Looking pale and frightened , Mrs. Onyinyechi
Godwin, cut the true picture of a distressed
widow . Flanked on both sides by her five
children , she looked sober given the
torturous experiences she had had in the past
and the future which , seemingly , felt so
uncertain.
For the past three months, Onyinyechi had
been living on the streets of Lagos with her
children . Since the landlord of her one-room
apartment in Iyana Ipaja sent her packing for
not paying her rent six months after it
expired, she had been living at Alasia
junction , beside a popular filling station in
Oshodi area of Lagos.
In a chat with our correspondent on Tuesday ,
the 32 -year -old woman said she had to take
to the streets when no help was coming her
way, adding that hunger was the family’ s
main problem .
Given the hardship they had been through ,
her eldest child was already learning to run
after people to beg for money .
Narrating the circumstances surrounding her
coming to Lagos , she explained that she left
her town in Orlu , Imo State , shortly after her
husband , John , died of stroke and she and
her children almost died of hunger. Perhaps
she would have found a ready shelter in her
husband ’s house and live on whatever her
husband left behind , but unknown to her ,
her late husband had a wife and four
children , which she said she never knew
about. Thus , after his death, she and her five
children were treated as outcasts .
She said , “ They called me prostitute ,
husband -snatcher and different names. I felt
so bad. Due to the shame and hunger, since
there was nothing to live on, more so that the
person I was working for as a stylist wasn ’ t
paying me , I decided to come to Lagos in
2015 . Then , I was pregnant with my last child .
“ There was no option but to leave the village
because we were going to die of hunger and I
didn ’t want to lose my children .”
Speaking further, she said she and her late
husband met in Owerri and became husband
and wife . She said she insisted her late
husband should take her to his village but he
was always making excuses. “ When he was
very sick, his relatives came around and took
me to his village where I met his four
children and wife , who told me I couldn ’t live
with them . I felt betrayed.
“ We became close because he was helping me
with money when I was in need. I didn’ t
know he left his family in the village and
rented a house in Owerri where we lived .
After his death, my family members fought
me for marrying a married man, but honestly
I didn’ t know he was married .”
Apparently confused with the way things
turned out for her when her landlord at
Iyana Ipaja evicted her in July, Onyinyechi
took to the streets with her five children ,
including a one-year old .
Asked why she decided to come to Lagos
where she didn ’t know anyone when she
could have sought help from her siblings in
the village , she said nobody, including her in-
laws , was willing to help her as most of them
were also struggling financially .
“ My only brother is dead and my two sisters
didn ’t help me. They said I should stop
disturbing them because they didn’ t have ,
because anytime I visited them , they only
gave me food to eat and transport fare . I
knew I couldn ’ t continue like that , so I found
my way to Lagos so I could work, raise
money and take care of my children ,” she
added .
She pointed out that she could have found
herself a job , even if it was to sell sachet
water, but that she couldn ’t move around
with five children, all of whom had dropped
out of school and are currently struggling to
survive.
She said , “ I ’m not lazy, but I also can ’t roam
the streets with five children . I just need
help ; hunger is my main problem , ” she
added .
“ Everything around me has been frustrating.
I wasn ’t making progress , rather , things were
getting worse , and when I was evicted from
the house at Iyana Ipaja, I thought of going
back to the village to face the hardship, but I
didn ’t have transport fare, so I went to
Oshodi to stay and the only place I could
afford was the street.
“ There were times we didn’ t eat at all, and
there were times all of us shared N 100 loaf of
bread. We were living on alms . People
thought I was mad but I wasn ’ t. Some people
would come to me and ask what was wrong ,
but that was the end . At a time, one of my
children had infection in her throat and it was
really swollen, but I kept hoping it would go
because I couldn ’t afford to buy drugs .”
She said they usually slept on the corridor of
a shop at night and during the day when the
owner of the shop was around; they would
stay on the street , where they got alms
occasionally .
Looking at her from the distance , especially
before brief help came her way , some could
conclude that she needed mental help ,
looking at how tattered she was and seeing a
mother of five living on the street , in the rain
and sunshine. But Onyinyechi is not mad ,
even though overwhelmed by the
circumstances around her .
However, brief respite came her way last
week when a passerby, Mrs. Bosede
Shofarasin, spotted her in the rain and
offered her some help . Shofarasin told our
correspondent that she first saw them at the
spot on Monday but that while passing the
same route on Friday, they were still there as
they covered themselves with nylon due to
the heavy rain.
She added , “I couldn ’t hold it , so I told Mrs.
Solape Ademulegun-Agbi , who immediately
offered some help. We contacted the
Akinpelu police station and the DPO gave us a
policewoman , Supol Gladys , who , in company
with another female officer , met us at the
scene. We then contacted Oshodi Local
Government and one man , Ebenezer, from
the child welfare department , came and said
we should go to the state secretariat at
Alausa .”
She said, “ In the office we went to, the
ministry official asked if Onyinyechi thought
people pick money on the streets of Lagos .
The woman said ‘so you came to Lagos with
these kids to kill them and make them
suffer. ’ She called me in and said we should
take them to Alakara police station and that
we shouldn ’t tell them at the station that we
had been to the secretariat. She said they
would have to refer her back to her state of
origin.
“ On hearing that, Onyinyechi ran away with
the children but I was able to stop her , and
she begged that she would rather return to
the street than be taken back to Imo State ,
knowing that nothing awaited her there. So ,
we left the secretariat.”
Interestingly, a staff of Oshodi local
government , Mr . Mamora , took them in,
temporarily .
Ademulegun- Agbi, said they were able to
meet the local government chairman, Mr .
Bolaji Muse-Ariyo, who also contacted a not -
for -profit organisation, Out-of- School
Children Empowerment Foundation , which
took them in temporarily .”
Meanwhile, on seeing the children , drenched
and looking malnourished , Ademulegun-Agbi ,
who is the proprietor of Hillcroft Nursery
and Primary School, said she would give the
children scholarship in the school until help
would come their way , noting that she
wouldn’ t want to overshoot the capacity of
her school .
“ Government needs to help . Even though she
is from Imo State , she is first of all a Nigerian
and whether she is Igbo or not should not
matter . The least we can do is provide some
help , otherwise she would lose her sanity .
It ’s not as if I have a big school or I have the
space, but I ’m appealing to government to get
involved. I plead with Nigerians to help this
woman and her wonderful children; they
need urgent help ,” she added .
http://punchng.com/i-never-knew-my-late-husband-had-wife-children-mother-of-five-who-sleeps-on-lagos-streets/