[How did your activism start? Was it hereditary or what you saw in society?]

For Dr. Joe Okei-Oduma­kin, where men fear to tread, is where she loves to not only walk but also run. With the boldness of a lion, she holds tenaciously to her cause not minding the hazards to her person in a society where critical voices are loathed. She is the President, Wom­en Arise for Change Initiative and has over 25years experience in hu­man rights activism in Nigeria.

Born in Zaria, Kaduna State and grew up in Ilorin, Kwara State. She cut her teeth in activism as the Sec­retary of Women in Nigeria (WIN).

Her foray into human rights ac­tivism was when the General Ibra­him Babangida dictatorship was baring its fangs and locking up crit­ical voices. She became one of the targets of the administration as she was arrested and detained for not less than 17 times at different loca­tions. She has held various positions in the human rights community and received awards too numerous to be counted.

She spoke in an exclusie interview on her life, challenges and the risk she has faced and how her father truncated her dream of being a Catholic nun

How did your activism start? Was it hereditary or what you saw in society?
When I was growing up I saw my mother who as a princess was tak­ing cases of some women in the area whose rights were infringed upon. At times, she would warn her father, who was the Obi Odor of Isele Uku, Delta State. Again, my father was a top civil servant, whenever I got to his office, I would see people telling him about their works and what they felt about the establishment.

My parents were staunch Catho­lic members, and my elder brothers were mass servers in the church and we were all baptised when we were very young and I did my Confirma­tion. I saw that the Reverend Sis­ters were not married and were just doing God’s work. We had a mis­sionary, Sister Mysteria who was teaching us religious studies and there was also one of Rev Father Kerry that I was seeing in church. One day, I told Sister Mysteria that I wanted to be a Reverend Sister and married to Jesus like her. I made up my mind that I wanted to be a nun. I nurtured that in my form five and after my secondary education, I was feeling the form when my mother saw me and called my father who was in the United Kingdom. It was during the time of analogue phone and my father gave a time that he would call back. We all sat around the table waiting and as soon as the phone rang, my mum handed the phone over to me and father said, ‘one, you don’t want to procreate, secondly, you are not going to be married; you want to be a nun and married to Jesus? I will disown you.’ At that that I was 14 years and I told the Rev Father and the Sister, they made me realised that he was my earthly father, who was assigned to take care of me here on earth, that it would be a problem if God disowns you that I should not be bothered.

So, I carried on and when my father came back from the UK, one thing that really shocked me was when he asked, ‘ you still want to be a nun, my darling daughter, not only would I disown you, I will also print your obituary; I will take your photograph put it in about two newspapers that you are dead and the money I would have used for your school fess, I would use it for an­other thing. So anybody who sees you would run, thinking that you are a spirit.’

That was too much for me to bear, I went in­side my room and locked up, I didn’t eat and I felt there was no need to tell the Rev Father or the sis­ter again. My brother came and talked with me, and implored me to finish my education. I made up my mind and told my dad the next day that I had jettisoned the idea and he was so happy and took me to the Director, School of Basic Studies, Kwara State College of Technology, and bought the form for me. The director, Dr Anchor told my father not to be worried that I would live in his house. The third day, I met my dad in his office and told him that I wanted to live in the hostel, as I don’t want to live with Dr Anchor again because each time he would want to know where I was. My dad said that I should promise him that I was not going to tell him again anything about nun, and I made that promise. He wanted me to write it down, I said, there was no need as it was already engraved in my heart. He took me back to Dr Anchor and thanked him and told him that I was going to live in the hostel. Dr Anchor, said, ‘Hen­ry, I will open a book for her, when she comes from the hostel in the morning she would sign and when she is leaving she would clock out’. He said, ‘is that okay, young girl? I said fine’. That was how it was and I was doing it.

