Category: Sunday Interview

By Charles Okonji

To Ambrose Oruche, the Acting Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the short and long term effects of the coronavirus outbreak is unquantifiable.

While noting that the country has placed travel ban 20 countries, which took effect yesterday, he was however quick to add that, “The impact is not going to be immediate, but that is a signal that there is so much challenge because these are the trading partners we have for raw materials and also for our finished products, especially China and Europe.

“So, if that happens, even as at today, most of the stock of raw materials of our members are almost finished, and stocking of tools for maintenance is yet another problem. Raw material is a major challenge now, even some of our members have asked their staff to start working from home.

“You know what that means, especially essential ones, so sustaining manufacturing has become a major challenge. If this thing lingers on, it will remain a very difficult challenge for us, but we are about giving a letter to government on our position to give stimulus to industries, like America is giving cash to their citizen at home to enable them purchase what they want to purchase, despite the fact that they are not going to work, because of the complete lockdown caused by Covid-19.

“The money that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has just released is for people that have CBN loan, what of people that have commercial bank loan that will not do business for this period? What happens to them, there loan will still be running and even when they didn’t come back to business this year, they will still be meant to pay or the Commercial Banks will take over their collaterals.

“So it is a complicated issue that the government need to step in, I don’t think Nigerian government realises the magnitude of what we are facing.

“They don’t know the magnitude; they are only concerned with the oil price. Oil price is dropping below $30, it’s also a challenge, because where is the fund to import?

“Where is the foreign exchange to import raw materials? It’s a clarion call to everyone to begin to look inwards for raw materials, because what this is trying to show is that; “we should not depend on external sources for our business to model.

“Think about how you can make this thing work internally, so that of the virus is external challenge, but we are talking of how we can still run our business. So I think that’s a lesson to local industries and local manufacturers.

“Be that as it may, how do we sustain industries for this period, so government should come up with a clear court policy to support, incentives to support manufacturers to weather this storm.

“It’s a heavy storm that had fallen upon global economy, we have to look at how other people are weathering it, how China is getting over it, how U.S, Europe are getting over it and I am not saying we have that kind of billions of Pounds and Dollars.

“We should know that U.S released $1trillion, which is more than our GDP put together, but government should be able to think of something immediate. Though President Buhari has setup a committee to look at it, but it should be something that can come up with immediate response.

“How do we help the industry and how do we help businesses? Forget about CBN’s 5% palliative measure. How many people are holders of that form that is for N50 billion CBN? How will they fix the families that are affected, people that their work will stop as a result of that? So it’s a big challenge. I know of companies that ask their workers to go because they can’t source raw materials from abroad. It’s a serious issue and we must face it and manage this situation.”

He urged the government to declare a state of emergency in the manufacturing and textile sector. “MAN can collect money and trade but if you don’t have raw materials, you can’t produce, if your machine stops, you can’t get technical experts from abroad to fix it because of the challenge, so it’s an overwhelming thing.

“However, this situation is also a clarion call for manufacturers to begin to look inwards in order to source local materials. It is a call to the country to revive the Ajaokuta steel industry and the Nigerian machine tools would have been a veritable alternative for equipment fabrication but where are they?

“The entire manufacturing sector has been adversely affected, it has totally affected everyone. Some companies have placed their cars on traveling ban, you can’t even move within Nigeria, not to think of going abroad, if there is a movement restriction, what business can you do? So it’s a big challenge.”

Chijioke Obiora, is President, Indigenous Manufacturers and Dealers of Footwear Association (IMADIFA), Trade Fair, Lagos. In this interview with Medinat Kanabe, he speaks on the impact of coronavirus on the business climate.

“We import 85 percent of what we sell here from China except the ones we manufacture and buy from Aba or here in Lagos. Since the emergence of Covid 19 we have been suffering a lot. After the Chinese New Year we were waiting for them to resume so that we can start making our orders for new things as what we have are old and our customers want the new arrivals but we have not been able to do as they have stopped manufacturing.

“We don’t have new footwear’s, as such, nobody is coming to ask for the old ones; they feel that the old ones are outdated and no longer in fashion. Every fashion has a lifespan, some two weeks, some one month. So, if we don’t get new things, customers will not come.

“But we were thinking that by closing factories in China, sales would have picked up but it hasn’t as people are still waiting for new arrivals. My customers from the north and even from the Eastern part of Nigeria keep calling, asking me if I have any new thing and when I say no, they will become discouraged and go to the next person but they meet the same dead end and are still hoping that we will get new arrivals soon.

