His father was a peasant, and his mother just died after putting him to bed. He was the only male child out of three female children before him. That was how he was given that name, Anyadike (eye of a hero). He started school with little or no money that met his "school" needs. His father turned into a bad father and allowed every burden to be on his second wife, whom he picked as a partner having mourned Anyadike's mother for two years. His mourning was the 'history' of posterity because there was no such chronicle from either a widow or widower who had stayed for so long before getting a new partner. He was respected, though he lacked money. This pride in him made his mouth shell like some obnoxious women do, when he was asked to bring out money for family needs. Anyadike had grown and enrolled in primary school.
One day, Anyadike was sent home from school because of his inability to pay his fees. He went to his father who was busy pushing tobacco into his nostrils, not caring to know if any one entered his room. Anyadike, afraid, stood for a while so that his father would notice his presence and, maybe, ask him what the matter with him was. When he saw that his father did not care to recognize his presence, he had to talk to him without editing his words, as a way to let him know his predicament. That was when his father turned and looked at him, laughed and said, "So, you have grown wings to talk to me without fear, Anyadike?" Anyadike opened his eyes as if it was not his father to whom he was talking, because of that question, "So, you have grown wings to talk to me without fear, Anyadike?" Anyadike, with fear and anger ran out of the room to meet his stepmother.
"What is it my son Anyadike, that you ran out with such anger?" his stepmother asked. Anyadike was shedding tears, swallowing as many tears that hopped down into his mouth. As he sat, his stepmother had to go closer, to pet him, so that he would open up with what the matter was.
His father was coming out with anger, blowing the "damn" tobacco out his nostrils. His wife looked with surprise and walked to him to know what the problem was with his son. The man didn't wait a little than to start saying things that even the winds of the air could carry to neighborhood. "Let him stay here!" His father said, "Is he not seeing his mates whose welfares are being taken care by themselves? They cater for their parents and also pay their school fees from the stipend they get from 'labor' works."
"You should not expect him to be like anyone, my dear husband, we are here to help him grow and not to measure him with anyone on earth". The wife said, "Destiny is not one!" while holding Anyadike, who was leaping like a trapped rabbit, to fight his father with words. This statement of his father entered his marrow. He remembered when he alone brought up fifty chicks to matured fowls from money given to him by people, and his father sold those fowls without a dime accruing to Anyadike. Anyadike didn't then worry so much about the money, since he was still under his father.
But now, instead of his father telling him that he had no money to give, he was busy rattling and rating him with people. Anyadike remembered his mother, who allegedly died of high blood pressure after giving birth to him, and his father didn't at least go to borrow money to save her life. Anyadike could not hide this. He went to people to let them know the cropping problem he was facing so that they could tell his father to adhere to his fundamental right. But half of the people living within their environ went, while his father proved the deaf chameleon. Having waited for his father to change heart, and having realized that nothing was forthcoming, he could not wait to see, hear or experience further humiliation; he bolted out of the house.
His stepmother, who was yet to beget a child, began to feel disgust of what people would say about her coming into the family - that she treated him so badly (because Anyadike was not her child) that he decided to run away. But she never did such. She was only in deep thought, because of the tradition that despises women. When his father learnt of his son's egress, he didn't blink an eyelid. But before now, people have told him that he was just a mere wicked, if not, how could he say that he doesn't make money from farming, to train his only son. His wife, to prove her innocence of not abetting to Anyadike's exit, decided as well to leave the house until Anyadike came back.
Pandemonium broke loose, when the relatives of the woman saw their daughter home; initially, they suspected nothing until when she over stayed. One morning, her mother went to her: "My daughter, what is the matter? You have stayed more than a married woman should". There and then she told her mother what happened. She went and informed her husband. On the other hand, Anyadike's maternal relatives could not bear what was happening any longer; they chose a day, with the people of Anyadike's stepmother, to visit Anyadike's father. One thing that fuelled this was that Anyadike was nowhere to be found.
