Eti-Oni: Community that pioneered cocoa cultivation in Nigeria battling poverty 120 years after
The journey to Eti-Oni, from Osogbo, the Osun state capital, through Ilesa, the hometown of the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, was smooth until one gets to Olopon. That was the community where the road tarred by the state government terminated. Then, the journey turns to a nightmare. Between Olopon village and Eti-Oni lies about […]
The journey to Eti-Oni, from Osogbo, the Osun state capital, through Ilesa, the hometown of the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, was smooth until one gets to Olopon. That was the community where the road tarred by the state government terminated. Then, the journey turns to a nightmare. Between Olopon village and Eti-Oni lies about 9 kilometres stretch of untarred road, bordered on both sides by cocoa trees planted for commercial purposes.
From a few hundred metres away, one could perceive the odour of cocoa beans. The atmosphere here was calm and serene. Welcome to Eti-Oni, the ancient community where cocoa was first produced in Nigeria. Cocoa business remains the only occupation of the people of this community, and everyone in the community has a cocoa farm. In fact, there were different sizes of platforms in front of almost every house for the purpose of drying cocoa beans before selling. But despite the richness and the historical significance of Eti-Oni, the underdevelopment bedevilling the ancient community is enormous.
The Olori-omo (youth leader) of Eti-Oni, Mr Ojo Adepoju said bad roads was one of the major problems facing the community and preventing the cocoa farmers from trading profitably. He noted that when the state government graded the road leading to Eti-Oni recently, produce buyers were able to access the community and that sales improved considerably.
His words “It is true that cocoa has its roots here. I’m also very much involved in the business. I have people who work for me. There are many challenges that plague us as a people. There is the challenge of bad roads. In fact many of the younger generation who were born here are not based in Eti-Oni, and that has contributed in no small measure to our stark underdevelopment. We are happy that the Alimighty has decided to restore our fortunes. We are glad with the recent grading of our road by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration. It has really attracted the producer buyers more than what it used to be in the times when the road was bad”.
A traditional Chief in the community, the Gbayewa of Eti-Oni, Chief Adeyemi David also identified the problem of bad roads as the bane of the growth and development of the community. The 51-year-old said “we need good roads so that our farm produce can get into town. As a result of the state of the roads, it is quite difficult to transport the cocoa out and as such the seeds turn black. Sometimes, we have to pay people from outside town as labourers to harvest the cocoa so it doesn’t get spoilt. Still there are so many complaints because of the roads, and the labourers complain that the wages paid are pointless because of the cost of transporting themselves into the settlement.”
Elemosho of Eti-Oni, another traditional chief, Pa Oni Oladimeji who has also been involved in cocoa cultivation for decades, said the community needs social amenities, especially the road. He also urged the state government to build schools and hospitals in the community.
The 60-year-old man said “When our people fall sick; we have to take them to Ilesa before they could get medical attention. Even when our pregnant women are in labour, we have to take them to the town. Our school has been overtaken by weeds, and the distance to attend the school in the neighbouring community is quite far. It’s one of the reasons many of our children run away from Eti-Oni. We appeal to government to come to our aid.”
Sylvester Okohon who hails from Ebonyi State is the leader of Igbo cocoa farmers in Eti-Oni, and he has been in the community for 30 years. In a chat with Daily Trust, he said “I moved here thirty years ago after I heard the history of Eti-Oni. I thank God for the business and I’m happy that the state government graded this road. It has increased our sales and it is easier to go to town, while people in town also find it convenient to come here and buy our produce.”
Also, there are many northerners in Eti-Oni who specialize in the buying and selling of oranges. Awal Muhammadu told Daily Trust that he usually buys orange trees and brings his workers to pluck the oranges for him, and then he would take the oranges to Lagos for sale. He said the community was peaceful and he enjoys good relations with different people from different parts of the country that live in Eti-Oni.
