The Jos confrontation provides a foretaste of the clash between Jamin and his dad over his choice of non-Tiv as a wife
By Lechi Eke
Continued from last week…
So, Jamin was on his way to his parents’ opulent Rayfield GRA house, a sprawling mansion stretching over two thousand acres of grounds with a man-made waterfall emptying itself into a man-made pond lined with rare obsidian rocks. The 28-servant-strong mansion boasted of a golf course, a lawn tennis court, two Olympic-size swimming pools and a helipad. Mesmerising landscapes and beautiful drives lined with ornamental trees and date palms made it a rich man’s paradise. It also flaunted an orchard flourishing with exotic fruits. Many public figures were often sighted here.
Rayfield GRA is a residential area south of the chilly hilly city of Jos in Plateau state, east central Nigeria, an area known as Middle Belt just like Benue state. Jos, an iron ore city sits on top of the Jos plateau that rises about 5, 250 feet above sea level.
While airborne, Jamin tried to steer his mind off the little tiff he had with Ulari. Just before boarding his flight at the Murtala Mohammed Lagos International airport, he had chatted with her. From what she moaned about, he asked, “What level are you expecting to graduate with? Like, what will make you happy?”
“Why do you ask?”
He demurred and then replied, “The Minister of Education can ensure you…”
“What?” It was so loud Jamin removed the phone from his ear. She had become very angry; first time in his life he had seen her really angry. Of all things, he had to offend her! He felt very bad; she accused him of being like his father who thought everything could be bought or fixed, including her love. “Money is a defence and not for human excesses,” she ended icily.
That altercation humbled him. Never had he given a thought to the uses of money. He used money for purchases, like purchasing happiness for Ulari’s father after digging into his life and finding out he battled debts. Also, Felix, Ulari’s older brother, whom he got a stable well-paying job for. These things made him sleep well. But he wasn’t going to pay the minister; just to ask him to see to it that Ulari wasn’t cheated, that was all. Okay, so maybe that was going too far, but he was brought up to use his influence and money as people use people like him to step up in life. Now, Ulari thought he was a bad person.
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Still sore about the tiff when the chopper landed on their private helipad, Jamin hurried briskly to one of the many luxury golf carts parked neatly by the helipad to take people to his parents’ quarters. Remembering his conversation with his chatterbox sister, Iveren, before he left for the airport, he became disturbed that perhaps his family were not good people after all. He heard Iveren again, yakking…
“I was very prayerful you know. You must be prayerful, Jamin honey, for I perceive there’s a demon after marriage. (Jamin nodded). I told the Lord whatever your plans and aspirations for me are, please, make my little Edward have his own father and the Lord honored me. Ed’s call woke me up one morning. He asked if he could stop by the house to visit with me and I said yes. I kinda knew what was up so I dressed carefully for him and he was apologetic saying how sorry he was for hurting me all those years and said he’d thought it through and knew I was the one. He couldn’t live with another gurl under one roof and would I want to set up house with him? I said yes. And you know he was carrying this rock (she showed her ring finger) in his pants’ pocket and there in Aunty Engy’s living room, he got down on one knee and offered it to me. Later, he confided in me that he ordered the ring from Jacob’s several months ago and had actually carried it to another gurl but something in him didn’t let him give it to her. Well, that was my prayer, my passionate prayer to God for my little Edward. And daddy said no with Ed being so amazingly cuter than he was in his twenties. I’m sure mom woulda traded dad in for Ed if she had the opportunity and my sisters too. Ed’s so hot (Jamin smiled. Listening to Ivy was the price you pay for staying with her. She was brutally loquacious). Now, can you imagine dad saying no to you? You know I told him that a woman’s biological clock ticks fast, I’d not be twenty-one and hot forever. Is he in the Stone Age or what? In fact, (she picked up her cell phone) I’ll call him now and say to him, ‘Dad, this is the 21st century, you know?’ He needs confrontation.”
