A Nigerian female lawyer, Awele Ideal, has shared her inspiring story with the aim of faulting claims made by some Nigerians that the character portrayed by Tacha during her stay in the Big Brother Naija house is because she lost her mother at a tender age.
Awele in a post shared on her Instagram page, narrated how her mother abandoned her when she was seven months old and she had to the live with a torturous stepmother who made life a living hell for her. She recounted how her stepmother would make her starve for days and how she resorted to eating their dog’s left over when she became hungry.
According to Awele, though the experience was nasty she was determined to become a loving person and eventualy bagged a degree in law. Posting these photos of herself on Facebook, she wrote.
YOUR LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT….
Anytime I hear them say Tacha has no mother. I ask myself if that’s enough excuse to become unruly and mannerless?. Don’t get it twisted I’m not being judgemental. I just want to share a bit of my childhood story with you.
My Childhood…..
I was abandoned by my mother at the age of seven months (7months) with my father and stepmother. My stepmother was mean and not so nice to me, but I still called her “Mother” till tomorrow, cos she’s the only mother I knew, although she’s late (may God rest her soul). I endured all manner of maltreatments she meted at me. Sometimes I went hungry for days. She would so starve me that I would be seeing death. On one occasion, I was very hungry that I had to eat our dog’s leftover food. Our neighbor’s son caught me eating the dog’s leftover food (eba and egusi) and he told his mother who later that evening invited me to her house and asked me if what her son said was true.
I was so terrified that I begged her not to tell my step mother, because she will kill me if she knew that I ate the dog’s leftover instead of throwing it away. The woman wept and promised to give me food everyday without my stepmother’s knowledge, a promise she kept till we left the compound. As if starving me was not enough punishment, my Stepmother flogged me mercilessly until I would faint at times. She would also apply pepper in my vagina, eyes, armpit and neck, tie me up and abandon me in one of the toilets for days without food. In fact, no week passed without pepper being applied on me for minor offenses a child could commit like failure not to wash clothes or dishes well, It wasn’t as if I stole or told a lie or fornicated. During these dark days of my life, I often prayed for death, but it never came.
Despite all these experiences, I was very bright academically and was loved and favored by God and people. I knew that the only way to escape was to achieve educational success, so I never joked with schooling.
So you see, I have every right to be hateful, bitter, jealous, arrogant, sad, negative and toxic but I chose not to. Rather I embraced positivity, kindness, peace and love. My life is beautiful. I am a happy person. I’m at peace with God. I am hardworking, beautiful and smart despite all I’ve been through and I have only Almighty God to thank for it. If I was able to subdue my demons then I believe everyone has the power to conquer his/her demons also.
MY LIFE IS WHAT I MAKE OF IT
AweleChukwukaumemma
