My Uncle Sold Our Family Land in Kano. My Father Died of Shock Three Months Later.

This is a story from 2018. My father was the first son, so when my grandfather died, he was supposed to inherit the family land in Kano , about three plots near the old market. My father trusted his younger brother, Uncle Musa, to help him with the paperwork because my father was not educated. Uncle Musa was a secondary school teacher, so we all thought he knew what he was doing.

For two years, my father kept asking about the land documents. Uncle Musa kept saying, 'The government is slow, they will come soon.' My father would nod and say, 'God's time is the best.' But I could see the worry in his eyes. He had planned to build a house for my mother on that land , his retirement project.

One day, my father went to the land office himself. He came back that evening looking like someone had drained all the blood from his body. He told my mother, 'Musa has sold the land. He forged my signature. The new owner has already started building.' My mother screamed. I was in my final year at Bayero University then, and I remember coming home to find my father sitting on the floor, staring at the wall.

We tried to take Uncle Musa to court, but he had connections. The case dragged. My father's health started failing , high blood pressure, then a stroke. Three months after he found out about the land, he died. He was 58 years old.

I have not spoken to Uncle Musa since that day. He still lives in Kano with his family, and I see him sometimes at weddings. He acts like nothing happened. But I know what he did. And I know that my father died because of it.

The lesson I learned is hard: never trust family with your future just because they are family. Get everything in writing. Pay a lawyer. And if someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. My father believed in brotherhood until it killed him.