The first man that planted and owned a kola nut tree loved the tree and its fruits and cherished them very much. He often used the the fruits to welcome and entertain his visitors, and they enjoyed its rich taste.
With time, some people started coming in the night or when he was not around to harvest the kola nuts. When he discovered this, he was very sad. He tried to find out who they were but he couldn’t because they came mainly in the night and also monitored his movements before they came; he would only wake up or return from his journey only to see that his kola nuts had been harvested, even when most of the fruits were not ripe.
He started thinking of a way to stop them from stealing his kola nuts. After a period of brainstorming, he decided to engage the Fire Ants ！ close relatives of Soldier Ants. They were going to attack the invaders and thieves on the tree and prevent them from stealing his kola nuts. The Fire Ants were well known for their aggressiveness and their incredible ability to fight even on tree tops and still win over their assailants or victims.
The agreement was that they would always protect his tree and its fruits all the time against thieves. On his own part, he would, on weekly basis, climb up the tree and provide them with food as payment for their services. With this, they didn’t have to leave the tree or travel to any place in search of anything. They agreed. He added that whenever they saw any person climbing the tree without carrying any food, they should attack the person immediately because that’s a thief and an enemy, and such a person could not have come from him. The agreement was sealed and each party kept to their own part of the agreement. And the unlawful harvest of the man’s kola nuts drastically reduced.