It was the third day of GrandPa's visit to his grandson's residence in the city. He had heard so much about life in the city but was skeptical of visiting until now. And as he packs up his bag to return the next day to his natural habitat which the modern world acknowledges as village, he decided to have a tête a tête with his son and wife before leaving.

Something was amiss and it bothered him. He had noticed it the first day but then, the act had continued with no sign of improvement. He cleared his throat, signaling to his grandson who was sitting besides him in one of the two bedroom apartment that he was about to begin his 'egberi'.

"My son," GrandPa began, "I'm quite disappointed in you because this is not the way we brought you up and had expected you to live. We raised you with values and expected you to follow up through. But it seems the disease that you people call 'modern day civilisation' has indeed infested your mind and has corrupted our moral values in you. How did you become a party to this?" he asked without expecting a reply.

Then he continued. "Yes, I know you might be wondering what I am driving at but I'll tell you. It is uncommon for a bat to be flying in broad day light. It is about the manners of your wife. Please invite her here so that 'è mi egberi feì' in her presence as well."

Few minutes later, both couples were seated to his right. GrandPa adjusted himself in his sitting position so he could look at both of them as he spoke.

"I have heard a lot about city wives and those tales sometimes made my ears to bleed. I've heard wives taking over the place of men in the home and men becoming the wives at home. There are so many abominations that have infested our societies, affecting the way people now live.

"As it concerns you, my daughter, I noticed your flaws when you first served me lunch on the day of my arrival and then I watched as you serve your husband later that day. You just dropped the food on the table with no courtesy and then disappeared. Next, you called on my son to help you clear the table when I was done eating because you were too busy in the kitchen. And 'éni-torbor' did just that because he has lost all sense of our tradition and have become like a forgetful child. I am not saying that it's a taboo for your husband to assist you. No. I'm only saying that there is a place for everything in our culture. Women have their place just as men have theirs.

"I recall the good old days when men were men. Our women dare not behave in like manner. Our 'ta' served us with courtesy in our tradition, kneeling down before the husband or guests, because to her, the man is king. It is her duty to clear the table no matter how busy she may be. To her, it is her pride and no one should take away that honour from her. I noticed you did just that during your traditional marriage when you fed your husband in public before guests present. Or was it just for show? I don't want to believe you only did that because you were in public. Now that you're home, I expect you to know your place.

"In those days, any 'ere' dare not call on her sister-in-law or anybody for that matter to help prepare a dish for her husband. To her, doing so is like bargaining her husband away to another woman. Likewise, she does same for his laundry too and other of his personal possessions. The only exception is when she is sick. These days, other women are cooking for husbands that are not their own and the wives feel very comfortable with it. As if that is not enough, some women are not even ashamed that they don't know how to cook! They prefer to employ house help for that. Are they not aware that they might lose their husbands in the process? Don't they know that the real power of a woman lies in her cooking abilities/skills, and not in the 'zúrù' as you people might think?

"Wives back then never ever give any thought to leaving their matrimonial home unless the man had committed an abomination. If a woman dare leaves her 'zay', unless for the act of abomination, she becomes a stigma in society. No man would want to remarry her and her family will be in shame. These days, marriages have become so cheap (even though you modern people spend too much money to organise one) such that today you're in, the next day you're out. What a sacrilege! They say its divorce or whatever they call it, and that it is your human right to decide who you want to stay with. But don't you have rights before? We have allowed strange customs to negatively corrupt our traditional customs and we are allowing them to hold supreme.

"The other day I was hearing your neighbour quarreling with her husband, screaming on top of her voice. They're not even ashamed! City wives are fond of raising their voices against their husbands. That's disgraceful! Indeed the world has become a pulp. In my time, it was only when I grew up I came to discover my parents, your great grandparents, were not the perfect couple that I thought. I never witnessed a second in time during my childhood where my mother shouted at my father, her husband. No matter how high my father raised his voice, she just kept mute. I know you nowadays children will say it's 'mumu', abi? Instead my mother would call someone in the family she knows her husband respects and lay her complains (she only does this when she strongly feels she's right). In the end, my father who is the shouting champion always apologise to her. Now, tell me, who's the winner here? These days, wives not only shout at their husbands, they even go into a boxing spree!

"And then, the most abominable of all, adultery! Nowadays, some 'dau' are fathers of children that are not theirs! What is this world turning into? I am not surprised that our societies are bedeviled by so many problems. What many of you don't know is that some of these problems are spiritual problems because the land has been polluted by these evil abominations. The land needs spiritual cleansing. But your 'too-know' won't allow you city people to see that.

"I return to the village tomorrow. I thank God I'm alive. If I had been dead and later came back to life, and I was told all of these, I wouldn't have believed it. Too many things have gone wrong with this modern world that you say is civilised. Civilised my foot! So please, heed my advice and refuse to follow the city crowd. Because everybody is doing it doesn't make it right. Always try to make a difference among your peers and in the world. I have spoken."

The End

#penglobaldiscourse #mystorydiscourse