By Stephen Shaibu Ojate
In that part of the world I hailed from, Ihima in Okehi local government of Kogi State, adolescent usually have socialization at their early age. It was a common practice among the Youths to have life partner even when one is still under their parent’s roof with no means of livelihood.
This early socialization in no doubt accounts to early child-bearing which in most cases brings amount early marriage. On this account, It was very rare to see a bachelor or splinter within the age range of 20-30 without a life partner which we (the Youths) generally term as ‘’Girl’s friend or Girl’s friend. These young lads either had many girl’s friends and boy’s friends. As was the evoking trend then, what therefore determines big Boys or Big Girls among the pairs is being occasioned by the number of girl’s or boy’s friends one has and many of these folk pride themselves in this.
Growing up, there was one unforgettable occurrence among these Youths in my village then which truly depict the current mild drama between EFCC and Kogi State government on the issue of bail-out fund. A well known young man among the big Boys in the town impregnated a girl, one of his numerous girls’ friends. Even though it was acceptable trend to have girl’s friend, it was rather an aberration or abomination to impregnate a girl.
A person within this age range who does tend to lose more of his numerous girl’s friends and on the lady’s side, she suffers stigmatization. As was the practice in our culture, when you impregnate a lady out of wedlock, the lady will be transferred to the young man’s parent house for proper up-keeping and quickly termed and seen as his wife even though the pride-price has not been paid. For the young boys to shy away from these responsibilities which they were not prepared for, they always deny having affairs with the lady in question or ownership of the pregnancy.
There was one striking drama then; one of these big boys was reported to the most senior elder of my clan to have impregnated a girl from another clan. The elders of my clan summoned the father of this young man for a meeting in attendance with the parent of the lady and some elders from their side. The young girl was asked to narrate how she got to know this young man which led to sex and eventual pregnancy. When the elders of my clan ask this young man to either attest or cross-examine the narration of this lady, the said guy rose up and point to heaven that what the lady says was totally false as he never knew her in the first place.
The father to this young man demanded truth from his son and pledged to take care of the lady and the baby if he accepts the ownership of the pregnancy. The father reiterates that he will take care of the lady and the up-coming child and yet young man still maintained his stance saying he was not responsible for the pregnancy. I could recall that he uses everything in our village to swear that day to the extent of saying ‘’may thunder strike him dead now if what he was saying are untrue’’.
The elders in their finding later confirmed from another young man at the meeting that day that the said lady was actually his girl’s friend. It was at this point, the young man agreed that he had her as a girl’s friend but had intercourse with her once and maintained further that such is not a good justification to say that the pregnancy is his. One of the Elders further declared that it wasn’t the number of times one had sex with a woman that matters as one attempt could bring that and therefore call on him to agree that he was responsible yet he still not ready to say the truth.
As the young man failed to accept the ownership of the pregnancy that day, the lady was rejected by the young man’s family. Months after, the lady bore a baby girl and her poor parent had to suffer to cater for the baby. Could you believe after 6-7 years of this ugly drama which brought about accusation and counter-accusation, the young man confesses to be the father of the girl?
Thus, the scenario I have pointed above is a good illustration to depict ongoing drama between EFCC and Kogi State government. For months now, EFCC had accused Kogi State government of having a hidden fund in sterling bank.
Kogi State government having realized their mistake and having known the gravity of unpopular and unacceptable decision they had taken and to avoid being seen as heartless government, they are using every arsenals at their disposal to counter the claims of the EFCC just like the case of the young man who deny the ownership of the pregnancy when in the true sense of it, he was the owner.
Kogi State government having realized for having committed shameful thing, one capable of bringing down their administration and rubbish the past little good deeds, they are presently pointing accusation finger to someone somewhere for their current night-mire.
You should not be surprised if this same Kogi State government owns up to the ownership of the fund in years ahead just the case of the young man who denied the ownership of the pregnancy in the first place.
Stephen Shaibu Stephen is a Journalist and public affairs commentator writes from Kubwa Abuja. He is on facebook platform and reachable via phone call on 09056202714 and on whatsapp 09075716236.
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