By Richard Anyebe
We were woken up just last week to the news making the rounds that a man had beaten his better half, his wife to death in the capital city, Abuja. The incident according to reports happened in Lugbe, a satellite town in the FCT, after the said man returned home to discover that the wife had not washed his dirty clothes he had kept for her. In anger the man bounced on her with beating and hitting until she fainted, was rushed to a hospital where she eventually gave up the ghost.
Worse still, the victim, a mother of three was heavily pregnant for her fourth child when her husband cut short her life, which meant that the man had murdered two souls.
But another version of the story has it that the man took umbrage that the deceased was only bearing him female children, when he discovered that the baby she was carrying was another female, which made him beat her to death. End of story.
Whether the two versions of the story were true, false or vice versa, the fact remains that a pregnant woman was murdered in cold blood for no reason and it is most condemnable, pathetic and utterly wicked.
This is another case of domestic violence taken to the extreme. It is bad, be it a man against a woman or vice versa. It should be condemned and must be avoided.
Now that his better half is gone, what next? One may ask. Of course he was arrested and detained immediately by the police and investigation has commenced. It is expected that the case is treated with all the seriousness it deserves and justice done accordingly. We are watching and waiting.
However, if God in his Almightiness decides to spare him from the hangman, no one can tell, what then shall become of this wife-beater, nay, wife-killer? (Pardon my conviction of him) will he change for good or become more hardened and worse off? Only God knows. But am so sure if he’s got a conscience (which I doubt) a lot of my questions would have engulfed his heart by now – what came over me? What will become of me? Who will take care of my children? Oh my wife! So, I can’t see her again? It is too late, Mr. Man. She is gone. The mother of your children, your self-professed better half is gone. Yes, she is gone forever! No thanks to the beast in you.
If not out of sheer irresponsibility and cowardice why would a man raise his finger against a woman, worse still, a heavily pregnant woman at that? It is not only bad but also cruel and crude. It then becomes totally outrageous when the reasons alluded for beating the pregnant woman was because she refused to do his laundry and her inability to bear a particular sex of a baby.
For the same reasons, a good and responsible man in the event that there is no external help would assist his pregnant wife throughout the period of conception and delivery; and not the other way round. Secondly, God is the only one who gives children, whether male or female. It is wholly the Lord’s doing and ironically millions of other people are desperately asking God for just one be it a girl or a boy.
Your being a man is your ability to control your emotion no matter the level of provocation from a woman. Am I made of steel? Some guy may ask. True, you’re certainly not made of steel, but the strongest of men is that man who can overcome the highest level of provocation from a woman. It is maturity, it is wisdom, it is courage, and it is civilization. Gone are the days of wife battering. There are other ways of dealing with a woman, if at all, rather than going violent.
Now that his better-half is gone, now that his crown is gone, now that his companion (did he ever see her as that?) is gone, what will become of him? Can he ever be the same again, because as the holy writ says “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favour from the Lord?” Can he ever look his children in the face to correct them whenever they go wrong? Can he ever own up to re-marry with a clear conscience? But again will he ever be totally free?
