She Came To Me in Tears

She told me things were now so bad for her family that feeding was even difficult for them. And they have an eviction notice deadline threatening them as well.
She could not even repair her faulty Blackberry and now returned to her old feature phone she had to hold with a rubber band.
She was now a shadow of the tall black, bold and beautiful model who braved the stormy weather to attend the second edition of our annual film festival over a year ago.
She was feeling really miserable as she came into my office and even dressed like someone who was mourning in a black gown with a black weave on and black shoes to complete the picture. I put my arms around her to comfort her, because at this moment she really needed a hug of sympathy.
Telling her to smile in the face of adversity would not really help now.
What mattered most was to comfort her.
But what of all the big boys and big men she was name dropping and all the Salsa at the upscale clubs in Ikoyi and Victoria Island in Lagos? And she dated a few, including two married ones.
"Oh, they cannot help me."
"Really?"
They have had their turns, dumped her and moved on to their next targets and they do come cheap in a country where over 85 million of the people live below the standard poverty level and over 33 million of them are jobless.
YouWin or not, majority of Nigerian youths are literally living like paupers now and left with defeatist and escapist resolutions and in fact many are committing suicide whilst their rulers and accomplices are still dining and wining from Delta to Abuja and from Lagos to Kano.
Then she dropped the most urgent affliction.
An infection that would cost her over $100 to cure.
[i]The wandering chickens have come home to roost [/i].
This is a common infection among those who have to share toilets with several co-tenants in tenements, in hostels on campuses or at clubs.
The description can be nauseating. So, let me not give you the ugly details.
Many poor girls have this infection in their private parts and still go on to have sex with as many boys and men who can pay their bills and end up sharing and spreading the contagious disease.
But ignorant guys who cannot control their lust become their willing victims as they chase and sleep with anything with a VAGINA even if she has a leaking vagina with a sore, they careless. And the married ones have passed on the disease to their innocent wives and girlfriends along the way.
The litanies of woes are endless.

She needed help and needed it urgently.
Her baggage is no longer "Its my life. Please, let me be. Mind your business."
Her misery is now my burden and the burden of the next person she would break down for.
[i]My dear, your life is everybody's business, because when the cookie crumbles, and troubles come to you, you will need more than your two hands to pick up the pieces or even take your pills [/i].
That was how the Nigerian Facebook murder victim became everybody's nightmare after she did not even tell her ignorant parents the business partners she was flying to see in Lagos. It was her business and they paid for her flight and hotel accommodation. Then later raped and murdered her. And all the time and money spent on her education and welfare by her parents, friends and others became wasted. Now you see that your life is everybody's business now or at the end of it all.
Or will her corpse carry and bury itself?
As Rick RO$$ sang lately, [i]Hold Me Back niggas[/i].

Almost every Nigerian girl ends up like this one in tears now one day, because they have either ignored or failed to learn from the past mistakes of others and thus failed to learn from the lessons of life in this fair and foul world.

"You need a job that will guarantee a regular income and I will see what I can do assist your family before the Shylock landlord evicts you."
The worst thing that can happen to you in Lagos is to be broke and homeless.
She got some money for her transport fare back home.
She has been the one visiting me and I have never visited her, but only spoke a couple of times to her mom on phone.
I hardly visited any of these girls since I returned to Lagos about four years ago.
One of them had to hold on to my book to compel me to visit her after 10 years.
Even when one of them thought I came to see her, I said that it was her mom I wanted to see.
I cannot care for everybody.
I am not Jesus Christ.
At the bus stop, she broke down again and I had to use my fingers to wipe away her tears as passers by in vehicles and on foot could not help but look. I had to return to my office and think of what to do to help her out of her present embarrassment and predicament.
But it will surely pass.



~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima , Author of Scarlet Tears of London, In the House of Dogs and other books.







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