One day, I saw, ‘Rethink Nigeria’, which was like a left wing movement. I was curious. I saw people; some of them left their hair bushy. That was in 1982, and I went to their meeting and they were talking about the state of the nation. They read the agenda and people wrote it down, there­after, the person presiding said, ‘any observa­tion?’ I raised my hand and said, ‘there was no opening or closing prayers.’ The person presiding said, ‘who brought this thing here, we are talking of serious issues and this one is talking of prayers, throw her out of this place.’ Somebody threw me out and I left one leg of my shoes. I asked him to let me take the shoe, he resisted and said, ‘if you walk to your hostion?’ I raised my hand and said, ‘there was tel with one leg of your shoes, next time you come here you would not talk about prayers again.’ I left and after about two weeks, one of them saw me and said there was going to be meeting that day, that they would put opening and closing payers in the agenda, and said, ‘please come, you are a brilliant girl and you would be useful to us.’ I went there, it was the same issue and I raised up my hands again. This time, they were so violent that they flogged me out of the place and I vowed never to go back there again. ­

After my A levels, I got admission to Ah­madu Bello University (ABU), Zaria but my father didn’t want me to leave Ilorin for Zaria, so that I would not go and start talking about being a nun again. My second choice was University of Ilorin and went round and ef­fected a change, so I was admitted at Univer­sity of Ilorin. Some of my schoolmates were calling me Rev Sister.

After my 200 level, one very strict lectur­er mentioned my matriculation number and asked me to see him after the lectures. I was going home with my friends, I was pointing at the lecturer, and he shouted that we should come and asked why we were pointing at him; I said you mentioned my matriculation num­ber. It was after that I realized that I scored very high in the text and he asked, ‘why are you called, Rev Sister? Are you a stammerer, talk, be confident, you can’t score this mark and will be stammering? I said, I wanted to be a nun and then married to Jesus. He said, ‘look at all these books on the shelf, have you heard of Martin Luther King?’ I said, ‘yes’; he said, ‘have you heard of Mandela?’ I said, ‘yes’; ‘have you heard of Rosaa Patt?’ I said, ‘yes’. He gave me one to read and that was in March, 1985, and I saw one quotation in that book, “ Our lives begin to end the day we keep silent about things that matter.” So, I thought about it, and said so many things matter in this country. I thought about military dictator­ship, I though about so many things and then I went back. Then, the position of Secretary of Women In Nigeria was vacant and I picked the form and contested and on the manifestoes day, I was quoting known activists and other authorities and they were hailing me. One of the contestants stepped down, another never bothered again to contest and that was how I became the secretary. I was in 300 level then.

I called a lawyer and said that I needed a Will incase anything happens to me because whatever I do I put my life into it and now; I’m aligning myself with the struggle. The lawyer asked me what I have, I told him I have a mattress and six or seven books, which I told him should be given to the University of Ilorin library and the mattress be given to the motherless home.

That was how I started and became born again in the struggle and before I knew it, my father who was then a top civil servant during the military era, had his house searched and was even arrested twice that my mother said, ‘you would have allowed her to become a nun, see the bigger problem she has put us into.’

Have you at anytime regretted not being a nun?
I have never regretted, even at the point of death, even in this field that I have chosen, where I have been in solitary confinement, where there was no light, sometimes I would be beaten beyond recognition even to the ex­tent that I thought I was dying. I had sustained gun shot wound during one of our protests and I was with dead bodies, I said within me that even if I die and there was reincarnation I will still toe this path in my new world. There wasn’t anytime that I look back and regretted. Despite persecution, incarceration, denials and all that I have passed through I still feel that I was able to change my mind and be­come a change agent.

Who were you looking up to as role models?
When this whole thing started, I was look­ing up to some of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) officials, like Yetunde Laniran, Prof Olu Obafemi and others. From the books I read, there was Mandela who was in prison, Rossa Patt. There were also the likes of Beko Ransome-Kuti, who about six months when I gave my life for the struggle, called Comrade Ayo Obe, a Nigeria Labour Congress official and said he wanted to speak with me.

I spoke with Beko and he told me that he saw one of the fliers that I signed and asked if I wanted to come to Lagos. I said I would come the following day. I took off and went to La­gos. My appointment was for 4 pm and I got to him at 4.15pm and he had already packed his books and I met him at the staircase. He said that our appointment was for 4 and I have appointment with Gani Fawehinmi, let me call Chief if I should come along with you. That was how I saw Beko, his simplicity. We went to Gani and he received us and he was so committed and we spent about 20 minutes with him. Beko asked if he should drop me at Ojota Park, where I would join Ilorin vehi­cle because he had an appointment with my brother, Fela. I told him that I wanted to see Fela, he was one of those I would love to see. We went to Fela, and he asked me, ‘ Wetin be your name?’ I said, ‘Joe’ and he said, ‘that one no be name, wetin be your name?’ I told him.

