The girls are just going to love this piece because it is something we have often “gisted “about! And as you may know, anything that affects women becomes my cross to bear on their behalf. I can’t fight but I can write. A couple of times I have had to swallow pain killers on behalf of a woman who had a headache or pain inflicted on her by her husband or boyfriend!

Sometime ago, I took a call from a lady, a mother of two whose husband left because he moved up in life. Not only did he leave, he bamboozled his way through the courts and got custody of the children. Money talks! She then found herself all alone; the children who would have helped her to survive the traumatic separation were yanked away from her. She vowed she would get them back but the lawyers she could afford provided the service within the range of her pocket and with a shallow pocket like hers, she could not afford a good lawyer… but believe me, a mother would rather die than allow an egoistic, power drunk, conniving, unfaithful husband (got himself a new wife to match his level) take away her children.

Desperate for help and at a point where suicide looked tempting, she called my Soni, whose number she could lay her hands on and Soni called me and said, “Betty, there is a woman whose call you have to take NOW”. I knew that tone and within minutes I was playing “Dr Roberts” to a woman who was hanging on to life by the skin of her teeth.

She said to me; “My husband just got into the Senate and he took the children and headed for Abuja without any consideration for my welfare. Mrs. Irabor, I cannot live without my children and one of the reasons he got custody of my children was because I had no means, no income to cater to their needs.” The judge just dismissed my pleas”…