Let There Be Rice

Mrs. Ifeyinnwa Orajiaka graduated top of her class at Girls High School Ozubulu , Ekwusigo Local Council Area in Anambra State in June 1990, and as was prevalent in her time, two choices stared her in the face - secure admission and proceed to the university for further studies or get married. She settled for the latter not out of her own volition but circumstance and immense pressure from her own parents. Even though Ify as she was fondly called by her mates, the head girl in her school and a highly respected and admired leader, made eight straight “A” s and could easily secure admission to any university of her choice for any programme she desired, her parents could not afford the cost of university education. 

There was another problem or shall we say impediment, depending on the side of the fence you were. Chief (Dr) Ogidi Okwu KSJ, OON, 58, the Gbulugbulu 1 of Oraifite, was mounting tremendous pressure employing legitimate and illegitimate means including bribing Ifeyinnwa’ s parents, to marry Ifeyinnwa as his third wife. Very influential and wealthy, Chief Okwu spared no expense in the pursuit of his ambition, after all, he had what it took as far as he was concerned - he was a titled chief, a knight of Saint John and a member of the Order of the Niger. Above all, he had truckloads of money, at least in the eyes of his kinsmen and women. That was all that mattered - being a man of means. It also meant he could easily take care of Ifeyinnwa.
So just seven months after her post-primary education, this first class material was given out in marriage in a lavish wedding ceremony that lasted three days, to a man nearly four times her age. Ifeyinnwa just turned 16 three days before her marriage.

At the beginning the marriage was quite blissful as Ifeyinwa lacked nothing because her husband Chief Ogidi Okwu popularly known as the Gbulugbulu 1 of Oraifite,ministered to her every need. Being a loud, arrogant and proud man, so poorly educated that he could barely read and write, Chief instructed that Ifeyinnwa should stay home and look after his sprawling mansion and make babies when she voiced her intention to start a supermarket business. He bluntly refused to discuss anything beyond babies and his palatial edifice, as he was wont to describe his house.
Make babies, she did and rapidly too. Within 10 years, Ifeyinnwa (now only 26), and her husband, were blessed with seven children, as it is said in this part of the world. Ifeyinnwa resigned her faith and became a full time housewife, knowing absolutely nothing about her husband’s business, or any other, for that matter. Even when occasionally she inquired how her husband’s business was doing, she received answers in monologues only.

Suddenly, the unexpected happened. Chief Okwu and his driver were on their way to Port Harcourt when they were involved in a fatal automobile accident and both died on the spot. His Toyota four-wheel light truck popularly call jeep, was wrecked beyond recognition. Details of the accident were sketchy as there were no eyewitnesses.
Within 12 months, Ifeyinwa found herself stripped of all she had with her late husband by providence and the very persons she previously regarded as her husbands - her husband’s brothers (in Igbo culture one’s husband’s brothers are regarded as husbands of sorts, since no one single person marries a woman. The community, represented by the woman’s husband’s brothers does.) Her husband’s brothers wasted little time in inheriting everything Chief Okwu had and Ifeyinnwa was forced to court the acquaintance of her sister’s husband, a top-level serving police officer to avoid being inherited herself, by the greedy opportunists.

With seven children, no almighty, all-protecting, all-knowing Mr. fix-it husband, no skills, no money, a hostile band of brothers-in-law and an uncaring society at large, Ifeyinnwa must brace up and eke out a living.
But how? Grossly ill prepared for what is facing her, how does Ifeyinwa proceed - she is only 27?

Sir Emeka Offor Foundation was set up to bring succor to people like Ifeyinnwa. Little wonder that on Saturday August 8, 2007, all roads led to Oraifite Civic Centre where in what could characteristically be regarded as a conservative ceremony, Sir Emeka Offor Foundation gave out 1,000, 50 kilogram bags of rice to needy widows drawn from Oraifite town.

With preliminary ceremonies over, attention was now being turned to the much awaited moment - the distribution of 1,000, 50 kilogram bags of rice to needy widows. 
But not before Chief Tony Obi, former chairman of Ekwusigo Local Government Area had outlined previous and ongoing intervention efforts of Sir Emeka Offor Foundation. These include provision of motorcycles popularly known as okada to male indigent Oraifite indigenes, rehabilitation of Oraifite Primary School at the cost of over N7 million and construction of a new church which is nearing completion at a whopping cost of over N300 million.

