I’m a 25-year-old female based in Abuja and I’ve not been on talking terms with him since 2022. I was 22 years old at that time and I was very frustrated with seeing my dad’s face. His cruelty made me start developing sucidal thoughts, so I really needed to leave home. Growing up, we never experienced love from our dad. He was always hitting my mum and us, his kids. He’d get angry for no reason, cheat on my mum openly, and say he’s an African man. We’re a middle-class family living comfortably well, but my dad had a problem taking care of our basic needs in school. Before he gets a textbook for us, he’ll insult and insult as if he was doing us a favor. When my brother and I got to uni, he’d send us N2,500 monthly and tell us he worked hard for his money. He doesn’t know how I even took care of myself as a 17-year-old female in the university. Despite all this hardship, I didn’t sell myself for money. Every single day of my life was practically hard in school; feeding was a problem, but my dad would never send anything higher than N5k for my feeding and other sanitary supplies.
I graduated in 2022, and staying at home with him before service was hell. He wouldn’t let me go out. If he went to work and came back and didn’t find me at home, it’d be a big problem. One day I went out to look for a job. I was tired of staying at home without any money. When I came back home, he said a lot of hurtful things to me and said no one will ever give me a job because I’m lazy. Those words got to me, and I told my mum I was going to kee myself if I don’t leave this house. This man will look us in the face and tell us we’d amount to nothing, we’re useless, and we’ll be thieves and they’ll kill us. I left and never looked back till date. He hits my mum over the slightest issues, then he passes aggression on we the kids. I’m just focused on doing better, getting better money, and taking my mum out of that place. I grew up in too much toxicity, which made me settle for a useless partner at one point. This n•gga used to hit me, and I thought he was training me for marriage because I saw my mum enduring this type of treatment.
Also read: Love Hurts So Much