I sat at the veranda and gazed into the mornings with no zest
for life. I am the shadow of my former self and I am just writing this to
advice younger girls out there who think that life is always on a fast lane.
My name is Folasade Arifashela (and I have insisted that MAB
put my real names for publication) and as I write this hoping that it will be
published, it might not be until I have breathe my last breath on mother earth.
I am living with some kind of disease that has shattered conventional medical
wisdom. The doctors have said they don’t know what is wrong with me yet I grow
thinner as the day goes by. I have caused my family lot of pain, sorrow and
regrets and they have spent savings just to see if they can get me some form of
help.
I am the typical aja to
ba ma sonu, ko ni gbo ife’e olode (the hunter dog on a mission to get lost
will not heed to its masters whistling to retrieve). I lived my life with
reckless abandon while I was in the polytechnics. I wanted to wear the best
cloths, go to the best parties and attend the best clubs. I wanted to hang out
with the happening guys and chics in campus and we drove to any campus that was
raving with events and happenings.
I come from a humble background but despite all the pleadings
from my folks and aged mother (because my father abandoned me when I was just 7
years of age) to stop the life style I was living, I thought they were the
antagonist to my pleasures. I saw them as dejectedly poor siblings who envied
my progress in life and the more they warned me, the more I dared! I switched
from just hanging out with the happening peeps on campus to Aristo babe since I
needed to sustain my lifestyle and that is where my problems emanated from. I
started seeing many men who drove into our campus looking for cheap babes to sleep with for the night.
I call them cheap, myself inclusive because I have been-that-done-that and it now is all vanity.
I see girls drive cars on campus whose parents I know are
also not rich and that is the type of life I wanted for myself. I quickly
gathered enough controversies on campus as I snatched my friend’s lovers and I
was not ready to stop until I get super rich. I did it for a while and I began
to grow in rank. At a point I could afford a car but somehow I just felt owning
a car was no more my target but travelling out of the country to settle down.
The guy I gave over 900 thousand naira to help with USA visa and green card
swindled me and I was back to square one.
I didn’t really feel the pain because I was confident that I
could make that money in less than 2 months if I work even harder so I let it
go. But that was just the smallest of the problems coming my way.
Few weeks after, I was in a party when I saw one of the guys
from my campus hanging out with one very cute Alhaji in the party. I quickly
devised a means to get that Alhaji from her so that I can have him to myself.
So I picked my phone, called her and told her some kind of story just to get
her off the Alhaji. As soon as she leaves, I quickly approached Alhaji and lied
to him that the girl he’s chatting with has HIV and I advised him that I can be
of a better service to him if he doesn’t mind. I dropped my phone number and
quickly left his table before my friend returned.
I watched as he dismissed her and gave me a call from his car
to meet him in his hotel room. I was the 007 James Bond of the campus and I was
really happy at how smart I had become. I, the daughter of a petty trader and a
useless father, is in control of my destiny; using what I have to get what I
want. I went in and the Alhaji just smiled, joked a little with me and we went
straight to business. The sex was short and tasteless but who wants romance
when money is involved? He has offered me #200, 000 (two hundred thousand
naira) for just the night. WOW! That was unbelievable! And he gave me the money
before I removed my cloths.
However, after the sex, I noticed that I instantly fell asleep
for a short period and as I woke up, he was already dressed and ready to go. I quickly
checked the money where I kept it and it was still intact. He dashed out of the
room and the number he gave me didn't ring again for life. I left the room
still drowsy but I got home in one piece and slept again for a long period of
time. When I woke up again, I found myself in the hospital. They said I was
forming from my mouth and was breathing really heavily before the incidence.
I am now in the hospital for 8 months and the doctors are
simply keeping me so that when I die, they can use my body for inquisition into
the unanswered medical questions (I once overheard one of the nurses saying it
while she thought I was asleep). I am really sorry for making my mother go
through all she has for me. If I was her, and she was me, I wouldn't do half of
what she has done for me, for her. But I guess motherly instincts and all which
I never connected with while I thought I was enjoying my life.
Someone told my mom that I was used for ritual purpose and
that the mallam/Alhaji took my ori (destiny)
to enrich his and that I am just a living corpse waiting for my time to go. That
once I am gone, the man will go and look for another girl he can use to keep
renewing his wealth.
How that is possible I don’t know but here I am, sitting in
the veranda of the teaching hospital where I have been admitted. I normally
come outside every morning to be dried by the sun because they say I now smell
too. It is such a shame! He who hath an ear let him hear.
I am really sorry for her. May God save her
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