November 28, (THEWILL) – With the failing security in Nigeria and the fall of societal values, an increasing number of people are committing capital offences and receiving death or long sentences. Through the narration of the personal stories of the inmates, this Prison Series seeks to examine some of the social issues that have led to the incarceration of inmates on death row (also known as ‘condemned’) and those with life sentences with a view to educating the public particularly the youth about situations and choices that could be avoided.
Chioma’s Story
Part 1
Chioma sat in front of her husband, Nnamdi while she listened to her mother-in-law, Nneka’s list of complaints against her. Neither she nor her husband spoke while Nneka was talking. Chioma had tried to interrupt her but Nnamdi, sensing that she might have something to hide, cautioned her to remain silent until Nneka finished speaking. “I have been dealing with her rudeness since she came here. She is very stubborn and does not listen to anything I say. When you are not around, she does not even go with me to the farm. She only pretends when you visit”. As she talked, she was watching her son to see if her words were making any impact. Every time he came home to visit, there was a long list of complaints on both sides and she could see that he was beginning to lose interest.
Nneka was tired of her daughter in law. In her opinion, she was definitely not wife material. She couldn’t run any errands and she didn’t even take proper care of her own children. Their relationship had been strained from the first day they met but her son was so besotted with Chioma’s beauty, he would not listen to anything his mother said. Over the years their relationship had deteriorated rapidly and since Chioma moved to the village, it had hit rock bottom. They barely spoke to each other now except to exchange rude comments or argue. Chioma had a violent temper and an unforgiving nature. Nneka would do anything to make her son send her away but nothing seemed to work. She paused for a minute, just for effect to make her next words sink in. She was going in for the kill. She started again and slowly delivered the final jab. “But all that is not even the main thing” she continued “the worst part is that every evening she will sit in front of the house with Onochie the wine tapper’s son till everyone has gone to sleep. No one knows what they are doing there”. She left that last bit hanging as she looked up to see the effect this new information had on her son; she was not disappointed. Nnamdi’s head snapped up and his eyes narrowed as he turned to Chioma. “Is this true?”, he asked her. His interest was stirred now and he watched her closely to detect any signs of guilt.
Chioma said nothing. She just lowered her eyes and remained silent. She wasn’t going to say anything. There was no point. No one would believe her anyway. Indeed, she had been talking to Onochie as her mother-in-law said but he was just her friend. That does not mean there was anything untoward between them but she knew it looked bad. Married women were not supposed to have nocturnal meetings with men so what could she say? She knew her mother-in-law had played her trump card and this might just be the end but she would play it cool to see if she could wiggle out of it as she had done with other accusations in the past. This was not the first one. The last time it was Kelechi another close friend, another innocent relationship and before that it had been Kene. Her mother-in-law spent all her time watching her like a detective and couldn’t wait for her son to return to start presenting her reports. Sometimes she would even send for him. Each time it would end in a big fight and Nneka would be happy to see them quarrel. As far as she was concerned, Nneka was a wicked witch who had married her own son in the spirit realm hence she was so jealous of her.
Chioma didn’t even understand why she was in the village in the first place. She had been living with her husband in Owerri. They were very happy when they were living together without Nneka. Her husband was very industrious. He was working and also ran a little business on the side. He sold cars which his brother sent to him from Germany. He always gave her money when she needed it and they had a nice house. She didn’t want to go to the village but Nnamdi wanted to study and felt it would be too much for him to manage studying, working and taking care of his family at the same time. Also, his mother was getting old and he thought Chioma could take care of her and assist her with the farming so that they could have another income stream. But instead, all they did was quarrel.
When he couldn’t get a response from Chioma, Nnamdi knew the answer. It was not the first time a similar accusation had been made but she would never confess. If you like question her for several days, she will continue to deny. But in the absence of concrete evidence how can you prove anything? Nnamdi had his suspicions. Why must all her friends be men and why must she always meet them late at night? He knew his mother was right about Chioma but he didn’t know what to do about it anymore. If he sent Chioma away, who would look after his children? This was really his dilemma and the reason he had not ended it but how much more could he take?
Chioma’s mother and grandmother provided the answer to their problems the next day. Chioma had gone with the children to Mbaise to visit the two old women. She told them what had transpired with her mother-in-law. Her grandma was furious. “When will this end?” she fumed. “Does that woman want to kill you for us?”.
Chioma had lived with her grandmother for several years as a child, throughout her primary and secondary school in fact. Her parents were living in Lagos when she was born and as a very young child, they took her to Mbaise to live with her maternal grandmother. She was the apple of her grandma’s eyes and she could do no wrong. Grandma ignored Chioma’s stubborn and wilful spirit and always made excuses for her bad behaviour. Sometimes she would spend hours begging Chioma to help her with her chores till the neighbours came out to join in the pleading. But Grandma would not get angry. “It is because she is very intelligent” she would explain to anyone who cared to listen. Usually no one did. Chioma was actually quite clever though and got top grades in school. She was going to be a medical doctor and Grandma had looked forward to being called Nnenne Doctor.
Chioma’s mother agreed with Grandma. If this state of affairs continued, it could be very damaging to Chioma’s health. She suffered from severe migraines which was the reason she had not achieved her ambition to study medicine. After secondary school Chioma had decided to take a break from school for a while. She had completed her WAEC and NECO exams and passed all her subjects but she wanted to work for a while before continuing her education. Her plan had been to go abroad for further education. She had hoped that if she worked for a couple of years, she would be able to get a student visa. She had it all worked out and she was very hopeful. Her parents had moved from Lagos to Abuja by this time and she had joined them there. Her father was a driver for a foreign company and her mother worked for the government. They had all lived together with her siblings in Nyanya. Chioma was the second to the last of the six children.
It was around this time also that Chioma started her journey with the Sabbath (white garment) church. She had met a prophetess popularly known as Mama Jo who wanted her to ‘work’ with her in the church. Working in the church meant seeing visions (which Mama Jo said she had a gift for), prophesying, conducting special prayers and collecting tithes and other payments. She didn’t want to work in the church but she started attending services regularly.
Mama Jo was a powerful prophetess with the Cherubim and Seraphim church and had the ‘sight.’ She had told Chioma that her dreams to go abroad and become a doctor would never be realised as there was a “bad force” following her and they would have to do great “spiritual work” to get rid of it. Disturbed, Chioma had gone home and told her mother about the prophecy but she was very dismissive of such superstitions. Members of Chioma’s family were all staunch Catholics and she herself had been baptised, received holy communion and confirmed in the Catholic church. Her mother had told her to pray and stay away from the Sabbath and all their negative prophecies but Chioma was hooked and continued her dalliance with the Sabbath church like the moth that knew it could get burnt by the naked flame but could not stay away. That was the beginning of Chioma’s problems but at that point she didn’t know it.
Chioma had befriended an Air Vice Marshal who had helped her to get a job in the air force by putting her name on the supplementary list. She was accepted and after the initial training she expressed a desire to become a flight attendant. The first day she went into work after her training, she developed a serious migraine which made it impossible for her to continue. Mama Jo had said it was a marine attack but her mother was not interested in that prophecy. She took Chioma back to the village to get some native remedies and from that point on, all her dreams were shattered.
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