Namidi is the protagonist of the story and a farmer who grows rubber trees. He struggles with poverty and the fact that he cannot provide for his family—especially Ochuko, his son. The narrator says, “Namidi felt diminished each time he saw his boy playing in the sand while the school bells rang in the distance” (79), because it is a reminder that he can’t afford to send his son to school.

To break out of this poverty, Namidi is relentless in his quest to gather the leaking gasoline. Indeed, once he decides to become rich by collecting gasoline, he avoids the usual gossiping and discussion with the village women. But this relentlessness has a dark side: He becomes greedy and obsessed, imagining that other villagers might try to take his fortune.

His negative traits, however, go beyond greed and obsession. Once his wife, Mama Efe, is introduced, her perspective on her husband allows the reader to see just how angry, stubborn, and difficult he can be. After Namidi resolves to gather the gasoline, Mama Efe recognizes the futility of her resistance, and the narrator notes that “she knew how stubborn her husband could be” and “how he would never change his mind once it was made up” (81).