₦airaland Forum

LIBERTY
Dunni, how are we celebrating your eighteenth birthday asked Mudi,Mudi is my cousin but from bayelsa.I don't know ooo, I'm not through with my registration and tomorrow is the dead line yet you are still asking me how I'm going to celebrate, abeg free me was all I could say. Immediately I got to my department that day, I made sure I made the neccesary photocopies of my documents which was meant to be submitted. As I was about stepping into the HOD's office I heard someone shouting "Hey, Hey, Jambite" I turned to give the person a sternful look only to discover it was the copper at HOD's office. I waited for him to say something and he broke the silence with 'don't tell me you are yet to submit your file because it's closed already.I felt very disappointed and quickly gave him a blessed mary look, I'm sorry sir, i thought we were meant to submit tomorrow unfailingly. He grinned mischievously and collected the file, Ehn ehn what's that your name, I replied Omodunni Cole. Dunni you know, I'm going to let you submit but have it at the back of your mind that you are owing me One.I kept quiet because I had no understanding of what he was refering to. He told me to sign somewhere and gave me my matric number.

By the time I got home, I was already exhausted, I had my bath and decided to have a nap only to be interrupted by mudi and wahab(our neighbour). Babe how we go celebrate tomorrow now, I pretended as if I wasn't the one they were refering to. Mudi gave me a smark and said "No be you I dey talk to, shuuuu this girl no wan get respect again oooo" I no get money joor.haha Abeg free me was all I could utter. We don make plans sha said wahab whom I knew had an eye on me from the first time he saw me during Post jamb exams. We go do BBQ and Pepper soup then samuel go cargo in spirits and juice, your only job be say make you show up. Na for inside compound we go do am. I said thanks and went inside.
The following day, I went to school just to have a look since lectures hasn't started. I met some girls in class and greeted them but one of them whom I later discovered to be Anu was the first person to speak with me after exchanging greetings. Cole she called, I turned back looking suprised. Don't be suprised I know your name, I heard when you were telling Casanova your name, I acted confused and she continued, don't you know that we nicknamed copper "Mr Casanova", I smiled and said No oooo, I'm not aware of that. I tried waving the unneccesary familiarity by trying to walk away and she continued, what are you doing tonight, I told her I would be busy and she asked if she could join me so that we can browse the town, I asked her what happened to her friends and she said Hope and Dami would join us too. Since I had no friends to invite to my birthday bash, I gave them my address. Only if I had known.......

oyestephen: Happy birthday....and its really good to know that life is now different from then

That day wasn't ma real birthday in real life, it was ma birthday in the novel. Tnks anyway buh xpectin ma cake

The whole family was happy because we felt that was the end of our suffering only to discover that...........

CHAPTER FIVE:
Mama olamide and mama ajoke went to bank in style just because they wanted to collect money, after queing for almost two at the bank, they were attended to by one of the staffs only to be told "madam there's no money in this account oooo",lailai says mama olamide its not possible, I want to see the manager of this bank, you people are not competent enough for this job,she continued. The account has more than 3million naira in it.

When the noise was becoming too much, the manager came out to intervene, he instructed someone to print out the statement of account starting from three years back and what my step mum saw made mama olamide to faint. After being revived, my two step mothers came home to break the bad news to us all that baba legba has being withdrawing the money since a month after father died, he forged their signatures. we wailed and cried as if there was no tomorrow.

The following day they went to baba legba's house but met no one at home, each wife had to loan money in order to pay their wards fee. The chase for baba legba continued for several months until the police officers in charge of the case and my step mum went to hide in baba legba's compound (because someone hinted them that he comes home late at night and leaves very early the next monrning) and laid hands on him.he was caught around 4a.m when he was crying to sneak out of his rented apartment and was almost torn into pieces by my step mums.

Babalegba was arrested and was told to show up at the court, his wife and children came begging and crying everyday to help release their father. They had no money they could pay back neither do dey have properties to sell. The judge told him to be paying 100,000 every month but he could only pay for the first month but kept appealling and making promises that he going to pay us.
The last year in secondary school was difficult for us, debt from loans
Kept accummulating and we had no choice than to keep on enduring.

