A popular Nigerian Facebook page, "The Humans of Abuja", has taken to the social networking platform to share the emotional story of a man whose father forced him to get an extra wife in order to have a male child.
According to the man, being the only son prompted him to marry a second wife in order to please his father and have a son. And after marrying two wives, the man has been blessed with six girls (4 from the first wife and 2 from the second wife). He was almost made to marry a third wife in the unrelenting search for a son.
Here's how the man's story was shared online:
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"I have lots of thoughts in my head. I used to be married to just one wife and I was happy with that. We got married and have 4 girls. My father who's late now wouldn't hear of it.
He said I'm his only son and I needed to have a male child to continue his lineage. He was an educated man so he knew a woman has nothing to do with the s*x of a child. He said, since I didn't have any luck in giving my wife a male child maybe some other woman would.
He encouraged me into taking a second wife which I did but I still didn't have any luck with her. She gave me two female children. He almost made me take a third which I refused. Handling two women alone is difficult enough, a third would have been impossible.
He passed away after a few years and no one bothered me about it again. Strangely, my mother doesn't have any problem with I not having a male child. But it's beginning to bother me these days. I've been thinking, 'what if I died tomorrow, so no one would be here to continue our family lineage'.
Maybe I should just adopt a boy child that would bear my name. But how would my wives take it? These are the things I think about and exactly what I'm sitting here and thinking about right now."