By Kangmwa Gofwen
The current cash scarcity has affected nearly all businesses in the country. It looks like the most affected is the man on the street who Mr Gideon Oyetunji Adeniyi, a vulcaniser, represents. Oyeniyi has been in the business for 38 years and it has taken him to some states in the South West region before he finally settled in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
He started the business in 1985, he said and lamented that this might be one of those years you would wish to forget in the current dispensation in the country. According to him, the business had been paying his bills until the current ‘no cash’ situation in the country.
“I am an indigene of Oyo State. I started the vulcanising business in 1985. Although I didn’t start the business here in Ibadan, I started in Ilorin, Kwara State, then I moved to Lagos and I later left due to our inability to secure accommodation.
“It was my proceeds from the vulcanising business that I used to take care of my family and sent my children to school. Some of them have completed secondary school education and now have their small businesses while some are yet to finish theirs. The business was moving well here but at the moment, no sales especially in this no cash era. It has really affected my business.
Narrating his journey to Saturday Tribune on Thursday at his shop at the Imalefalafia, Oke Ado, area of Ibadan, he said his inability to secure accommodation and one of his child’s illness brought him to Ibadan.
“We searched for a house as much as we could in Lagos but we couldn’t get any. One of our benefactors that gave us a house to stay started to complain and the caretaker that we paid elope with our money then I had no choice than to leave Lagos. I returned to Igbojaye, in Itesiwaju Local Government Area, in Oyo state while my family stayed behind somewhere in Lagos.
“Whenever my wife gave birth I would go to Lagos to visit them until they joined me in Oyo state. After some time, one of my children developed a serious health crisis and we went to pray about it at the mountain with our prayer warriors. After the prayers on the mountain, we were told by the ‘Woli’ (prophet) not to return to our former destination that we should find a new place to stay.
“I then contacted one of my brothers who stayed in Ibadan about the situation. He asked me to come over and after some time, when we had settled with the sick child they got me a space to continue my business at Imalefalafia, Oke Ado, Ibadan in 2010,” he said.
Seventy-two-year-old Adeniyi could still recall with nostalgia some of the challenges he encountered in the early years of his life while his wife was still alive and how his mother stepped in to nurture his youngest child when his wife died.
“I faced a lot of challenges back then some of which was my marriage when we were still at Ilorin. I and my wife had many misunderstandings when we first got married. And then my wife had series of miscarriages, she lost three pregnancies and that was when we told our neighbors about our ordeal about losing pregnancies.
“They asked what job my wife did. When she told them she worked in an amala joint, they advised her to quit for her safety or better still change her position but shouldn’t stay behind fire anymore. And after we took their advice, we had our first child and others came thereafter.
“I lost my wife in 2010. In fact, one of my children was still very little then. My mother had to take the responsibility of nurturing the child at our town, Kajola, Oke Ogun, in Oyo State before bringing her to my place here in Ibadan to continue her education and all, he said.
He said as he was aging, his desire was to stop using the vulcanizing machine because his strength was fast depleting “and to start the machine requires strength”. He was also glad that his children had gotten a kiosk for him where he now sells some spare parts alongside vulcanising.
“At this point and stage of my life, I just need finance to expand my business. I’m 72 years old now and the machine is becoming too difficult for me to operate. I am ageing. My children called me and asked what I wanted and I told them my desire was to diversify into other businesses in order for it to serve as a substitute to the vulcanizing business.
“Then they made a kiosk for me to sell other stuffs as I wanted and now I can make little more money by the side. I am looking forward to selling car tyres. Currently, I sell motorcycle tyre tubes, engine oil and some other things. I will quit the vulcanising business later,” he said.
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