An elder sister of yours who has left school had confided in you in her last letter that she plans to elope with her lover whom your parents do not approve of. Write a letter to her advising against such action, and suggesting steps she could take to obtain your parents consent.
Explanation
34, Adeyemi Alao Street
Agboju, Aguda
Lagos.
23rd May, 1994.
Dear Sister,
I was unhappy and disappointed after reading your last letter. Though I appreciate the confidence you have in me I disapprove of your plan to elope with Peter, your lover. I will be very frank and blunt with you because I still don't know what brought that kind of inglorious plan to your mind.
How do you think that you are going to be respected by your junior brothers and sisters if you carry out your plan? Nobody respects a lady who elopes with her lover against her parents' wishes. Don't you realize that you are laying down a bad example which should not be emulated? What befits you as the eldest daughter in the family is to wed a man of your choice with the approval of daddy and mummy. Moreover, if you elope with your lover now, how do you expect him to respect you? I am sure you are going to regret it later in life because those who have carried out what you are planning now ended up being dumped by their husbands.
Secondly, you are going to bring a stigma into the family. I want you to think seriously about your parents whom you want to disgrace and put to shame in our town. I advise you not to bring such ridicule to our parents. It is abominable and unheard i of in the annals of our town for a young beautiful girl like you to elope with a man whom her parents do not approve of.
Thirdly, the bible goes against your plan. As a christian, you are expected to be joined to a man of your choice whom your parents approve of. This means that if you carry out your plan, you will be committing a sin towards God. Therefore, you have to be careful and change your plan.
In order to obtain our parents' consent, I want you to go and see uncle Ade. As you know that daddy and mummy always listen to him, go and tell him that you are in love with Peter and that you are convinced that he loves you too. Then, solicit his assistance to talk to our parents so as to convince them that irrespective of the fact that Peter doesn't belong to our tribe, you can still marry him and have joy and peace.
I am sure that if you take this step, our parents will consent to your courtship and later marriage to Peter.
Yours sincerely,
Joke.
