Abortion and Single Motherhood: The Plight of a Young Lady

By Nwokocha Chidinma Grace

Yaba was a small community on the Lagos mainland.  It was however big enough to house two higher institution and a market.  Fridays in Yaba were usually greeted with mixed feelings by its residents. The Sabo evening market was usually crowded on Fridays as customers from neighboouring communities trooped enmasse to make the weekend purchase of foodstuffs. The streets were filled to the brim and students could be seen making their way out of their various institutions to go on weekend journeys. Workers were seen hurrying home to be with their families after a very stressful week. On the other side of the divide, drivers could be seen hustling for every available space on the third mainland bridge. Traffic was always at its worst and the atmosphere stiffened with the noise of horns blaring at their fullest from impatient drivers.

This Friday was unusually strange. The environment around the University of Lagos was serene. No soul was on campus and the hostels looked deserted. I had finished lectures a bit early and had just woken up from a very long and deep sleep. My roommates had travelled home as usual and were not expected back until Sunday evening.  I could not go home as my parents lived far away in Port Harcourt and i had no relative around Lagos. Today, I had this strong urge to go sightseeing at the Lagoon front. It was my favorite spot on campus and the quietness afforded my mind the opportunity to think without being disturbed. Sometimes I would go with my camera to take pictures of the deep waters, other times I would sit sketching the third mainland bridge or alternatively, I would go crab-hunting.

As I approached the Lagoon, there was something in the atmosphere indicating danger. I was apprehensive of the environment and sought to turn back but was continually propelled by a force stronger than myself to keep moving.  I wasn't expecting anybody there at that time, not to talk of being alone. As I went further, I noticed a figure standing by the edge of the Lagoon.  The physique showed that it was a lady, average height with a round head and a wonderful figure eight. She was staring at the bridge with her back towards my direction.  In her right hand, she clutched something tightly.  I could sense that all was far from being well with the lady who just stood there lost in her own world. From her back view, I could swear that I knew that lady. I couldn't place the name yet but she sure looked familiar. A cricket ran out of its hole into the Lagoon and as she turned her face to follow the direction the cricket had come, it struck me. She was Kamara! I remember that brilliant, young and beautiful girl who was credited to have made the best grade in the university wide general courses in our first year. I had crushed on her but had been too shy to approach her for friendship.  This was certainly an opportunity I would utilize.

Kamara!  I screamed her name. She froze in shock and the item in her right hand fell off. I raced towards her direction and picked the object. I took a closer look at it and turned to face Kamara in shock.

What are you doing with this? I screamed at her...You of all people. ..I thought you were different. ..So you are...

She placed a finger on my lips and burst into tears.

“Listen to my story and decide whether you would crucify me after hearing it”, she pleaded. I led her to one of the empty seats in the open space that served as the love garden of students. We sat down and she proceeded to share her story.

Kamara was the first of seven children. Her mother had a set of twins after she was born, both girls. Her father had insisted that he wanted a male child to succeed him at his death and so her mother took in again and gave birth to a set of quadruplets, all girls making the total number of girls seven. Her father slumped in the hospital on hearing the news of the birth and died days later. Immediately the babies clocked one, her mother eloped with a rich man and left her and her siblings to fend for themselves.

Kamara was born in the slums of Ajegunle. Her father was a carpenter and her mother was a petty trader. She had just her mother's abandoned shop as a source of livelihood for herself and her siblings. They attended public schools so she didn't have to spend much money on school fees. After school, the twins stayed in the shop while she hawked biscuits and groundnut on the streets. Whatever she got went to their feeding and other expenses.  She also had a small garden beside the one room apartment where they lived the produce of which she sold to augment her income. Life was difficult but she persevered.

She got admitted into the University of Lagos and was lucky to secure a Federal Government Scholarship to cover her tuition and hostel accommodation. She therefore had to take up vacation jobs to cater for her feeding in school and also take care of her sisters. As she climbed higher on the academic ladder, she realized that she needed more sources of income. She wanted a job that she could do during school session but which would allow her time to attend lectures and read. Her roommate suggested a night work.  She could attend lectures in the day, work at night and read during the weekend. She applied for and got a job as a night attendant at a filling station. However she had to quit the job a year later as the filling station was marked for demolition by the Lagos state government for not following the town planning laws.  At this time she was in her final year. She later applied for and got a job in one of the biggest hotels in Yaba. She liked her new job. It was a hotel on Herbert Macaulay way and way closer to the University than her previous workplace. She also worked four hours daily, from 8pm to 12am and thereafter used the hotel canteen as her reading room for her studies.

However, fate was to take a different turn towards the first semester exam. She had gone to work as usual. At her desk, she got a call from the room service to serve a customer in his room at 10pm. She packaged the food and took it to his room. She was asked to come back at the close of work for her money. At the close of work, she returned to the room to demand for the money. She knocked on the door of the room which opened immediately. She was dragged into the room, gagged and raped by the four occupants of the room who fled the hotel immediately, leaving her to writhe in pain. She was a virgin, and had imagined that when she would be deflowered, it would be done gently and by that man who is her husband. She tendered her resignation letter the next day and left the hotel.  She did not report the incident to anyone as she didn't even know the identity of those men and they had paid cash for the room and checked in without a record. She did very badly in her first semester exams.

Towards the beginning of second semester, she began to feel very uneasy.  There were changes in her body which she could not explain.  In times like this, she wished she had a mother whom she could confide in. She summoned up courage and told her roommate who advised her to go for a test. She was shocked when the test revealed that she was 3 months pregnant.  Further scan revealed that she was carrying a set of triplets, all boys. The doctor had advised against abortion as in could damage her womb for life. The babies were in a delicate position in the womb and any attempt to take them out would be disastrous to her.

Kamara saw her world crumble. She had her project to write, her degree exams were fast approaching, and her sisters needed attention financially. Keeping the babies meant that her father finally had sons to immortalize him, but it also means she would be s single mother, her babies would grow up bastards, without biological fathers and her little family would increase to 10, which means added responsibility.

She once again turned to her roommate who advised her to take drugs instead and flush the babies out before they get bigger than that. With the help of her roommate she purchased the drug and chose the quiet and serene lagoon front, where she was sure nobody would see her to carry out the dastardly act. However, I had come just in time to stop what may have gone down as the worst sin to humanity.

l am in a state of delimma as to what to advice her. I am a  member of the Scripture Union Campus Fellowship who carry out crusades to preach against abortion to young campus girls.

Advice Kamara on:

1. The status of abortion as an offense under the Nigerian Law

2. The moral, medical and spiritual implications and aftermath of abortion

3. The alternative options available to Kamara considering the peculiarity of her situation

4. The Criminal liability of her roommate and the person from whom the drug was procured to commit the abortion

5. Any other issue arising from the above scenario which has not been raised

Photo credit: wsj.com