That was last two years. Today marks the day I clock eighteen years old. Today ...the beginning of an entirely different life

@simababe, tnks.gonna update soon

Chapter four: A NEW PHASE
Being a muslim, father was buried the second day, family members tropped in and out with nothing more than the words of their mouth as condolences. Myself and other children started discussing aboout how his extented family had being the cause of his death because he was the only educated and richest out of the four children of his family.
Their presence got us angry the more becauses we knew they were of no importance to us since all they were good at was collecting money. No day passed without two or more family members coming to ask for one thing or the other when father was alive.

Two weeks after father's burial,we were made to realise that father didn't write a will before he died therefore his cousin and my two step mum were made signatory to his account. Baba legba(father's cousin) was the one holding the cheque book while mama olamide and mama joke(the youngest wife) were the signatories to the account.we resumed back to school after few days and made preparation for JSS3 exams whisch was meant to commence three month after, mama olamide went to meet baba legba to issue out money for us because three of us were in JSS3 then but baba legba kept insisting that its better our mother also us to endure now so that we would be able to go to private universites. We had to let go of out three square meal and clothes plus other accesories in order to make our dream come true while oladipupo and seye who were in SS3 as at that time to had to change over to government school.
Three years later this same endurance story continued from baba legba's mouth until we couldn't take it any longer since our WAEC exams was fast approaching. Baba legba disapperard into the thin air for a while and his wife kept giving us various excuses that his husband traveled, was sick etc. After two months of searching and waiting for baba legba, he later resuffaced to give our mother the cheque book. The whole family was happy because we felt that was the end of our suffering only to discover that...........

@oyestev: 10ks, really appreciates ur opinion.
Chapter 3:SAGA
I was in JSS 2 when father suddenly started acting strange, he claimed he saw ghosts and all sorts, mama olamide warned us not to go any where near him, father was rushed to the hospital where he was told that it was because he was hypertensive and it was contradicting the fact that he was also diabetic, after he was discharged two weeks after,father's illness continued immediately he stepped his toes inside the house, this time,it got worse. Different worshippers came and did their best, two Alfa's came and said a statue was buried in our house and this was the cause of his predicament, rams, goats and dogs were buried in order to put father back to his healthy state buh there still wasn't any changes.
Father was later taken to UCH Ibadan after which he died three days after paying for a dieing boy hospital fees.
The family's backbone was broken, a rare gem gone, opomulero finally left us. What awaits us.

Chapter 2: Home new home
We got home that day after bring discharged from the hospital,I was again introduced to my step sibblings though I have visited them twice before the incidence.I was told I had to share room with Olamide because we were of the same ag. Everybody was happy because my holidays finally became my normal days but a bit envious because father's love for me was un measureable. my dad did the processing of a new primary school for me, and being the chairman of the school, I was allowed to be in th class I was meant to be.

Father calls me Omodunni instead of Ariyike that everyone calls me and also insisted that nobody should call me ariyike again. Father being a. Very wealthy man and also very educated made sure Olamide,Oladipupo(olamide's brother)and I attended the same primary school which was the best while th last wife's kids attended another school. I did well in school even though olamide was alwaz a postition or two ahead of me until catastrophy came in when we were in JSS2.
A section that can never be forgotten, a total change

Chapter 1:Away from home
I remember sneezing and dozzing off in the volvo cab taking my mum and I to Abeokuta. I wasn't my usual self because I wasn't feeling to good, after throwing up thrice I had nothing left in me, my mum patted me telling me pele" sorry.
After an hour, we got to Abeokuta and my father came outside shouting" what happened to her?, why is she as slim as a cane' you've not being taking good care of this child, if you are not up to the task, then leave her here with me and continue with your life. This were the exact words my father kept saying being the only child of my mum for my dad.
I was driven down to the hospital where the doctor diagonised that I have pneumonia. I missed a whole term at school because I was admitted at th hospital and that was how my life in Abeokuta began with two step mothers and five sibblings

This story is not meant 2 be published or sold out without my authourisation. If done, justice would take its place. Tnks.

This is a bit of a true life story and fiction. All names and characters had being changed