The day I stopped trusting quick money and started planting yams

My daughter, the one who is a lawyer in Lagos, called me last week. She say, Baba, my friend just made 2 million naira from some crypto thing in one month. She want to invest. I just laugh quiet quiet.

In my time in the civil service, I saw many get-rich-quick schemes come and go. The Nigeria of my youth had the same thing. In 1989, a man called Mr. Adebayo came to our ministry. He said put 500 naira, get 5,000 naira in three months. Many people sold their land, borrowed from cooperative. When the time came, Mr. Adebayo vanished. The man who introduced him lost his job, his wife left him, his children could not finish school. I saw it with my own eyes.

I told my daughter, the Yoruba say, the person who hurries does not eat well-cooked food. I have been planting yams in my backyard for 15 years. Every year I get something. Not big, but steady. Patience is the father of wisdom. These young people today want results before the seed even touches the ground. Is it not the same hunger that killed the tortoise?