The traditional ruler of this ancient community, the Oloni of Eti-Oni, Oba Dokun Thompson is not oblivious of the challenges facing his town and the reason the community was impoverished. Apparently, he has solutions to liberate his people. He said cocoa production has been the major occupation of the people of Eti-Oni since 1896, claiming that cocoa cultivation started from their community before its spread to other towns in Nigeria’s South West. Oba Thompson attracted top personalities and tourists to Eti-Oni recently when the community celebrated 120 years of cocoa production with merriment.
Oloni used the occasion to unveil the Eti-Oni Development Group (EDG), his initiative to facilitate the development of the ancient community.
These efforts have also gained the attention of the state government and the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola has pledged to give total supports to Oba Thompson to succeed in the development of Eti-Oni. The grading of the road leading to the community by the state government was part of the commitment of the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola to develop Eti-Oni, so that the area would be able to contribute effectively to the economy of the state.
Speaking at the Farmer Field School held at Eti-Oni in which experts from the Osun State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security were taken to the cocoa farms to train the cocoa farmers on the best way to cultivate, harvest and market their cocoa, Aregbesola said his administration was committed to ensure the welfare of farmers by providing social amenities in the rural areas across the state, saying that the cocoa festival would assist in charting a new course for cocoa production.
Aregbesola who was represented by the Director General in the Office of Economic Development and Partnership, (OEDP), Dr Charles Diji Akinola commended the traditional ruler of Eti-Oni, the Oloni of Eti-Oni, Oba Dokun Thompson for initiating the cocoa festival. He said the festival has provided a veritable platform for bringing stakeholders in the cocoa business together to share ideas on cocoa production and other aspects of agribusiness, as a way out of the current economic recession. Aregbesola urged other traditional rulers in the state to take a leaf from the Oloni of Eti-Oni, by coming up with initiatives that would promote the agricultural potentials in their domains.
The Chief Executive Officer of the EDG, Adaeze Udo Ekwueme, stated that “the EDG was born out of the need to transform Eti-Oni from its present-day state into its real potential. The EDG is a group of people, companies, education institutions, and even countries from all over the world, who are committed to the development and transformation of Eti-Oni community, following the passionate move by Oba Dokun Thompson to see that the community achieves its true potential as Nigeria’s birthplace of cocoa. This is in line with the theme of the recently concluded cocoa festival – peace, love and development.”
She explained that the idea of development of Eti-Oni would not just be about copying popular ideas of what is expected of a developed community. According to her “the idea is to develop Eti-Oni into a sustainable town, while still embracing our African identity. We are developing in line with the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The people of Eti-Oni have been farming for four generations. There will be development programmes and we will also focus on ways to add value to the lives of the people.”
“There are plans to establish a cocoa processing plant, and production of premium chocolate products. We will also address the issue of gender equality, which is part of the UN’s 2030 SDGs. Around fifty per cent of farmers in Eti-Oni are women. However, we discovered that when there are training programmes for farmers, only men show up owing to people’s perception of farmers are men. Luckily we have the support of the Osun State government which has set up a farmers’ training school which the women, with our encouragement participated actively. We will keep encouraging women to embrace such opportunities.”
Citing the approach regarding plans to transform the community, Ekwueme stated that creativity, innovation and practicability will come into play.
“The community is at an advantage because there are more innovative ways available to transform society, especially as it relates to technology. A lot of people in Eti-Oni are unbanked and don’t have valid means of identification. We are teaming up with a company in San Francisco and the Oxford University in UK to offer identity checks for residents and onboard them digitally, that is, make digital identification available for them to access financial institutions, health care and quality education. This will also help to gather data for developing the community which we can make available as a model template for other communities to replicate,” she stated.
While commenting on government’s support for the development of Eti-Oni, which she described as commendable, especially with the recently graded access road which led into the community and which was done very recently, Ekwueme stated “the government has been very supportive for several years. There was no access road into Eti-Oni prior to the cocoa festival. However, for the first time, people were able to drive in because the road has been graded. We also expect that the government will continue the good work by also tarring the road, and supporting the community with other development initiatives. The Osun State government understands that by helping the people, they are also helping government. We want to make it a smart town.”