Oga Sunday

In the news recently, was the married housemate in the popular reality show who had a fling with another housemate while participating in the reality television show. The reaction of people was "abomination!", but one remarkable thing that happened this time was that the man in the picture was criticized more for daring to get intimate with another man's wife. The woman in Africa usually takes all the blame in this type of scandal so it was surprising to see that the man was blamed for wooing a woman who was already taken.

Love they say is blind but in this case, I cannot say for sure if it was love or just "konji"

It is easy for men to play the guy code openly but in reality, undercover, men sleep with their fellow men's wives and it is what it is. Again, I reiterate that it is not right but if we had a way of looking into the secret affairs of the people screaming "crucify him! crucify him!, one would see that they are guilty of the same action that they condemn.

A lot of men will say without thinking twice that they can never forgive a wife if caught in the act, which makes me wonder if the ostrich approach is better, act like it is not happening as long as it is not public knowledge.

Until it happens to you, please never say never, Obe was always the one to gossip about other people's wives in the public yard where he lived; he had a liquor store in the compound where most men gathered in the evening after a hard's day's job. The men were mostly peasants, bus drivers, conductors, and wharf rats, they usually gathered from 8 pm, drinking, laughing, and talking about politics and how the country got worse by the day. Sometimes they spoke very loudly trying to talk over the noise of the small generator that powered the small store.

Obe was also the caretaker of the yard and somehow added to his job function the duty of revealing to men that their wives were cheating and even said who they were having affairs with. Obe was often right and this always caused fights between couples. Some of the men who bragged about how they would send their wives packing moved out of the compound out of shame for not being able to put their mouths where their monies were.

One night, Obe messed with the wrong guy, Izunna. This guy had lived in that yard for about two years; rumor had it that his three shops were destroyed in the fire that razed down a part of the Onitsha Main market and so he lost everything he owned. After he recovered from the tragedy of losing everything he worked for, including his fiancee, he relocated to Lagos to start all over.

He drove his Toyota Camry 2000 brand all the way and he was the only tenant in the compound that had a personal car, the other vehicles that parked in front of the compound were colored buses that the bus drivers who were tenants drove back home after the day's job.

He was easily the target of bullying by his fellow-men which was nothing but pure envy but the young ladies and the wives in the yard all struggled for his attention which put him more in "harm's way". He wasn't a regular at Obe's store but anytime he came out to buy a little item like batteries, Obe would persuade him to have a drink on him.

That night, Izunna whose window is right next to Obe's store could not rest because of all the noise that came from the store so he decided that night to join them on his own. His first intention was to ask them to stop all the noise but he knew it would not be a wise thing to do, rather, he sat down and asked for a green bottle.

As soon as he settled to his beer, Obe asked him what he was doing with oga Sunday's wife the day before which was a Sunday. Izu was still trying to wrap his head around the question when Obe continued to accuse him, "you think I did not see her in that your nonsense car? I was in a bus around the National theatre and I saw her sitting in front of your car, and you were headed to one hotel around there"

When Izunna heard National Theatre he realized what day and event Obe referred to, he did not even know whose wife the lady was but he recognized her as someone that lived in the same yard as him when she flagged him down at the bus stop not too far from where they lived.   

The realization that he was being falsely accused of having an affair with someone's wife made him smile sarcastically. He passed out momentarily after a blow landed on his head, when he came to, it was oga Sunday who had hit his head with an unopened bottle of beer, the content was all over Izu and he bled from the head, he saw Obe and other people holding oga Sunday, he rushed at him and dealt him a blow before anyone could stop him, nobody expected that reaction from him; oga Sunday fell to the ground and started jerking, one of the bus drivers asked them to lift oga Sunday into his bus so they could rush him to the hospital.

While they lifted oga Sunday from the ground, Izu gave another blow to Obe who left the part of oga Sunday he was holding to fight back, Izunna beat him up like a baby and because most of the people were more concerned about getting the dying man to the hospital, no one separated the two men as the fought. It was Obe's wife who stood over her husband as he sat on the ground and begged Izu to show mercy.

Obe was too weak to open his store for a week and at the end of that week oga Sunday returned from the hospital, he suffered a mild trauma on the head and almost had a stroke. Izunna contributed to his hospital when another neighbor went around asking for contributions so oga Sunday could be discharged from the hospital. 

Izunna ignored oga Sunday when he greeted him early one morning as he padlocked his door to leave for the market where he traded in used shoes. He had made up his mind not to speak to him again and so he just looked at him and walked on without acknowledging his greeting.

Later that week, oga Sunday visited him in his one-bedroom home; he let himself in because the door was open and he found Izunna eating his dinner of fried akara and yam with the sauce that he bought from another neighbor who fried and sold them by the road close to their compound. Izunna told him that he met him well and asked him to join him.

Oga Sunday apologized to him for being so quick to judge him on that day, Obe had been telling him that he suspected Izunna and his wife and so when he saw his wife in Izu's car, came to the conclusion that something was going on. While oga Sunday was in the hospital, his wife told him all that happened, how she flagged him down on that day and how he went out of his way to drive her all the way to her church.

She also opened up to him that Obe had been the one trying to get into her pants for as long as they lived in that yard, she showed him her bank statements which showed how Obe frequently paid stipends into her account. He also saw a text message where Obe threatened to set her up if she did not refund the money he sent to her to book a hotel where he would meet with her.

He had been dining with the devil all along. Obe was jealous of how friendly oga Sunday's wife was with Izunna, she always greeted him with a smile and let her children run errands for him

Obe could not stand the humiliation, it was even worse as his wife joined others in the yard to make his life miserable, they heard her every night, shouting at him, "eniyan asan", "alagidi", "agbaya" "didirin" "so I am not enough for you, eh olojukokoro?" He left early one morning and it was his wife that told the neighbors that he went to visit his brother that lived in Kano for a while. She continued to run the liquor in her husband's absence with less drama.

A few months later, Izunna moved into a two-bedroom flat in a newly constructed building on the same street. 

Obe returned after about three months and he lived like he was not there, lol, good for him. The MVP for me in this story is Obe's wife.