₦airaland Forum

Dear all,

The story continues;


JUMAI’S REDEMPTION


“What is the meaning of born-again?”

Jumai quizzed as she looked directly at Lara who was lying on her sofa. Lara looked up and wasn’t too surprised at the question; Jumai loved arguing with her especially on religious issues and being married to Musa who joined the born-again click one week before their wedding day made her arguments with her much heated up. Jumai was a first class Law student who believed strongly in social development and arguing with a very strong opinionated Muslim was not Lara’s way of spending the Sunday afternoon especially after the unusual incident at her own residence with Ene and the security man.


“Jumai, you read the bible more than I do and you own almost all the versions of the bible, why ask me?” Lara sat up looking straight at her friend.” I like listening to you talk about it, dear” Jumai answered. Lara continued looking at her and knew she was serious.“The word born-again was used once in the bible and it was directed by Jesus to a teacher of the law named Nicodemus. The offshoot of the discussion was based on the productivity that Nicodemus found in Jesus life and wanted to find out the secret. Nicodemus did not fully understand the answers Jesus gave him so Jesus was surprised that a teacher of the law could not understand spiritual things”. She was interrupted by Jumai’s baby girl crying in the room. “Go on my dear, my sister will tend to her”.


Lara stood up from her seat and looked at the huge wedding picture hanging across the living room. She wondered why Musa decided to go on with the wedding despite pressure from his church. She remembered his call two day before the wedding date asking her what were the implications of marrying a Muslim. Lara was torn between her friend and the truth so in order to escape the pressure placed on her, she had simply dodged the question by referring him to 1st Corinthians 7:36. Whatever decision he made was not hers.


“Musa has changed a lot. He surprises me everyday with the wisdom he brings to every argument. He is very gentle and different from the Musa I was dating. He does not lie even when he knows it will hurt me and his business is just growing in an astronomical measure. Can you imagine that yesterday, I screamed and nagged at him for something he did not do and he merely hugged me and told me he loved me. Is that what you meant by the productivity in Jesus life?” she said rising up to join Lara. “Yes, that is what cooperating with the spirit of God does to you” Then Jumai faced her and asked her “then why is my neighbor who disturbs us with his prayer every morning not like Musa? Our neighbor is rude and he looks down on everyone as if he is holier than thou, but he seems to be having issues with his business as he borrows money all the time.” Lara was prepared for that question as she responded “Being born-again is not enough, you also have to be born of the spirit. The spirit teaches you through various medium like listening to a pastor, reading your bible and so on. That is why you read the bible and not understand. The program has not been activated inside of you to fully understand and unlock the wisdom in the Bible. You also have to cooperate with whatever he tells you to do.”


Jumai looked away from Lara, something was burning in her heart. She always felt this way whenever she discusses with Lara. There was a surge of torrent in her heart as the heat increased; this was beyond her human intellect and there was no rationale for this.Lara’s phone rang as if saving her from the embarrassing situation.“Hello Lara, I will need you to fill-up my position as I am stuck in Abuja and the singles are waiting for me this evening to speak to them.” said the speaker at the other end of the phone. Lara was shocked that the Single fellowship President could actually ask her to speak to thousands of singles. She does not even attend church regularly not to talk of attending the singles meeting. In fact, she has only been there once and she left early giving the excuse she was sick. She wondered if the lady did not make mistake with the name, so her response was “I am Lara Gbadamosi, I am sure you are speaking to the wrong person.” There was a long silence at the other end and a rich voice filled the phone “I know, I have been watching your progress ever since you joined us and I am sure you are the best person to speak on my behalf. I want you to tell the ladies especially your secret of happiness despite your singe state.” Lara was shocked but she eventually caved in and was told the talk was in 30 minutes time. After disengaging the phone, Lara was shocked beyond her wildest dream. She was to speak to thousands of singles and she was giving 30minutes to prepare not to talk of distance to reach her destination. She was about to speak to God when she realized that Jumai was still in the room. Jumai turned to her; she came to her front and knelt down as tears began to flow from her cheek”


Please, Pray for me; I want to be born-agan”………………………….

@ iice

The story is not complete but some pieces are available on the site.

What do you have in mind?

@ iice

Thanx so much but I will appreciate the corrections

@ Damsal

Thanx so much!

@ Play-boy

Thanx. What are the corrections? I am truly interested.

Memoirs of a virgin

Lara looked at the mirror and liked what she saw; her face was looking very bright and the make-up fitted perfectly into her dark skin. Her bust lifted her shirt revealing the gold chain with a diamond pendant reflecting across the mirror. She adjusted the seat of her Honda car because she was feeling quite uncomfortable with the Channel suit. She drove past the gate of the church hastely and headed home regretting her decision to come to church; the message was the same, and she felt so dry in her soul. Worst of all, Emeka (or Brother Emeka) was not any where in sight.

