A Telephone Conversation(fiction)

There is this saying amongst the Yoruba that goes Thus” Ti adiye ba ku, won kii da eyin re nu” it means “when a rooster chicken dies while laying eggs, her owner does not throw away her eggs. This proverb is applicable when a man dies leaving his children at the mercy of his family..

Traditionally, in Nigeria when a man dies it is expected of his family to adopt and raise the children he left behind as theirs but that is not the case in our society nowadays. Once a man dies, his family will be present in his house for a few days then everyone will move on as if nothing happened leaving the wife to raise the children all by herself.

In some cases, the families will take the children with the promise of taking care of them and sponsoring their education but you will be surprised that seventy to eighty percent of such children are usually subjected to child labour or abuse.

Why am I ranting? A telephone conversation took place in my presence yesterday, the conversation was between a little boy and his mother. The boy called from the place he was taken to complaining to his mother that he was hungry and had not eaten anything since the day before. Then the mother asked didn't your adopted mother give you food? The boy responded from the other end saying I was given spoilt food to eat.

As the conversation was going on, my mind was running a race or should I say marathon. Tell me how difficult it is to raise or feed a child. Better still, if you can not raise them, don't pick them rather than subject the innocent souls to torture.