Atan is one of the most popular areas in Ogun State, Nigeria due to its value in the agriculture sector of the country. The primary profession of the occupants there is farming. The area is blessed with much agricultural potential from arable land to excellent climatic conditions. However, the town lacks social amenities like good roads, high-quality health systems, and network services. All this undermined the efforts of the hardworking farmers in these areas.
Baba Agbe is one of the most famous farmers in the locality with specialization in growing yam, maize and cassava. His influence on the community and farming in the area earned him that name. His wife was a petty trader in the Atan market selling agricultural products yielded from their farm. He has three children with Akin being the eldest and the only male. He is a hardworking man who strives to give his wife and children the best of life at all cost. He also believed in education, so his three children were all enrolled in the community school at a due time.
On a sunny Monday morning, Baba Agbe took his cutlass and walked down to his farm. The week before, he had been busy with church activities, which prevented him from visiting his farm. Weeds were all over his cassava plot, so he needed to remove it. It was while weeding; Baba Agbe mistakenly hit himself with his cutlass. The cutlass is a special one due to its sharp edges.
He groaned out for help, but no one could hear his voice. He managed to get traditional herbs and applied it to the wound. He struggled and limped out of the farm to the road where another farmer helped him.
Mama Akin on hearing the bad news ran home to take care of her husband. Several ointments and traditional herbs were applied, but the leg was deteriorating. His children on arriving from school, seeing their father situation was sad. Baba Agbe was bed-ridden to the health care center but the leg never healed.
Then the unexpected happens, Baba Agbe gave up the ghost after several months of being sick. Mama Agbe and her children could not believe it.
With Mama Agbe shouting "You never promised this" in Yoruba language.
The news was a shock to the farmers’ association and the community as a whole. It was such a tense atmosphere in the community. Wailings from every corner could be heard in the community. He was a man of the people.
He was buried traditionally by placing the body on a mat and dropped into the pit grave. His wife and children were not allowed to see his corpse according to the Yoruba culture.
The elders of the household advice that someone has to take care and be responsible for Baba Agbe farms; which ought to be Akin according to the Yoruba culture. However, Jide, Baba Agbe brother who was always jealous of him protested against it.
Rumors have it that he was even responsible for his brother's death using dark powers. He insisted that Akin was too young to handle the farmsteads and also not experienced in farming.
Although Akin and his siblings always help their father on his farm, there was no passion for it. It took the intervention of the farmers’ association and the king to solve the matter.
The farm was later handed over to Akin as an inheritance. Akin had always wanted to be a doctor.
What then will he do to the farm?
To know, stay tuned for part 2
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