Orifunke Lawal

Last week Sunday, my sister and I woke up really late. We had a programme the day before and being so tired, we slept early and slept in the next day. We woke up so late that I considered not going to church….On our way to church, while we were still on our street, something-or someone rather-caught my attention.

“Oyinlola, Oyinlola, see!”, I roughly nudged my sister.

“What?”, she queried.

“Can’t you see that girl? She stays on our street, doesn’t she? She’s pregnant”, I said, shocked and hardly believing what I was saying myself. The girl is my age-or at most, a year older than I am, which was why I was surprised.

“Do you want to tell me that you’re just knowing?, Oyin asked me, indifferently.”Since all these years, so you’re just knowing that she’s pregnant. Na wah for you o.” She said and hissed. I remained silent for a second. I had ‘carried last’.

“I never knew she was pregnant. We finished secondary school together!”, I continued with disbelief. If someone had just told me that the girl was pregnant, I wouldn’t have believed. They say, Seeing is believing, but in this case, I saw and I couldn’t still believe. Why was I concerned? What was or is my business? We don’t talk. I don’t even know her name. But I was sad and I still am.

After the service, I brought up the idea of the pregnant girl while some of my friends were around. I can’t remember that incidence without telling anybody around. Even when I got home, I still told my mummy and daddy. I still wonder why or how she got herself into that position? Perhaps she was wayward-like most people would think. Or maybe a victim of circumstance. I can’t tell. More saddening is thinking of the fact that thousands of other teenagers are in this position. You might think it’s all right, but I think it’s not. Imagine the stigma she’s going to carry around now, the difficulty she’ll go through during labour-that’s if she doesn’t abort, the ostracizing she’s going to receive from the society…if she finally gives birth,will she be able to go back to school? A girl of 17 or 18…Gosh!

I am not going to criticize anybody-let the sinless one cast the first stone. I’m going to act like this is a normal case knowing fully well that people perform certain actions for certain reasons. You may think it’s a normal case but I disagree cause for a girl who has no means of livelihood, this case is perfectly not okay. Well, we live in a society where no one cares, no one bothers, and everything that would initially have looked unacceptable has now become acceptable. Wait, what’s my own sef? Who send me message? Am I a relative to the girl that got pregnant? Or na me send am make she go get belle?  It’s her life, is it not? We ask this questions. Nobody cares. I don’t care either, but I care.

I wrote this because like I said earlier, I can’t remember this without telling anybody around. Nevertheless, I sincerely think something should be done about this, although it seems impossible. So what do you think?  Who cares?

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