Due For Inheritance (D. U. I)

Chapter 1

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AbdulAhad is a man of immense wealth and even a higher libido. He owned a mansion which houses his three wives and eighteen children. He married the first wife when he was still dirt poor and the only thing going for him was his look and his job as a laborer but he mostly worked with bricklayers at sites. From his job, he earned meager cash which he used to cloth, feed his wife and two sons and pay rent. While he worked as a laborer at construction sites, he also used the opportunity to learn about how to build so he spent extra time at the site and his employers were eager to receive the extra help with no pay without realizing that he was on a mission.

He was an orphan who was dropped at the madrasah in Ogbomosho one day by a distant uncle with a promise to come back soon with money and provisions. Then, he was only thirteen years old. He does have seven other siblings that were living with relatives in different states in the country after their parents’ demise. Some of them were received in a loving family where they eat three square meals with extras, attends good schools and are showered with gifts and their only worry is the latest bag or video games they are yet to receive while few unlucky ones in which he was included were stuck with parents who couldn’t wait to be free of them. The most ironic thing of the situation was that his distant uncle was the one who grieved the most when he lost his parents. So when he volunteered to take him home then, he felt so lucky to be leaving with the most compassionate uncle.

He did try to provide two meals for him a day but no more than that. His uncle owns a pure water factory and he’s doing very okay but he’s very greedy and felt that spending on his family is a waste. There was a time he was in a bike accident and needed stitches but couldn’t go to a hospital because he didn’t want to spend on his treatment. His uncle treated his own leg by himself every morning and night and eventually, the wound festered so bad that his leg was amputated up to his knee but even then he said it was Allah’s decree and even if he had gone for the treatment on time, he would still be with one and a half leg.

His wife who could no longer tolerate him left the marriage. She tolerated him for ten years because of the children between them but she had to leave with two of her children and left the other two with him. He had beaten her black and blue one day because of a missing meat in the pot of stew which he had counted before leaving the house in the morning.

So, when the wife left, AbdulAhad started getting sick often due to poor nutrition and since his uncle could no longer spend on drugs, he dropped him off at the madrasah. AbdulAhad should have known then that his uncle who refused to buy him drugs will not drop any money or provisions. After waiting for his uncle for a whole term, he knew then, that he is not coming back like he promised him. There were other students like him in the Arabic school, so he wasn’t the only one being fed out of charity. Whenever the principal of the school ran out of funds for feeding, he left the children to scavenge for their food while those that had provisions eat out of it.

It was during his stay at the school that he started working as a laborer to feed himself. If the principal noticed his long absence, he never say. As soon as he gathered enough fund to rent a room apartment, he eloped from the Madrasah and started to live on his own. The world out there, however is more difficult than what he envisioned. He suffered twice harder than he did while he was in Arabic school but eventually; he was able to keep his head out of water.

AbdulAhad would never forget the impact of his family in his life. He’s from an extended family that consisted of several uncles and aunts that could have taken him under their wing when he met them for assistance but they claimed that, he wasn’t given to them after his father’s funeral. So, they didn’t need an extra baggage. Since then, he was determined to create a large family, the one he could call his own.

The only help that his family rendered was showing up at his wedding program when AbdulAhad finally took in a wife. They gave their support in the form of their physical presence and not by providing funds. Though, he was told that the family contributed a certain amount of money to help out the bride groom financially, a promise he never believed and wasn’t disappointed when they weren’t able to provide the said money and were fighting over those that were yet to contribute their quota but they promised again to bring it after his wedding. He realized it was yet another empty promise.

AbdulAhad married at the ripe age of eighteen to his first wife from the Nupe tribe, Waseela. After his second child from her, he received a big contract that served as his breakthrough in life. He received an amount he has never counted in his life and since then, life was easier for his small family.

The first property he bought with his money was a mansion. His wife was exhilarated about the new turn of event but the joy faded when he brought in a second wife, Aisha, after four years. Waseela should have known his reason for buying a big house then but she never even imagined it. The second wife Aisha, was from the Hausa tribe. She gave birth to a girl and soon she too received another gift in form of a third wife. The third wife, Amina, is from the Igbo tribe and he completed his fourth by marrying Hajara, a lady from the Yoruba tribe.

AbdulAhad’s lost his first and third wife during childbirth. The first was giving birth to their third child when she died due to some complications while the third wife also died while birthing their second child, it was complications due to infections that weren’t treated early enough. The first wife’s baby survived while the third wife died with her child. AbdulAhad prayed that it should be the end of tragedy in his family and it seemed that his prayer was answered.

He was left with two wives and eight children, three from the first wife, two from the second, one from the third and two from the fourth wife. The second wife, Aisha took in the first wife’s children and raised them with hers while the fourth wife Hajara took in the third wife’s son and also raised him with hers, according to AbdulAhad’s arrangement. Fifteen years down the lane, AbdulAhad took in another wife from the Igbo tribe again; Ugoma turned Haleema, that’s because she reverted to Islam. He promised to marry a fourth wife soon. Though he hasn’t done that yet and he was already in his early fifties.

AbdulAhad’s dream to have a large family was finally achieved and he didn’t care about his so called extended family. They usually come to him for financial assistance but he’s quick to remind them of his large responsibility and how he doesn’t have extra to spare for outsiders. He sometimes mocked them by asking them to help him out if they have some spare cash, after all he is an orphan and they all left his house in embarrassment. His stinginess however was not extended to his siblings and they were the only ones he recognized as his extended family and reached out his helping hands to. His wives also were more than happy that he doesn’t relate with his relatives. They have enough drama in their home as it is and they’re grateful that their husband did not add to it.

AbdulAhad’s childhood has forever marred his character and he wasn’t affectionate with his family either. They complained of this several times and he threatened that whoever doesn’t approve of his life style can leave with her children. He however provides for his family and always made sure that they do not lack in material things. If AbdulAhad shared as much love as the money he shared with his family, his home would have been picture perfect.

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