Not quite long ago, I had a need to visit one of the cities in the south East. I was travelling from Enugu to Abakaliki. The experience along the road was quite motivating. As a writer one can garner inspiration from anything provided your inspirational sight is healthy and functional.
That day, as I observed, was the market day of one of the communities on the route, a neighbouring community in Abakiliki main town. What I observed on this very day was that most of the people heading to the market area all clutched one chicken or two. The hands that held the chicken did that with so much hope. Their whole attention was on the chicken. As they moved down to the market square, they held and looked up to the chicken with so much hope.
Aside the chicken business, some had other farm products like garri, plantain, red oil, vegetables like oha, ugu, water leaves to mention but a few. From the attention they accorded the chickens for those who had them, you will discover that greater values were placed on the chicken more than the other products. All the products headed to the market as observed were all farm products, only very few articles were seen. The spirit that guided the journey to the market was a delightful one, even when the loads were heavy on the carriers and they sweated profusely, they were never perturbed because the heavier the load the richer when those goods are disposed-off in the market.
What actually caught my fancy more were those clutching the chickens. 90 percent of those I saw with chickens had just one chicken each as the only goods to sell yet they were so happy as they chatted along the route to the market. Then I reflected on why those with the chicken held it with so much hope and Joy? It could be the jolly mood of the market environment or perhaps the joy of helping in raising income for the family or in fact that those birds they raised as chics had now become mature enough to be useful. It is a fact that in some of those families, the chickens are all that they possess. For months in that given family they have attended to that chicken with so much care, nurturing it to maturity with the hope that when it matures, it will be sold in the market and that will fetch them some money with which they will use to attend to some of the needs of the family.
It will be good to recall that in typical village settings, there are no poultries, chickens move about freely within the neighbourhood and everyman knows his own chicken as no disputes arise over ownership. At the end of the evening, the chicken gets back to the owner; it may choose to sleep by the fire-place or on top of the tree never afraid of the preying eyes of another because everyone knows its own and there is no chicken thief around.
Invariably, greater part of the family’s survival lies in the chicken. A family may possess one or two depending on the family’s economic status but even those that have one are contented with it and they plan around one chicken. Through the sale of this chicken, children’s school fees are paid, food can be purchased and even clothings as well. In my amazement, I imagined how something as little as a chicken can provide so much hope and joy to a family. To such people, they are not the greedy type, they are contented with the little they can afford. Those who do not have chickens to sell have other farm products to sell and when they do sell, the proceeds become their survival measure and they all live happily together. Some never know any other life than that, yet they live happily until they die. So contented are they that even in death they smile home very fulfilled.
Why this contentment? The reason is because they believe in hard work. They know that through hard work and trust in God that they will survive the harsh winds of life. Every morning they wake up early and go to the farm, the hunters go to the bush and when they come back, they sell their games and with what they have gained they keep body and soul together and live happily together as a people.
It is also quite surprising that while some people in the rural areas are working hard to survive without greed and envy, in some places the story of such communal living is a different ball game altogether, more especially the oil producing areas. In an oil producing area like Ohaji/Egbema L.G.A of Imo State, Ochia autonomous community for instance, the lousy youths live as though they are lords to the elders of the land.
Ohaji/Egbema is the food basket of Imo State and it can be said anywhere in the state without dispute. It is a land blessed with milk and honey. The land is very fertile; in farming inhabitants have no business with fertilizer because the soil is rich with natural manure. It is a land that when you cultivate it you will be very glad with its yield, the soil is soft and rich with natural fertilizer and that is why virtually all the food Imo people enjoy come from this part of the state. Before now, the people work hard that no family has food as it’s problem.
With the emergence of oil and oil explorers, the story of hard work has gradually dwindled. Everyday, the youths idle about, having lost complete interest in farming which used to be the major occupation. Instead of hard work, they have embraced idleness and loneliness, waiting for the oil money to be shared. The annoying part is that when these booties come, they do not use them to set up something that will establish and stabilize their income. The same way the money comes like torrential rain, they allow it to vanish because they spend the money in frivolous things like alcohol, women, drugs etc.
When their systems are filled with any of the above, they lose their sense of control and their next agenda will be destruction of lives and property. How can a society ever make any progress in this regard? I ask again how?
Also in that state of madness, confusion and frustration, they stall every development coming to the area. They stop government programmes like road constructions, building of schools, markets, health centres etc.
In many instances, except “marching” fee is paid nothing goes. Through this, such areas have lost great opportunities of developments and the results have remained perpetual darkness and backwardness.
In my bewilderment I have constantly asked who will deliver the oil communities of Nigeria like Ochia from this strange plague that has befallen them. It is only God and the Government of the state that can deliver them. The Government as a matter of fact should come into these communities and sensitize them on the need for hard work. And also educate them to look for tangible means of livelihood different from the oil. The Government should also send monitoring teams to apprehend jobless, lazy and lousy youths and force them to be engaged in work such as farming. The agricultural potentials of these communities are dwindling because the ageing farmers are dying off and the youths are simply not interested in any labour-intensive engagement. This is indeed sad!
Parents and communities must be ready to say no to a lousy lazy youth and should also mobilize to re-indoctrinate such persons and report elements that refuse corrections to the village heads as such matters can be handled by village authorities.
The Government should also ensure that the economy is stable so that those that work hard will see their gains. With prayers and hard work, oil communities will be delivered from lousiness and laziness. Let us all join hands in the crusade against greed, jealousy and envy that have eaten so deep in our today’s youths. Help me tell the bad youths and evil men out there that evil does not pay anyone, rather the ladder to great success lies in great virtues such as hard work, contentment and goodly disposition. As we can all see in that Ebonyi community, even chickens can solve man’s economic needs.
God’s Grace!!
