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THERE IS A SERIOUS CONSPIRACY AGAINST WOMEN IN NIGER DELTA REGION — OMAWUMI EVELYN URHOBO

INTERVIEW
Dr. Omawumi Evelyn Urhobo is the Founder/President of Morgan Smart Development Foundation. In Interview with a select Journalists in Warri, Delta State, recently, she speaks on varied issues, including the day she stormed the American Congress where she wept. Do you want to know why “THIS LITTLE GIRL” from Okere Warri burst into tears in America? Find out this and other things she spoke about in this unputdownable interview.
Happy Reading:
Question: May we meet you briefly?
Answer: My name is Dr Omawumi Evelyn Urhobo, Founder/President of Morgan Smart Development Foundation. I am retired now from government service where I spent 32 years. I got to the rank of a director with the NDDC when I retired at the age of 60 in 20212..So I retired over 12 years ago. I retired, and of course, not being tired. I’m still running my NGO and also running a Bank and an Hospitality Business in Lagos
Question : What is the latest Development now?
Answer: The latest development now is that because I want to leave a legacy for when I’m gone. I’ve endowed a trust fund in my name Omawumi Evelyn Atsiangbe-Urhobo Education Trust Fund, for which I’m in town to give out the scholarship to the first Set of eighteen students from financially challenged homes. It is on record that on my Seventh birthday, I did a public presentation of the book I wrote, an autobiography which I titled *I Spoke At The American Congress the little Girl from Okere Warri. I have always seen my life as been a phenomenon. I don’t know how people rank their lives, but when I look back at the experiences I’ve had over time, I just thought I got to capture it all in the book for posterity and to inspire the younger ones especially the girl child that if you believe and work hard, everything is possible and your life can become phenomenal too.
Question :Tell us about this little girl from Okere.
Answer: The little girl from Okere, Oki street. I always remember a product of a young Mother and a young father, where I lived in a communal environment with aunties and uncles and everybody, where everybody cared for you, but nobody actually particularly interested in you. So I grew up in a communal environment, but I was fortunate. My mother was there, and most importantly, her eldest sister was there, and my father too who left a great impression in my life. Because my father and my mother were not getting on too well, at a point, the family insisted that they be separated. So my father left for ibadan to join his mother, with my little Sister, and my mother was taken by his Uncle to Lagos. I was now left behind with my auntie, my auntie Nadi, bless her, who now brought me up, literally speaking. So like every young girl, little Omawumi that grew up in Okere in a communal life but with her Aunty Nade watching over her like a hawk. In Okere, when it is time to go to school, you go to a township school, what was later known as government school, I think it is now called Nana school, or something like that. I walk to school every morning with my cousins and Come back and enter any house where there is food. You have this crowd of families just living a communal life, and I think a very happy one. That was the the little girl from Okere.
Question : To tell us about your experience at Hussey College, where you went to school from 1965 to 1971.
Answer: I am for ever grateful for that privilege of going to that elite school, because the truth is that it was an elite school, very expensive one and it wasn’t meant for an ordinary little girl from Okere kind of person, but my mother, while she was working in Lagos, was very specific about what she wanted for her child. She had two daughters, okay, when my father left for Ibadan, he died in 1971. Yeah, so she now took full responsibility for bringing up her two children, but she was very particular that I go to Hussey College, and looking back, I will have wondered why she will say that when she couldn’t even afford it, everybody was going to Our Ladies High School or UCC and all those other schools But then you say Hussey College, where they pay so much money, I think the school fees was like 20 to 23 pounds a term. We’re using term that time. But she did insisted. She told my auntie she’s going to work out the money so I should go sit for the exams. Of course, I sat. I passed I got admitted. So that’s how I got into Hussey college. And of course, it was a totally different world where you are now hobnobbing with children from rich homes and all that, and trying to get your bearing, you know, looking at how people do things and do it without being laughed at that this bush girl from Okere, kind of thing. Then, you know, our culture in Okere, we are very aggressive. So as a child, I’ve always watched out for myself, watched out for people who are being oppressed, the children who were less advantaged, so I carried that up to the school where I was always fighting. You know, if you punish a student, and I think an injustice have been done, even like a junior girl, I will fight. So all the time I was cutting grass as punishment. In fact, I will tell you, yeah, bring the portion. So that is what it was. But then something miraculous happened. I was found to have athletic capacity, because when we went to do our first or second inter-house sport, all the regular people who were running the 100 meters. I beat them flat. And that was when I became a discovery that, wow, this little girl can run. So becoming a sports girl in Oshowode house then, put me at the advantage that I became a pampered child by the authority. My Rector, Chief O N Rewane, bless his soul, was the Principal but called Rector then. So I started having a lot of privileges, because I was an athlete, of which the best was when I was made a Perfect in form four, in a School where there was Higher School Certificate Students, there was O levels and A levels, but I was made a prefect, and guess what? Why did they do that? They said they wanted to let me know that I cannot just be let loose like a cannon, been fighting and being irresponsible all over the place with so much Okere energy. They want to teach me to be responsible. I remember Mrs Ewerokoma Chief Begho younger sister who the teacher in charge of the girls saying to me, “Urhobo you will be the first prefect that is going to be punished, because prefects are supposed to have decorum in their behavior. So suddenly I was now trying to behave properly, and I think that’s where all this leadership qualities started building up. They saw something in me that I didn’t know I possess. Once we had a triangular sport meet between Hussey College, Govt College Ughelli and Federal Govt College Warri and a dinner was held in the evening for all the participating students and suddenly I heard Rector called out, Urhobo stand up and give a speech or vote of thanks. I wanted the ground to open to swallow me up that night. For God’s sake, how do my Rector want me a form 4 student who was a Sport Perfect to stand before the crowd and make a speech?. Till this this day I can’t remember what I said but I did make a speech. That is how Hussey College nurtured me.
