BABY J --by Slick

Hey Guys! Thank you for stopping by to read something new, I hope you enjoy it. For the purpose of tribal fairness, I have decided to name the characters in this article with selected letters of the alphabet. Keep your eyes glued!

Mr and Mrs Z got married in the year 1990 and had stayed together for six years without the cry of a child in their home. Neighbours and relatives had begun to raise eye-brows as regards their predicament. Mrs Z was always a victim of side-talks and verbal abuse on a daily basis. Her husband had always been a source of moral and emotional support for her. However, this did not mean that he did not have sleepless nights day-dreaming about holding a baby in his arms. “Even if na only one! God abeg!” were the words he would unconsciously murmur to his Creator. As if the heavens were listening, in 1996, baby J was born. Baby J shared a very evident resemblance with its mother as a little child. Baby J was adored and loved by everyone it came in contact with. Its birth gave the hopeless some faith in God that they thought had forsaken them.

Baby J was dedicated in a small church in the neighbourhood, with the preacher proclaiming blessings and good wishes into the destiny of Baby J. Baby J was going to be someone great in life, or so everyone thought. But Baby J turned out to be the exact opposite of what Mr and Mrs Z had dreamed Baby J would be. Baby J brought tears to the eyes of his parents as well as those of people in the immediate society.

Come on! After everything Baby J was given as a child? His parents struggled to ensure that Baby J at least had a good childhood. Now Baby J was a terrorist, prostitute, armed robber, cultist, petty thief etc. What happened to my child? was the question Mrs Z constantly asked herself.

Across Nigeria and the world beyond, families like that of Mr and Mrs Z exist. Whatever happened to their Baby J’s? Their Baby J suddenly became a renowned menace to the society. Yes! I am talking about that one that has got thick black lines drawn over his or her eyes in National Dailies or the Internet with the intent of hiding their identity from the public. I am referring to that one that was responsible for several insurgent attacks on innocent lives that went to pray in Church or the Mosque. We are all familiar with one Baby J that stands at bus-stops at night hawking her body!

Sometimes, they are products of poor up-bringing people, influenced negatively by their immediate environment. Or sometimes people that feel they did not really have the power of making sound choices in this life or people on a revenge mission. Their exploits are usually felt by their families and families of others at large. One cannot begin to quantify the horror that lives lost in gun battles and blasts have created in families, or the agony experienced by parents whose children have been taken away by the cold hands of death solely because of the deeds of a Baby J somewhere. The list is simply inexhaustible.

Therefore, it is paramount for every parent or would be parent to create measures to protect the choices Baby J would make in this life. Baby J might be a miracle or a time-bomb waiting to explode somewhere. In the minds of Mr and Mrs Z, they are sometimes forced to wish that they did not have a child at all instead of having this source of worry as a child.

Bible scholars would argue that the scriptures say “Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he’s grown; he would not depart from it”. Are we going to jump to the conclusion that these Baby Js exist because they were not trained in the way that they should go? Question for another day sha! I hope when we wake up every day, we can say a word of prayer for a Baby J somewhere in the world. They need it, they need healing, revival and restoration.  This would be a step in the right direction of curbing the effects that their actions have on their families and members of the society at large.

Thank for reading!