Night Vigils of Doom

Comfort Obi

The story was reported on the same day as the historical imprisonment of Bode George, a Chief, and chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), made headline news. The only difference is that while George’s story dominated the front pages, the story of this woman of easy virtue made the inside page of all national dailies. And what a story!
It is a story capable of breaking-up more marriages. And it is capable of sowing seeds of suspicion between husbands and wives. It is about the shameful death of a woman in the room of a sordid hotel in the Mushin area of Lagos State. We always read stories of a man, or a woman, dying in a hotel room during sex with his or her lover. When such things happen, the police are quick to pick the “living” partner for interrogation. I am usually in sympathy with the partner who is being so publicly disgraced. My reasoning is this: Unless there was an underhand business, it is a case of two consenting adults. If one dies in the heat of their adulterous union, so be it. But I digress. I want to tell you the story of this woman which is likely to have a spiral effect on night vigils.
In the last week of October, Modinat Alabi died in a dingy hotel room, Lagos. She was aged 45. A mother of eight, she died while in the company of her lover, Hezekiah Ladipo, a father of three. Like Modinat, he is also married. While Modinat lived with her husband, Ladipo’s wife lives in Ogun State. Modinat and her husband live on the same street as Ladipo. So, you could say they were neighbours. Modinat’s husband is 62 years old. While one could say that he is a bit old for Modinat, she seems to have a weakness for older men. Ladipo, her lover, is also 62. So, you wonder what the attraction was.
On this day, Modinat, a Muslim, told her husband that she was going for a night vigil organised by NAFSAT. Neither her husband, nor her children had any reason to suspect that she was lying. Apparently, she had been doing that before. And apparently, each time she came back, she regaled them with stories of how much she interceded on their behalf before Allah. But unknown to them, their wife and mother was lying in God’s name.
One of the reasons Nigeria is turning inside out, and upside down, is that people have no fear of God in them. They commit all sorts of crime in His name, and in His house. That is why misguided youths would, without fear, kidnap Priests. That is why armed robbers rob in churches and mosques. That is why these, otherwise, holy premises have been severally desecrated. And that is why criminals now dress in cassocks and robes meant for priests of God, to go and rob, assassinate, or kidnap innocent people.
So, Modinat told her husband and children that she was going to a night vigil to pray, and intercede on behalf of the family before Allah. But that was far from her plan. She was not thinking of Allah, or her family. Her thoughts were adulterous thoughts. And worse, she was lying in God’s name. Unknown to her, that would be the last lie she would tell in God’s name.
When she checked into the hotel with Ladipo, it was as Ladipo’s wife. The lie was exposed when tragedy came calling, as usual, without notice. While she was having illicit sex with Ladipo, she died in the heat of her sin. When Ladipo noticed that the sex had become one sided, he was alarmed to find out that it was not that his lover just wanted to watch him, she was stone dead. Time was 2.45 am. Modinat's husband who became an Usain Bolt when he heard of her death was shocked to hear that she had attended no vigil. She had died committing adultery.
This story has many implications for Nigerian families. I have never been in support of religious night vigils which have become the fad. As a growing-up child, the only night religious activities I knew of, aside Christian wake-keeps in honour of the dead, were Christmas Carols or mid-night services which ushered in Easter or New Year. But these have been abused since the era of Pentecostal churches. Now, every church, including, unfortunately, conventional churches – for fear of losing their members to the new era churches – now embark on night vigils. They are no good. Such night vigils are breeding grounds for all sorts of atrocities. That is where several young girls mess around and get pregnant. That is where some armed robbery operations are planned. That is where some husbands commit adultery with other women. That is where some wives commit adultery with other men. And, atimes, as has been confirmed by Modinat, they go to no night vigils. It is an excuse to go out and do all kinds of things.
Tell me, why would a mother, a wife, leave her husband and children in the night and say she is going for night vigil? This is what the new era churches have wrought on the society. Women go from one fellowship to the other, leaving their children to nobody. Who takes care of their husbands and children in the night? What if one of the children fall sick in the night? I know some families go with their children. But I see it as punishment. What sins have the poor children committed to be so punished? One of the reasons I have never encouraged anybody to go to mission schools, especially boarding ones, is that children are forced to fast and embark on night vigils. Families should have a re-think, and, if they need to hold night vigils, they should do that in their houses. But back to Modinat.
She has put women in trouble, especially her neighbours, and those who were her friends. They would now be under constant suspicion by their husbands. Even when they sincerely want to go for night vigils, their husbands would doubt them. And that is good. A woman’s place in the night, unless she is at work, is by her family’s side. What is more, one of the worst sins anybody would commit is to lie in God’s name. And that is what some of these night vigils are all about.