So these are the kind of exposure I had in Hussey college that built me up. But of course, the academic side too, I was not slacking, because even with all the sporting activities that I had to attend our of School, including attending the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1970, I was still doing well with my academics. My school cert result was very good. All my results were always very good. So by the time I was in upper Six in 1971, they actually made me the Head Girl of the School. So Hussey college actually built me in totality, gave me the platform which I used to achieve me the kind of life I led till today.
Question: So then, now moving from Warri and you went to Lagos, where you attended the University of Lagos, from 1972/1975. We just want to know how the experience was like.
Answer: Of course, I went to Unilag like everybody wanted to go to Unilag like everyone to go to go to Eko for show. For sure, it never crossed my mind to go to any other university, because looking back, University of Ibadan was supposed to be a citadel of learning, where everybody aspired to go to. I never I wanted to go to UI I wanted to go to Unilag, because they said that’s where it happens. And of course, again, I was lucky. I wanted to read political science, but I had to have a mathematics as one of the requirements, and I didn’t have mathematics. so my mother took me to a professor for counseling, and they said, Okay, I can study sociology. And I said, What is sociology? Honestly, didn’t know what sociology was all about. Instead, I knew about politics. I did government in A levels. So I was now made to study sociology, and interestingly, that’s what brought out all the humanity in me, because I now took course in social welfare as part option in taking a course of study of Sociology. Taking Social welfare as an option, exposed me to visits to Approved Schools, Remand homes and all that in the course of our studies, and from what I saw, I developed strong empathy towards wanting to take care of these children who, by no fault of theirs were packed into crowded accommodations in these Remand Homes and Approved Schools in Lagos State, you know.
While I was in UNILAG, I attended Nigerian University Games NUGA in Nsukka. I also attended the West Africa University games in Kumasi Ghana. But the truth is that I really didn’t want to continue with the sports. I thought I’ve had enough of that. It was too stressful. I had a natural ability to run, but I never used to make any effort to run. It came naturally, because I hate those gruesome trainings that I was made to go through. It always makes me so miserable. So when I finished with sport in Unilag, I never look back to my sporting days again. I had a lot of options. Oh, I should have gone to the US. For, like, almost all the people I was doing sports with, they all moved to the US to continue their sporting activities and study. But I was not interested. I wanted my own life, because I think God was always directing me in the path I should go. So I was never interested in going to America to go and further my Study. Our coach Debia, was recruiting everybody. I said, I’m not interested. I don’t want to go to America. I want to stay here, because I think God has a purpose for me in my country.
Question: Your work with the international university exchange Fund IUEF and Your involvement with the South African Liberation Struggle in South Africa. We want to know about this.
Answer: Like I had earlier said, with my training as a Social welfare came through my reading sociology, has actually built a lot of empathy in me. In fact, it’s not even that time. It started from township school. I was always fight people all the time. Immediately I see that you are oppressing a small child, I will come after you. So when I started work at the Federal Ministry of Social Development, Youth and Sports, and a colleague was told of a job opening as the federal government was bringing some South African students to the country to study, and they were looking for a Student counselor. My colleague Banke is her name said her brother told her about the job but she told her she was not interested but that she knows who will be interested in that kind of job so she told me about the job opening and of course I jumped at it. I had to go to the Cabinet Office which the Presidency used to be called. I met with Thabo Mbeki who was the ANC Chief Rep in Nigeria in 1977 who eventually became president of South Africa. It was the wife, Zanele Mbeki, who eventually, of course, became the first lady, was the IUEF representative who where bringing the students to Nigeria, and also bringing the fund, but they needed school placement in Nigeria and the person to take care of them. Now here come the very young girl Evelyn Urhobo, just one year out of National Youth service. I was just 23 years then and they’re looking for a job to take care of 250 South African militant students who have just fought the South African system with the Soweto uprising in 1976 and because of the brutality of that revolt, a lot of the students now run into exile to Botswana, and South Africa was threatening Botswana that if they don’t move these people, they come in to bomb them. So in the process, they had to look for where to move them. We had a Nigerian ambassador, a woman, I still remember her, Hajia Muhammad. She was the Nigerian High commissioner in Botswana, She now linked up with President Obasanjo, who was the military president and made a case for the students to Nigeria, and he approved that they come to Nigeria to Study in 1977. interestingly, looking back now Zanele, said to me later, that when she saw me then she felt weary because she was looking to recruit a Coordinator and Student Counselor for 250 militant Students that just took up the Apartheid Regime in Soweto uprising. She said she took one look at me and said, Man, if this girl know what she’s trying to get herself into. Not only were they militants, they were all about my age too. when they told me all about it, I said I was interested. Why don’t they give me a chance? And they said, okay, for one year they were going to try me out, and they now recruited me. When I got back to the office, and I told my boss, the director in charge of women, and my