Fishing for a brighter future: the story of 12-year-old Jummai

By : Lucy Elukpo Ateko, Abuja

Date: 14 February 2022 7:30pm WAT

Jummai and her brother set out to fish. Photo: Lucy Elukpo Ateko,.

The biggest farm in the world in terms of acreage is the Mudanjiang City Mega Farm in Heilongjiang, China. This astounding farm manages 22.5 million acres. With around 100,000 cows, the Mudanjiang City Mega Farm specialises in dairy. Young Jummai (surname withheld) hopes to someday have a farm that is bigger than the Mudanjiang Mega Farm in her country, Nigeria.
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That dream may appear farfetched for now as the 12-year-old native of Ija, a village that lies in the boundaries between Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory and Niger State, has to wake up every morning to catch some fish at the nearby Suleja Dam.

Jummai gets set to paddle her canoe. Photo: Lucy Elukpo Ateko,.

It’s an arduous task she is duty-bound to perform, not just to ensure that she plays her part in supporting her parents in putting food on the table, but so that she gets enough money to pay her school fees and that of her brother. It is nevertheless a task that is made easy for Jummai’s young shoulders by the presence of her trusted sidekick and little brother, Abu*.

Jummai and Abu, with her burning desire to get a formal education and in need of money to pay their school fees, go fishing on a daily basis, jointly rowing their trusted wooden canoe to different spots around the body of water and casting their net in the hope of catching some fish which, at the end of the day, they sell to the villagers and save up the little money that they can.

Jummai and her brother cast their net in the hope of catching some fish. Photo: Lucy Elukpo Ateko,.

Sometimes they are lucky and catch enough to not just sell but also take home for a sumptuous meal, other times not so lucky, but the teenage Jummai is confident that she would someday put her small community on the map, not just nationally, but internationally, as she hopes she would someday own the biggest farm in the world.

With the dam also serving as the only source of drinking water in her community, as well as the main source for carrying out other daily chores such as laundry and sanitary duties, Jummai also hopes to someday in the near future have the required knowledge and experience, as well as resources, to provide a healthy source of water for the people of her village, long forgotten by the powers that be in the Nigerian capital or the neighbouring Niger State, to drink.

*Abu is not the real name of Jummai’s brother.
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