By Emma Unah

CROSS RIVER…THE PEOPLE’S PARADISE

CALABAR—WITH the soaring price of cocoa beans, which they call new oil well, most men in the Central and Northern Senatorial Districts in Cross River State have taken to farming cocoa and processing the product for sale to make mega bucks, abandoning traditional food and cash crops farms to women.

Women replace men in traditional jobs

Interestingly, women have prepared to meet the demand and hazards of cultivating traditional food crops to feed their families and earn a living.

In addition to tilling the soil to make heaps, they thresh (harvest) rice, climb palm trees, and mix soil to build houses and mud structures by themselves.

Some of these women engage in daily paid work known as jobs to earn money to sustain their families.

For instance, a woman that has “made it,” as they put it, would rent other women to make heaps for yams on her farm, plant cassava, climb palm trees, and cut oil palm heads, which used to be a conventional men’s task.

They climb palm trees — Owogaga, Etekpa resident


“Climbing palm trees to harvest palm fruits is usually tedious and challenging. One could come across soldier ants on top of the palm, and these ants could penetrate even one’s private part, and if you are not strong enough, you could fall and plunge to death.

“Many do not even wear pants because it will not allow you to climb freely and confidently,” Owogaga, a resident of Etekpa community in Yala, told NDV.

Heap-making now regular women job

Agnes Otoba, a native of Akan, Obubra, disclosed that making heaps, which men used to undertake, is now a regular women’s job, adding that women plant crops for themselves and for others to earn some money.

Her words: “We make a hundred heaps for N3000, and that is two days’ work. If two people combine, the job could be done in one day.”

Our men have become indolent — Madam Odom, Ogoja women leader

A woman leader in Ogoja, Madam Enyede Odom, told NDV that some men have become lazy and are no longer ready to undertake their traditional responsibilities to the family.

“Leave the talk about the cocoa price boom; some men are lazy. I can tell you that they marry two or three wives to feed them. They relax at home, go to the Palm Wine Bar to drink, and come back to eat food prepared by their wives from job money. Then at night, force them to spread their legs.”

Mr. Dede Uzor, a villager, disagreed with her, saying it was also the duty of women to take care of their families.

“Women cannot stay home and expect the men to do all the work. Why should they not read the handwriting on the wall in this Tinubu economy that men alone cannot cater for the family?”

Traditional family roles seem to be undergoing a metamorphosis in Cross River State.




https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/hard-times-men-grow-lazier-abandon-responsibilities-to-women-in-c-river-communities/