“It is slowing the sales of goods and making the market look scanty. The only people we see are the ones that have events and come around to buy one or two for their outing but those who are dealing in wholesales are not coming to buy. We thought that it is the economy and decided to wait until Easter period but we still don’t have sales.

“So, it is affecting us very well as we don’t have goods coming in and the one we have here, people are not buying because its either old design and it also looks like there is no money in circulation in Nigeria.

“Ordinarily, in a day those who sell in pairs make sales of close to N100, 000 but now for a week we may not even sell up to N13, 000. They are expected to sell as much as 80 pairs a day and those who sell in cartons are expected to sell as much as 30 cartons in a day which is about N400, 000 but they don’t sell up to one carton sometimes and all these does not include profit so in a day they may not make up to N1, 500.

“Right now, most of my colleagues are wondering how they will pay school fees, house rent and meet up with other responsibilities and we are about 1, 500 foot wear sellers in this market.

“The market dropped up to 75 percent that is why my association wants to go on with its plan to empower the local producers but again we found out that that will be difficult because most of the materials they use for locally made footwear are also imported because Nigeria doesn’t have factories that produce raw materials for locally made shoes except for rubber.

“Although there are some companies in Aba that produce soles, the leather to design the other part of it is not produced here. This has also made the prices of the local shoes expensive because if they finish the materials with them, they will not have more materials to keep producing.

“Even as we are laboring to encourage members to set up factories, we also know that the machines are going to be imported so we have a lot of worries in our hearts.”

Prof. Pat Utomi, renowned political economist, in this interview with Charles Okonji, attempts a prognosis of the possible impact of coronavirus on the nation’s economy. Excerpts:

Nigeria is on the verge of another recession due to the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the global economy. What is your take?

The facts on ground show the probabilities and possibilities of what can happen. Firstly, the fact is that Nigeria has never taken seriously a matter of grave urgency for more than 30 years that the economy hopelessly depends on crude oil.Everything about the structure of the Nigerian economy points towards economic rent, which is still extracting from the circulation of revenues that come from oil. We have not seriously begun to explore diversification of the base of the economy. That is not to say that some of it has not happened. Some of it has happened almost out of the genius of individual Nigerians as individuals and as collectives. We have seen innovations that have created new markets in the culture industry, such as the Nollywood and entertainment industry. We have seen some smart young people do things with technology that have added value. Diversification has taken place not because of government efforts; this is largely because a number of Nigerian political class lack discipline and it totally absorbs itself.

The cost of running government in Nigeria is one of the basic reasons that Nigeria has not been able to diversify the economy. The Nigerian politicians are unwilling and unable to look at the structure of the cost of governance and their inattention to what it will take to diversify the economy. The banking industry itself has veered completely towards supporting this rent economy and trading that goes with recycling oil revenues. It has never found the discipline to support true economic growth.

If this is a reality, what do we expect from the crises like this?

I think that it can play two ways. It can either become a huge threat that is converted to opportunity, and therefore the restructuring of the Nigerian economy for good, or it can just become devastating as we plunge yet into another recession which would perhaps be prolonged.

Social disruption is another consequence, but looking at history and opportunities that crises have brought to countries to turnaround. In 1991, India was technically bankrupt; it had less than three weeks trading money in its foreign reserves. It was forced to sell some of its gold holdings to raise about $10 million so that it will service some of its debts. Its import was far above what it was earning. This was happening when they had just lost their leader, Rajiv Gandhi to assassination in the early 90’s. So they elected their new leaders, and they chose to have a standby congress and over 80 years old man who wanted to hold forte until they decide who will take over the Gandhi .

They broke what was known as licensee brag.  India was a licensee economy, for you to do anything, you needed a licensee. Everything was about licensee and it was extremely corrupt.  

In many ways, the Nigerian economy is extremely corrupt. We have a very big public sector corruption, so, capital is not flowing into Nigerian economy from abroad, and it is not being made at home. The mantra we used in growing the economy in 50’s like agriculture and like in Colombia, it would have been captured by Nigeria.

However, the nature of Nigerian politics makes it impossible for Nigeria to make money at home, and those who find money at home quickly move it out of the country for safety. The way they behave is making it impossible for investors to come from abroad to invest because no one wants to risk his money. Nigeria is a classic perfect case that unravels very quickly into a prolonged recession. But it is possible for what happened in India to happen in Nigeria. And to begin with these crises, a reversal in the way that allows the reforms that saved India. So the country is faced with both an opportunity and a threat, but how we play it determines Nigeria’s future.

Do you mean that Nigeria can easily slide into recession?

