Exquisite

Women are coming to this office to tell me that their husbands are not doing what they are supposed to do —Ekiti Gov’s wife

Wife of Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Olayemi Oyebanji, in this interview by ‘YOMI AYELESO, speaks on her activities in office as the First Lady in the last one year, especially her newly launched pet project for the vulnerable citizens, among other issues in the state.

How has it been since your assumption of office as the First Lady in Ekiti State considering that a teacher is coming from the classroom in the university to find herself around the corridor of power ?

I want to thank God for the grace, God has been very gracious to me and my journey as an academic has prepared me for this office. I started as a Graduate Assistant from our university, Ekiti State University, then known as the University of Ado Ekiti. That was where I started my career journey as a Graduate Assistant. I joined the university system in the year 2000, almost 23 years ago. I have worked in the university system, held various positions, committees and many responsibilities. I have worked with colleagues, senior and junior colleagues. I have been working with various people in the academic system. It is like one of the things that I did when I was at the University of Ibadan. I was Assistant Hall Warden of the biggest hall in the University of Ibadan, Queen Idia Hall and I was in that hall for four years where we mixed with young adults, girls, ladies. We gave accommodation, they had to choose and we have to resolve their issues. So that has prepared me for this office and, of course, it has not been easy but we have been pulling through. With the experience that I had garnered in the academic world, that has helped me to deal with many issues we have to deal with — women and children and that is awesome. Though it’s tough, God has been helping us. Before coming to this space, in the university system, you know we have three major areas as academics. You have to teach, in the course of teaching, you meet with your students, you pass knowledge. You have to carry out research work with publications here and there in reputable journals and we have to give community service whereby you are invited in your community to come and give talks, to come and sensitize people. So, to me, there is a correlation between what I am doing now with those roles. Basically, what I am doing now in the Office of the First Lady is more or less like community service which I have done in the university system. So, for me, it is a continuation of what I have done in the university system.

Since you came into office, what has been your impact and interventions in the state ?

When I came on board, I was fortunate to take over from the former First Lady who is like a mother to me. She took me through what I needed to know especially in the area of campaign against Gender-Based Violence in Ekiti State and you will agree with me that Ekiti has been in the forefront in the campaign against Gender Based Violence issues like rape, abusive relationship and all those stuff. When I came on board, I hit the ground running on that because that has been institutionalized. By the grace of God, I have been able to intervene in some Gender Based Violence cases. A case in point was the case of a woman who was sentenced for owing and at the time of her sentence the woman was about two or three months pregnant. So, it was brought to my notice and I was able to work in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice because along the line before we got justice, before we got the woman out, she was delivered in prison. So, I had to come in to ensure the safety of the baby, to stabilize the woman and the Ministry of Justice in partnership with my office swung into action and today, the woman has been released. We filed a case in the Court of Appeal that this woman should not be sentenced for owing, she can’t pay in prison, it is when she is free that she can pay. So, there are many cases like that and that also afforded me the opportunity to know that there are so many women in prison. I am working on that to ensure how the Ministry of Justice can intervene so that we can salvage the situation. Sensitization is going on in Ekiti, people now know that you cannot just rape and get away with it and people are coming out to complain, not about raping alone. Women are coming to this office to tell me that their husbands are not doing what they are supposed to do. We mediate and things are getting normal in the area of GBV. Since my coming to office, there are lots of interventions that we have done. Many people come, students, the poor, the needy from time to time come to my office and we have intervened. We gathered people together, people in need and we do empowerment for them. Recently, not long ago, I was able to do the Back to School Programme for over 400 orphans and it was all over. Those are the things I will be doing, God helping me.

A few days ago, you launched a pet project called Widows and Orphans Project otherwise known as WAOH Project. What was the motivation behind the conception of this project?