colleagues, that I was going to resign from government work to take up a one year contract job with international university exchange fund, They people didn’t believe it, Banke my friend that told me about the Job could not believe I will want to leave a government job that I will work and retire on with a pension , to go and take a one year contract job. And I said, I know what I’m doing. If you don’t try some of these things, you never make progress. To start with they offered me a salary that was twice what I was earning in Govt. My Govt Salary was N3400 per annum and IUEF offered me N7600. Why won’t I move. I told them that going to work for them I will so impressed them that they will not have an choice than to renew the contract at the end of the one year. I know the students, are going to be around for maybe four or five years to complete their study. So all I need to do is to work myself out and so impress them that after one year, they will review my contract. And that is what they did.After one year, the IUEF Headquarter in Switzerland was so happy with my output that they increased my salary to N14,000 which was in dollars. when I went back to my friends, I said to them, “Una see unaself now, you people are still earning 3400. I have the privilege of earning my money in dollars now I said to them. So that’s where you have to dream. You have to aspire. You have to be forward looking. You have to take chances and utilize opportunities. You have to go the extra mile, which I did, and that gave me the backing of what I am now. Later on by the time the IUEF was infiltrated by the South African government, the people the Scandinavian countries who were funding the program withdraw their funding and IUEF was disbanded after five years operation in Nigeria, I had to move on. Though IUEF left, there were still a lot of the South Africans students still left in Nigeria. At this the Federal Govt had set up the Southern African Relief Fund SARF to take charge of taking care of the students still in the Country. I then transited from the international university exchange fund to the Southern African Relief fund as the Executive Secretary where I worked and even brought more south African, Zimbabwean, Mozambique and Namibia Students, and was later moved to the National Committee Against Apartheid NACAP till South Africa got their independence in 1985 and I re-join the Federal Public Service.
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Question: The story of your life is going to be incomplete without telling us your 30 years in public service.
Answer: Yeah. It really amazes me, because just recently, I was interviewed where I said that when I joined public service, I did not intend to stay more longer as necessary, because I didn’t think that my future was in public service. People work in public service because they are thinking of the job security and the retirement benefit they will get. How can you start a job and you’re thinking of retirement, you should go there and actualize yourself. I’m not interested in whatever retirement they’re going to pay me, as I have the capacity to work my retirement for myself. But again, God had a plan, because when I started work with the South African Relief Fund, it was under The Presidency itself. So it was a government parastatal. So when in 1985 South Africa became independent, they deployed all of us working with the Fund back into the service. So I was now back in the Service I had earlier left, and I went on to spend the next 32 years in Public Service from where I retired when I turned 60 years in 2012. The truth was that all the time I spent, every day I was planning to leave. I was always planning to leave because I really believe that my future was not in government service. Will in the Govt Service, I set up my foundation, Morgan Smart Development Foundation. I and a group of friends set up the Okere Community Bank, that metamorphosis into the Coastline MFB. You know, I was doing so many other things that was sort of making up for just being a civil servant. But one thing I’ve always said to myself, any day, they query me that I was doing these other things, I was going to resign and leave the service. I’m not going to be intimidated, because I have enough time working with government to do this extra thing that I’m doing so my Government work was not suffering in anyway. But for the 32 years, nobody queried me. So I worked in the day, and do all these other work at night. And it was the one of those times that I was working for which was my NGO, even while in service, that I got invited for a one month Global Women in Management GWIM Workshop in Washington DC, when I got the opportunity to speak at the American Congress Briefing on the Role Of Women in Strengthening Global Economy. I took a month leave from my Govt Job to attend the workshop. So the truth is that if I’ve been intimidated by my purely government work, I wouldn’t have done all these other things that I did. The secret is that to be successful, you must be multitasking. I was on multitasking fellow if there was one.
Question: When your mates were going to the US to study, you refused to go, but on a good day, you were not in America. You need to get from Okere and stood up before the crowd and address the world in the Congress. Tell us about the experience?
Answer: I cried. You know, they were so official about the whole process. We were there for one month women in leadership training program sponsored by ExonMobil Foundation, during the course of the training, they found out that not only was I a government worker, I was running a Bank and I was running an NGO that was working with women in the Niger Delta so they found that my exposure was amazing. So when the three Women legislators sponsored a Briefing on the Role of Women in Strengthening Global Economy. They needed some women from the women leadership program that was going on in Washington that time. And guess what happened? I was one of the two that was nominated to address the Congress briefly, and the whole process was amazing, if you see the way they took the preparation on what we were going to be speaking about. I had to talk about the fact that for any genuine development, it must start from the grassroots, because that is where development is.