Jamin jerked up. “You’d do no such thing,” he said firmly.
“But dad needs confrontation,” Iveren whined.
That was when Jamin decided to go to Jos to confront his dad. They needed to look themselves in the face. They were both soldiers, trained for military intelligence.
But seriously, Jamin thought, there was something wrong with their father. It seemed he hated people happy. Look at Iveren, despite weeping day and night and praying for her little boy, Edward, to have his own father, when Ed finally came to his senses and returned to marry Iveren, their father said no! What kind of father was that? As a matter-of-fact, he had said no to everybody’s intended except Umar, Princess Evelyn’s husband, because his father was his friend.
“You really are a Christian and dad knows it, being so long without even a girlfriend! It’s wicked of anyone to refuse you now,” Ivy said.
Jamin wanted to say that it wasn’t for sex that he wanted to marry, and therefore needed no special treatment for living in abstinence. Then, he thought better of it not wanting to fuel Ivy’s talkativeness.
“You know, my friends don’t believe you’ve been without for sooooo long. They believe you got a secret lover somewhere who’s contented to be a kinda kept woman (her voice dropped to a whisper even though she knew no one could hear her in the soundproof room). You know, they all wanna marry you. Like my friend, Hemba, she’s had a crush on you since we were kids. ’Don’t know why you never considered her. She’s so pretty and fragile-looking like a stalk of fresh budding plant and her backside, Jesus! You liked her before Benita, didn’t you?”
Jamin grunted and said, “I think I’ll go to Jos, today, now, in fact!”His mind was instantly made up. He had never shied away from battles.
“She called me recently and asked after you and I said to her, ‘Hemmy, some gurl has stolen the Wan Tor’s heart, I’m sorry to tell you.’ And she began to sob.”
“She’s not serious,” Jamin said and rose to his feet. He began to dial a number on his phone.
“Don’t be callous, honey, some gurls can love.”
“Now, save some of your stories, Ivy. The story was on some tabloid mags…”
“Hemmy doesn’t read them. You know, they’ve been mean to her.”
Jamin was already speaking on the phone to Pastor Marfi. After him, he called Ed Hemen and then called his valet and his orderly.
“Help me recharge Ruth,” he said. “I’m taking her home and from there to the airport.”
As Jamin got off the golf-cart, the chopper waiting for him, for he intended not to spend time with people who were bent on hurting him, he allowed himself to be angry at his parents, afresh. And, it was very bitter at the pit of his stomach.
His parents had trespassed against him – going to snatch his girl from school was a trespass against him and what does the Bible say about that? If thy brother shall trespass against thee (well, God has no grandchildren, he mused, so, his parents are his brethren in the Lord!) go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone (well, that’s what he was going to do, tell them alone.
What kind of a Christian was his father? Jamin fumed. The Assemblies of God Church should excommunicate him because tribalism is a sin. How could they set out to hurt him? His taut muscular frame expanded inside his light blue Prada cotton shirt with rage. His squared jaws and lips set in a grim purse and his bloodshot eyes under hooded eyelids painted a picture of a determined bull. He would not concede in this battle, and was ready to walk out of that mansion without the family name: ready to lose everything! But his steps faltered at the thought of his father. The retired soldier would not concede defeat in a battle either! So that made two of them –the grass would suffer.
Apart from Ed’s findings, he, Jamin, was armed with some old newspapers’ news about his parents’ past. He read how cold-bloodedly his father dropped his fiancée for his mother and nobody killed him. His long swift strides carried him to his mother first.
He couldn’t surprise them, the noise of the chopper, the well secured mansion… doors were opening already as he drew near. Barely acknowledging profuse greetings from concierges, he made straight to his mother’s quarters. Her betrayal hurt him more.
Princess Dooshima was trying on a red gown for a ball organised for people living with HIV/AIDS that she was billed to attend that evening when he walked in. She looked slightly matronly but her face which she had lifted twice and recently done what they call computerized complexion analysis looked good for a 67-year-old woman. There was a lull in the air. Then she cried, “My boy!”
