By Ade Fashola
Hello Readers
Welcome back from your holiday. This story is in continuation of my promise to complete the Ileya incident with Femi. “Ileya” means Time to go Home or Home coming” It is the name given to the Islamic Eid-Kabir festival in the western part of Nigeria. The time to kill Rams. I had mentioned in my previous article about my indecision to confirm my presence at the Ileya outing. Awaiting confirmation from my brother was my shield but surprisingly as I parked in front of our compound, I saw Femi descending the stairs. Obviously, he had checked up on me and was on his way out when he saw me and exclaimed ” Thank God, I was thinking if you would not make it down” He was quick to offer help in off-loading my things because he had already promised another mutual friend I would be coming and a get-together was being planned for the next day. This was exactly what I was avoiding; my brain was working overtime to come up with an excuse to get rid of him to avert a repeat of the initial failed attempt. I eventually enjoyed the failed first attempt at getting rid of him as we spent hours together, but getting into people’s business was not my thing. In the process of offloading, he saw the two rams I had bought for my parents and reminded me of our old tradition – Ram Fights. He asked if we could engage in it as the Shogunle family were around and had rams so it would be a good reunion in the mist of fun. The Ram fights took place in the early morning hours of the festival day between 7 and 10am in case of any danger of injury or death to the Rams. My response was at our age it couldn’t be considered fun anymore but we could come up with some activity in the morning. Besides, I was tired, needed a shower, rest and to see some family members before retiring for the night. I thought I had escaped when he didn’t protest and left me to rest.
Alas! I was awoken to the noise of people in front of our house. The Shogunles with their Rams and as expected spectators to watch the fight. Femi walked into my room to announce the show was about to start and was awaiting my approval. This wasn’t my plan andI had to quickly come up with an adult excuse, “Femi have you thought of the welfare of the animals?” His response was they were going to be dead in a few hours. “Femi it’s better they are slaughtered for the ceremony than be killed in fight or maimed. Aside if death occurred, how was I going to replace within such a short notice, noting the sudden expense amongst other inconveniences.” I explained but he shocked me with his comment “Fash I thought you are an insurance man. Can’t you insure it before the fight? You know who to call. Didn’t you say Yusuff would have been compensated if he had insured his herd?” Again, a teachable moment right before me. I promised him we would discuss the insurability of risk after the festival as we stepped out together. The crowd was enormous; it was obvious they were not going anywhere while the flock of rams seemed to understand what was expected because they were in the fighting posture. Within 10mintues a flock of not less than 80 rams were present to start the show. My head was spinning for excuses – animal cruelty came to mind. This was the same scene I enjoyed for over twenty-five years; now I was struggling to get out of it. Ram fights were going on everywhere. I was only hearing choruses of one, two, three and so forth. I looked around, greeted some our old friends and excused myself. For the first time I felt really sad not just for the rams but about the whole process. Why would people be happy causing chaos, rancor and pains for animals and people were enjoying it? It seemed I was alone in my world. I called Femi aside to inform him of my unease and exited. Forty-five minutes after, Femi came knocking at my door. He saw it in my demeanor that I was not happy. He apologized and asked “What exactly is your concern”? I told him it is the pains we were intentionally causing the Rams. He reminded me how I used to be the ring leader. We joked about it for a while before he promised not to put me in such a situation again since in his words I was now a crusader against animal abuse. He went on to ask “You still have not told me your main reason, if truly you don’t enjoy ram fights anymore, why did you buy rams with fighting features?” He was right, I had gotten used to rams that can fight because while growing up, if my parents rams were beaten, I would cry like a baby. My parents knew, so my mom (Alhaja) will take me along to choose before purchase so that I will not blame anyone if the ram got whipped in competition. Trust Femi, he asked again, “why did you say the risk of ram dying is not insurable?” I answered him immediately, “I did not say animal death is not insurable, rather the peril around the premise of such death may not be insurable.” At this point I decided to resume my training session. “Femi, not all risks are insurable and if you will be patient till after the festival, I will take my time to explain the characteristics of insurable risk.” Femi repeated it “Insurable risk”? “Yes insurable risk” I answered. There is also uninsurable risk. Uninsurable risk is a condition that poses an unacceptable risk of loss or a situation in which the insurance would be against the law. Insurance companies limit their losses by not taking on certain risks that are very likely to result in a loss.
Ade Fashola is the CEO of Universal Risk
