from the house. So, what was I doing alone in the house?

Then I went to the salon myself and saw my own wife with the cult boy, they were so engrossed in their talk that I was so angry. Where did they meet to connect and be talking like lovers? Yes, that was what they looked like to me!

I called my wife and told her to carry her bag and follow me. But yiu wont believe, the cult boy asked me who I was? If I owned her life!

Me? Versus this small boy? I slapped him, I gave him one hot slap and we began to fight. He was holding one sharp knife, you know people like that always carry weapons and he used it to cut me, but I am no easy meat, I collected the knife and stabbed him with it!

You must understand that I just wanted to give him small injury, to teach him not to follow other people’s wives, I didn’t know I was going to take his life; people just started shouting, ‘carry him, carry him’. when they saw the boy was dead, they asked me to carry his corpse to the police station; the same people who hate the cult boys in that area, they were demanding I carried the corpse; same people who knew the boy was sleeping with my wife!

All I wanted was to get my wife home. That’s all.

(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)