“OH my God, why should Poju treat me in such a way?,” Biodun soliloquized that Friday evening, all alone in his room. His two kids were sleeping in the living room. “Why must she break my heart?,” he asked himself again. “Can women ever be trusted? Who would dare believe that Poju could stab me in the heart, where it hurts most? Oh my God, she knows I love her deeply…she knew how committed, loyal and trustworthy I had been since I married her…why did she decide to fill my life with melancholy and throw me into the deep abyss of sadness? I have tried all I could to put a lasting smile on her face since we met. God knows I really do love her…my heart is bleeding, bleeding for a betrayal so inhuman and devastating. Should I kill myself and leave this grieving world? What about my kids? They’d be fatherless and live a more painful life. What should I do to bail myself out of this pitiful and miserable life I’m wallowing in?”

Biodun Odunlami met and fell in love with Poju some few years ago, and within a short time they did a traditional marriage. For Biodun, it was love at first sight. Really, he loved her. And he paid the price for falling blindly in love. Biodun had a good job, he was a senior staff with Monument International Bank Limited and money was not his problem. He had a personal car apart from the company car at his disposal, and he lived in a tastefully furnished two-bedroom flat in a middle class neighbourhood in Surulere area, Lagos. Oh boy, he took proper care of Poju materially, emotionally and romantically! He showered her with sweet and unadulterated, pure love. Biodun was a tall, dark-skinned and handsome man with a modest and humble background. Truly, Poju swept him off his feet the very first time he met her in his neighbourhood and he couldn’t hide his feelings but this action was his greatest undoing.

Poju was a civil servant with the Water Resources Ministry. After the duo did the traditional marriage ceremony and they ‘became husband and wife’ Biodun stretched himself to the extreme by taking good care of his wife as well as being very generous to his in-laws. He tried all he could to put unwavering smile on his wife’s face, ditto for his in-laws. Within some few years of the relationship Poju bore him two kids. Being a mother with two kids didn’t make Poju lose her alluring and seductive beauty. She still had that beautiful carriage that made men swoon and fall at her feet. Biodun was the caring and ever loving type. He doted so much on his wife and his two lovely kids. He was so soft, tender and affable that he wouldn’t want his wife to brood or be moody for a moment. He spoilt her with gifts and material things and even bathed her with romantic adoration. Poju was undeserving of Biodun as wife because of her saucy, rude and lackadaisical attitude, but ‘love’ they say, ‘is blind.’ She was even lazy with regards to domestic chores but all the same Biodun endured and overlooked all her faults and weak points. He treated her like a queen, and always making sure she was happy.

Then in the month of June something bad happened to Biodun that pained him deeply and shook him giddily. He lost his much paying job and his fortune suddenly cracked and crumbled like a house without a solid foundation. In the next few months, after losing his job he became as poor as a pauper or a church rat because he couldn’t pay his bills again. It’s in the Holy Scriptures that ‘he that finds a wife hath found a good thing and obtained favour from the Lord’. Not so with Poju; she was the exact opposite of what a good and dependable wife should be.