Fieyi @18




I'd always wanted to be there for when our children would come. However, I was faraway at Maiduguri for the MHWUN delegates conference when the first came (his first nickname -from a delegate- before he formally had a name was Conferencius).
So, to say I was delighted at being there on 13 March 2006 would be a great understatement. For the first time, I shared that journey (that's actually an overstatement, no man can truly share that journey, which deepened my respect for women: I told my wife thereafter that if I were a woman, I would not make that journey twice) and the baby was a girl! I'd always loved and wanted to have daughters (happily for me, she is the first of three lovely girls in this Lion's Pride, not counting the lead woman: our General Secretary).
Over the years, she has grown to be one of my best friends & a co-conspirator. A fervent feminist, she argues that bride price is a patriarchal practice, each time I jokingly say she and her sisters' dowries would be legitimate retirement benefits for me.
As she takes her first step to adulthood at 18, I wish her joy, happiness, love and a better world ahead than the one my generation has grown up in. Happy birthday Fieyi. Joyeux anniversaire ma chérie 😍
And here's a poem I wrote for her in my Drafts of Becoming collection of poems, titled Lèlé (she loved that song from Resonance when she was a kid, and it ended up being her first nickname):

Lèlé

She bawled with so much energy,
my ears welcomed this,
my heart was thrilled.
Her clenched little fists punched the air.
I held them so tenderly,
I cuddled her little frame.
Ever feisty, ever curious
the little girl danced
on her grandfather's desk.
She never tired of asking questions,
with mischief and innocence,
mixed in her comely eyes.
With pride and joy
I had watched her take
her first steps.
With confidence and concern,
I now see her growing
into a fine young woman.
A father's love for his daughter
can never be quantified.
The bond of witnessing her arrival
can never be unravelled

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