As they assembled on the appointed day, Anyadike's father had sharpened his knife prior to the arrival of his in-laws. As they arrived, they were showered with encomiums. He gave them seats. They sat down and were presented with kola nuts, before Anyadike's father excused them under the pretext of getting more kola from his room. Low and behold, he came out with a machete, and everyone sitting ran away. This ignited gossip and other scandals against the man in the neighborhood - that evil spirits possessed him. But he wasn't inhabited by any spirit; he was just ignorant of the educational system and also stingy by fate.
Where Anyadike was, he had neither brother, sister, parents nor any relatives. He was living life by friends, who were truck pushers. Because he lacked formal education, he couldn't get a good job in the city where even graduates roamed and scavenged the streets for jobs. He decided to join his friends in the truck-push-business. He had pushed this truck for three years and there was nothing to write home about. One day, he met with a new set of friends whom he carried luggage for and they said to him that he should come and see them at a pub the following evening, having given him food and drink and also N 2000; given what he had saved for three years, he knew he could not make N 2000 if he remained in the truck pushing business for the next twelve years. He was happy and prayed for the appointed day to fast-track. He couldn't sleep.
The day came, and he was handed a bag that he carried and slumped; it was heavy. When he got up, they told him that they gave him the bag to carry so that he will know that making money is hard. It's meant for brave hearts! They now gave him the light one, which he carried with his assumed last strength. They had not walked a distance and were rained on by cops. The three friends ran away, but Anyadike, who was a novice to all of it, got it now that he was about to be introduced into armed robbery. He pleaded with the cops of been oblivious of the plans, but was jailed for a five year term after a court's verdict.
When Anyadike was in the prison, he was only pleading to God to forgive him. He was impatient. He wanted to surprise his people, mainly his father, that he could make money no matter his negligence, which was why he became a miscreant. But no man can overtake God from His proposals. He was in penance and always seen crying. Because he had no relative to bring him food, he was only feeding on the prison's unnutritious foods. It was a punishment.
Anyadike, so frail, having served his term, was released and decided to reach home. His father was now doing well. He was a treasurer to a family association. He did not believe in the banking system. He didn't care if his son came back or not. But people from the neighborhood were coming to greet Anyadike, oblivious that he had served a term in jail. They wouldn't have come if they had known, because an ex-convict is treated like an outcast. They were praising him that his Christian 'moral' background had lowered his ego to learn the craft of watch repairs, not knowing that he was taught that in the prison, by persuasion.
After two days of staying in the house without even his father reciprocating his greetings, he decided to go and beg his father like the Biblical prodigal son did. His father took him back, now that he had won over all chaos as the man of the house. Not quite long after Anyadike had come home, his father brought in N 4000 that had been contributed by his clanspeople. Anyadike targeted how unsafe the money could be, and luckily it was unsafe, and he made away with the money.
His father returned from the farm in the cool evening and called him, but he was nowhere to be found around the village. He decided to check the money he brought in. Like a mirage he didn't see it. He tried to hold himself as men do; if Anyadike would come back home, he would ask him - but it was to no avail. Having condoned this, one day he decided to let his people know what he was passing through. His scream attracted people; when people came, he told them what he was seeing. There and then they told him that actions speak louder than the words, as if they had planned what to say, in unison. They dispersed to their various compounds. He tried calling them back, but no one listened, as a vendetta to repay him of his nonchalant behaviour when they were pleading with him to help his only son. He cannot do away with communalism, a very great bond. He was caught by cardiac arrest. He slumped and died.
When Anyadike heard this, he became annoyed and his conscience began to torment him. And he decided to return home; he had sold his morality because the fight of his fundamental needs and rights, and now his father was dead. But few people seemed deaf to this thought, while many people who were living the life of Anyadike's father changed to be good. They said that the deceased was even lucky to have gotten a child, like Anyadike, who fears God. What would have happened to those whose sons are evil? It may be their sons shooting them. Instantly. This went round the jurisdiction and today it became a very big lesson to people that no matter how poor they may be, they should train their children. But where they cannot, they should abstain from breeding children. Like in Africa, many men just marry for formality's sake, not because they have any future for the unborn child, which is why many youth engage in social restiveness.
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