Those were the thoughts running through my head while the congregation applauded to welcome my father.
"Ave" boomed my father's voice.
"Maria" the congregation chorused.
"Onye ji sie ike" he continued.
"O ruo ala eze"
"Good morning everyone, you all know my name so I will forego the introductions. I am elated at the success this society has achieved. News have reached me on how you help the poor living in this vicinity and how the chores of sweeping, cleaning and clearing the church compound have fallen solely on this society. In retrospect I will like to show my profound gratitude to all of you." he paused for effectiveness.
"I want to donate the sum of 50000 naira …." He was interrupted by screams and a deafening round of applause. When the euphoria died down he continued.
"I will give my daughter the check to deliver to your president on or before Monday but...I have one special appeal to make." Silence followed.
"I will like this society to expand its charitable visits to the people in prison. Your help has only been extended to the sick and the elderly, but what of those who where were accused and apprehended due to untrue reasons. What of people who have been in the cells and detention for years without a session in the law court? What about the ones who are truly guilty and have been sentenced to jail but along the way have seen the evil of their ways, have repented and now need people to give them hope? I sincerely appeal to the executive of this society to include the prison visitation as your active work. Thank you" he concluded and sat down. Minutes of silence passed before the president finally stood up to address us.
"Without wasting much of our times, I agree with what our vice chairman suggested. You all will also agree with me that his words were filled with wisdom and the compassion of a good man. Also, we can use the money he donated to us today to buy supplies and toiletries for the prisoners. So yes, from today henceforth the Legion of Mary Society St Peter's branch will allot the visitation of prisoners as active work to its members" he declared and a round of applause was given to show the approval of all.
The meeting continued like it usually did, I was allotted cleaning of the church gallery as my active work for the week. When the society was dismissed I dashed out to meet up with my father as I did not notice when he slipped out. I found his parking space empty and I slowed my pace into a jog until I reached home.
I will give you the details of my confrontation with my father the night after. He asked for my position, I told him, he surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly did not yell at me. He asked if I was given the post of the main academic prefect in school, I answered positively. You know what shocked --surprised me? He asked what my allocation of active work was! Initially I thought he wanted to know if the society president kept to his word about the prison visitation but I was indeed in for a surprise. My father enthusiastically informed me that I was to join the group going on prison visitation. He continued by telling me that since he and my mum hadn't planned anything for my holiday, I was allowed to go there every day until the holiday was over. I pretended to welcome the idea but tried to argue my way into visiting only on Saturdays. But of course the old man adamantly refused! I tried the whining method that has never worked on him and of course the answer was still a no. To seal my case, the old man went to his suitcase and counted 10000 naira, giving it to me he said I should use it as my transport fare, to buy supplies, provisions and whatever I needed. That was when it dawned on me that he had intended that to be the punishment for my poor result.
When I told my brother he just shrugged it off. I wasn't surprised at his reaction because dad had once given him the punishment of doing all the chores that people were paid to do in the house alone for a month. Why? You would be asking why a rich father would give such punishment to his only son and heir. The reason was that he came back from visiting his friends 5 minutes after his curfew which was 5pm. The gardener, the driver and the cleaner were told to go on a one month leave to ensure my bother would not bribe anyone in my father's absence. Wasn't he a lenient father?
Here is another surprise I received, when I told my mother, she was happy with the arrangement. She wasn't mad that her only daughter was going to spend her last holiday in secondary school visiting the prisons, she wasn't angry that she did not know of that piece in information earlier. No, I got the opposite reaction. She even gave me some extra cash and her blessings to go in peace.
I was so angry that my dad had succeeded in subduing the three of us that we no longer had the nerve to stand up to him. Since my father wanted a daily visitation to the prisons, he would get one, but on my terms!
******************onye ji sie ike, o ruo ala eze is an igbo adage usually used by Christians. It means that any one that works hard, will make heaven.