Yes, it will be more disastrous than what we had experienced in the past. As we speak, some ministries have not paid salaries because the government has not released any monetary allocation since this year. So, when we get to a point that even federal ministries are having problems with paying salaries with oil prices going below the benchmark for budgeting. If the National Assembly continues to behave the way they are behaving, it will affect the budget seriously as they are trying to go to obtain what they usually take from the ministries whose budget they padded excessively.

We have to acknowledge that we are in monumental crises; debts will mount all over in the economy. It will amount to agencies not paying contractors, and salaries becoming problematic and unstable wages begins to play out, and consumption will become a problem.

Do you foresee hunger and starvation as a result of massive shutdown of manufacturers as imports are restricted?

I don’t think we are famous for having reserves. The government invested significantly in erecting silos all over the country in the past few years, but we noticed that many of those silos have been abandoned. These were just excuses to award contracts.

So food security is not our strongest point. Though the CBN has been making some radical efforts to pop up the agriculture sector, to improve food production, so, as you can see, tension is rising all over the globe over food shortage.

Mr. Ojikutu Adeniyi, President, Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN), the umbrella body for businesses dealing in computer software and hardware, in this interview with Charles Okonji speaks on the rippled negative effects of the coronavirus scourge on their sector. Excerpts:

As the umbrella body of dealers in computer software and hardware what has been the impact of the coronavirus scourge on your line of business generally?

The major implication is that if there is shortage in supply, automatically there will be demand-driven inflation. That is because there will be more demand and we are already experiencing shortage in supply, and with shortage of supply, in terms of the source at which we import these ICT products like China, Indonesia, America and Europe. As it is, if any of these locations shutdown production, it will affect their workforce and they are restricting movement in terms of export, thereby causing shortage of supply, and when there is shortage of supply, and the demand is still constant, the price of the little that is available in the market will go up.

So, for the fact that these countries are shutting down their system, these will automatically shoot the prices up, and it will amount to increase in prices for all of us, you understand. I can tell you for a fact that Nigerians consume a lot of ICT products.

As it is, prices are rising on the average of 25 per cent, so it will affect our own sales, when the prices now go up, the demand will go down drastically, because people will make do with what they have. More so, people would not spend money on ICT in such situation and this will drastically affect our overall sales. So the implication will be that the people will want to first of all buy the basic necessities of survival like food, water, and so on. So, it is affecting us as it is, but for the fact that some of our products are cargo based, we are using cargo plane to do some of those shipment, but the way everywhere is getting shutdown is worrisome. But the coronavirus cases are just going down in the U.S, and Hong Kong, but it is seriously affecting the Nigerian economy.

On the other hand, I will advise the public to try as much as possible to do most of our businesses virtual and reduce the social interaction. When you go to the bank, you see people, if somebody is in the bank and he’s affected, he can spread to over 20 persons in the banking hall. Also, if you are in the meeting room, or in a conference room where somebody has the virus, you can get it, so we should reduce the social interaction. Even the number of staff that come to work on daily basis should be reduced. People should stay back and work from home using technology to solve most of the problems, so that it will be better for us. And as it is, what I want to encourage people to do is that we should not increase the prices arbitrarily, because when you do, it has an effect on the economy as well. If you are a drug seller, you should not increase the prices of sanitisers because you know that there is need for it.

Can you place a figure on the specific losses your members have incurred in the sector?

As an academic, I cannot give you a figure that is not researched, that is not a result of a research, but on my own assumption, hypothetically, it cannot be less than N2 billion in a day for the ICT sector in Nigeria.

We started recording losses in the past three weeks, it has started affecting us before it even came to Nigeria. It has started affecting Nigeria at the point where it became a major global issue in the last three to four weeks ago. So we are having short supply and all that.

Are you saying it can’t be less than N2billion on a daily basis in the last three weeks?

Yes, it can’t be less than that, both software and hardware industry.

Mr. Ade Popoola is a member of the Nigerian Representatives of Overseas Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (NIROPHARM). In this interview with Dorcas Egede, he sheds light on the poor fortunes of the nation’s pharmaceutical sub-sector currently experiencing the bitter pill of coronavirus. Excerpts:

How is the Covid-19 outbreak affecting business in the pharmaceutical industry?

“First, the instability is affecting business and then the uncertainty is making people weary. Secondly, India stopped shipment of some products to Nigeria including Active pharmaceutical Ingredients, API which has now caused some scarcity and also caused us stock out. So, we cannot supply the market as appropriate. Now, there’s job insecurity.

