IT was everyman’s worst nightmare come true.  Sanni stood rooted to the entrance of the bedroom he shared with Amina, his live-in lover, the woman he threw his common law wife over for, and watched as if in a trance, another man bouncing on top of her.  Both of them were stark naked.  Despite the freezing cold outside, perspiration seeped from every pore in the couple’s bodies!  Sanni was enraged.  He raced to the kitchen and came back with the butcher’s knife his wife forgot to pack.

“You’re both dead,” he declared dangerously, eyes bulging with madness.  Quickly, Amina sprang from the bed, fear making her shake uncontrollably.  “Please, please”, she pleaded, now on her knees “my kids are still young and I need to see them when I eventually go back to Nigeria.  You have your kids to think about too.  Please, don’t be mad, I’m still the same woman.  Look at me (she pointed at her nakedness) everything is still intact.  He didn’t take anything away.  You can still make love to me as often as you want.  Only spare my life…”

Sanni watched her face for a while, speechless.  Then he dealt her a sharp blow.  As she shrieked in pain, he started pummelling her naked body.  The other man took his trousers and fled into the night.  At the slightest opportunity Amina took only her house-coat as she made her escape into the cold night ignoring the curious glances passers-by gave her.  She quickly hailed a cab and fled to a friend’s house.  “That was the most humiliating experience of my life”, Amina said later.  “You read about nightmares like that happening to other people but, you’d never imagine it happening to you not in your widest dreams.  I came to England to get over the treachery of my husband who made life unbearable for me when he fell in love with another woman.  At first, I thought his involvement with her was a passing phase.  We already had four children and a fairly stable home.  Only a lunatic would throw all that away for a bit on the side or so I thought.  That was when I made arrangements to go back to where I’d trained as a secretary and worked for a few years after I qualified.

“When I got to England, I thought I would do temporary secretarial job, but there were so many odd profitable business for those who didn’t have relatives around and it was at one of those weddings that I met Sanni.  He was already well-established in his job at the post office and told his wife went back to Nigeria to see to a few family problems.

“We became lovers almost straight away and he urged me to move in with him.  Despite my busy schedule, I was really lonely.  I felt a bit reluctant about moving in, but wasn’t already ensconced in my matrimonial home before I was displaced?  Moreover, Sanni’s wife wasn’t around to witness what was going on and I intended to move out as soon as she came back.  But I wasn’t even informed that she was coming back.  I came to the house one evening to find this neurotic woman at my throat, threatening to kill me for snatching her husband.  Sanni quickly intervened, reminding her they weren’t legally married.  She took a few of her things and left, threatening to make sure I left her man alone.

“Sanni encouraged me to stay and I did, though, I had no stomach for the aggravation that followed.  His wife constantly threatened me on the phone.  I became really depressed when I learnt that the poor woman was receiving psychiatric treatment.  I still wanted to leave but Sanni said I shouldn’t.  It was at this juncture that I met this new man at yet another wedding that I organized.  He was quite good looking but married, so, we went out for meals and to clubs.

“I was in a financial fix and Sanni couldn’t help.  The consignment of goods I wanted had to be paid for within a few days and my money was tied up somewhere else.  When I told this new man, I was surprised when he came up with the money.  It was a substantial amount but he said he could afford it as he’d just claimed from an insurance company.  Out of gratitude, I invited him to the house, never dreaming that Sanni would come home early because he had the flu…”  If it is in the cards that I get married again, then I will.  Otherwise, I want to spend the rest of my life planning for my children.  Any affair I have now would have to be tangle free and well-planned.  The nightmare I went through escaping from Sanni’s wrath put me off dodgy affairs.

“I got a letter from my husband a few weeks ago urging me to forget about the past so we could start again.  Where was his pride?  I would rather jump into the river than go back to a nasty piece of work like him”.  His ‘Cinderella’ that he ditched me for had obviously gotten rid of him and he needed a ‘nanny’ to look after him for the rest of his life.  That’s not going to be me!”