For the next few weeks, I’ll be reviewing children’s books. And I’m starting off with the book: “I Missed a Period: A Sermonizing Story about the Dangers of Teenage pregnancy.”
The book is an advocacy tool against teenage pregnancy, written for all teenagers across the land and published in 2018 by Grace Media Books, Ibadan.
The author is Ojewola Olawale, a social activist, trainer and coach. He is a social justice, quality education and girl child advocate, His most recent work, Uncaged, is about the dangers of drug addiction and substance abuse.
In the book, I Missed a Period, the author introduces us to two women, Omobonike and Omodara, mother and daughter. Both are caught in the web of teenage pregnancy. The book opens with Omobonike telling the story of her life, and her illicit love affair with Lekan, a motorbike rider. She tells us how her parents beat her after discovering her affair with Lekan and she had fainted in the course of the punishment.
However, Omobonike does not quit this relationship with Lekan. So we read how Lekan would pick her from school and also take her home. So, after fainting and being taken for dead, Omobonike’s parents regret beating her so hard and they stop beating her. As a result, she believes that she is free to live her life as she pleases. She has gained her freedom.
Omobonike openly discusses her love affair with Lekan. During one of their conversations about Lekan, her friends ask if they have had sex, and Omobonike says no. They all mock Omobonike for still being a virgin at 14, and advise her to try sex, because they think it is good.
One day, during school hours, Omobonike sneaks out of school to be with Lekan. She misses a period. A few days later, Lekan reports at their usual place to pick her up from school. As he tries to cross the road, he is hit by an on-coming car. He dies on the way to the hospital.
A few weeks later, Omobonike begins to feel nauseous. She vomits in class. She is dizzy. It suddenly dawns on her that she has missed her period. She is indeed pregnant. So her mother is summoned to the principal’s office.
After confirming that Omobonike is pregnant, the principal summons the whole school to the assembly ground and announces that Omobonike is expelled for bringing the name of the school and that of her family to shame. The principal says: “Now, this should serve as a lesson to every student that you should not be in haste to lick a hot bowl of soup, it can burn your tongue; you don’t need to smell what you can’t eat. If you have been involved in any sexual immorality and you’re yet to be caught, nemesis will soon catch up with you too.” (p18)
So Omobonike gives birth to Omodara, a product of her misadventure with Lekan. She suffers the shame of teenage pregnancy, and the tragedy of losing her father. After the birth of Omodara, Omobonike’s mother also falls sick, and dies. She is left with no father, no mother, and no husband: all at 14. She is left with the consequence of too much freedom, to being disowned by her father, and now has to drop out of school and hawk all sorts of things to feed herself and her baby. Hers is a world of shattered dreams.
In the book I Missed a Period, Omobonike’s daughter, Omodara, also falls into the same trap about which her mother warns her repeatedly. She also sneaks out of school with her boyfriend who is her classmate. She misses a period, follows him home, and descends into a path of self-destruction.
Also Read:
- The compelling courage of the Islamic Republic of Iran, by Femi Fani-Kayode
- Toddler among seven killed in another India aircraft crash
- Peter Obi blames leadership failure for Benue killings
- Plateau CAN Chairman is dead
- Lagos enforces e-call-up for truck traffic
Within a month, Omodara has slept with four other guys – one okada (commercial motorbike) rider, two students from a higher institution, and a stranger from another town. She blames her mother for lack of care and attention, which pushes her to choose to give her body to those who give her more attention.
But for Omodara, all is not lost. So we read from the book that having now realised her error and wrong choices, and having now learnt the lessons in a bitter way, Omodara is sober, and counsels young people like herself to learn from her mistakes and not be a symbol of shame to their family. Hope is restored for Omodara, and a non-governmental organisation offers her adoption. She is rehabilitated and her life is given a new beginning.
In the final analysis, the book teaches that children should not scorn the discipline of their parents, and if they do, they will succumb to peer pressure which is more often than not, misleading. On the balance, the author, with this book, also demonstrates that parental high-handedness can be bad for both children and parents.
In six chapters and 46 pages, Ojewola teaches young readers, especially teenage girls, that embracing too much freedom can ruin lives, and that its consequence is teenage pregnancy and teenage motherhood. Indeed, getting pregnant at a tender age can truncate big dreams and bring one face to face with the harshness and hardness of life.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact-checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via 08023517565 (SMS & WhatsApp only) and email molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