We spent 15 minutes with him and he asked me a few questions and when I stood up to go I fell down because I have inhaled marijuana that he was smoking while we were discuss­ing. There were few things I learnt from Fela, he said things about the ills in the society. My role models- people I was looking up include, Wole Soyinka, Beko, Gani, and Fela. Some became unconsciously my role models from the books that I have read – Martin Luther King, ROSSA Patt, the lady who refused to give up, Karl Max, Frank Fanon, and Funmi Ransome-Kuti.

What has been your lowest mo­ment?
Not that I regretted what I did, it was when I was leading a protest in Ilorin. I went to paste poster against IBB at the police head­quarters in Ilorin. I took advantage of some of the dead electricity bulbs, so, the place was dark. My colleagues dropped me and I was putting on black attires and had the posters and starch. I told those colleagues not to go but stay far away and watch incase I was shot dead so that they can explain what happened to me. Unfortunately, while pasting it, one of the police men came out to ease himself in that dark area. He was coming and his voice was coming closer to where I was, I had to lie down and his urine was pouring into my ear, mouth and nose. He was drunk. He stepped on me and asked his colleagues to bring touch that he was standing on a snake, his colleagues asked him to run, he said no, that they would use it for soup. He was stepping on my legs and his colleagues told him not allow snake to bite him. He asked them to bring touch that he was stepping on the snake. His weight was heavy on my leg and when they brought the touch and looked at the poster on the wall and saw IBB’s face defaced with cross and he then beat me up. He first gave me a head butt and one of them said, ‘Oga, don’t waste your energy, let us kill this thing.’ Those my colleagues shout­ed, ‘Don’t kill her, we have seen you’ they fired some shots in the air. That was a low moment, not that I regretted it, but I have tak­en some urine. I didn’t know what happened to me again, it was when I woke up that I saw my self with starch all over my body, blood everywhere and my dress was torn. I was there for about four days before my dad brought some clothes to me.

It was a low moment in that I just thought about it and realized that these are the citizens one is fighting for and look at the way they have treated me. They said I was worst that a hardened armed robber, more so, a criminal. All the people who came even when I re­gained consciousness felt that it was the height of criminality.

What has been your greatest mo­ment?
It is when I was part of the people who led the protest in 1994. In the process more than 200 people were killed and I was also shot on the leg. I still feel the pain when I engage in rigorous struggle. Why it was the high point of my life was that, when I was shot I thought the end has come. As people were shot and they dropped dead, they were shot again. So, I was among the dead bodies and from the ra­dio messages the security personnel guarding the corpses were sending and receiving they wanted to dig the ground and give them mass burial so that no one would come to collect them. I thought that was my end.

I was thinking of so many things, and through divine intervention, one of them told the other that the blood was disturbing him and another said there was some place they could go and get something to smoke and in the process they were all leaving the place and when I didn’t see any of them, I managed to stand up, even with the excruciating pain I ran for my dear life. I saw an old man who had a transistor radio and I heard that I was one those who had been declared wanted.

It was a high point in my life because I knew that my mind has been with the Nige­rian masses and I thought of it, as I have not completed my mission. So, my escape, even with the pains on my leg, which was later, treated locally, was a great moment. I was arrested three months later and the wound healed while in detention. It was the highest point in my life, although I felt bad for those who lost their lives. It is also a reminder that this is another chance for me; this is second chance. I firmly made up my mind that if I would survive, I will live all my life for the masses of this country.

When was that?
It was during the annulment of June 12 Presidential election. We had some protests si­multaneously; I did mine in Ilorin and moved to Lagos to join others on Ikorodu Road, Ebute Metta, and Yaba. It was a long march calling for the deannulment of the election. I think it was in August 1994, and the soldiers were drafted to quell what they referred as ‘riot’. Three or four days that when I came out from where I was being treated locally, I was arrested and I spent about three months in a detention centre in Lagos.

