My father was born in 1918 at Adikpo-Mbaagwa. He died in 2004, so he was 96 by the time he departed this earth. His mother, my grand mother died while he was a young man. Life was very rough for him, as it is usual with children of polygamist family. Akough Uba sojourned and dwell at his grand parents on his mothers side. While there, he became the right hand man for his grand father because of his dedication to work and his willingness to help.

In the early 30ths, he met some Christian Reform Missionaries who were spreading the word of God in the region and he was cultivated by their massage. He enrolled to become one of their first local evangelists. By 1940, he became the full fledged evangelist traveling and teaching from one bible school to another. This became a problem with his grand father because he was loosing his right hand man. My father had no choice but to return to his land of birth (Adikpo-Mbaagwa).

On arrival at Adikpo-Mbaagwa, he has to pay his brothers to crop on the land that was rightfully his by birth. He would rent a piece of land every cropping season to feed his family. Luckily, one of his elder brothers proposed to allow him to own a sandy piece of land that was not cultivable in exchange for working for him for five years, after which he would earn ownership of that piece of land. My father would work for his uncle in the morning and work on his land in the evening for five years and finally secured his land. Immediately, he set up a church and started preaching the world of God. His congregation grew for two (him and my mother) to over 150 people in less than two years.

There was no motorable path or road that connected Adikpo-Mbaagwa and the main road, so Akough Uba set out to construct the 8 miles road that leads to Ge-Mbayem. He tried to convince the locals to join him in the efforts by explaining to them that with a motorable road leading to their locality means new developments and progress but, a lot of them thought that he was going nuts. He would work on the road construction in the morning and on his farm in the evenings. There were times that my father had to pay land owners to pass through with the road. Most of them benefited from this road project later. At the completion of this road, the then Northern Nigerian Soybean and Groundnuts Board (NNSGB) agreed to set up a treading post at Adipko–Mbaagwa. All produce of these commodities were brought from as far as 100miles away to be sold here.

As his church grew in membership, he started a farmer’s cooperative organization and established a citrus farm (oranges). At the time, nobody knew that orange will be a major cash crop in Tiv land (Tivs occupy the lower Benue valley in Nigeria) If you go to Benue today, you will find out that every family has a citrus (orange) farm. Akough Ubah was one of the pioneers if not one of the first orange farmers in Tiv land.

Before he died in 2004, Akough Uba helped establish an elementary school, a leprosy camp, a labour and delivery clinic, young farmers association and a secondary school in Adipko-Mbaagwa. I am very proud to introduce to you today my hero and my father, Mr. Akough Uba.

Samuel I. Akough SIA