Being a Man 1

“City lounge”. I almost forgot how much I loved this place; I had driven past even as I clearly heard the bold sign post beckoning on me. Today is my birthday and I just quit my job as the vice president of the country; one of the steps towards fixing all the mistakes I have made lately. Everything is coming back to me now; after three shots of Johnnie Walker Blue. Jack looks surprised to see me, in the over two years he’s manned the bar he had never seen me on a Monday not to talk of being here this early.

My father once told me ‘Being a man is all about taking care of your family’ and I have not felt like a man for some time. I have left my family down especially my wife of twenty years who left behind her job in the Nigerian Embassy in Ukraine to stand by me in the pursuit of my political ambitions; she was always there in all the campaign rallies, stayed up during my numerous late night meetings. She was my anchor throughout the election period. Yet in a time when I should have returned the favour and forestalled a chain of calamitous events I failed; failed to be a man.

After the campaigns, the election was contested and won, I became almost confined to the job; it became the only thing I could think about. Some of my nights were spent in the office leaving my wife in want of love, this was my undoing. While she had only me for a companion as Francis, our son was away studying law in London and Trustlyn, our daughter was doing music in Ghana; I had left her lonely and vulnerable.

The episode all started six months ago when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) came after Ebele, my brother-in-law on bogus money laundering charges and I didn’t lift a finger to help him. Ebele is a crude oil based businessman loyal to the previous administration ran by the opposition; he had become successful over the years due to the award of various lucrative and high profile contracts. Despite being in the opposition, Ebele gave me as much financial and logistic support as would not raise eyebrows yet ‘I and my government’ as my wife always put it, had decided to persecute him in such a cruel manner.

The highpoint of the quandary was when my father-in-law, chief Ebele was indicted in the charges for the reason that he had received a robust sum of money from the younger Ebele. This is probably the point where I should have intervened; chief had supported me all the way, he was one of my main benefactors during the election. The trail of the money led to my bank accounts but all the evidences that led to me was quickly and quietly erased by the investigators; the government would not entertain such embarrassment neither will it forfeit the massive witch hunt already in motion. In all these, I was commended for my loyalty to the party and the government. Sitting here now I can see the infamy in that; commended for standing by while family suffered.

A month after he was remanded in prison, my father-in-law died. A part of me kept telling me I did the right thing; letting the law run its course. A more sensitive part of my conscience convicts me, how could I have let this happen? Being only too aware of the real reasons for the probe; clamping down on the opposition. I had allowed my father-in-law to get caught in the cross fire while he wasn’t even into partisan politics.

Three weeks after Chief’s death, the younger Ebele was acquitted of all charges; nothing was found on him, all the contracts he had been awarded were legit and properly executed. Being cleared of the bogus charges was not as comforting as it would have been; he had come home to, amongst other things bury his father who was the/an avoidable casualty. It was clear to me that I could and should have avoided all these.

Trustlyn returned from Ghana two months ago; her semester break had come just in time for her to attend her grandfather’s interment. Each time I fix my eyes on her, I remember her mother when I had first met her; she was everything I wanted. Trust, just like her mother is the apple of my eye; she hardly ever leaves my side whenever I am in sight.

Vicky was somewhat uneasy about Trust spending her semester break with us in Nigeria as opposed to her spending it in London with her brother as earlier agreed; and she made no attempt to hide her displeasure. It almost seemed like she wanted her and everyone else as far from her as possible including me. This was when I became convinced that something was seriously amiss. I began making efforts to remedy the situation; I even started coming home earlier and skipping work. It seemed I had woken up a bit late; the table had turned, she was now the one keeping late nights with no explanations whatsoever.

Suddenly I began to have the feeling that my wife was seeing someone else; Victoria, my Vicky was seeing someone. I know I have pushed her to the edge but being unfaithful to me, that I could not imagine; she was above that. I could not get myself to believe that she would cheat on me yet the signs were there.

I spent most of my home time with my daughter when she is not in one of the music studios around, where she had become very attached to. She was so much in love with music; I too have come to love music because of her. I had always felt her attraction to the studio was more than just the music but I decided to hold my peace, she would definitely tell her father, I trust and tell me she did.

Trust returned home one Friday evening with her head far above the cloud, no sooner had she ran into my arms did she start giving me the rundown of the day’s event. It was Kola, one of the song writers in the studio; she was so smitten with him and they had just gone on their first date. Her happiness and laughter was contagious, it was the music of my soul. We both agreed to keep her new found happiness from her mother at least until she is able to stop grieving and get a hold of her emotions.

Inspired by Trust’s date, I had decided to surprise my wife with a romantic Chinese dinner. I returned early that Friday with a bottle of vintage red wine and two Chinese takeaways. Just as I set the table, she appeared almost as though on prompt; she came down in what I would say was perfectly fitting for the occasion. She wore a sexy blue knee high gown with matching emerald necklace I had got her from Paris on one of my official trips. She looked heavenly.

She came down and stood right before me and I fell in love with her all over again. I pulled a chair for her and informed her of my surprise dinner plan but she declined, she had to go see an old girl friend of hers who had just returned from the United States where she went to deliver her baby. I was bemused and utterly shattered. As she turned to leave, I noticed (caught a glimpse of tears in her eyes) that her eyes had tears in them.

For the first time in as many weeks as I have been vice-president I followed my instincts, I followed my wife. I had been to Barrister Ogah’s place only once on his wedding to Barrister Chinemerem but I still remember the way to his house. Chinemerem and Victoria had been very good friends right from their university days; they were even roommates at some point.

When she made the second left turn, I knew she was not going to see Chinemerem. Twenty minutes and three right turns later, we arrived at a dirty looking suburb. I pulled up few meters away from her car and watched her go through what would normally be described as a red iron gate, if it had not become more brown than red, with the lower half completely hacked away by rust. I slowly and quiet followed her, I missed her on the long passage of the building and was not sure which door she had gone through.