©Creativelymad productions. 2018.

I have been told I have a way of writing stories that gives a clear message. So,I am trying this out with a bigger audience. Through this short story,I present myself to the nairaland family and I welcome you to my world where if the motivation is right, I will write stories like this(if you enjoyed it) to pass live changing messages, explain difficult technological term and give solutions to major problems in Nigeria. My first story is called unity and I hope you enjoy it. I apologize for any spelling errors. I am not perfect and I wrote this story on a phone.

Cc divepen1 and all nairalanders who might enjoy this.

She bent over the low bamboo fence that surrounded her family's farm. The barren farm has been in their family for two generations including hers. She was angry! Not because of the barren farm but because she hated her family. She has always felt like she didn't belong with them.

'What a barren piece of shit' she said as she took a puff from the lit cigar in her hand.

A maid soon came calling her. She was the only maid the family had. Her loyalty to the family was tied to the help her parents received from the family when things were still okay. As she walked the short distance from the farm to the mansion, she noticed their neighbor's farm afar off. She didn't need to be closer to see the tall and green plants on the farm. She saw tiny dots which indicated workers harvesting the bountiful produce on the farm. Trucks also lined in front of two buildings as workers loaded them with farm produce. She looked at her family's farm and the neighbors farm and shook her head.

Inside the mansion's living room,her mother and her two stepbrothers sat waiting for her. The three children of the family had different fathers but a single mother.

'Where have you been?!' One of the brothers asked.

'I was busy'

'Busy doing what?!!' He asked with his tone raised and slamming his hand on the stool before him. 'You know how important this meeting is! You do! You know we must find another husband for our mother. A new father for us who will handle the affairs of this family and make our farmlands fertile like our neighbours!'

'Oh please! Spare me that crap Ahmed! The other husbands we chose for our mother,how did they help?!'

'Do we because of a few bad eggs in a crate condemn the whole eggs in the crate?!'

'Yes! If the numbers are right! We can! No need wasting energy and time incubating the other eggs if half of the eggs in the crate are bad'

'But Chioma! We need to keep trying!' He said with a softened tone sitting down. 'We need to keep trying' he repeated. 'It is the only way we know we can bring our family's farmlands to its full glory! Can't you see we made progress with the last husband we got?'

'Where is the progress?! It is either you are blind or you don't know the meaning of progress!'

'Chioma!!!' The other brother rose to caution her. 'Stop this now! At least not in front of mother!'

'Kunle! You hypocrite!' She said facing him. 'Always pretending to be the good child! Neutral and not taking sides!! Green snake in the green grass!!!' She stopped and took few steps backward to allow her see the three of them including her mother. 'The two of you' she said pointing to her brothers. She hesitated to speak but stopped each time.

'Go on! Speak your mind! You have said so much already! Why are you scared now?!' Kunle challenged.

'Both your fathers killed my father!' She finally said with bitterness.

'No! No!! No!!!' Kunle said shaking his head as he moved to and fro. 'There was a fight and you know it!'

'And both your fathers decided to gang up against him? Right?!'

'He threatened the unity of this family! He tried taking you away from us!! He tried separating you from our mother!!!'

'I wish he was successful! At least my father and I would have used our industrious skills to develop a successful farm on our own. He would have married another wife! A faithful wife! And not this hoe that gave birth to three children for three different men!'

'Is it our mother you call a hoe?!!!' Ahmed angered charged towards her but was held back by Kunle although he successful landed a slap on Chioma's right cheek.

'I hate this family!' She screamed holding her cheek.

'We hate you too!' Ahmed shouted back.

'Then let me go!!!'

'You are free!Who needs you anyways?!! You are worthless!!!'

'Great!' She exclaimed happily. 'Kunle! What about you?!'

'I am sorry but you can't go' he said after contemplating for a while.

'What?! Kunle please let me go! Please! Free me from the bondage of this family'

'I am sorry but I can't! I can't! This family needs to stay together no matter what!' He said and walked out.

