MY FATHER TRADED ME FOR A PLOT OF LAND, WHEN I FINALLY FOUND OUT IT WAS TOO LATE- LADY SHARES EMOTIONAL STORY

My name is Nkechi. I was 19 and the only daughter in a family of five in Owerri. My father was a struggling palm wine tapper, and our house leaked every rainy season. When a rich chief from the next village started visiting with big offers, I thought it was for my elder brothers’ apprenticeship.

One evening, my father called me into the sitting room. The chief was there with two of his brothers. They looked me up and down like I was a goat at the market. My father smiled and said, “Nkechi, you are now a woman. Chief has asked for your hand. He will give us a full plot of land in the new area and pay for your brothers to learn trading.”

I laughed nervously, thinking it was a joke. I was in my second year at the polytechnic and wanted to become a nurse. But my father’s face was serious. When I refused and ran to my mother, she held my hands and whispered, “My daughter, don’t be selfish. This is the only chance this family has to own land. Do you want us to remain tenants forever?”

That night, they locked me inside the room. The chief came with his people the next morning. They dragged me into his car while I screamed and cried. My brothers stood outside watching. My mother was inside, crying but not stopping them. “It is for your own good,” she kept saying.

I became his third wife. He was 58. In his house, I was treated like a servant. The senior wives hated me and made sure I suffered. When I tried to run back home after three months of misery, my father brought me back himself and collected more money.

Two years later, the chief divorced me after I gave birth to a baby girl. He kept my daughter and sent me away with nothing. When I reached my father’s new house the one built on “my” land my he refused to let me in. “You are now used goods,” he said. “Go and find your own husband.”

My mother still visits the chief’s family during festivals to beg for favours. She tells people I “disgraced” the family by not being patient in marriage. I sleep in a small rented room, working as a cleaner, and cry every time I remember how my own parents auctioned me off like property so they could own a piece of land.

The pain of being sold by the people who gave birth to me is something I carry every single day. Some parents don’t protect their children they trade them for comfort and call it blessing.