By Dr Ojum Ekeoma Ogwo
A year before I retired as
a Permanent Secretary,
I travelled to London. I
worshipped in a Catholic
Church. I attended the
10am mass, at St Philip
Finchley Church, End
London. One thing struck
me. There were no youth in
the Church. There were a
lot of white elderly couples,
holding hands and swad-
dling along happily to the
church, with chit chats. At
almost 60, I was one of the
youngest in the congrega-
tion. Where are the youth? I
asked myself rhetorically.
I reflected on what
obtains in Nigeria, and felt
very sad. I hardly see any
elderly couple come to
church together. Not to talk
of holding hands. Yes, I can
hear protestations. Holding
hands is unAfrican. If they
must come to the same
church, they usually come
separately.
The in-thing in Nigeria
on Sundays, is for some
men to sit back at home
on Sunday mornings and
pretend to be reading news
papers, sipping their early
beer, playing draft or ludo
with fellow renegades.
Then gravitate to one
family, Community, Clan,
Village, Professional or
Age-Group meetings. Viola,
they are out of their houses
to joints. They use it as
escape to stay away from
Church. One thing will lead
to the other, and illicit dates
will be procured, and even blind dates contracted with
female lovers.
The women(mothers)
go to church with their
children begging God for
redemption, forgiveness
and salvation. The men
are on the other divide
complicating and com-
pounding the family woes
with fornication. Making
it near impossible for God
to intercede in the family
matters.
I know you are looking
for the connection between
viagra and my ranting.
Just wait a minute. I shall
make the connection. As a
matter of principle, I hardly
prescribe viagra, for my
patients, because it is the
illicit amoral solicitation of
female lovers that drives
their request for viagra.
Now, back to London.
As I came out from the
Catholic Church in London,
that Sunday, I bought “The
mail on Sunday” at €1.5
although the price now is
€1.9. The paper had two en-
closures. One – Dr Zhivago
CD and Two – a magazine
“You”. The first topic in
the magazine was “Viagra
The Marriage Breaker “. It
tallies with my innermost
thoughts. I shall cull some
excerpts from the “You “
magazine.
Yes, I mentioned that
I hardly prescribe viagra.
From “You” magazine –
“Last year, when the mar-
riage of Anne and Johnny
Kid – parents of supermodel Juliet and a Fashion
guru – Jemma came apart,
the shock reverberated
for days. To their friends,
the news that, Johnny
has taken up with an art
student “half his age” was
very saddening, yet the
real surprise “the small
blue diamond shaped
tablets (viagra), that
Anne found in her hus-
band’s wash bag”. Johnny
has been taking viagra,
the wonder pill that peps
up his flagging libido. Its
amazing effect, had led
Johnny to cast aside 33
years of marriage, and his,
devoted wife and family.
Mr Kid is the latest,
in a long line of celebrity
marriages to crumble, as
a result of viagra. For a drug that is meant to save
marriages, it is having per- versely the opposite ef- fect. The roll call includes
Comedian Vic Reeves,
who shared two viagra
pills with a 16 – year – old
stable girl who became
pregnant, precipitating
his divorce from his first
wife – Sarah, the Heart
Surgeon Prof Christian.
Mr Benard, reportedly
taunted his wife Karen,
with his viagra – induced
– sexual – prowess, and
enthusiasm for other
women, then left for a 28–
year-old Vieness Medical
Student.
There was Journalist
Rid Liddie, whose wife
Rachel found viagra in his
pocket. He said he had bought it for research pur-
poses, was caught out six
months later with another
packet from a chemist close
to his Mistress Alicia’s flat.
Then there was a Veter-
an D J Stewpot Stewart who
took viagra to start a fling
with Sue, a former model
who runs a B & B. Ten hours
later the bed posts were still
rattling. The man suffered a
heart attack.
I intentionally went
Afghanistan, ask the nearest
Journalist what I mean, by
going Afghanistan. Over the
years, I have had women
come to my hospital, com-
plaining of their husbands
taking sex enhancing drugs,
abandoning their matri-
monial homes, when they re-
fuse or decline their request
for sexual orgies, thereby
pursuing anything in skirt,
with the flimsy excuse that
their wives denied them sex.
If I mention names, I might
be sued.
Viagra has become a
third party in many mar-
riage splits including Nigeria,
that you cannot even imag-
ine, the reason for regular
night brawls between even
your neighbors.
One London housewife
recently claims, during
divorce proceedings, that
her husband’s irrepressible
sexual appetite, after taking
viagra, made him a sexual
aggressive monster and very
insatiable in the bedroom.
The divorce was granted.
One Professor,, who
had repeatedly requested
that I prescribe viagra for
him, when I was cautious
not to, because he has a
Cardiac problem, one day
confided in me, that he has
three wives, and an Ezeogo
in his clan,, he rhetorically
questioned “how do you
expect me to sexually satisfy
three women without an
enhancer. You think, I was
ready to make him a self
inflicted suicide bomber.
Come to think of it. Would
a man who has been mar-
ried for 20 to 30 years, sud-
denly wish to take viagra, to
impress his wife. Ten to one,
each time a man goes for
sexual enhancer or stimulus,
it must be for a new found
lover, hardly for his wife.
Let us return to “You”
magazine for the last time.
Miranda 42,a lecturer,
found herself exactly in
that scenario. She thought
her 14-year-old marriage
to TV – Producer Tom 46
was enviably happy until
she discovered a packet of
viagra in his pocket. “I did
not have a clue what it was
– but Googled it, and found
it was a drug for enhancing
sexual performance. It was
baffling to me, because we
had never had sexual prob-
lems in fact our sex life had
been particularly fantastic
for about a year. It suddenly
occurred to me, that is why.
