Once upon a time, there lived an eccentric but prosperous yam farmer. Along with his wives and many children, he cultivated the land diligently every year. And when harvest time came, he reaped bountifully without comparison. His barns overflowed with the healthiest tubers of yams – the king of crops. He was the envy of other farmers in the village and beyond.
But there was a strange, shameful secret in the great farmer’s household. For years, it had not enjoyed the pleasures of eating from their own barn without rancor or reproach.
Many harvest seasons ago, the farmer came home one day and forbade the cooking and pounding of yams anywhere in his compound. He said his wives and children could cook and eat anything else they wanted, except the yams they harvested from their own farm lands! In addition, he decreed that all his family’s yams must be sold in the markets for money only. If any member of the family wanted to eat yams, they first had to buy them from the markets at the same prices as strangers and wayfarers.
When some of his children secretly ate yams from the family’s barns or gave the leftovers to the hungry children of a poor neighbor, all hell was let loose. The farmer raved and ranted for days. He invoked the spirits of his ancestors. He imposed a dry fast on the entire household for days. He said it was a taboo for his neighbors to eat even the crumbs of yams from his barns. They too must buy from the village markets like members of his household.
His wives and children were scandalized by this strange behavior and stranger set of rules. They prayed for the farmer to come to his senses but nothing changed. Gradually, they became indignant.
To eat yams, the farmer himself regularly traveled to another village where he patronized a woman who owned a restaurant there. Sometimes, he sent his wives and children with money to go and buy from her. He relished the woman’s soups and her smooth pounded yam. Yet he forbade the same being prepared by his own capable wives and children.
The gossip mill was agog in all the villages. Everyone wondered why the farmer behaved in this strange way and at great cost and inconvenience to himself and his household. They said: “He has grown children who can pound yams very well. He has wives who can cook delicious soups also. Why then does he prefer to eat yam and soups cooked by a strange woman from another village?” Thus they whispered and sniggered behind the backs of the famous yam farmer and members of his household.
Some said he was mad. Others said he was wicked. Yet others said he worshiped an evil deity which imposed this strange demand on him in exchange for riches.
As the years rolled by, the rich yam farmer got older and weaker, and unable to farm or build strong fences around his yam barns as he once did. Thieves and wild animals began to steal and eat his yams at night. None of his wives and children would help. Many had left home in bitterness and frustration. Those left behind had grown distant and resentful of the farmer’s attitude.
Today, the rich farmer is sick, old and barely able to walk or work. His compound is overgrown with weeds. His huts are in a state of disrepair. His barns are a shadow of what they once were. His fame as a great yam farmer is now a distant memory. Still, the great yam farmer insists that neither his family nor his neighbors would eat yams from his barns in peace…
Now, to the meaning of this parable. The famous yam farmer stands for the government of Nigeria. The farmer’s wives and children represent Nigerian citizens and peoples. Yams represent Nigeria’s oil wealth. The farmer’s strange decrees forbidding the cooking, preparation and eating of the family’s own yams within the household represent, government’s strange policies on refining, distributing, pricing and “subsidizing” of petroleum products from abroad – rather than fixing local refineries. The restaurant in another village where the farmer and his family goes to eat or buy yams represents foreign refineries on which Nigeria depend for refined petroleum products.
Those who have ears, let them hear.
