HAD I KNOWN

It had been Twenty- four years since she had last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same.

Yet it was just like Twenty- four days. Not much had changed in the family house, except that Mikky, the grey Alsatian, was no longer around to 'welcome' any intruder in the home of the Danladis. Intruder? Yes. Twenty- four years were enough to erase whatever memory of Jummai' s appearance that Mikky had. From infancy to adulthood, Jummai was a beauty to behold. She had been moulded from the DNAs of her parents into a hybrid mulatto who was a cynosure of all eyes. That was before the upheavals of marital infidelity accosted her.

Twenty-four years of absence were enough to transform Jummai into an intruder in her father's estate.

The Danladis belonged to the upper-middle echelon of the Nigerian society- top civil servants, middle- level entrepreneurs, and a coterie of actors in the fluid political firmament of Nigeria. Mr. Danladi retired from service as a career diplomat after the statutory thirty-five years of service to his fatherland. He had served as Nigeria's ambassador to various countries. It was during his sojourn in Spain that he came across Joan Gonzalez whom he later married. They had three children; two girls, Jummai and Aishat, and a boy, Phelipe, respectively.

The socio-political status of the Danladis enabled them to acquire a home in a neighborhood usually reserved for the political class - that minority that constituted the movers and shakers of the Nigerian society, a largely amormous and predatory group that had cornered the Commonwealth of the people.

The property sat on a hill- a masterpiece of Grecian architecture. The island on which the building stood was actually part of an archipelago reached only by a narrow stretch of paved concrete road. The cool breeze from the Atlantic waters caressed the palm trees intermittently. Adorned on all sides by a combination of fruit trees and flowers, the salubrious atmosphere was reminiscent of the garden of Eden.

Jummai Danladi was born in Spain where she had her foundation School career. It would not be inaccurate to describe the relationship between Jummai and her parents as cold. The father had warned her of the dangers of late night parties. She was fond of hanging out late with friends almost every weekend. On one occasion she got home by 2.00 am, partly drunk. The father waited till the following morning before confronting her.

" You are beginning to go down the hill", he started. " I am eighteen dad", she had retorted, as if her father did not know her age. Both parents were really worried when they noticed the change in behavior which became more pronounced from her eighteenth birthday. They continued to advise her to retrace her steps. They even engaged the services of a Clinical Psychologist. The effect was minimal.

The Danladis gave their children names that reflected their parental background.

Usman Danladi was a devout Muslim while Joan Gonzalez was a Roman Catholic of the Christian faith. Danladi believed in and promoted interracial and interreligious coexistence.

He decided that his first child, Jummai must have her university education in Nigeria. He reasoned that it would afford her the opportunity to have a taste of the Nigerian culture as well as get to know members of the extended family. He reasoned that such exposure would prepare her for the great challenges of the Nigerian marital landscape. Jummai initially refused to go to Nigeria for her tertiary education. What was wrong in a Spainish university where facilities were even much better than in Nigeria?

With her mother's persuasion she agreed, but on one condition: her parents must give her a car once she secured University admission. Also, she must be allowed to visit her parents at will. Her father rejected the deal. Again, the mother intervened, to reach a compromise. She would have the car if she performed well in her academics, after her University education.

The Danladis had agreed to encourage their children  to marry from where ever they wished, irrespective of racial or religious beliefs. Such union, however should be built on love for each other and respect for core societal values of integrity, diligence and patience. They taught their children these values in practical terms, by the way they lived as a couple.

After her university education, Jummai got married to a Nigerian businessman resident in Spain. Her parents were opposed to a marriage that would take place after only one month of courtship. After much pressure, including intervention of some members of the Nigerian community in Spain, they gave their consent.

Bernard Ugoji emigrated to the United States with his wife, Jummai, shortly after their honeymoon in Spain. The first five years of matrimony were blissful: financial comfort, good health, mutual love, and a set of twins; a boy and a girl.

Ugoji travelled a lot in his export business. This took him to several countries while he used United States as his base. Jummai had little or no knowledge of her husband's family background and she cared little for that. All that mattered was that her husband loved her. Jummai forgot that one of the reasons her father decided that she should have part of her education in Nigeria was for her to get acquainted with, not only the culture of the people, but also some members of the extended family.

Unknown to Jummai, her husband lived a live of chronic infidelity and he used his business as a cover.

In fact Ugoji had a wife at home, married for him according to his native custom and tradition before he travelled abroad for greener pastures. While in Spain and the United States, he sent money periodically to the wife at home. He even visited his hometown once every year, mainly to see this woman.

Jummai did not have the slightest inkling of her husband's ambivalence. The wife at the village did not know that Ugoji was legally married to another woman abroad. In fact this second marriage was solemnized in a Church in Spain as well as court registry.

For Bernard Ugoji, the word Bigamy could as well be another name for the best wine on earth, after all he was also a connoisseur of wine, not just of women.

Then the bubble burst! Jummai's father in-law died at the good old age of Ninety-eight years. As part of the tradition, Ugoji was required to give his late father a befitting burial. His wife was expected to feature prominently in the burial rites. Wife? Which wife?

The tradition knew of and recognized the wife at the village. On the advice of some of his friends, Ugoji summoned up courage and spilled the beans, but only partially. He informed Jummai that the woman in the village was not really his wife but a childhood friend with whom he got by. He spun the same yarn for Mgborie, the village woman - that Jummai was just an item of data in his amorous frenzy for womanhood.

To say that Jummai was flummoxed or flabbergasted could be high sounding, yet inadequate to express the psychological trauma she experienced.

Within twenty-four hours of receiving the evil news, Jummai booked the next flight to Nigeria. Earlier, her father had dissuaded her from calling it quits with her marriage, but she would have non of that. The seven- hour flight from JFK international airport to Nnamdi Azikiwe international airport, Abuja, Nigeria was like eternity.

Now she was at the front of her father's house, courtesy of an Uber taxi. Her father had declined to pick her up at the airport.

Ambassador Danladi was of the view that her daughter had failed in her responsibility to protect her marriage . He was not going to pamper her nor submit to any blackmail to intervene in the marriage. If only Jummai had taken his advice to acquaint herself with her husband's family at the onset. If only she had adhered to her parents' advice on choice of friends. Was she careless? Is marriage not supposed to be a matter between two adults only? Did she overlook the 'Nigerian Factor' in marriage? Questions. HAD I KNOWN.

For Jummai, that was the end of a chapter and the beginning of another. She had to convince her father that she was not at fault (Who then was?), and that was all that mattered.