Inside Life!

"You are not serious,....I should have left you in the village with mama!

....bringing you to Lagos was for you to get better education,... but now I can see it's a waste of time, energy and money!

Idiot ni geh yi sha!"

He blurted out in anger as he flipped through more blank pages in her notebooks

"But before you turn yourself to nuisance 'maa fee lu ti e ta!'(I will beat you severely)"

In a speed of light, he reached for his belt and before you could say jack...

Fiam fiam fiam!

His military belt lashing at the poor girl all over her body like when soldiers are giving it to a danfo driver who bashed their car!

"Please sir, I am sorry sir, I will change sir.."

She pleaded helplessly before letting out a viscous scream....

All her pleas fell on deaf ears as he lashed out savagely at the poor girl in anger, probably to reset her brain to "factory setting", isn't it what it is called?

"Keep kwayet, keep kwayet!"

He shouted at her.

That part I would never understand, hitting a child and asking her to be quiet!

I stood at a distance, at least two metres away, less the tip of the rolling belt hit me....

"E joor sir, 'o maa change'"
(please sir, she will change)"

.....even though I knew that with all the circumstances surrounding her, "ko le change"!

By this time, he would pause with the beating and turned to me,

"Wo iwe omo yi now, gbogbo e ya danu, eyi ti ko ya, ojo ti pa, a ti e ri nkankan to ko sinu e!"
(Look at this girl's book now, all has torn, the remaining ones are drenched with rain and you can't see whatever was written in it)

I looked forlornly at him and blindly at the books.... terrified!

"Oooooo, se iwo naa ri pe omo yi o serious!"
(You too have seen this girl is not serious)

He said and picked up the belt again and continued from where he stopped..

The most surprising thing,- the neighbours never intervene despite the cries, pleas of the girl, this scared me more....

It wasn't like that from my home town where I came from,

.....someone will sha come and rescue you ni, even though he/she will join in the verbal abuse, the beating would stop!

"Hmm, dadi Dupe e fi sile, awon omo aye sii o kin gboran, e dari ji n tori Oloun!"
(Dupe's dad, please forgive her, children of nowadays, they don't take to simple instructions)

At least one of the neighbours would plead and stylishly collect the cane.

But this Lagos, you are on your own, everyone for himself!

"Eko wenjele!"

I digress,....

Just a matter of time, this scenario would repeat itself, checking of notes, blank pages, woeful or no result sometimes,...

The same tongue lashing!

The same belt lashing!

....so the girl told me, I wasn't always around.

She was in primary school and between 8 to 9 years of age.

I was about 11 or 12 years old at the time.

I had an idea on how everything was the way it was with the girl and the solution, of which her step mother wasn't oblivious of, but for whatever reason, seeing this girl suffer this way was a delight to her!

She would even add fuel to the already burning fire....

"Se mi o so fun e tele pe o ma jiya gbogbo iranu to n se?"
(I told you before that you wouldn't go scot free with all your misbehavior)

This would anger her dad the more and hit her more....

Smh!

Sometimes I blamed myself for not standing up for this girl, but I couldn't, it would have been my word against that of her step mother.

...in this clime where a child should be invisible,....he would have taken side with his wife without thinking...

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My heart goes out to all the children going through any form of abuse right now, may God send helper their way, Amen.

If you are on this table, wicked step mum or dad, whatever you do today will be history tomorrow, please have a change of heart!

Inside life!