Forty-three-year-old Mrs Evelyn Kentewebode of Ijaw extraction was sighted at Oviri, Olomu town, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, processing garri.
The dexterity and devotion with which she went about her existential means of livelihood from a distance elicited a chat with our correspondent.
The mother-of-seven enthusiastically narrated the story of her life, including her marital upheavals. According to her, she left her husband’s abode in Kiagbodo, Burutu Local Government Area of the state as a result of alleged unending battery so that she could live in peace and take care of her children.
To survive with her kids, Evelyn sank into the woods, engaging his hands to weed people’s cassava farms for a fee. She also spoke on her challenges as a farmer and mother who burdened with the sole responsibility of catering to her children amid the current harsh economic realities.
Hear her: My name is Evelyn Kentewebode. I had nine children, but two died and I am now left with seven children. My first child is 26 years old.
“I came to Oviri Olomu in 2015. I was living in Kiagbodo, but I had to leave there because my husband was always beating me.
“He was always threatening to kill me. Sometimes, he would chase me around the village with a machete.
“Because I couldn’t bear the beatings and insults of my husband any longer, I had to leave Kiagbodo town.
“I was doing petty business in Kiagbodo before I left. I was also going to farm for people in order to take care of my children.
“I am also farming here in Oviri. When I say farming, this is what I mean: Somebody with a farmland will come to me and we will negotiate that I will cultivate and plant cassava on the farmland; and then, when it’s time for harvest, we will divide the harvest into two. He/she will take half and I will take half.
“Sometimes before the year ends, I can cultivate three to four farmlands. The proceeds from my share would have been much if the farmlands were big but that is not the case.
“So, from the harvest I get, say from cassava, I process sellable and edible garri from it. So we sell in wholesale and there isn’t much profit from it.
“While awaiting harvest, I weed farmlands for the villagers, too. There is a way we measure the size of the farm so every portion I weed, I am paid N300.
“Now that things are so expensive, no thanks to President Bola Tinubu and his inhumane government, I get N700 to N800 for the job.
“But I had to stop it recently because the money is too meagre to take care of myself and my children. So I sell banga (palm fruits) when I am not cultivating farmlands. I can buy five bunches of palm fruits for N5,000 and sell for N10,000 and make N5,000 profit or N4,500 profit.”
Insomuch as Evelyn desires to beat hunger by engaging in farming, the menace of rudderless Fulani herdsmen has posed danger to her survival.
“One of the major challenges I am passing through is cows eating the cassava I usually cultivate. On a daily basis, you will see these Fulani herdsmen grazing their cows to destroy people’s farmlands.
“The negative impact of this is that there will be poor harvest and this is one of the reasons garri is expensive.
“Sometimes, you will see these Fulani boys even uprooting our cassava to feed their cows. When you challenge them, they will continue doing it daring you to stop them.
“Some might leave your farmlands, but as they are leaving yours, they are going to someone else’s to destroy.”
In spite of the strenuous farm activities Evelyn engages in to make a living, she’s still relatively young-looking, beautiful and radiating with hope.
“If I see somebody that is interested in helping me, I would like them to help me with money to leave this village, go to the city and start something else for survive.
“When Buhari was the president, eating rice, beans and some other foodstuffs was a luxury for villagers like us but now, with Tinubu on the seat, it’s like a dream that is too far to reach.
“At least, we could sell our farm produce to afford a basket of rice and few cups of beans then, but now, you can’t even buy meat of N1,000 how much more a basket of rice?
“If I make N5000 from my palm fruit business in a week, how much will I use to buy a paint cup of rice which costs N8,000 and also buy ingredients?
If things are hard for people living in cities, it is harder for those of us living in the villages. This is as a result of the increase in fuel price.
“When Buhari was leading us, people were criticizing him that the country was too hard, but since Tinubu started leading us, people are now praising Buhari. When will the saviour of the common man emerge?”, she lamented.