“Thirdly, the price of raw materials from Nigeria, India and China has gone up by more 50% in the last two weeks, which will impact the prices of our finished products, that’s another challenge. Fourthly, some of the products we ordered could not be dispatched from China because some of the regions were on lockdown for so long, so they just started manufacturing. Drug scarcity and shortages have started to rare up its head and the implication of that is that products will not be available to sell, we will not be able to achieve our 2020 budgetary expectation in terms of sales and the industry might be forced to start looking at staff strength, can I keep up with day to day running? And the most dangerous aspect is that I hope the country will not be on lock down. If it happens, that will be a wipe out.”

How much has the industry lost in terms of turnover?

“What we are selling now is what we have in the warehouse as at December. But the warehouse is nearly empty now, so we might lose like 25% of our turnover by half of the year and by the end of the year, we may only achieve 50% of our estimated turnover.”

In few months time, it would be 12 years since the late Generalissimo of Ibadan politics, Pa Lamidi Adedibu passed on, OZIEGBE OKOEKI recently visited the home of the former strongman of Ibadan politics in Molete. At the expansive residence he met Adedibu’s youngest wife, Alhaja Modinat Bosede, the Yeyelua of Ibadanland who is holding the home together, she spoke extensively on her late husband’s role in the June 12 struggle.

Approaching the residence of the late Baba Lamidi Adedibu at Molete, Ibadan, you are confronted with a big screaming banner with his large portrait with the inscription: ‘Late High Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu; Eketa Olubadan (Asipa); The Garrison Commander of Nigerian Politics (The Most Consistent Politician)’; all written in capital letters at the outer gate to his residence.

As you cross the second gate, manned by at least four security men, into the sprawling residence  tucked in the belly of Molete, what strikes you most, if you had visited the same place when the late Generalissimo was still alive, is the serene and quiet atmosphere. No beehive of activities, no visitors, no politicians, no friends, no hangers-on, no praise singers, no favour seekers, no area boys, no political thugs, no journalists, everywhere is simply quiet. You begin to wonder if this is the same ‘Afin’ of the dreaded strongman of Ibadan politics.

However, you see a few family members especially women in the outer sitting room of the main building, chatting and doing their hair, and you just look back and begin to ask where is everybody. Where are his wives, children, friends, favour seekers and what have you who used to throng the place when he was alive, and just almost 12 years after his demise?

But the youngest of the late Chief’s wife, Alhaja Chief (Mrs)  Modinat Abosede, the Yeyelua of Ibadanland still keeps the Adedibu’s homestead alive, of the late Chief’s wives she is the only one still residing and keeping the place going.

Asked why she chose to remain in her husband’s home, she said: “First, I thank God for my life, I thank God for Pa Adedibu’s life. The man was just too good, I was much younger than him when he married me. Though he was still a young man then but I was much younger than him, I am well over 60 now. My marriage to him was the handwork of God. There was really nothing special about him before I married him because I didn’t really know who he was at that time, that is why I said it was the handwork of God. It was after I married him that I got close to him, I now understand who he was and really got to know him.

“I was just a young girl then, he was already popular but as a young girl I did not know him. Even the day he came to our house people were asking me, ah, Bose, what is wrong with you, do you know who this man is? That is the lieutenant of (Chief Obafemi) Awolowo. And I said who is Awolowo, because my father was then in NCNC. So I didn’t know anything about him, it was just God’s intervention.”

Adedibu: Twelve years after

“Twelve years after his death, I must confess that I miss him a lot. One thing I miss most, you know he was a fantastic husband, I can’t even mention, I missed him a lot, I miss him, I miss him, politically, fatherly, husbandly, friendly, so many things.

“But today I thank God for everything, it cannot be the same, but God is there for me and my children. I was the youngest wife but I decided to remain in his home because he was too good to me, he was a fantastic husband, so why should I leave his house, why?

“When Baba was alive he was a very busy person politically. People thought he had no job to do, but I am telling you, my husband was a workaholic, aside politics. When he was alive he was a very busy person. You know, when people need something from you they always come to you, but they know that I don’t have money to give like Baba used to and that is why everywhere is now quiet unlike when he was alive. Where will I have money to give them every day?

“When he was alive, my husband would feed more than 1000 people every day. So where will I get the money to do that when I don’t have any money minting machine at home to be producing money for me? And he is not the kind of person that use to keep or hide something, whatever he sees or has now he would spend it all, that is his kind of life.

“That time people would run to him for one thing or the other, he settles matters, solve problems, I cannot do that. Although I can do a little but you can’t compare to what he was doing.

