Pride of Human Wishes
by
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Dr Uche was taking his family to shop for toiletries when they saw the newspaper headline about the patient he had attended to a few days previously. “Varsity Lady Died of Abortion.” He bought the newspaper. His wife collected it and read. Behold, it was the story of her secondary schoolmate. She was shocked. She wept and was touched. “A distasteful story of a once-disciplined life that ended so sadly.” “Do you know her?” asked the husband “That was my secondary schoolmate. My bosom friend in school I once told you about.” “Oh yes, Remi!” “I still do not regret keeping my virginity till after marriage. Imagine how I wept on that first night of our honeymoon! You mean someone, one guy, would have done that to me and walked away all in the name of boyfriend, girlfriend? God forbid!” Uche picked up their son, who was already going after the carefully arranged soaps on the shelf. Nike had met Uche in Ibadan when he was doing his house job a few years back. The words of the Rev. Dr Ojo Aya in school came to Nike: “Those who keep their virginity till after marriage, God gives them sons as gifts for their first child. They don’t experience delay in getting pregnant. Chaste couples who neither kiss nor hug before marriage receive twins as first delivery. God honours holiness.” They had believed then. Now she was older; she wondered if the man of God was saying the gospel truth or just attacking immorality. Whichever it was, it had worked for her as pronounced by the man of God.
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About the Book
A Nigerian called Owokoniran, meaning money has no heritage, a 300-level university student from Ekiti, he grows in affection with a secondary school girl from Ijebu. Both tribes are in South West Nigeria. But because of the unfounded but palpable fear Ekitis nurse against the Ijebus and vice versa, Niran’s parents staunchly opposed the marriage. Each of the dishonest characters in the novel is punished for his little acts of deceit, but like nature’s justice, the quantum of sin does not match the consequence born by each actor, which raises questions about the wishes of the human race.
About the Author
Sunkanmi Afolabi is of Ekiti extraction from southwest Nigeria. He was born on July 5, 1975, in Ijero Ekiti. He attended the Apostolic Primary School in Ijero Ekiti from 1982 to 1987 and had his secondary school education at All Saints' Unity Secondary School in Usi Ekiti, Ekiti State between 1989 and 1993. From 1998 until 2001, he attended the University of Ilorin, in Ilorin, Kwara State, where he studied English language and obtained a bachelor of arts. He tested his writing skills as a regular contributor to the Letters to the Editor column in the top two Nigerian magazines Tell and The News for a period spanning 1998 to 1999. This culminated in his winning the Best Writer of the Week Award in The News magazine on December 21, 1998. Sunkanmi wrote his term paper on Aesthetics of African Literature to deepen his knowledge of African Literature. During his National Youth Service Corps in the cold city of Jos in Plateau State, he wrote his first novel, Pride of Human Wishes. Though it is a modern story, his book demonstrates that the aesthetics of African Literature – proverbs, tales, and chants – have not completely disappeared from the everyday life of an average Nigerian.