By Sunmola Olowookere

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In our area, the youths constitute the major part of the population in our large and populous neighbourhood. Hence, girls, mostly wayward ones abound in our neighbourhood. Their manners at times make one wonder whether they have a mother.

‘They roam the streets at night looking for “only God knows what”. They wear skimpy dresses that leave little to the imagination, yet no one chastises them. Their parents seem to have left them to their devices.

They take rnufti in their school bags to change into after school hours. When their parents sent them on errands, they make a detour to meet their lovers. In short, we have permissive people as majority of our residents.

That was why most of them get pregnant easily and move to their lovers’ house. Their shameful parents don’t see anything wrong in a teenager becoming a mother. When these girls put to bed, their mother would be carrying the child thereby giving such girls opportunity to flirt around and get knocked up again.

A scandal just broke forth in our neighbourhood whereby a girl who told her boyfriend that she was pregnant  had turned around to say she was not pregnant again.

How bizarre! It was a terrible time as t h e w h o l e neighbourhood got to heard of the whole hullabaloo when trouble reared its ugly head as the boy demanded for his pregnancy.

Medinat, is one of the most wayward girls in our neighbourhood. She was bigger than her age. She was fat with enough flesh in the appropriate places. She was a favourite with the boys.

Men love to take her out even the married ones. However, out of all these males, she had a sort of understanding with a guy in the neighbourhood. They called themselves ”future partners”.

She had told her boyfriend that she was pregnant. Though the boy was shocked and reluctant at first about the pregnancy, he grew accustomed to it later.

He had become excited about the prospect of having a baby gradually and when he told his mother about it, she was receptive of the news.

To his surprise however, when he asked the girl about the pregnancy again in order to tell her that he will accept the pregnancy, the music changed and she said that she was no longer pregnant.

Since he had already told his mother, it turned into a very nasty scene as the guy came with his family to put pressure on the girl to tell the truth about the pregnancy.

Despite the heavy presence of the guy’s family, the girl still insisted that she was not pregnant. It was a messy fight that ensued when the guy slapped the girl and her brothers took side with her and attacked the boyfriend.

Residents tried to settle the case but it was almost impossible to resolve. It was explosive as the guy howled for a pregnancy he had earlier rejected.

It was a Puzzle as the residents do not know whom to believe. Does a Pregnancy disappear overnight? Can a girl joke about a serious issue such as a pregnancy?

Then what was so important in a pregnancy to a twenty year old boy. These are questions that people are pondering .’

The case got so difficult that the neighbours had to involve the police as it was getting out of hand. Or what can the neighbours do when the girl insists that she was not pregnant and the boyfriend and his family insist that she must produce their baby.