My background actually helped me to look into that project. As a lecturer, you meet with lots and lots of students with different socio-economic backgrounds. We have those who are indigent, who have parents and we have those who don’t have parents but are very brilliant. So, at my own little corner as an academic, I have been intervening, paying school fees here and there, giving them money to support them in school, and buying a mattress when they get accommodation. You know those things you do silently and it has always been a burden in my heart. And even widows of course, where I worship, you see people coming to you after service, they are widows, they want you to come and help them. As an ardent believer in God, the Scripture says that the poor will not cease among us. So, if God has deliberately left them among us, it means those of us that have been privileged to be where we are, and then we must take responsibility for them. And that is one of the reasons why I look at the direction of the widows because I believe that they are the most vulnerable in our society. Many of them have been subjected to one form of inhuman treatment or another, we have to come in and assist them. So, I have compassion and burden for them. So I have to take up the matters of the widows and orphans.

How do you intend to secure funding for the huge project considering the fact that there is no statutory budgetary allocation for your office?

Funding has always been a problem for every project even if you bring Governor BAO (Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji) on board now, sit him on this seat, and ask him how he has been doing it, does it mean that he has enough funds to do what he has been doing? I believe this kind of thing, there is a need for someone to be sacrificial; there is a need for someone to make sacrifices. If it may interest you, when I dabbled into this project, one of the things that I started doing was to put some money aside as my own seed money. When God sees where you are coming from when you have good intentions, there is a way God will help you to make that intention prosperous. By the grace of God, people have been coming to assist me in this project. I have been going around telling people that ‘please help me in this project’ and ironically, people have been so warm to the widows. There was a case when I told someone and he said ‘about this issue of widows, we are going to help.’ With God on my side, we are going to get funds because if we have to be talking about this issue of funding, I won’t do anything. So, I have to start because on the day of the unveiling, we are looking at 300 widows with various needs. How did I get funds for that? You know, people assisted me and I know many more people will assist me. So, if I don’t start, such assistance may not come because I want to use this platform to assist them. If I don’t do anything the platform will lapse and posterity may not judge me well. So, on the issue of funding, we are getting to the bridge and we are already crossing it. With God on our side, people are responding on the issue of funding and people like you will respond too with your own widow’s mite. People are supporting us.

like I said, they are already supporting us and most of the things we are going to do on the day of the unveiling of WAOH are gifts and donations from people and that is quite encouraging and I still believe that many people will still respond to us when they see the sincerity on our part on how we have handled the ones they have given us. That will not be a problem because I believe God will make a way.

On the sustainability of this project, how can the support you have given the vulnerable be institutionalized so that it would outlive your stay in office?

Well, like I discussed with somebody, one of the ways I want to ensure sustenance is going through the legislative process. Of course, we have widows, law and all that which I want to revisit. Like the GBV Prohibition intervention, it was institutionalized before my predecessor left office. Maybe, if she had left without necessary legal backing, maybe it would not be in place by now. I want to toe that path to ensure that the whole thing about WAOH is legalized through the Assembly, pushing bills here and there. I will make consultations with the Assembly, I mean the Ekiti State House of Assembly so that this work outlives the initiator and the owner of the vision. I said earlier that I will do more sensitization, if you have been to my programme, I always drop a message. I will tell them, always bend backward because leadership is about responsibility. When God places us in positions, it’s not for us, we are like conduit pipes that the resources pass through our line. We are just like a funnel; we are like a funnel when we are in a position of authority or leadership position. When you pour oil through a funnel, the part of the oil will still remain in the funnel which you can use, the oil is not yours. But there is no way the oil will not pass through the funnel that you will not have some. I have always preached that and will also ensure that it becomes part of our culture at all levels, local government level, ward level at every time that widows must be taken care of. Everybody has something to give, even a widow in your neighbourhood, you can give her food, assisting them doesn’t have to be something extraordinary. It may be one rubber of rice and you put N200 for that widow, she will eat that night. So, when that sensitization is done in an aggressive manner, people will see them as everyone’s responsibilities. So, whether I am in office or not, they will still be taken care of. Of course, I carry the vision to everywhere I am because it is a passion for me. So, I think that will help and if that will not be enough, I will still make consultations. You know I am a teacher, so you learn all your life. I will still consult people to know how to go about it, to ensure that after I leave office, it doesn’t die with my tenure.

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