“I’m not a boy, Princess Dooshima. I’m a man and I want to be treated as such,” he said icily.
“Okay, so, you’re angry…” she said. Her lady attendant curtseyed and left them.
“How could you, ngom? How could you conspire with your husband to do me evil? You and dad have trespassed against me. That girl is precious to me. I fasted for three months, three months, ngom, for a wife because I didn’t want to miss God. There are many girls out there, but only one is meant for me. I sought God for her.”
Princess Dooshima sat down. This was a different Jamin, the one in love with another woman. For her, he’d ignored his mother. She examined her fingernails vanished rich scarlet, the exact hue of her ball gown then she looked at the mirror and parted her short indigo-tinted pick and drop that stopped around her ears making her son more furious.
“I’m very angry with you, ngom. As enlightened as you are, you sent Sister Evelyn to tell me about ancient landmarks…”
Princess Dooshima maintained her silence.
“What do you think Christianity is for, to secure you another beautiful place to go to in heaven after you’ve lived and enjoyed this world? Why do you think God left us here after we were saved, for fellowship? Why, we can fellowship with Him in heaven. He left us here to bring about societal change, to show people a better way. We are agents of change, mother.” He paused to take in air and his mother still said nothing.
“We’re not to continue the ancient landmark, ngom, we’re to change it and enforce a better landmark. Why didn’t you study native medicine and continue in the practice of akambo-ata? Why did you spend time to learn orthodox medicine- was it not to better the lot of your people and stop avoidable infant mortality?”
“Because you want an Igbo girl, Benjamin, you want Tiv laws to bend in your favour, isn’t it? Well, I cannot help-” Princess Dooshima said in a quiet grim tone.
“Who said you cannot help? You’re a voice in the House of Torkular. If you’d prayerfully said to dad, honey, we’ve missed it, he’d listen. The girl you call a foreigner is a child of God. All you two needed to do was to talk to the Tor and to the royal council. (He stopped and looked at her with a puzzled expression, then in a changed tone asked) Ngom, did you pray about this? Did you and dad kneel down to ask God if the Igbo girl was indeed my wife? (Dooshima continued to examine her hands, and Jamin’s voice rose). Don’t you know you’re a royal priesthood? The ancient prophet Malachi said that men should seek knowledge from your lips cos you know the way. In matters like this, you’re to speak up.”
Jamin’s voice almost broke and his mother showed concern. She knew what harm adrenaline and bile could do in the bloodstream; the tirade was caustic.
“Please, sit down. You know it’s God that created tribes and kingdoms and made some royal and others the hoi polloi – we’re only the enforcers of the natural laws.”
Jamin ignored the invitation to sit down – they don’t sit down to fight.
“What laws? Do you not understand that kingdoms, tribes and tongues were created as structures for more effective governance, in order to avoid chaos? Do you not understand that we as Christians are agents of societal change? You’re to improve on the rule of law and on things unwittingly laid down by unenlightened men. Why were you educated? Did you learn paediatric medicine for you to continue to consult spirits and make sacrifices to unseen demons when children fall sick or did you learn it to deliver your people from darkness and misery and unnecessary deaths? How can you continue the tradition of the elders when you see clearly that it is not for the common good and does not promote the kingdom of God which is the kingdom that would never come to an end? Our kingdom is transient, and you know it.”
Jamin turned abruptly and walked out of her room. But he heard her voice as he approached his father’s door, say, “Knock and greet your father.”
Big Ben was in his office standing by the window looking outside. He did not turn when his son and his mother walked in. Seeing him like that in his 6 feet 4 inches solid well-tone muscles, Jamin’s confidence faltered.
“Yees, Benjamin,” his father drawled without turning, “how may I help you?”
A holy audacity came upon Jamin and he said, “Sir, I’m here to plead with you to please, help me talk to the royal council to allow me marry the girl God Almighty gave to me.” Jamin sensed his words affected his mother immediately.
