‘Nothing disempowers a people like the hopelessness that rule of law bows to whims of men. And unfortunately most of us have chosen to be neutral in these cases of injustice, this choice of ours to indirectly take the side of the oppressor by keeping mum, is the reality of the Nigerian state’
MY mother was the mother of all hopes. As a melancholic child, I had a lot of mood swings. She knew me as only one other woman has done, she knew when to sing to me or cook me my favorite meal and she knew when to say her favorite words of hope “Everything will be alright, you are the big deer, the child I midwived”
That’s an experience she never failed to share with me, according to her, when the time came for her to give birth to me, she found herself alone and all the women who could have assisted her were not around. My father had gone to the island where he worked at the Ministry of Health for the Lagos state government and my older brothers were off to school.
But after five deliveries before me, I guess she knew what to do. She gave birth to me all by herself, cut the umbilical cord, cleaned up herself, and called the neighbors, that’s when she was taken to the hospital
She will always tell me that story to let me know I was special, I am sure she had a way to encourage my other siblings too. My mum and I shared that special relationship. But as beautiful as that relationship was, it didn’t keep me from crying the day that Maria was raped.
I have always had women in my life, and Maria was my “water partner”. When I had to fetch water from number 44 or go as far as Sam Shonibare Street, and no one was willing to go with me, Maria was ever willing, even if it means helping to fetch water for my mother.
Though she was a few years older than me, we had that bond, that feminine friendship that every boy needs in their life. My theory
So, you can imagine how I felt when Maria, crying, stepped out of Oga Dominic’s room that faithful Sunday morning
I remember it was Sunday because my mother was making rice and pepper stew and I had the duty of watching over it. From my position in the kitchen, I had a good view of oga Doninic’s room. His room was the last in the row of twelve rooms, just before the kitchen
So when Maria stepped out of his room, in tears. My initial thought was what had she done to make Oga Dominic spank her, but she was walking funny, and her Sunday dress looked…, and why was she holding her pant
It was mama ifeanyi who saw her next and immediately she was screaming in the Igbo language “Dominic imekwe ozo, Dominic!!!”.
What has Oga Dominic done? I asked myself, but as hard as I tried my 8-year-old mind couldn’t understand it.
From that moment all hell broke loose. Maria was now wailing. My mother ran out and joined the women banging on Oga Dominic’s door.
As I watched Maria sobbing, I felt the tears in my eyes, not that I fully understood what had happened to my friend, but she was crying, all the women were screaming, a few of the men had come out and I could hear raised voices in Oga Dominic’s room
Something terrible has happened to my friend and so I cried, not knowing why exactly, the tears streamed down freely, while my mother’s stew burnt
That was the last time I ever saw Maria, she was taken to hospital and a few days later her aunt took her back to her parents in Iseleukwu.
I tried to make sense of it all, but my 8-year mind couldn’t fully grasp it all, My mother just told me to stay away from Oga Dominic. And when I tried to pry further she simply said to me “Everything will be alright, Maria will be alright”
The painful thing about Maria’s rape at Ajose Street was that we all knew who did it and as far as I know, nothing was done to him. Oh Maria’s aunt shouted and threatened, the police even came to pick Oga Dominic up the next day, but he was back that evening, in front of number 38, laughing and drinking beer with his friends
That rape of justice has stuck with me through the years. Nothing hurts as when we daily see in our nation that there is no guarantee of justice, at every level people can blatantly disobey the law, and the more politically connected they are the greater the evil they can get away with, men have indeed become gods in this land.
Nothing disempowers a people like the hopelessness that rule of law bows to whims of men. And unfortunately most of us have chosen to be neutral in these cases of injustice, this choice of ours to indirectly take the side of the oppressor by keeping mum, is the reality of the Nigerian state
In the mist of this I have learnt to hold on to the words of hope “Everything good will come”. True, I believe in a nation where justice isn’t slain in her streets. Like my mother, I daily join my voice to the voice of the hopeful in Nigeria to say again and again “Everything good will come”
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But as Benjamin Franklin rightly said “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.
*Chiadika, theatre, television and movie director, writes from Lagos
