Skip to main content

Why sell our daughters?


By Chukwudi Anagbogu

A lot of people are of the opinion that society at large has deteriorated morally, to the extent that there are hardly women who are 'marriage materials'. While I don't agree with the latter assertion (because I have seen a few who are truly godly at least by certain standards), the issue of moral bankruptcy is not peculiar to the female folk; everyone irrespective of gender is as guilty. Come to think of it, it is surprising that a lot of supposed 'good girls' sit back at home while those believed to be morally out of sorts get married on daily basis.
Controversial as u may see this, I believe in the fact that 'husbands' are scarce, let alone the good ones. A lot of girls want to marry men who are rich ,handsome, young and God fearing. Many end up marrying the exact opposite. Well ,that's by the way.
There is obvious reluctance on the part of men to marry these days. One may easily point to financial constraint as the main reason for this. But current available facts show that a lot of successful men remain single. One of the reasons for this is the fact that these days, people venture into romantic relationships prematurely. When they begin to have romantic and sexual relations ,there would be nothing to look foward to in marriage. I am bold to say that a lot of single guys spend more than married men. Of course, maintaining girlfriends has sapped a plethora of men of their life earnings. Money that should have been ploughed into meaningful ventures are wasted on the alter of boyfriend - girlfriend relationships.
This article is in sympathy with those men who truly wish to marry, but lack the financial muscle and wherewithal to achieve their goals.
That a lot of women are unmarried today is as a result of sheer greed on the part of their parents or kinsmen. The continuous hike in bride price/dowry in our society is alarming. I wonder how many men in our difficult society today can afford the outrageous and doctored items on the 'lists' for dowry and at the same time be expected to bankroll the traditional marriage ceremony and the white wedding in quick succession. When a man expects his daughter's suitor to provide items like roofing sheets, bags of cement, expensive clothing materials, to mention but a few, he should plan to marry his daughter eventually. Some even try to recoup all the expenses they made on their daughters. Even if he ends up getting an 'unsuspecting' man to fulfil these, his daughter would be going into a furnace, as she would not be seen in good light by her in - laws.
The issue of exorbitant bride prices is not peculiar to a particular section of the country, it is universal.
Women are not for sale. The preoccupation of parents should be for their daughters to have blissful marriages. We are tired of the prevalent 'nna ga anu' syndrome.
On a lighter note, why would a guy who buys an iphone for a lady not be able to afford any list given him

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Grandma series 1 (Chukwudi Anagbogu)

 I was among the few privileged ones to have lived with my grandmother during my childhood. My grandma had visited us for the “omugwo” of my younger sibling. At the ‘expiration` of three months, she had opted to stay longer because as she would always say, “anywhere one stays is one's home.”  My siblings and I received news of her “extension” with mixed feelings. Our concerns were borne out of her strictness. She was so strict that sometimes you wondered how my mother-her daughter survived childhood under her watch. It was during her stay that my immediate elder brother and I stopped bedwetting. Hitherto, my parents had employed all manner of tactics to stop us from betwetting, all to to avail. First, my mum had tried reducing our water intake, especially at nights. According to her, not taking enough water would reduce the urge to urinate at night. The strategy seemed to work initially, as we did not bed wet for three consecutive days. On the fourth day however, the unthinkab...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Classmates (story one)

  Emeka was not just my friend, he was a friend to all. He was particularly handsome and had an aura of importance. That alone made me admire him. In my class, he was ‘worshipped’ and highly revered. Even some teachers openly gave him preferential treatment. First, our form teacher had assigned him to the front row in the class, but Emeka himself preferred to sit at the far end of the rear. Of course, he had his way. Emeka was the only student in class who had the freedom to eat in class whenever he felt the desire to do so. I was surprised when mid-way into a maths class, he opened his big food flask and began feasting from it. Everyone expected the Maths teacher, who was a renowned disciplinarian, to have reacted. Lo and behold, the Maths teacher feigned ignorance despite the fact that the aroma from the food was so obvious that a passerby would have mistaken our classroom for a kitchen. Chike, another classmate of mine had attempted to do a similar thing few days earlier. The ...
Post a Comment
Read more

SEX GONE WRONG: A TOUCHING STORY

  By Chukwudi Anagbogu  In the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria, life moves fast. Among the endless honking of cars, the vibrant chatter of market vendors, and the warm tropical breeze, lived a young woman named Amaka. At twenty-four, she was a soft-spoken, diligent student of Accounting at the University of Lagos. Life for her had been a steady rhythm of family, studies, and church. Amaka had always been the dutiful daughter—never one to step out of line, and she upheld her moral values with a deep-rooted sense of pride. But like many young women her age, Amaka longed for something more. Though she was content with her life, a part of her wondered about love—the kind of love she read about in novels and heard about in songs. She had seen friends fall in love, sometimes stumbling and getting hurt, but other times finding happiness. Yet, she had always been cautious, holding her heart close and believing that love would find her when the time was right. That time came when she m...
1 comment
Read more