I was pleasantly surprised when I recently had a phone call from Akin, a happy-go-lucky ‘senior boy’ friend, quite early on Monday morning. “Wots up?” I shouted excitedly down the phone. I was on my way to a book launch and was already running late. This had better be good, I muttered. Akin has always loved a good gossip and I’d expected him to top up on current gossips when he asked as unexpected question.

Heaven was almost let loose recently in the home of the Bensons. This was because Mr Benson had gone out to have fun with one of his girlfriends. The two enjoyed themselves but Ben did not warn his girlfriend not to call him or send him text messages. Unfortunately, he forgot his phone in his car when he got home. Too tired that night, his wife decided to go pick up their guest from the airport with the same car.

“I’ve been married for over 25 years. My lover is a divorcee and we’ve been seeing each other for over 10 years. My husband suspects nothing and that’s the way it will stay. He’s happy with his life and has a wife who looks after him deeply and I have my home and family on one side and a man who loves me very much on the other side.

From time, all societies pay allegiance to hierarchy among their members. There are leaders and followers, elite class and the poor class, urban and rural dwellers, the strong and the weak, rich and poor, servants and masters. The world is full of opposites.

In every society, social status has continued to remain a major barrier to love. It is common to hear people say their children won’t marry a particular person because he doesn’t belong to their class. Several marriages and other relationships have equally failed because of differences in education, socialisation, religion, race, ethnicity, or income.

You can imagine an SSCE holder or someone who didn’t finish secondary education aspiring to marry a University graduate or someone with a Masters. Human needs and wants are just insatiable. It’s good for people to dream big but sometimes it doesn’t work like that.