By Moshood ISAMOTU
During my five years post-UNN stay in Enugu (1992-1997), as a journalist then, I was known more as Chairman (Alaga) around Obiagu, 21 Edinburgh Street, where I resided. As a Yoruba boy, I was loved by people around and felt very comfortable, to the extent that I attended Oha Na Eze meetings unchallenged.
The man who nick-named and popularized me as Alaga was Chijioke, a friendly neighbor. We were fond of each other. He hailed from Anambra State, was very popular in the vicinity, and was a good man.
Though a school certificate holder, Chijioke’s main ambition was to travel abroad, and that was why he refused to do anything meaningful. He made several attempts and was deported from Morocco and Kenya at some point.
Very bold and huge in size, Chijioke was a courageous around 26-year-old man then. One day, on the Awka-Onitsha Expressway, he got to Orji River Junction in a public car. Policemen at the checkpoint had caused a long queue of vehicles. He came down from the car and walked briskly to the policemen and yelled ‘Is that what we asked you guys to be doing on the road”? Gboah! He landed heavy slaps on the two inspectors, who started saying ‘Sorry, sir”. He commanded them to clear the vehicles. Before the policemen would regain consciousness, Chijioke had moved on. Everyone, including the policemen and the passengers, believed he must be a senior police officer or soldier. But my friend was none. He got away with it. That was how daring he could be.
When I went back to Enugu in 2002, I decided to check on old friends. I asked after Chijioke. I was happy to hear that my friend indeed fulfilled his dream of traveling out. His childhood friend in Enugu, who resided in South Africa, processed and paid for his papers to join him. He also quartered him. That was the greatest undoing that ruined the life of his friend, Charley, and his wife, and ended Chijioke’s life too.
Charley already had a happy family life with his wife, Amaka, in South Africa before Chijioke came over. All was going well with them. They had a permanent Residency Permit, and both had good jobs. So, when Charley talked about helping his friend, his wife (Amaka) did not object. But they never knew Chijioke would be a sword that would end the family.
For about a year, Chijioke stayed with the family as attempts were made to get papers that would enable him to walk freely and get a good job, too. Charley was committed to helping his frustrated friend get a life. While Charley was combing the town for a job for his friend, Chijioke was more at home since he had yet to have his papers to make him move freely. In the process, familiarity and a bond between Amaka and Chijioke developed and deepened into a fatal attraction – an illicit love adventure erupted. Both threw caution to the wind as they commenced a doomed romance uncensored. Chijioke was eating Charley’s food and bedding his wife under his nose at the same time. Betrayal. With a granite heart, he put a knife to the heart of the family that wanted the best for him. Charley was so trusting that he naively did not suspect or pay attention to the freehold interrelations between Chijioke and his wife.
While this was going on, Charley’s wife took in and gave birth to a baby boy named Godswill. Godswill indeed. A modest naming ceremony was held, and Chijioke played the role of a good family friend in organizing it.
A few months later, people around, including Charley, started getting curious about Godswill. The baby’s resemblance to Chijioke started becoming visible each passing day. Chijioke had a narrow face, with a long nose and an oblong head. Godswill dominantly manifested and complemented all these in Chijioke with an elfin (pointed) ear and peasant foot. All these are in sharp contrast to Charley’s. Godswill was just a spitting mini-version of Chijioke. No doubt, he had a strong gene.
For real, the resemblance between the Godswill and Chijioke was genetic. Curiously, if Charley comes home and stretches his hands to take or play with Godswill, he would start crying. But at the sight of Chijioke, he would squirm and get excited. He became more comfortable in his arms. It got more real with Godswill’s first baby steps. He had developed bow legs like Chijioke. The resemblance was no longer a mere speculation or a subjective opinion; it has become well pronounced. At a point, intuitively, Charley stopped playing with the innocent boy.
A palpable, sober atmosphere ruled the house as the trio began to notice the unwholesome development. But all kept mute and confused. No one could say what was happening. Amaka and Chijioke knew what had happened and what was happening, except Charley, who was acting on a strong suspicion. Amaka and Chijioke usual interactions disappeared, leading to them avoiding each other in the house. Charley was getting more confused and becoming less responsive to issues at home.
It was no longer in doubt that Chijioke fathered Godswill. But how the situation would play out remained unknown to them.
Charley was deeply hurt and pained, and kept his anger bottled. He started experiencing psychogenic trauma and was almost getting into depression. He needed serious counsel fast before he would explode, but he was afraid to discuss with anyone because of the sensitivity of the issue.
One day, he got his act together and decided to confront the obvious. But, how? Early morning, on a Sunday, September 2001, Charley left home. The wife thought he had gone to the Church as he does sometimes. But when he returned around 8 am, Charley had become a different person. Could it be that he went to take drugs or what? But Charley does not drink alcohol or take cigarettes. He banged into his own house like an armed robber. The truth was that Charley was armed with a gun.
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Charley yelled, ‘Amaka, Chijioke, come out. I say, come out”. The wife came out first with her son, crying. She saw the gun and went down immediately. He asked her to drop the baby off in the room. Chijioke came out too and was shaking, hiding behind the curtain. He held his hands to his chest with a pounding pulse. The weight of a guilty conscience had overwhelmed the two who had ventured into a deadly adventure. Charley’s cool mien had given way. Tragedy was not just imminent; it had come. At this point, my friend’s courage failed him
With rage and a bipolar disorder, Charley yelled twice ‘Amaka, who is the father of Godswill?” (Amaka, Ònye bụ ezigbo nna Godswill?”). She kept quiet and faced down. Charley moved forward and cocked the gun. Amaka shouted, ‘It’s Chijioke, Chijioke’. Charley turned to Chijioke, ‘you are the father of Godswill. Yes?’ Chijioke went down, begging. ‘Again, tell me, you are the father of Godswill’. ‘Yes, yes. But please, don’t kill me”, Chijioke pleaded.
Charley blew hot air from his nostrils, looked up and down, stepped back, held his teeth tightly, lifted the rifle, and breathed deeply. The duo had collapsed on the floor. Charley paused for about a minute. There was an eerie silence. Even Godswill kept sealed lips in the room as the event that would turn his destiny was about to happen. Charley stamped his feet hard on the floor. “Gboah, gboah,’’, Charley had blown off my friend’s head. He ran into the room as his wife ran out. He looked at the innocent boy; he wanted to shoot him. But he had a change of mind. He spared Amaka, too may be because he realized that he was the one who brought the viper home.
Chijioke’s action was beyond perfidy and what Americans call inappropriate. He unzipped wrongly, ruined a once-blissful family, and paid dearly for it.
Charley was jailed for voluntary manslaughter (maybe he is still serving jail), while Amaka went back to her parents at Nnewi Otolo, Anambra State, Nigeria, virtually empty except with Godswill, who would live without a father.
Chijioke, my agbunwa friend, I mourn your death. I knew you to be a courageous man, but this time, your courage betrayed you.
May your soul rest in peace.
