Uju...a product of bad parenting

Forty five years have gone by and I’m still waking up alone. Most of my friends are happily married with children, while I’m stuck with two children, both products of a failed marriage. I had been married briefly to Gozie but we separated after he discovered I had an affair with his Father. I never really loved Gozie anyway, our marriage had been arranged by our parents, particularly my Father who was trying to score political points with Gozie’s Father, the then Governor of Anambra State.

 I look in the mirror each day and wonder where my youthfulness went. Back in my undergraduate days, everyone knew me as Uju, the girl who won most beautiful four years consecutively. From the moment I stepped into the University of Abuja no other beauty could be compared to mine. All the males on campus, including my lecturers, wanted a piece of me, and they got it. I was drunk with the praises I received from men that I soon became the most beautiful campus slut. I also had many girlfriends, all succumbing to me because my Father was a Senator, and they were in search for rich male companions. That was how I got introduced to “aristo”, not because I needed the money these men gave me, but because I wanted to live up to the expectations of my so called girlfriends.

My first target was Uncle Arinze. He was my father’s best friend, and co-legislator in the Senate. I had caught him winking at me a few times when he visited. One day he came home to visit, but my parents were not home, I was home with my siblings. Uncle Arinze chose to wait for my parents as my Father had desperately pleaded with him to wait. My Father embarrassed me sometimes with the way he glorified Uncle Arinze, and other dignitaries who visited. Most of these men spoke rudely to him, and treated him like dirt. When they left, my Father would sigh and say “when I become Governor, I will have my revenge”. My Father was so desperate to become the Governor of Anambra state; I have never seen a man that desperate. Now back to Uncle Arinze. I led Uncle Arinze into my Fathers special parlor where he received only people he considered important. He received others, including all of our relatives, in another parlor. I would usually have left Uncle Arinze alone in the sitting room, but that day I sat on the couch opposite him. I was wearing a low neckline t-shirt, which revealed my cleavage, and I caught Uncle Arinze staring at them several times.

“Are you through with your university?” Uncle Arinze asked in his strong Igbo accent”.

“Not yet, I’ve only just begun my second year”

“Good Good” he said. “You are a big woman now, very ripe” he said, his eyes fixed on my cleavage the whole time. “What is your GSM number?” he asked.

I walked over to meet him to enter my number into his mobile phone. My girlfriends had told me about Uncle Arinze, and the number of girls in Abuja  that had shared a bed with him, so I was not surprised when he boldly placed his hands on my left breast.

“Uncle Arinze!” I said

“Don’t shout you are a big girl, I know you are not innocent” he said

“But Uncle you are my Father’s friend”

“It does not matter, I will not tell him”

“Uncle I can’t”

“What do you want, tell me, anything and I will give it to you?”

That was the magic question I was hoping he would ask so I could have him wrapped around my fingers.

            I met Uncle Arinze at a hotel later that day. That was the beginning of my carnal escapades with my Father’s so called friends. My girlfriends were so proud of me. Some were envious that I could have any man I wanted. My reputation soon preceded me and I had many dignitaries seeking for me. After I got married to Gozie, I still did not stop. I found myself not being satisfied with the attention from one man, I wanted to be the adoration of many men. This was how I got into bed with Gozie’s Father. Gozie’s Father was a man of disrepute just like my Father and all his other friends who were worshipped by many and so were oblivious of their foolishness. They lived on the praises of their subordinates, and could buy friends with money and power.

            After Gozie left me, I still continued with my escapades. He never told my parents why he left, neither did I. His Father gladly convinced my parents that Gozie always had issues and would come around. I knew he only did that to save his image. It has been ten years since Gozie left, He got re-married five years after he left me and although I thought I didn’t love him, I was devastated.

              My Father though currently in his late seventies still aspires to become the Governor of Anambra State. It disgusts me to see him now worship men young enough to be his sons in an attempt to score political points. My mother on the hand is still a weak, money hungry woman spurring my Father in his pursuit to destruction. Looking at my daughters, a nine and an eight year old, I hope I can be a better example to them, but then as a single mother, it all seems impossible to achieve.