Nairas, Dollars and Pesewas!

It was around the middle of the ramadan period when news got to us that my paternal cousin, Aunt Wati had given birth to a bouncing baby girl, her sixth and hopefully final child. According to her, her family planning had failed and thus had taken in, so now that she's given birth and being in the middle of the fasting period, the naming ceremony for the tot was postponed till after the fasting period so the ceremony could be fully enjoyed and attendance in full. Aunt Wati is our late Dad's niece, her father, also late is Dad's elder brother and her mother being Mom's sister-in-law with whom in company of other sisters-in-law were bullied for years by their Mother-in-law, now late and former Matriarch of the Adagiri family, the title which has been taken over by her daughter as read in THE DEVIL QUOTES SCRIPTURES.


Aunty Wati is a plumpy, dark lady who is lively and quite a chatty individual, her elder brother was the uncle who took us on our all-boys adventurous holiday to ghana as read in ADAGIRI ADAMS 1 and 2 and 3 Uncle Midu had being a source of support to us in the past from his days of him living in ghana and sending us a lot of ghanaian cedis and pasewas when we were in primary school to help with our school fees at some point when things were tough and the Adagiri family couldn't care less about us to when he moved to jordan and occasionally sent us dollars when we were in grave need of financial support, not only that, he gave emotional and psychological support by his constant phone calls and words of advice and inspiration, as far as we were concerned as kids, he was the only father figure we had in the entire Adagiri family thus, naturally, we loved him and always support him also with prayers and calls on the regular.

So it was quite comforting when we learnt some few years back that Aunt Wati would be moving into her house some few metres away from our neighborhood in the home her husband built which was within walking distance from our home here in abuja where they had most of their kids till this last baby girl born during the fasting period. Soon, thirty days had gone past and we had a lowkey sallah celebration which wasn't peculiar to just our home but virtually everyone in the country as the economic situation is still very much dire and everyone kept the festivities on the minimum and basic. Few days later, the naming ceremony was to hold and Aunt Wati had beforehand informed  Mom via phone call that her mom would be in town for the ceremony and Mom was happy for her. A day before the naming ceremony, Mom had gone to Aunt Wati's house to help her with cooking and other preparations for the next day even though she had a stiff neck from sleeping in a bad posture for so long which gave her lots of pain and could barely turn her neck  but she managed despite it to go there and although she was welcomed and thanked for her effort, she (Aunt Wati) had sought and gotten the services of professional caterers to cook for her so they ended up just talking over sundry matters.

The D-day soon arrived and Aunt Wati's mom and some of her other relations as well as her husband's had arrived. Tents were set up and loud music blasting from huge speakers and one by one and two by twos, guests arrived amidst laughter and merriment to felicitate with Aunt Wati and her family on the arrival of their new bundle of joy. Mom and I also got there pretty early in our role as relatives to the mother of the baby while Karl, Hamz and QT naturally sat it out as they weren't fond of such occasions. Mom helped in dishing out food to arriving guests while I sat and watched cable along with other guests in the sitting room with more guests wining and dining under the tent outside amidst a lot of mirth. Hours later and the ceremony gradually wounded to a close and Aunt Wati in showing appreciation to her guests, distributed token gifts of souvenirs to all and gave Mom some gifts as well. Mom thanked Aunt Wati and dropped the gifts on her purse and went about with helping to clear out used plates and scraping off remnants of food into a basket and dropping the plates in a big bowl to be washed by nieces of Aunt Wati. Once she was done and we wanted to take our leave, Mom realised her gifts were missing, someone must have taken them out of greed because virtually everyone got one souvenir or the other, so Mom naturally complained to Aunt Wati about her missing gift while her mom who was with her heard it all and what Aunt Wati's mom said who by the way is noted for her loose mouth totally took her by surprise,

 " Oh! You lost your gifts! Well, so sad, you will have to go home like that because if it weren't for the bad economy that's left everyone so broke, you shouldn't be coming here and expecting to take a gift home, you ought to come here and bring a collection of gifts to share to help support Wati, after all, my son Midu has supported you and your sons in many ways than one in the past including financial support, sending you dollars, nairas, cedis and pasewas"

To say Mom felt stung by Aunt Wati's mom's statement would be stating the obvious but Mom, never to take things lying low quickly retorted before the dig-vibes cooled down,

"Oh yes indeed, Midu helped me a few times in the past when I needed his help which I appreciated and still do but did Midu also tell you I'd also helped him and his immediate family many many times in the past in more ways than one, including financial support, sending him nairas and dollars as well? As humans, we are all fluid and could be of help to each other at some points in our lives, we are all here on earth to support one another... as our people would say, it's always taken both hands to help wash each other clean, no one hand can wash itself clean...That Wati distributed gifts and I lost mine doesn't mean I shouldn't talk about it simply because someone from either your guests or relatives stole mine, that, our mother, (She's older than Mom hence the respect accorded her by calling her "our mother" but nonetheless, Mom's sister-in-law) is not the way to talk to me, I've also equally supported Wati and she's also helped me, so if by your statement, you're  indirectly referring to Midu being back to the country and you think I will be all over his case trying to get his financial support, you can be rest assured that won't happen, God has taken me above seeking anyone's help for pennies and if Midu needs my advice concerning his situation which we've all heard about that he came back broke, I think I could have some premium advice he could use, so ask him to call me".

Aunt Wati grumbled uncomfortably suggesting she didn't like how my Mom clapped back at her mom but hello cousin? Your mom had it coming!

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