Chief Mrs. Lucas did not waste any time to tell her beloved husband that she had finally put to bed under the strict care of her overseas specialist doctor who had for some time now not allowed any visitor around for her own good. No doubt, that was the long story meant to keep her husband from visiting her at a time he would have unfailingly discovered the tricks leveled against him for the past eight to nine months. When Chief Lucas received the news of his wife's delivery, however, his joy knew no bounds. At the same time, in order to avoid a situation where the man would immediately fly down to London, Mrs. Lucas carefully gave him some social assignments to perform.'Darling,' she said to her husband, 'do you not think that as we are coming home almost immediately, it may be worthwhile to organize some of our close friends and business associates to accompany you to the Enugu airport in order to receive our new baby? After all, many people, some fri
Time picked up diverse events and gathered them into an endless roll of an eternal scroll. Dr. Zaki was faithful in the scholarship he awarded Nelly. And having really secured an admission at the UNN to study Economics three years before, Nelly had just graduated. Her result was so good that she was offered an automatic employment by a powerful oil drilling firm based at Port Harcourt with a zonal administrative headquarter at Enugu. After her youth service corps during which she was engaged in the same firm, she was now undergoing an initial in-service training at Port Harcourt and was going to work in their Enugu office after her three months programme which was gradually drawing to a close.For the past three years before her graduation, however, Nelly had had occasional psychological trauma which she had struggled in vain to overcome. For the same length of time, she had tried to forgive herself over the fact that she had given aw
Nunu had married immediately after graduation. That was a little after one year she returned from the errand that led her to England and back in less than two weeks. She got married to a handsome young man, Mr. Aloma, a graduate banker with one of the new generation banks which had recently opened shops in some parts of old eastern region, including Enugu . Shortly after their wedding at Christ Church Uwani which drew people from far and near, Mr. Aloma suffered a major set-back. The bank wherein he was working collapsed and so he was instantly thrown back into the labour market. Since it was always very difficult for the victims of a failed bank to get a fresh job in another bank, Mr. Aloma knew he was in for a serious problem.Although Nunu had attracted one other advertising/promotional contract from the firm that first gave her her first fortune, after her contract with Dr. Zaki, she had made it a policy never to tell any suitor about her
A pure volition backed by good and upright judgment will always create an enabling atmosphere that must engender goodwill, trust and confidence. But an impure volition is like a smoke screen that blurs and distorts good and upright judgment, which makes it difficult for the other person to keep his promises,' said Mr. Aku in response to a proposal by Dr. Zaki during the meeting between himself, Chief Mrs. Lucas, Nelly, Nunu and Mrs. Aku. 'When a mistake is made during the process of decision making, the inevitable consequences are that all those who must act in response to that decision may have to put extra efforts in order to act aright because, the error inherent in the mistake must favour more errors down the line. If a man is traveling to a particular destination, if for any reason while on his way he gets to a junction where he becomes confused about which way to follow, he would be wise to get a reasonable and reliable guidance before continuin
Chief Lawrence Alanso made sure he sat together with the Lucas the following day in order to discuss some vital aspects of the case he was now handling. For as soon as he came back from the court that afternoon, he called Chief Lucas and told him about the need for three of them to hold a meeting in his office the following evening. So, at the moment, having just arrived at his office along Asata Street, they were in his office, chatting away on the issue at hand.'Am happy both of you are here together. It will help us to look more critically at one of the very important aspects of this case. That is the aspect of your reputation as a couple, your reputation as a business executive and your reputation as an educationist and a school proprietress. As a knowing one, I am constantly conscious of certain basic laws that govern so much that swing and sway around us. For example, when it is said that a man's reputation is his greates
Once upon a time, there lived a great king. His name was Adino. Although the king was such a famous man, there were two things that bothered him always. In his kingdom, the land of Mayomi, there was a terrible serpent that preyed the lives of the people. The serpent was said to have seven heads. It was so powerful that it could withstand any number of men that ever attempted to kill it. Many great men had in the past given their lives to fight and kill the terrible serpent. But none of them really succeeded. No one went to the serpent and returned alive. As for the king, he had already promised a great reward for any person or group of persons that would succeed in killing the serpent.However, once in a long while, the serpent would appear to someone in the land of Mayomi in a dream with the following message: 'I am the great serpent that owns this land. I command the king to build for me a temple and
THE WISE MAN AND THE RINGOsdara was really touched by the way the king felt concerning the problem of his people. But what he was going to do to help him, he did not know. When it appeared as if there was no hope and no solution to be found, he left king Adino and his wise men. Some of them thought it was all over. But soon after, he returned with a little ornamental box. The body of the box was decorated with lines of silver and gold. Taking his seat, Osdara opened the little box in the presence of the king and poured its contents on the floor. There was scarcely any type of treasure one could not fine there, all beautiful ornaments.'But why on the floor?' one of the king's wise men asked. 'You would have used a table to save yourself the trouble of bending down.''Oh, you're right,' he said smiling and leaning down over the treasures, apparently looking for something. 'Treasures like these ornaments
THE KING'S SECOND PROBLEMThe second problem that often robbed king Adino of his sleep was the fact that he and his wife had no child. They had been married for fourteen years. There was scarcely anything worth doing they had not done in order to get at least a single child. But it appeared as if fate was against their desire. Even the efforts of the people of Mayomi to help them failed. For there was a time when the chief priest of the land declared a period of fasting and prayer all over the land for this purpose. Individually too, most people had prayed in their closets for the king and his wife to be blessed with children. They were indeed loved by every one in the land. For the king was regarded by many people as a man sent by Heaven to save them from the hands of their enemies while the queen was believed to be the kindest woman in all the earth. But it appeared as if the people's love for the couple could not