BN Hot Topic: Stalking? or Simply Protecting your Interests

After a very hectic week at work I was looking forward to relaxing over the weekend. For the first time in many Saturdays there was no “Owambe” wedding lined up, no birthday dinners and no dates. After having breakfast, I crawled back into bed and as I was about to turn my phone on silent, it started ringing….. it was my cousin Jumoke. Very wrong timing but I decided to pick up.  Before I finished saying hello she shouted at me telling me to come outside. I hurriedly jumped out of bed and ran out of the house. Unfortunately, my Saturday was not going to be the lazy day I planned.

Now I’m sure you are wondering why I gave up my lazy day so let me explain. Jumoke has been dating this guy called IK for three years and he popped the question two months ago.  She seemed happy until recently when she started complaining about a change in his behavior. He was busier, forgetting dates, making up silly excuses, buying too many gifts (which I thought was a positive thing) and acting extremely secretive.  I told her not to assume negatively and that he might just be planning a fabulous surprise, has cold feet or is just busy. I even showed her D’banj’s “fall in love” video just to prove my point.

Jumoke is very stubborn and I knew my explanation was not going to fly.  As they say a woman in love does better research than the FBI. After carrying out her detective work, she shared some of her findings with me and it was quite evident that something was not just right but all she had was circumstantial evidence. He was either cheating or his “friendship” with a particular girl was too sketchy for a man engaged to be married.  She confronted IK about the situation but he denied adamantly. I expected Jumoke to calm down and ‘trust’ her man but according to her this is Lagos……it doesn’t work that way.

On this particular Saturday, IK had cancelled his date with her and she suspected something was up. The plan was for her to trail IK for the day and I was her accomplice. I felt really bad and jobless but if following her was going to make her happy I agreed to do it. Truth be told, my inquisitiveness did not help me in saying NO either.

During our little adventure I thought to myself…where do you draw the line in attempting to protect your interest in a relationship? Has she gone too far? Is it just an invasion of privacy?

What do you think and how would you react?

Photo Credit: Moment/cultura/Corbis