BLIND SPOT 1 T he loud bang of the door against the brick wall startled the sturdy man standing over a small heap on the dry grass covered floor. He whirled round in time to behold the scantily dressed woman in the doorway. The dull light in the barn highlighted her contorted face and blood shot eyes. She was out of breath and her heaving chest clung to her extra large, transparent night shirt which flapped out in the night breeze like broken wings. Then he saw the gun. She found fathers gun! An alarm was set off in his head. The thought sent cold shivers down his spine as he stared helplessly at the woman he had known all his life. She aimed his father’s parting gift at him. Ted threw his hands up in the air and slowly backed away from the ferocious woman by the door while avoiding the quiet heap at his feet. "I warned you. You swore never to hurt her again!"

"Not again!" Without a second thought, she yanked the duvet off her sleep deprived body, lifted the heavy mattress and pulled out the old sheet. Her steady fingers unwrapped the dust covered sheet and caressed the barrel of the loaded old pistol as she resolved to put an end to the wildness and years of betrayal.

It is the fourteenth day of February and I almost danced on my toes as my eyes darted to my wrist watch for the umpteenth time today. I must confess that I have been unable to sit still since the beginning of February. My anxiety heightened with each rising of the sun. The previous day, I had gone shopping for a lovely Red gown and a special gift for my sweetie in readiness for our very special day. Don't get excited yet, it is definitely not his birthday nor our Anniversary. It’s actually St. Valentine’s Day! If you are reading this and you are not a Nigerian, I can bet my lovely red gown...wait, definitely not my gown, but I'm sure you are wondering if Nigerians celebrate Valentine’s Day. Well, it’s no longer a secret that in Nigeria, Valentine’s, Val's or Lovers' day is always celebrated in grand style...

Nikky, I have decided to share my thoughts with you tonight although I have a feeling you might find it hard to publish it on your blog. Don't take this the wrong way, I love your narrative of how Nigerians celebrate Valentine's Day, but sincerely I do not think we have anything to celebrate. In fact I think Nigerians are delusional and love copying everything foreign. We too like copy and paste joor! I'm fed up with the idea of people exerting all their energy just to impress a supposed loved one on a day someone else decided should be special. To make matters worse, the story about St. Valentine is vague and shrouded in mystery. In my opinion, my better half and I deserve to pick a day we consider special. We should not be bullied into accepting February 14th as Lovers’ Day.

  I have been avoiding this topic. In fact I had intentionally ignored everything and anything that would make me discuss this issue until recent events made me lose my cool. It was supposed to be an outing with friends and colleagues, but we ended up shooting and stabbing each other. “What happened to the PDP Zoning formula? Christians have had their time, it’s now time for Muslims to run the affairs of this nation!”  Musa yelled unrestrained. I could feel his passion as he tried to convince anyone who cared to listen to vote for his candidate...