by Seyi Ajomale
When they got home they had a family meeting and the whole family resolved their issues with one another and they were united once again, they had solved all their problems.
You need to open your mind and be ready to think out of the box, for within a story lies another story.
Once upon a time in a village called Alafia, there lived a family called the ojos. The head of the family baba ojo had just passed away; he was a very successful farmer the best in the village and even the surrounding environment. Baba ojo had worked hard all his life and his hard work paid off, he had the best fruits, crops and his meat was the best in the land which made people come from all over the world to buy from his farm.
After his unexpected passing there was nobody left to take charge and control of the farm as baba ojo never showed any sign of illness and was a very healthy and fit man for someone of his age. He was 72 years old when he died and was still very active in the farm work, at the time he never felt there was need to mention his successor because he thought he had a couple more years of farming to do and there was no need to rush to name a successor while he was still active in the farm business. He once told his sons that he would retire when he was 75 and then mention his successor.
Baba ojo had 7 wives and they all had children for him, the 1st sons from each wife worked closely with their father taking on different roles on the farm, they all worked as a team with baba ojo the leader.
As he never mentioned a successor baba ojos first son Tunji from his first wife abike decided to take control of the farm being the 1st child. They called a family meeting and they all agreed with the idea of tunji becoming the farm manager/leader and thought it a good idea. Baba ojo had left a loving family behind, where there was love among each other even amongst the different wives and their children; they were a united family and only saw themselves as the ojos.
After the 40 days of mourning was over the 7 sons decided to go to the farm and take a total stock of what they had on the farm, it was a big farm and had everything a big farm should have, fish, cows, chickens, goats, vegetables, crops, fruits everything you can imagine and they were the very best. When they had finished counting everything they were happy to see what their father had left behind and then their minds were at rest.
That night in the ojo house they held a small family party to celebrate the news of the stocks taking on the farm. A lot of the family members were worried about their survival and means of livelihood after the death of baba ojo but were all now happy because of the stock taking, they knew they could continue living the good life which they had been use to, baba ojo had worked hard so his family would never lack and suffer.
The next day the boys went to the farm to work, some of them found it difficult to concentrate on work because they had stayed home for 40 days without working, something they were not used too. Their father was a very hard working man he made all of them work on the farm right from age 6 everyday with little breaks. The youngest of the 7 sons tobi was already in his early 40s and had been working on the farm since age 6, he had worked on the farm for over 30 years and had never really taking more than a two day break in a stretch.
Tunji resumed work as manager of the farm and gave out orders to his brothers sharing responsibilities like their dad would have done but unlike their father he did not join his brothers in the farm work but decided to just supervise them. That night the remaining 6 sons complained to their different wives and mothers about tunjis behaviour, saying he kept ordering them around like he was their father they were also angry he didn’t join in on the farm-work. A week went by with tunji as the manager then they make their first sales which brought in a lot of money, this was the 1st time they had come across this amount of cash because baba ojo handled everything on the farm including the account. After seeing the amount made on their first sales the other 6 brothers made a decision when they got home that night to share the money equally instead of giving tunji full control of the cash to take care of the family as their father had done when he was alive. Tunji did not agree with their request but had no choice as his other brothers and the rest of the family member’s ganged up against him. He had no choice but to agree with their proposal even though in his mind he thought it was a bad idea but went along in order to make peace and keep unity in the ojo house, so he agreed to share the profit from the farm sales into 7 places and everyone was happy again.
As the months went by the sons stopped going to the farm to work because of their new found wealth, they tought they were to rich to be farmers. Their numbers reduced as the months passed until it was just tobi who went to the farm to work with his children every day. His brothers had stopped contributing money for the maintenance of the farm; they had previously agreed to contribute an equal amount from their share of the profit for the farms maintenance. It was only tobi who had continued with this arrangement and didn’t mind that he and his brothers still shared the profit from the farm sales equally even though he was the only one handling the maintenance and the only one still going to work on the farm he didn’t mind. His other brothers didn’t care and were happy with the monthly income they were receiving from the farm sales; they still had a lot of stock on the farm.
After some months tobis wife (moji) was unhappy because they were not as rich as his other brothers this was because of the money tobi had been using for the farm maintenance. Also the other children didn’t go to the farm to work unlike her children and this made her unhappy. One day she had borrowed some money from one of the brother’s wives (banke) and could not repay it when it was due, so banke insulted her and tobi because of their debt. Moji couldn’t take anymore of the insults and intimidation she had received from the other family members who were richer than them. So she planned with tobis mum to convince tobi to stop using his share of the money to maintain the farm because of their financial condition and the obvious intimidations, so both of them convinced tobi and with time he also agreed and stopped dropping the money for maintenance.
As the months passed by the brothers all stopped going to the farm they would only visit the farm when it was time to make sales they also went to the farm to take food stuff when there was nothing left at home to eat and the years went by and they continued the same way. One day they got to the farm and realised there were no more chickens, so they looked at the cows and saw they still had enough so they were happy and went home. Months had passed again and they went to the farm again, they realised there were only 7 cows left they looked and saw they had a lot of fish left so they decided to take one cow each and continue selling fish. As the years passed the unity and love in the ojo household began to fade, they now had 7 pots and they cooked and ate separately each brother providing for his own immediate family. They each slaughtered their cows and cooked it keeping the meat in their different rooms, some days later the meat began to spoil as it was too much for one son and his family to consume. So they disposed of the spoilt meat each brother hiding from the other while disposing the spoilt food. Months go by again and their wealth had reduced because the farm was not making money as before, their children were hungry, the wives were fighting, the mothers stopped talking to one another and everyone was unhappy.
The mothers and wives of the 7 sons blamed them for their poor condition and told them when their father, baba ojo was alive they never encountered such problems. So the next day they went to the farm to see if they can get some food for their family, but when they got there they realise that there is nothing left. The farm was empty they had sold and ate everything on the farm. Their eyes were now open and they realised how they had failed their father and run his farm business to the ground. The boys settled all their misunderstanding and agreed never to allow money come between the families again. They all had some money left from the profits they had made from the farm over the years and decided to use it to invest in the farm in other to build the business and restore the farm to its past glory. As they finished reconciling one of their major buyers from the neighbouring village came to the farm to purchase products but realised the farm was empty. The buyer then decides to offer the brothers a huge amount of money to rent the farm land in other for him to sow his seeds and cultivate crops, baba ojos land was the most fertile in the land and was known to produce the best crops and fruits during harvest season. The brothers deliberated amongst themselves and agreed to rent the farm land because refusing such a large sum of money was the same to them as committing sin. They then used part of the rent money to buy food stuff from the major buyer’s farm. They bought crops, fruits, chicken, fish and cows and they left the farm very happy.
When they got home they had a family meeting and the whole family resolved their issues with one another and they were united once again, they had solved all their problems. They were back to being the loving family baba ojo had left behind, were there was love among each other even amongst the different mothers, wives and their children; they were a united family and only saw themselves as the ojos.
That night they had a small family party to celebrate their new found wealth, the rent money from the farmland. They cooked and ate from the same pot and everyone was happy.
The end
No cause for alarm.
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