Oti Mkpu

I'm still celebrating me so I'll be sharing some of  my life's experiences for a few days.

Mum was super smart and it felt like she saw things before they happened. So nothing came to her as a surprise, she always had it figured out.

I remember with so much nostalgia those innocent days of letting teenagers walk to nearby popular centres for extra lessons all by themselves.

Life was indeed beautiful in Nigeria. No fear of kidnappers or ritualists or badly behaved policemen and other elements.

I walked about one kilometre from my house in Achara Lay-out to Agbani road in the coal city every other day to attend classes in preparation for my external examinations when the time came.

On my way was this bar which was usually packed full with guys and I was old enough to know that some of the guys usually stared at me as I walked by. That made me miss my step sometimes.

On a particular day one of the guys was actually bold enough to stop me. I always kept a safe distance from that bar by walking on the other side of the road and so it was a bit offensive to me that this hard looking guy crossed over, stood in front of me and asked to speak to me.

When he saw my discomfort, he mentioned big brother's name and said he was his friend and that was kind of an ice breaker. We were on the road in broad daylight so I knew he wouldn't harm me plus he had just one leg and stood there in crutches.

I told him that I was in a hurry but he asked for just a minute and guess what? He just wanted to tell me that his chairman was interested in me. At that point I asked him to please let me go and I carefully walked past him.

In those days, Enugu was notorious for harbouring a lot of fraudsters who threw money around as a bait to get very young girls into their beds.

His chairman was obviously one of the fraudsters judging by the number of sleek cars that were parked in front of the bar that afternoon.

I had a story for my sisters and friends in school and I couldn't wait to tell them of my short encounter with an "oti mkpu" Oti mkpu is an Igbo slang for a man who blows the trumpet of the rich man and runs errands as well.

After that incident I became too conscious of myself whenever I passed that place and sometimes I missed classes just so I wouldn't walk through the notorious bar.

I never saw the chairman but there was no need to. They all looked the same; ugly and with pot bellies. 

A few weeks later my friend Chinwe visited and as I walked her to the street, a surprise waited for me.

To be continued.....