With preliminary ceremonies over, attention was now being turned to the much awaited moment - the distribution of 1,000, 50 kilogram bags of rice to needy widows. 
But not before Chief Tony Obi, former chairman of Ekwusigo Local Government Area had outlined previous and ongoing intervention efforts of Sir Emeka Offor Foundation. These include provision of motorcycles popularly known as okada to male indigent Oraifite indigenes, rehabilitation of Oraifite Primary School at the cost of over N7 million and construction of a new church which is nearing completion at a whopping cost of over N300 million.

Thereafter, an influential and highly respected women leader, Mrs. Udokwu while addressing the needy widows had poured encomium on Sir Emeka Offor for the exemplary, unprecedented and selfless gesture of remembering those the society had apparently forgotten, and deciding to honour and assist them in a special way. The highpoint of her speech was naming Sir Emeka Offor, Chiwetalu(in the context it was used it means God has brought this one), followed by chorus singing and dancing by the women. 
Everyone that showed up at the venue had enough to eat - jollofrice and beef stew including the needy widows, who by now were more than eager that the master of ceremonies progresses to the last stages of the agenda - for obvious reasons.

Grappling with the logistics of distributing bags of rice to 1,000 eager and anxious women, Sir Emeka Offor Foundation executives commenced one of the most difficult and volatile assignments of the foundation. Answering their names by a chorus of “yeees”, “I am here oh! ,or “I am coming o!”, as they are reeled out in groups of five, they marched towards the distribution point, sheer anticipation, surprise and disbelief written on their faces.

As the first group were handed their 50 kilogram bags of rice, a middle-aged woman, knelt down, both hands outstretched towards the sky, apparently in  complete appreciation to the Almighty, in jubilation and joy, all wrapped in one. She took two unmeasured steps sideways and swerved anticlockwise leaping into the sky in an acrobatic half summersault . Landing firmly on both legs she looked first backwards and then foreword - as if to certify that someone was watching her dramatics, similar to the way an agama lizard announces his successful landing from an iroko tree. An elderly colleague sitting diagonally applauded with a clap of both hands.

Against all expectations, the distribution was without incidents; it was indeed smooth but not without amusement, drama and creative, or shall we say, designerjubilation. There were several examples of women whose body weights were below 60 kilograms heaving  50 kilogram bags of rice. At such moments, all that mattered was getting results - and it so happened that the singular goal, as far as the        benefiting needy widows were concerned, was getting the bag of rice from point “A” to “B”, period. “B” being their houses.

And so rice flowed all through the narrow, undulating and meandering roads within the four wards of Oraifite and into the pots of needy widows all over the town, in a manner that had not been witnessed before .

Even commercial motorcycle riders - okada as it is called in this part of the world, were not left out, as this largesse provided brisk business for them. Meandering through the huge crowd of women with two or three 50 kilogram bags firmly secured on their motorbikes, these cockroaches onwheels, in the words of my close friend Chuma, did several trips in an attempt to rake in as much money as possible before the curtain falls.

Like they say in Literature, this is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Amid the jubilation and drama the spectacle provided, one fact remained incontrovertible - Sir Emeka Offor Foundation remains the only body to have remembered needy widows in Oraifite town in such a grand way. For this rare gesture they would ever remain grateful as exemplified in their promises, that they would remember the founder Sir Emeka Offor, the billionaire businessman and philanthropy personified, in their prayers, since they had neither gold nor silver to offer him.

They also did something else. They added another name to his: Chiwetalu - one that he would value and cherish for a long time to come because of its peculiar significance and circumstance.

As we all departed the Oraifite Civic Centre at the end of the ceremonies, I could not but wonder that Sir Emeka Offor Foundation may have unwittingly raised the bar as far as Corporate philanthropy was concerned - in Oraifite, and in the whole of Anambra State and beyond.

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Val Oji wrote from Abuja