Emeka had always accompanied her home after church and his absence brought a sense of loss to her. She had struggled with the decision of waiting for him which translated to two hours of dry songs and messages. She was driving unusually very fast along Lekki Express way as the air conditioning affected her judgment; she was lucky to get home in one piece. She horned expecting the security man to open the gate but after 5 minutes of waiting; she parked the car by the side of the road. She hurriedly walked into the compound and headed straight to the boys quarter thinking of how she was going to deal with the security man. She heard an unusual moan coming straight from the door of the boy’s quarter and atmosphere was pungent. She had opened the door, before she remembered the courtesy of knocking. Her legs became very weak as the image was very lucid; her best friend, Ene was stark naked and was over the naked security man; both were lost to the present reality and seem to be enjoying themselves.

She hurriedly walked to the car and sat inside, putting her head on the dash board. She laughed strongly at the scene she just witnessed though still in utter shock. Ene, born-again sister, spirikoko, sleeping with the security man. She could not help the tears that dripped out of her face as she laughed. She quickly regained herself and wondered what could make a prayer warrior like Ene fall so low as to commit fornication. Ene was a beautiful woman and very spiritual but the scene she witnesses seemed like a dream. She quickly nudged herself to reality thinking of how she will deal with this incident. Ene must have thought she was coming home in 2 hours time, she would never had guessed she will leave the church early enough.

Lara had never discussed her virginity with Ene though she shared a lot of herself with her. She and Ene had come a long way right from secondary school to the same university and now working in different industry. They joined the same bank but Lara left the bank for a telecoms company. They both worked and lived in the same house in Victoria Island for 3 years now, waiting for their dream husbands. Ene had always been more principled than she was in the Christian faith, she had always steered the cause. Lara looked across the window and noticed Ene’s Toyota Camry and wondered why she had not seen it earlier. She must have been so angry with the security guy. This was not her first time, she was experiencing unusual events, and this was the second. The first occurred in their university days at OAU; she had gone for an all night service in church and left very early in order to meet with her fiancé before he left forLagos en-route to London for Masters. He had come earlier to visit her before he took off for a 15 months program in Oil and Gas. He spent 2 days in the hotel and was leaving very early the next day to meet his appointed flight.

Lara’s fellowship organized an all night fellowship at one of the halls which was due at 5.00 am on Saturday. She left the service at 3.30 am in order to reach the hostel on time and cook for her fiancé. She had calculated the time it will take her to reach his hotel. On her way to her hostel, rain poured heavily shielding the moon; she quickly took solace in one of the building. She was shocked when she saw a figure come out of the building holding a knife. On close observation, it was a guy wearing a mask and approaching her.” Pull your clothes off” said the guy.

“Why?” She said but she was shocked with her boldness. “I said pull off your clothes” He insisted, pointing the knife to her direction. She quickly backed off and quickly said “okay, you want me but please, you will be gentle with me. I will cooperate.” There was a hint of smile coming from the mask. He seemed settled as she pulled her blouse revealing her bra. She immediately pulled her skirt, then she said ” I am a Christian so I will be hurting God if I do not tell you this secret.” “What secret?” he barked.” I am HIV positive” she said very slowly and convincingly. He jumped back, stood motionlessly and ran away.

She dressed up very quickly and ran to her hostel despising the rain. She got to her room and noticed every other student was sleeping. She climbed on her bed, wrapped herself under the blanket and shook. After 10 minutes, she recalled the event and laughed at her ingenuity. She was saved from being raped like an animal, she wondered where the courage and lies came from but she was happy her virginity was kept intact. She immediately regretted not giving her fiancé her virginity when he piqued her about it. She could not wait to tell him. She waited till

7.00am and immediately boarded a bus to town. She got the hotel and she was not too shocked to hear the fiancé had gone. The concierge handed her a piece of paper from her fiancé and written on it was;

You bitch; you want to give me HIV. The relationship is over……………,

Dear Members,

Please, I need your help. I am planning on writing a novel that projects Christian Value with Nigeria flavour. I want it to be a world-class standard novel like the Harrold Robins, John Grisham, James Hadley Chase, etc

So I need your help to critique part of the novel which I have been writing in my blog-www.dipotepede.com

P.S.-I started writing heavily about 3 months ago so please be truthful in your critism so I can grow as a writer.

The write-up is below this thread.

U have the feel of a writer and you command your audience!

good one but there is always room for improvement!

@ orikinla

My friend, you may know when it had been in existense; I will not argue that with you but to compare bollywood to hollywood is like comparing Knight Bridge in London to Ajegunle in Lagos!

You may prefer to watch bollywood but the issue here is STANDARD please,

There are two ways to look at this!

1. Write books like Nollywood and Bollywood films (not too standard but consumable)

2. Write literary standard books

No 1 will solve issues in the short run take for instance bollywood films which has been in existence since 1970s but has not reached the international standard of acceptance. Then I am sure you may ask who judges the standard?

The issue with going on a mediocrity main stream just to please the consumers are hazardous in the long run but when the consumers are itching for new looks like the Hollywoods then standard will be acceptable by all.

No. 2 also has flaws. How many Nigerian can really read Soyinka's Book! The books are difficult to assimilate by an average person (even a Briton whose mother tongue is English). The Da Vinci Code, Harry Porters were written with less literary standards and sold massively!

How do we reconcile the two?

I believe tianche is right.

I am a Poet and I need the publishing house for verifications!