Where's the story!�

Op, you're mad creatively

Ahmed also left with their mother into a inner chambers. Chioma sat there for a while visibly angry and hitting her right foot on the ground repeatedly. She finally stood up after a while and took one of the old family cars to visit a friend in one of the neighboring farms. She pulled up in front of the gate of a white mansion that made her family's mansion look like a piece of shit. On the large area of land that housed the mansion were also industries that processed the farm's produce into various final products, large warehouses that stored produce, finished products, farm tools and machinery. Little mansions built for servants and farm workers also stood on the land. The gate was opened for her and she drove through the well trimmed trees that lined the tarred road. She arrived the parking space in front of the mansion and parked her car. She looked back after stepping down and taking a few steps away from her car to see how her wretched and old car stood out from the fleet of exotic cars parked in the parking space. She was ushered in by a servant who took her to a big room. A young lady laid on the bed with a glass of champagne in her hand and a slice of a cake in a plate placed on a table beside her.

'Chioma!' The young lady exclaimed.

'Jenny!'

Both friends hugged each other. Chioma told Jenny about everything that just happened back at home. Jenny was enraged. She told Chioma her father could help. They both went into a bigger room upstairs to see Jenny's father. The father,Mr Adams offered to help and gave Chioma a dynamite bomb.

'What is this for sir?!' She asked. Her hand shaking as she collected the bomb.

'Your family still has that one source of income, right?' The fully bearded man said holding his long pipe in his right hand.

'Yes! But the money we make from the sale of cutlasses and hoes is barely enough to feed us! Modernized vehicles and better equipments are already replacing hoes and cutlasses. Nobody is buying from us anymore!'

'If you truly hate your family and want to be free,bomb the factory that produces these cutlasses and hoes and also the warehouse you keep the finished ones!'

'What?! But sir,that will destroy my family. We will have no source of income!'

'Point of correction!' Mr Adams said raising his finger up. 'They!' He corrected her. 'Why are you still calling yourself as part of them. 'Their source of income will be destroyed!'

'But.….but…'

'No buts! If you truly hate them and want freedom, this is what you must do. Don't you want them to pay? For what they did to your father! Who was also my good friend! This is what you must do!!'

Chioma filled with anger and ready to do what Mr Adams suggested charged out to carry out her evil plans. She noticed her phone was not in her handbag. 'I must have forgotten it' she thought and went back to Mr Adams chambers. Just before she opened the door,her hand on the doorknob,she stopped to hear the conversation between Mr Adams and Jenny.

'Stupid girl!' Mr Adams said and gave out a laugh. 'Her destroying the factory is the final stroke needed to send that stupid family into oblivion'

'But father!' Jenny said after she and Mr Adams both had a good laugh. 'How come they don't notice the wonderful and fertile land they have?' She asked confused.

'Have they ever taken time to work on it?' He said and laughed. 'That is why we cause disunity amongst them so they will never be united to work on the farm and discover its full glory!'

'Wow! Dad,that is genius!'

'Hahahahaha! I am not alone my dear. Lots of farm owners are in on this too! Farm owners like myself that know if that farm reaches it full potential, we will be out of business!'

'Wow! So there is like an organization? The family of chioma is that important?'

'I wouldn't call it an organization but a group of farm owners working together for a common goal! We have influenced lots of things happening in the family today. Every husband they have ever married to their mother were moles planted by us to finish the little money and resources they might have on ground!'

Chioma couldn't believe what she had just heard. She was lost in thoughts as she walked to the car,Mr Adams' words echoing in her head. The phone that made her go back in the mansion was inside her car the whole time. She drove absentmindedly to her family's mansion and did not bother going in but instead parked outside the gate and sat in the car crying. She sat there for a while until Kunle pulled up behind her. She was blocking the entrance into the mansion. Kunle after horning at her for a while to no avail,stepped out and walked up to her angrily. He noticed the sorrowful look on her face as he was about to shout at her and kept calm.

'What is wrong?' He asked.

'Kunle!' She said softly. 'We have been fooled!'

'How?! When?! What happened?!' Kunle asked as he rushed to the other side and entered to the car. Chioma told him everything she heard back at Jenny's place.

'So you see?! We have been fooled big time!'

'They must have tricked our fathers and they fell for it!' Kunle said wiping his face. 'Our fathers made a mistake by falling for their tricks but we will not!' He said. 'Chioma! Whatever happened in the past with our fathers is in the past! This is our time! We can decide to go the way of our fathers and fall for the tricks of our enemies and divide this family or we can stand up for ourselves and fight this evil people!' He continued. 'Chioma, I am sorry! I apologize on behalf of my father and Ahmed's. What happened to your father was painful but this is our time! We need to correct those mistakes!! We have a fertile farmland but we were too busy fighting each other to even work on it!!! We are a threat to other farm owners they had to set up an organization to ruin us!!! We are Strong together chioma!!! We are!'

