By Ifeanyi Raymond
As the Batch A Stream I of corps members are set to arrive their various camps all over the country from today (Wednesday) 23rd February, 2022 it would only be justified to emphasize on the origin, development and spread of the Mammy Markets located virtually in all the Army Barracks in the country where the NYSC holds its 3-week camp for corps members.
It was in 1959, Mammy Maria Ode, a young girl from Jericho-Ugboju in the present Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State, was married to Anthony Aboki Ochefu at the tender age of 14, a young Non-Commissioned military officer, who had just been posted to Enugu from Abeokuta.
They were quartered at the Army Barracks, Abakpa, Enugu. To beat idleness and perhaps earn some money to support her young family, Mrs. Mammy Ochefu established a soft drinks business. She prepared gruel, which is called umu or enyi in Idoma, or kunu in Hausa, for sale to soldiers. She soon became popular with her stuff as soldiers trooped to her house to buy enyi. Some of her best customers were officers, who always sent their batmen to buy some of the gruel for them, Monday through Friday.
Somehow, one of the Non-Commissioned Officers, the RSM, did not flow with the enthusiasm which Mammy’s gruel generated among other military men in the barracks. He complained that it was attracting flies into the barracks and ordered Mrs. Mammy Ochefu to stop its production and sale.
Though surprised and disappointed at the order of the RSM, she stopped the production and sale of enyi. Her husband, not being an officer at the time, could not challenge the order of the RSM.
For weeks, Mrs. Mammy Ochefu agonized over the fate of her business, just as officers and men of the Nigerian Army who enjoyed her enyi because of its freshness and nutritional value lamented the situation.
From several quarters, pressure mounted on the RSM for a reversal of the order. After a while, he succumbed to the pressure and directed that a section of the barracks be reserved for Mrs. Mammy Ochefu to produce and sell her enyi. Her joy knew no bounds.
Few days after, a section of the barracks was given to her. She built a small shop and soon, her business began to boom. Most of her customers booked for their shares in advance. Before noon, she would have finished selling the available enyi for the day.
Soon, other women in the barracks tapped into her fortune and started selling other items. It was not long before that portion of the barracks became known as Mammy Market. It also became a policy to establish markets inside or near military barracks in the country, initially for the exclusive use of officers and men. She then registered the business in 1971, and in no time, the business had grown into a supermarket and a transport business.
The idea of the business ‘Mammy Market’ has grown with the country and wherever a military camp is situated, Mammy market is also established. Through this initiative, Mammy Ochefu helped millions of Nigerian women across the country to be business owners. We celebrate this beautiful strong woman who defied all odds to create jobs for millions of women.
Today, no visit to Abuja, the Federal Capital City, is complete without a taste of fresh fish in one of the Mammy Markets, especially the one attached to Abacha Barracks. Similar markets attached to paramilitary barracks are also called Mammy Markets.
After the coup that overthrew General Yakubu Gowon, Anthony Aboki Ochefu, then a Colonel was posted to East Central State as Military Governor.
So Mrs. Mammy Ochefu and her husband returned to Enugu as the First Family; she sometimes visited the site where Mammy Market started about sixteen years earlier. It must be stressed too that in retirement, Colonel Anthony Aboki Ochefu and his wife incorporated a company, Mammy Markets, which was into haulage and trading.
Wiktionary defines Mammy Market as (chiefly in Nigeria) a market attached to a barracks where products for soldiers are sold. In recent times the markets have grown more populous since the inception of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1973 by General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) and Adebayo Adedeji.
It now houses not just kunu joints but various items and services on sale like mama-put restaurants where corps members who prefer not to eat the food provided by the Federal Government in their camps go to satisfy their hunger at affordable rates. It also provides services to charge phones, wash and iron clothes, PoS stands, essential camp items like buckets, mosquito nets even bars where corps members go to relax and relieve the stress accrued during the day’s activities which is mostly filled with parades under the scorching sun. Today, asking a serving or erstwhile corps member the highlight or what he/she misses most about the NYSC camp no doubt it will be the Mammy Markets which makes the 3-week stay less boring than it originally was and all thanks to Mammy Maria Ochefu for her endearing foresight and business-oriented mindset.
Notably, the Mammy Market is not just for buying and selling but also serves as a social ground for camp lovers and gatherings alike. Activities that are banned in camp are mostly experienced in the markets where people from all over the country mingle and fraternize amongst themselves which most of these relationships are continued away from the markets and camps.
Mrs. Mammy Ochefu has inarguably built a lasting legacy however, in a recent interview she lamented on being neglected and disregarded by the Federal Government and the nation who have yet to attribute the Mammy Markets, its origin and all that it represents to her officially as the founder and originator. She pleads for recognition for such a magnanimous feat as a woman at a time when women were seen as housekeepers and not given a chance to contribute to the fore especially as the wife of military personnel.
Mrs. Mammy Ochefu is alive at 79 years and lives in Otukpo where she has a livestock farm and engages them for personal use and sales. She is indeed one of the prized legends of our time.
