MY SCRIPT

Just so you know… whenever you regard me… if it’s my script I’m living, or the one the producer dished me.

Lemme start:

Do I wanna live? Yes.

With who? You.

For how long? For ever.

How?

Oh! Here goes…

The only things I remember from my lecturers are the things they said out of context. Dr. Willy Ugwuanyi once asserted that ‘Love is all deals’. And deals are all selfish – cuz they’re all tainted with ‘selves’. There are examples:

Osita Iheme is set to marry a Ghanaian. He’ll say love took him there; but when a short man has carefully selected a tall, pretty lady to marry, is love still blind? The dark-skinned pick the light-skinned; everyone wants to pick someone who’s schooled… Is Love now a bully? Everyone seeks a compliment – it’s themselves they have in mind, not always the ones they ‘claim’ to love.

It’s okay if it can’t be helped; but should anyone stop there?

I won’t!

I still dare say ‘I Love’; even if it doesn’t appear to be the agape kind that gives no damn about the aesthetic qualities of the love recipient.

My Love is just right for me, yet what I take stops there; everything else… is for her.

                When we walk and I hold your hand, it’s not because I’m taking you to where I’m going. It’s because I am your buddy; and where you’re going is where I’d rather go.

But if you’ll put your dreams on my feet, I’ll take you to all the places I think are beautiful, enter them like it’s my first time and, if you smile not, then I don’t like that place anymore – if it couldn’t make my baby smile. It’s not fine joor. I hate it! We go elsewhere.

I’ll work hard to earn money for us; not because I’m content with having you be nothing but a wife and mother, but because I wanna show you I’m aware of your every need, and will gladly give the sweat of my brow… to meet them.

But if you’ll put your dreams in my hands, I shall help you unlock your own potentials, so you too can gain the fulfilment that comes with industry.

I know a man who lay dying, and kept on apologising to his wife for leaving. For him, life wasn’t about staying on to be served, but to serve, and to be his wife’s rock every day. That man is my hero.

So if my chest aches and I fall ill, I’ll cooperate with the doctors so I can get well… you know why. If it’s protracted and you have to devote all your time to caring for me, please do not be angry, once I get back up, I’ll usher you back to your throne again – back to being my queen.

When I appear quiet and pensive, know that I’m not pondering negatives, but I’m working on your dreams, and how to make you cherish forever that you chose me. If you’ll put your dreams on my head, I shall bring them to life one after the other. All.

Some men may think… that there are so many ladies in this world for this queer reason: that some are the ones to love, some the ones for sex, some the ones to smile with, some the ones to play with, gist with, pray with, work with…

That may well be! But all my ladies are in one woman…

                When the day breaks and I have to pray, it’s you I wanna pray with… Because I know that suppleness of your countenance, and I know God will smile, and hear us faster.

                The makers of peak milk and milo are faceless to me. But they could as well be you, because sipping tea with the sorta cake you bake… the office can be hell if it pleases, I’ll still go with joy.

The frenzy with which life is lived in big cities is unfortunate. The race to beat traffic and get to work on time parallels the same chaos home at dusk.

                When it’s lunch time, I wanna hold your hand and stroll around these tall, pretty buildings, and savour it all… I cherish how your hand slips into mine. But if you’re not by my side, I’ll just be like everybody else who sees them not.

There are a number of possibilities for my evenings: If you’re home, I will not rush. I’ll like the bliss of seeing you to wait… to linger… So I’ll go spend my daily hour at the gym, building my biceps, so my arms around you can be like pillows when I hug you.

But the gym can wait if I have to dash over to your office and pick you. If we paid 180k for you to serve, we did everything else for it to be Abuja!

And who says we can’t go to the cinema?!

It’s you I wanna share evening jokes with; cuz I love the glint in your eyes when you laugh.

Dinner’s best eaten with you, even if it’s eba every night. Or peppery stew.

Your lips are naked, but let’s pray, and thank the Lord.

Your body’s been calling, and anything’s enough – if to just hold you, or to do more.

With you in my arms, let night fall, let NEPA strike, let mosquitoes skitter, let…

Let morning bring us a new chapter. And I love you still.

This is my script. Life’s the producer.

Any day I’m found wanting, know that my producer’s doing rubbish. But I won’t do his bidding for long. I’ll ultimately, and always… come back to my script.