'I see it now!' She said. 'I do!' She continued. 'You are indeed the good child!' She said and laughed. 'Always been the link holding this family together'

'No! I am not! You were right the first time! I am an hypocrite. I act like I am perfect but I am really not. Most of my choice of husband for mother always involved sentiments and bribes I collect from the suitors. It was not really about what they could do for this family'

'We all do that!' She said and laughed again. It is been a while Kunle saw Jenny laughed that many time and that gave him joy.

'And I am a little envy of you and your father. You guys are industrious indeed!' Kunle added jokingly.

'The feeling is mutual brother! It is mutual! You think I don't envy your brain and creativeness?'

'Instead of envying ourselves, why don't we put all of our strengths together and develop our farmlands'

'I think I have something you will like. It is a design I have been working on for a while!'

They both went inside on foot abandoning the cars. They went into Chioma's room where she brought out a large paper which contained a design she has been working for a while.

'I was going to build it and use it to develop my farm once I was free from the family but since that is never going to happen, we can as well build it now'

'Wow! This is amazing!!' Kunle said raising the paper up. 'Since we don't have funds, I know a way we might cut back on costs and source material locally.

They both went out and started working on the project. Chioma bringing her industrious skills and Kunle using his creativity and brain. Ahmed watched them as they toiled in the sun building Chioma's machine. By nightfall, it was done but they had one problem. The machine was too heavy and needed something strong to pull it across the farm. As they were deliberating,Ahmed showed up dragging with him a large cow with one hand and a bag of seeds in the other. The inheritance his father left him.

'Here! Maybe this will work!!' He said handling over the rope that held the cow.

'Yes! It will work!!' Kunle said happily and strapped the machine to the cow. The cow pulled the machine effortlessly across the farm. The machine weeded,ploughed and planted seeds on the areas it moved across all at once. Kunle came up with the idea to sell the invention to small farms that can't afford expensive machinery. Chioma designed and built more which they sold. From there,they got the funds to buy more cows to use on their farm. Ahmed used his knowledge of livestock farming and crop production to breed the livestock and monitor the crops. Few years later,their family's farm had become fully developed. They diversified from crop production on large scale into livestock farming of different kinds which Ahmed was in charge of. They had industries that dealt with building farm machineries and equipments on large scales which Chioma was in charge of. They also had industries and laboratories that researched and produced fertilizer, livestock feed,herbicides etc. which Kunle was in charge of.

They found strength in their differences and did not allow anything or anybody cause disunity amongst them. Of course,they fight,they had arguments but they never forgot family was everything. Their unity and love was the greatest strength they had and needed. The power to say NO! to outsiders trying to cause rift between them. The power to forgive past mistakes. The power to forgive future mistakes. And the power to not make the mistake of hurting each other. They found out they did not need any husband for their mother for things to be okay. And their mother did not need a husband to be happy. The smile she had on her face was proof of that. She might not be able to speak but the smile on her face was proof they were doing something right. All they needed to do was stay together! Share ideas! and complement themselves!!!

#thisisastoryaboutnigeria
Creativelymad.
Twitter: madcreatively.

Thanks for reading guys

Bubuks:
Where's the story!�

Refresh! Sorry. Had to post bit by bits

TheOdd1sOut:
Op, you're mad creatively

Lol. Yes I am. I hope nairalanders think so too

creativelymad:


Refresh! Sorry. Had to post bit by bits



Lol. Yes I am. I hope nairalanders think so too

:p

27 views and zero reviews! Wow!

I think this story is about NIGERIA! It's about her three major tribes and the blame game they play, Biafra wanting to break away, we not realizing that we have all it takes to make the country bloom and all we need to do is work together and share ideas, etc. It's a lovely story.

Culin:
I think this story is about NIGERIA! It's about her three major tribes and the blame game they play, Biafra wanting to break away, we not realizing that we have all it takes to make the country bloom and all we need to do is work together and share ideas, etc. It's a lovely story.

Exactly. Thanks for reading. Good morning.

Hmmmm

So this was a flop. I guess I am not cut out for this afterall. Lol.

Perfectly OK

kinglato:
Perfectly OK

Thanks.