By Funke Egbemode
Kunle was a rich businessman and had made more than enough money to have a new wife three years after his first wife died, leaving him with three children. And so he married Seyi.
From all intents and purposes, people envied Seyi’s good luck at catching such a rich fish. She drove a Mercedes Benz, ran a pharmacy, all thanks to Kunle’s generosity.
The only snag was that Seyi had no children in all their years of marriage, and worse still, she did not get along well with her stepchildren.Then, Kunle and Seyi started having tough times. Not that Kunle’s fortunes dwindled. At least not in naira and kobo. It was his peace of mind that suffered.
Seyi started attending parties all over town and even went for whole weekends at times. Kunle started accusing her of having extramarital affairs. He threatened to give her the boot and that was when the quarrels became a gutter fight.
As far as Seyi was concerned, Kunle’s accusation and ill treatment were prompted by the fact that she had no children and he wanted to take a new wife.So, she became a bitch. She dared Kunle to try to bring in a second wife and see hell on earth. Did he expect her to manufacture children? Kunle stuck to his guns, Seyi must go. And Seyi stood her ground, if she must go, she will go but nobody else will marry Kunle. Kunle didn’t take that threat seriously. We all put it down to the ranting of the scorned woman. If only Kunle had known!Two weeks after Kunle threw Seyi out of their luxurious eight-bedroom house in Ikeja, five young men came calling. They asked for Kunle and were let in by the unsuspecting maiguard. One hour later, Kunle was dead, slaughtered in the presence of his three children.The hunt started, fuelled and funded generously by Kunle’s friends and family.
In an unusual “police is investigating the matter” situation, two of the messengers of death were apprehended. After going through the torture chamber, the hoodlums confessed that it was Seyi who paid them to finish off Kunle. Did you gasp? I bet you did. Some people fainted. Many cursed Seyi, calling for her head. Others, instead of asking for Seyi’s head, recommended psychiatric treatment. Whatever they, you or I thought is pure analysis from different points of view. The reality is that it is quite possible for a wife to kill her husband or at least sponsor assassins to do the job. Kunle is dead. Seyi is in detention, awaiting trial for murder. Kunle’s children are now orphans. Another case of a dangerous scorned woman. Women are usually the death of men. No matter how rich, wise or connected a man is, his choice of a wife could be his undoing. And if you think Seyi was able to carry out that devilish campaign because she had no children for Kunle, then maybe you have not heard of other cases.
Tosin, a teacher in one of the private schools in Lagos: “You know this adage that says the fact that a woman has children for a man does not mean she cannot kill him. Some women are quite capable of anything. “It is sad really, but there are women who think killing is the ultimate revenge. So when a man wrongs them so much, they can go to any extent to get even.” Although Tosin said she, for one, could not even imagine anything pushing her to such extremes.
However, some downtown girls, who prefer anonymity, don’t see anything wrong in getting even. Let’s call the first respondent “K”. She’s a pretty trader. “Some men are bad and there is nothing bad in teaching them a few lessons once in a while. If many women had been doing it long before now, maybe we wouldn’t have been subjected to so much suffering in the hands of men. You suffer with a man, struggle with him, but the moment he makes it, the next thing is a second wife. If a man does it to me, I don’t think I will kill him but I will show him the younger brother of death.”And who is the younger brother of death? “K” said she could send thugs to burn down the man’s house and business.“I can even tell them to break his leg and generally knock him around.” What if he was mortally wounded, thus killing him? “K” glared and said, “That’s his luck. When next he comes to this world, he would have learnt how not to betray one’s wife.”
Tinu is a make-up artist and she has this to say. “A man who is not useful when he’s alive I can’t miss when he dies. It’s his problem whatever happens to him. When a man can’t think of anything else, whenever his wife annoys him, except throwing her out, then he shouldn’t expect her to leave just like that and accept to go and live alone, while somebody else moves in.” Are the men reading this? Threatening your wife with eviction all the time like an inconsiderate landlord can cause bad blood.
Ejecting your wife from your matrimonial home may not necessarily be the end of the story. Some women still believe in getting even no matter the risk to their own wellbeing. Where you can resolve issues, don’t threaten your wife. Don’t scorn the woman or reject the wife that struggled with you when the going was tough. If she could determine to stick by you through thick and thin, she could also re-channel that determination to destroy you.