“And what if I refuse? And who am I to you? And why should I help?”
“You’re my father, and you should be interested in my welfare.”
“Are you interested in mine?”
“Yes, I am. I’ve always loved you and gone out of my way to make you happy.”
“Yes, I saw it. I saw it when you gathered MUT and MUTA against the royal family, your own family. I saw it when you heard I was sick and you visited me.” Big Ben turned to face Jamin. Princess Dooshima stood leaning on the wall near the door, her face worried. “I will not call you a son that brings shame. What kind of love will make you gather strangers against your family? Is it ordinary love? I cannot even say anything about that lousy civilian who married Iveren. Hasn’t it dawned on you that you’re under an influence, that you’ve eaten a love portion? Your mother said the girl is a witch…” Jamin turned swiftly to look at her and she turned ashen.
“What!!! Don’t bring me into this Benny. I…I…never said she was. I only prayed against the evil influence of witchcraft,” Dooshima cried.
“Is it not because you knew the love wasn’t ordinary? (Turning to his son, he said) Let me tell you grown man; you’ll Never marry a non-Tiv. Better get that into your skull!”
“Father,” Jamin said his hands by his side, his feet apart and his head cocked looking into his father’s face in a most prodigal way, “I will obey God in this matter.”
Big Ben’s face darkened and his eyes turned red. “You’ll marry her if she’s alive!”
“What!!!”
“What have you done?” Dooshima screamed and staggered to a chair.
Jamin was immediately concerned for her. “Mum!” he cried. “Are you alright?”
“I will not sit by and watch you destroy the royal stool, even if you’ve been made mad,” Big Ben said and turning away from his wife, returned to look out of the window.
“Mum’s breathing is not alright,” Jamin said to his father.
“Then, you’ve added murder to your CV. You are a rebellious son, but I won’t let you destroy us with your madness.”
“You don’t care about your own wife? The royal stool is more important than your beloved wife?”
“Get me an inhaler,” Princess Dooshima croaked.
Big Ben crossed over to his desk and pulled a drawer and brought an inhaler. Jamin took it from him and handed it over to his mother. She began to inhale it. There was quiet. Jamin glancing at his father saw he too was worried. Jamin was scared. He didn’t know when his mother began to use an inhaler.
As if reading his thoughts, his father said, “Your so-called love has destroyed our health.”
Jamin was quiet and looked like someone thinking, but didn’t look remorseful.
“When did she start using an inhaler?” he asked his dad.
“When you got you an Igbo girl. When you made her husband sick.” Big Ben moved to his desk and sat down. Jamin drew a chair and sat beside his mother, his strength dissipated.
“Benny, I told you not to touch the girl,” Princess Dooshima said weakly.
Jamin’s phone began to ring. It was Iveren. He picked it. Her excited voice said, “Check your SMS.”
His father said, “I didn’t kill her.”
Jamin looked at his SMS. A message from Iveren said, “Your apartment has been burnt down. Everything is gone, except your two Dalmatians that leapt out.”
He looked up. His father was staring at him. Jamin said, “Oh, yes, you did. You told them to burn my house with the girl in it.”
“Benny!” his mother cried.
“Let me tell you dad, you’ll summon a meeting of the royal council and tell them to grant me permission to marry whom God has chosen for me. The Tor Tiv knows that the earth is the Lord’s, he’ll not say no.”
“Is that a threat? (Turning to his wife, he said) Believe me, honey, I didn’t order anyone to hurt anyone?” But Dooshima rose to her feet and began to walk to the door. Jamin followed her.
“Honey,” Big Ben called. “Come back.”
They ignored him and walked into the corridor. Pastor Marfi was standing there.
“What are you doing here, Marfi?” Princess Dooshima asked.
“I know what he’s doing here, Mum. You and Dad bought him to be my friend,” said Jamin in a terrible voice.
To be continued next week.