I’m sorry dad.Updated at Dec 28, 2021, 05:36
Tonight, it was raining heavily and the thunder kept rumbling. I was sitting by my window watching the trees being buffeted by the wind. I'm not even talking about the sky, which was getting darker and darker even though it was only four o'clock on my clock.
I was very calm but not at peace in my mind. I had a bad feeling that I could not decipher. It was like a safe that needs a series of ten numbers to unlock. I knew it needed numbers between one and ten, but I didn't know exactly which ones.
To avoid drowning in questions to rest my brain for the exam I was going to take the next day, I went to bed and a little sleep got the better of me.
It was around six o'clock that I woke up. The rain had stopped and the thunder was no longer rumbling. The outside seemed to have regained its tranquility and brightness.
I excitedly sat down at my desk to review my lessons. The exam was coming up and I needed to pass it to go to college.
I was seventeen at the time, Dad!
We lived in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
We were in a working class neighborhood where there was a lot of disorder and delinquency. Young people were doing things that were not necessarily good for them, and so there were police patrols all the time to calm this madness.
Among those good people who had dedicated their lives to ensuring the safety of the country and the city, there was you dad, the great Markus Akaba.
There was no braver man than you. You were a helpful man, a countryman who had spent his life serving his country. You had been in the police force for more than thirty-five years and you were the best police officer dad.
I loved you more than anything and that's why I was sometimes afraid for you.
I was afraid that the drug dealers would hurt you because you were the one who kept their goods out of Abuja but that fear came true.
I waited for you tonight to have dinner with me but you didn't come home.
My feelings intensified. I felt a fear and thought the worst. This was confirmed when I received this call from your workplace. A call that changed my life forever.
Your body had been found by your colleagues. Yes, your body, Dad! And they told me that you had been shot six times all over your body.
Six bullets, for a noble and kind person like you! Six bullets, for such a wonderful father! Six bullets, while you were helpful and respectful... Six bullets while your mission was to protect the youth... Six bullets dad, yes six bullets!
In just a few seconds, my world fell apart. I felt a tear in my heart.
"How could this happen? Who did this? Why?" These were the questions that flashed through my head and before I could do anything, I made a promise to avenge your death.
I didn't want to let the person who killed you go free, so after mourning your departure and quitting school, I opted for a five-year training in the police force, and during those years nothing went right in my life. I felt empty like a house without its owners or like a car without its driver. The only thing that gave me the courage to go on was the rage I felt inside. This rage to put the culprit behind bars.
I remember once I asked you what made you love Mom the first time you laid eyes on her and you said, "Love has its reasons that reason itself does not know. I was ten years old and it was the first time I heard this sentence, which I didn't understand, but if there is a sentence whose meaning I understand more than any other today, it's her, dad, and you know why? Because I just found out some terrible news!
I promise you I didn't plan this, Dad. I had everything planned in my plan to avenge your death but this and I swear on the baby I'm carrying that it's the truth.
I... I fell madly in love with the wrong man and I'm sorry dad.