Will you release your child to the father who earlier rejected him?
By Sunmola Olowookere
|
Aina was put in the family way by Peter when she was in the secondary school. It was a hellish period for her because Peter denied the pregnancy for fear of being disowned by his parents.
Hence she was left to cater for the pregnancy alone. She became a persona non grata in the family but she, persevered with the pregnancy and had the baby.
She went through thick and thin to have the baby and she nurtured him till he grew up. Throughout this trying period, the father of her baby was nowhere to be found and he did not bother to send anything as upkeep. After the baby has grown, she went back to school and gained admission into the university. She was determined to make it in life.
However, about a decade later, the guy who rejected the pregnancy for some reasons known to him suddenly decided that he wanted the child he had rejected.
He came looking for the child when the mother was serving as a youth corps member.
It was a serious commotion. lt was a little bit late in the night when the residents were rudely disturbed by loud and angry voices of a man and a woman.
“Where Is my son again? I tell you, this girl, you are looking for trouble. You cannot deny me of my son.” So saying, he grabbed the girl by the arm and shook her roughly.
This commotion was going on right outside the front of the compound.’ The girl being assaulted was a youth corp member who was living in one of the houses in our neighbourhood.
She was serving at a primary school in the vicinity. With her trim figure, it was difficult to believe that she had ever carried a pregnancy let alone nurse a baby. However by her words, it was apparent that she had carried a pregnancy to term and nursed a baby.
Her friends and fellow corpers had joined in the fray as they pulled their friends away from him. The girl now turned on him like a virago
“What did I just hear you say you are looking for? Eh! God punish you and that your filthy mouth! Did you not reject me ten years ago and asked me to take the pregnancy to the owners claiming that you are not responsible. Now you have suddenly decided that you are responsible?
Now listen well and listen real good. I have given the boy to his father and there is nothing you or anybody can do about it”
At that point, it would have escalated into a full-blown fight had other tenants not intervened. The guy, enraged had made to strike the girl with his fists but he was stopped on time. The other tenants had sought to settle the issue because it was one they could not leave for the two embattled duo. The elderly residents were called upon to settle the issue.
They had summoned a pastor and some other elderly people around to look into the matter. ln truth. the girl’s story was pathetic as she narrated the ordeal she went through in having the baby.
She told the sympathetic audience how the story began when she was in the secondary school. She narrated how she was hoodwinked by this college boy who put her in the family way and then rejected her. She described the shame she brought upon her family’s name, the humiliation and the rejection.
She had struggled through all these alone because her embittered and disappointed parents had refused to be supportive. Tried as she could to prevail on the boy to take responsibility, he was adamant.
Hence this was the reason why his sudden desire was so strange. Why would a man who refused a pregnancy so long ago suddenly would decide that he now wants a child he claimed he was not responsible for?
The girl nursed her baby giving him all the love in her young heart. Despite all she went through, she was still determined to complete her education. lt was after two years that she went back to write GCE and luckily gained admission into the university.
ln those periods, her mother died and the little boy was taken to live with his maternal great aunt. Now over ten years after the nasty experience, her nemesis was back to haunt her.
However, she was determined not to allow her son to meet the father. The wound is probably still too fresh for her to forgive him.
Also, the typical Nigerian man mule headedness was not helping matters. Funnily, he was already married. He however refused to state why he suddenly wanted a son he had rejected over a decade ago. He was adamant and kept reiterating that he wants to take his boy home with him.
The residents who looked into the matter had however advised the man to seek for a meeting with the woman’s family.
Dear reader, what do you think? Do you think she should give the boy to his biological father?