"السلام عليكم."

(Peace be unto you), Olu wrote. He was writing a letter to his uncle who lived in a village in Jos, Nigeria.

Olu needed a wife so he could get family members off his back.

In a remote village in Jos, a place where girls were trained to be perfect African wives; enduring, caring, showing love and wanting nothing in return, lived Ivie.

She was the first child of her parents and the only SSCE holder. To her parents, all that remained was for a rich man to come along, pay for her and take her.

No wonder therefore, when Olu's uncle indicated interest in her on behalf of his nephew, her family was overjoyed.