How did you meet your husband? As an activist, when you wanted to marry, were your would-be in-laws not uncomfortable, because activists are seen as troublemaker?
I was in detention in Ilorin for unlawful as­sembly, incitement, plotting to overthrow the government. That was early 1994. The police invited me and asked me to name those spon­soring me. When I couldn’t name anyone, they said I was not cooperating. I became very sick, as I was throwing up and stooling. The doctor said I had typhoid fever and I was be­ing treated at the police clinic and my legs chained to the bed. While I was there, they sent for my father and my father came with another comrade, Comrade Bisi Fakayode, an NLC stalwart. My father was to sign an un­dertaking that I would be of good behaviour and I told him, ‘Dad you have other children, if anything happens just know it that you once had a daughter that wanted to be a nun, but died an activist’. Comrade Fakayode advised me that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day and I said no, there was no running away. So, when the police felt that I was not cooperating, they told my father to go and I saw him wiped his face and left with the comrade.

As soon as they left, the police violently pulled off the drip and they said we were going to Lagos. It was around 4pm. Along the way I told them that I wanted to go the toilet, they said no, that I would escape and that whatever I want to do I should do it in the vehicle. The driver was reasonable enough as he told them that if she did that in the vehicle none of them would stand it, that they should allow me use the bush. They allowed me and we stopped about three times. When we got to Lagos, I was first taken to Panti and then moved  to Alagbon. While they were taking me there, I still had typhoid and was very weak. I saw Chief Gani Fawehinmi, and he yelled at them, ‘where are you taking this girl to,’ they said for interrogation and he said, ‘you have to treat her first, you can’t pull her like this.’ I saw one young guy beside Gani, and Gani asked him, Yinka, don’t you know Joe? He said the one that always writes in the newspapers from Ilorin. Is he not a man? He said no, she is a woman. That happens to be the person, I’m married today, Yinka. Alagbon. While they were taking

The police were taken Gani and Yinka for interrogation when I was brought in. They were in detention. I was calling him comrade, which I still call him today. It was when they released them that he came twice to see me while I was still in detention.

After my release, I started no­ticing him, and we were going for rallies we would be tear-gassed together. Two years after, one day, we were four debating state of the nation. He said, ‘before we start the debate, let me tell you the state of my heart, I’m in love with this girl’ and he said he would not marry until they is democ­racy. The people there said, let’s debate, let Yinka tell us why he has to marry Joe and let Joe tell us why she would not marry, and any one who wins would carry the day. Yinka, said that he would be an addition to her that he would not distract her and I gave my reason that I don’t want any distraction. When we got married in Ilorin in November 1997, one newspaper wrote, ‘what Abacha has joined together…’ when after the reception, we went for hon­eymoon in a hotel, the manager called, and told us that we have to leave the place immediately that he never knew he had trou­blesome people in his hotel. I was still with my wedding gown when the intercom buzzed to tell, ‘sorry you can’t stay in this hotel, you have to leave.’ We left and headed for Lagos.

For my in-laws, they asked why is she even dressing like a man. The son explained to them and they said, after all, it’s you people’s lives.

In March, 1998, my mother –in law was around, and I was going for a press conference and she just came in and I was contemplating taking her along and all of sudden I started feeling pains and I told her, she advised that I should go to the hospital. The event was by 11am and it was 8.30am and she said she would not allow me to go to the event. We went to the doctor and Comrade had gone to the me­dia event. The doctor said this is a labour sign and I asked if there was something he should do to stop it because I had an event by 11am. Thirty minutes after, I had a baby girl. As soon as the girl sneezed, I looked at her and my mother in-law came, I left all of them and went for the press conference. After the event at Apapa, I came back and told the doctor to discharge us, as there was nothing wrong with me. My in-laws and I have cordial re­lationship.

How many times were you detained?
I have been detained more than 17 times, that is, the ones I can re­member. One week, three weeks, six months and the longest was 13 months in 1993/94. Most of it, I have lost count.










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Post Reply

Posted: at 10-01-2015 06:18 AM (9 years ago) | Addicted Hero

Abeg this story too short ..........abeg make ham long next time for reading...............

Posted: at 10-01-2015 06:41 AM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Will come back to read later

Posted: at 10-01-2015 07:34 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

Great woman

Posted: at 10-01-2015 07:48 AM (9 years ago) | Upcoming

 

Posted: at 10-01-2015 08:37 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

I wish, I have time to read this novel.

Posted: at 10-01-2015 08:49 AM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

 

Posted: at 10-01-2015 09:12 AM (9 years ago) | Addicted Hero

too long

Posted: at 10-01-2015 11:32 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

Posted: at 10-01-2015 01:51 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

more power to u

Posted: at 10-01-2015 06:15 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

Lengthy

Posted: at 10-01-2015 07:44 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

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