He said:

One of my uncles is 4 feet, 8 inches tall.

He is a mathematics guru and bespectacled.

An accountant by profession.

He married a woman who is 6 feet tall

Together, they had seven daughters

One day, in the rain, this man suddenly ran out of his compound with only his trousers on

A few minutes later, his wife emerged with a horsewhip.

She was chasing him and he was running for his dear life

A few days later, family members held a meeting and decided it was wiser to save this man from his marriage than bury him.

Without securing his agreement, the following Sunday, my uncle’s siblings went to his rented apartment and packed out his belongings

When his daughters saw that their father was being taken away, they went to pack their clothes too and insisted they would rather leave with their father.

Their mother was not at home when this happened.

When she got back home, and met an empty flat.

She went to the husband’s office the next day with police officers and was told the husband has proceeded on an emergency leave.

She went to the husband’s family house and was told the family had dissolved her marriage.

She asked for her children, and she was told they followed their father willingly.

She said she wanted to see her husband and children.

The family said No.

She went to report the case at the police station

The DPO asked the head of the family to produce the man and his children at the police station the next day by 10 am

The next day, the man and his children arrived at the police station

The wife was there too

The man explained that he had suffered serious abuse from the woman since day one of the marriage

The officers laughed and asked him how come he had seven children from an abusive wife

He said he only wanted to have two children

When they had the two, and the two turned out to be female, his wife got angry and threatened to kill the girls if he ever stopped having sex with her or use any form of protection.

He said he was sure she would do it, so he complied and stayed in the marriage for the sake of his children.

The children also testified to her abusive nature

They said if their father did not drop money for food, their mother would take money from her pocket, cook food and eat it all alone while they watched.

She would tell them, “I bought this food with my money, and I am eating it alone. When your father gives me money for your food, you will get something to eat.”

The DPO told her to go to court. He invited the family so that they could have proof of life, and they have gotten that.

He has no power to force the man and the children to return to her.

When the man and his children left the police station, his wife secretly followed them to know where they moved to.

The next day, she went to the house with a keg of petrol and set the apartment on fire.

Luckily, the children were in school, and her husband had gone to work.

She also broke the windshield of her husband’s car (it was parked at home).

She opened the engine and poured sacks of salt in it.

That same day, my uncle and the children left Ondo State.

They left no forwarding address

My uncle got a transfer to another state and started all over again

His wife returned to Abeokuta, where she hailed from

Some years went by

My uncle got married to a nurse

The children completed their secondary and university education

They began to get married

Some of them travelled abroad and began to have children

Could you believe these girls sent for their mother to come and help them nurse their babies when they gave birth?

My uncle raised them all by himself, and he has never travelled abroad before

These girls processed visa and bought tickets for their mother to the USA and Canada, respectively

My uncle didn’t see anything wrong with it, but I believe it is very unfair to him that his daughters turned on him this way.

I cannot wrap my mind around it.

Can’t they find an alternative?

It feels like rewarding bad behaviour, in my opinion…