by Prince Tunji Moronfoye
My father looked at my mum and realized that he could not cope with my mum’s wrath that afternoon. My dad looked straight into the eyes of my brother and I, then he said;
“When did I ask the two of you to uproot the cashew tree”????‘Kunle and I looked at each other dumbfounded and simultaneously opened our mouths in complete petrified shock.
Let me tell you a brief story. At our family house in Fate road, in Ilorin when my siblings and I were much younger in the late 80’s. We had a troublesome cashew tree whose roots always pulled up the water pipes to the house from the mains on the street.
My late father had paid plumbers to fix new pipes twice in three months and he was miffed by the cashew tree roots, so he told my younger brother Oyekunle Moronfoye and I, to uproot the tree.
That instruction in itself wasn’t that much of a problem. He told us on a Saturday so we decided to do the job on Sunday before the sun rose to unbearable heights. Both our parents had gone to church and by mid day we had uprooted the tree and cut it into small fire wood sizes.
The problem started when my mum came back from church to see the empty space where the tree was supposed to be. You see, my mum parked her 504 GR saloon car under the cashew tree in front of the house, inside the yard. We had chopped down the tree and leveled the ground where we had uprooted the tree.
Our mum entered the living room where our dad, my young brother and I were seated, wore a shocked look on her face. “Where is the cashew tree where I park my car”, she asked us a very calm voice. Her calm voice usually preceded a tornado storm.
I looked at my father and said; “Daddy said ‘Kunle and I should uproot it, because it’s root had been destroying the water pipes”. My mother calmly turned to my father and asked; “Did you instruct the kids to uproot the cashew tree, where I park my car”?
My father looked at my mum and realized that he could not cope with my mum’s wrath that afternoon. My dad looked straight into the eyes of my brother and I, then he said;
“When did I ask the two of you to uproot the cashew tree”????
‘Kunle and I looked at each other dumbfounded and simultaneously opened our mouths in complete petrified shock.
My father now faced my mum and said, “as you can see by their silence, I didn’t instruct anything like that, at all”.
My father instantly sacrificed us on the altar of his beloved wife, for his peace. We were instantly tongue lashed and slow roasted by my mum for weeks.
Peace usually requires sacrifice.
May the gentle souls of my parents rest in perfect peace. Amen.
Prince Tunji Moronfoye is a former commissioner for information in Kwara state.