The Clean Teen

Not only was Oruene sleeping with Mr. Benson who ensured she and her family lacked nothing. In return, her mother made sure his needs were met for them to continue enjoying the financial help he was rendering to the family.  It became an eye-opener when she suddenly saw the gold mine in her daughter and was determined to take full advantage of it. Suddenly she began arranging men who could pay well for her and because she had the full backing of her mother, Oruene became emboldened. Not only was she sleeping with men her mother arranged for her, but she also began visiting the red light district to get customers of her own and was now making a huge amount of money which she gave to her mother to run the house and buy things for herself. Unfortunately, the more Oruene grew in the trade, the more she disengaged from her family, taking advantage of the fact that no one could talk to her anymore, being the breadwinner.  It was only a short time before she moved out of the house into a rent

The small untidy clinic with sparse equipment and minimal comfort was successfully hidden in-between two high-rise buildings, making it quite inconspicuous on the red-light street of a notorious slum in Port-Harcourt. There was no sign at all to indicate it was a clinic, Dr. Munya didn't have to advertise, and his patients already knew where to locate him. On this faithful Friday evening, they had queued up, waiting to be called in. Girls who frequent this clinic had only one request; abortion, and the clinic never turned them down. Oruene was one of the people in the queue and soon it would be her turn to be called in as the slaughter slab beckoned on her. She wasn't afraid at all, for she trusted the doctor implicitly anyway. She wasn't a starter after all, she had gone through the process, again and again, this was her fifth time. Oruene was the second of eight children. She was such a lovely girl with an alluring beauty, a slender build with delicate skin, and a sculptu

It's unfair, isn't it? How they all just walk away. Boys never stick around to give birth or carry the baby after the deed is done which leaves the girl in a disadvantaged position. When Susan John was a little girl, she knew exactly what she wanted out of life and had nursed a lifelong desire of becoming a medical doctor and was vigorously pursuing this dream of hers until she met Toluwa and everything fell apart. Being a product of a single parent, nobody believed she could make the same mistake after she watched her mother struggle through life to raise her. Though she understood her morbid fear of the opposite sex, she felt her antagonism ran deeper than a scorned woman and had wondered how she would ever find a husband if she had to stay away from all men.  But that was until she met Toluwa where she had gone to watch a movie.    "It's so sad how the protagonist died, why couldn't they save him?" Susan asked in-between sobs as they trooped out of the cine

The first quarter of the year always calls for a sober reflection on the previous years' activities such as academic pursuits, relationships with family and friends, and a host of other things. But I've come to realize that the best way to start the new year is with a lot of confidence and a solid approach to whatever you do, for your projected self-worth often determines what you get out of life; meaning that what you see is what you get. That's why I love artists. One thing you can't take away from them is their self-worth; the ability to take an ordinary image, be it a sculpture or drawing, and turn it into something art lovers would be willing to pay a huge amount of money to acquire. I attended an art exhibition not quite long ago. There was this particular artwork that drew my attention. I watched as multitudes of visitors to the art museum would stop in front of it, and turn their heads 60 degrees, just to decipher what was on it until it got to a very young coup