TRIBUNE
Twelve years ago, the once promising life Ibrahim Sahabi had in Shanono Local Government Area of Kano State was upturned when 22 of his cattle were rustled.
Sahabi, who not only was a cattle breeder but also a farmer, depended on the dung from the cows as manure for his farm. He told Saturday Tribune at the Mobil Junction, Ring Road Ibadan that he was thrown into the pit of poverty after the incident and he therefore decided to come to Ibadan, Oyo State to beg for alms to take care of his family.
“I had 22 cows back then but they were all rustled and that was how I became poor. I was raring my cattle and farming. The cows were rustled 12 years ago,” he said.
Sahabi continued to trudge on with his farming even after the incident, but he could not keep up because he lacked the requisite resources to finance the farming at a size that would meet his needs.
“I am here not by choice. I am here begging because I don’t have the strength and capacity to source fertiliser and other things required for effective farming. I continued farming after the incident, but I was farming without any fertiliser. But you know how it is, one must use the foreign fertiliser and local manure but since my cattle where I got manure from were gone, I had none — no foreign fertiliser or local manure.