“So now that he is no more, I was enjoying it all then. People that got something from him are no more coming to us and I cannot go and meet them for anything. But if they realize that they got something from him and they want to pay back to me, the children or the house, they are welcome; if they don’t come no problem. What I am happy for is that with God there is nothing impossible. God has not failed me since his demise, what am I looking for when God is there? The children are fine, they are doing well.

Adedibu left N7,500,000.00

“Contrary to what people think, Baba had no money, because if he has something he will spend it for everybody. He doesn’t keep money. When he died you will be surprised we only met N7,500,000.00 in his account. He loves to spend new currencies, and that money was the money he asked his son to bring out and count few days before he died as if he knew he was going to die. He told his son to go and deposit the money in the bank, about N6,000,000. I am very sure that was the money we met in his account.”

On remarrying

“I have not remarried, by the way, how can I go and remarry? I am well over 60, my children are married, so what am I looking for. I am comfortable by God’s grace.

The June 12 struggle

“There is no way you talk about June 12 without mentioning the role played by Baba Adedibu, and myself as his wife, I also played my little part.

“As a wife I supported him in whatever he was doing. I disagreed with him initially about June 12 when (Chief Moshood) Abiola was incarcerated. I told him we must get the mandate at all cost, but he said “which mandate, can you tie someone’s hands and legs and tell him at the same time to fight?”

“Baba said he has worked with Awo and so many other people and that he has to get Abiola out first before he starts to fight. How can MKO be incarcerated and you are shouting June 12, what June 12 is that?” he used to query.

“According to him June 12 would be realized when Abiola is outside not when he is locked up somewhere. I saw reason with him, as an experienced person he knows you cannot fight when you are tied down, but we wanted to fight to realize the mandate. He wanted Abiola to come out first before any fight. He was working for the release of Abiola and I gave him all the support that I could.

“He made so many efforts before the problem started. (Chief Ernest) Shonekan was the head of the Interim National Government, Pa Adedibu was not comfortable with the interim arrangement because nobody voted for an interim government.

“Everybody voted for Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, and before Abiola does anything he will call my husband first and my husband will advise him. But the advice that my husband gave him that he did not follow because of other people that surrounded him led to his incarceration.

“He told my husband that he was going to announce himself as president, Baba advised him not to do it, Adedibu advised him instead that the matter should be taken to the international level. But Abiola refused because of people surrounding him, the NADECO people.

“When he was apprehended, any court they took him to, Pa Adedibu will also be present there. The last one I saw was when MKO wrote a letter in a small piece of paper to my husband which he handed over to Baba in the court. He told my husband in the letter that, “This people don’t like us, do anything to get me out of this place.”

“When my husband came back to Ibadan he met Aare Arisekola. (Gen Sani) Abacha was a very close friend to Aare. My husband and (Alhaji Azeez) Arisekola Alao now went to see Abacha in Abuja. Abacha told my husband that he knows MKO that Abiola will not agree to whatever they discuss. My husband said it is not true and showed Abacha the letter Abiola wrote him in the court. It was when my husband showed Arisekola the letter that he agreed to follow him to Abacha, that convinced Abacha that it was true.

“Abacha now said, “Baba, you know I respect you so much, I know Bashorun so well, you know I am not his friend, it is Babangida that is MKO’s friend”. He said he wasn’t the one holding him up where he was.

“My husband now went to see General Oladipo Diya, who was then the second in command. Diya was doing what he could as a Yoruba to get Abiola released, he tried. It was Diya that told Baba that he should stay on Abacha’s neck. So even when Abacha was telling my husband that MKO will not agree, my husband insisted that he would agree because he gave him a note saying ‘anything to get him out of the place’. My husband even prostrated for Abacha.

“I followed them to Abuja, though I did not follow them to the Villa, but when my husband came he told me everything that happened. Abacha would always tell Arisekola to excuse them anytime they want to discuss, because according to him, Arisekola was not a politician.

“My husband prostrated before Abacha promising he would stand surety for Abiola. Abacha now called for Diya and told him to go and do anything Baba wants; General Diya was very, very happy.

“Now, it was a weekend and the Judge handling Abiola’s case was not in Abuja, Diya ordered two planes to be looking for him to give the bail, eventually they got the judge. We were all in Abuja, it was very tough, going up and down. My husband now called, the late Alhaja Kudirat, Abiola’s wife to come to the court. She refused and told my husband to get MKO’s lawyer, Chief G.O.K. Ajayi and another lawyer as well as Abiola’s personal doctor, Dr. Ore Falomo. They now insisted that they don’t want conditional bail.

“Baba now told her on phone that they should let MKO come out first that once he is out nobody can stop him but he must come out first. When Alhaja Kudirat did not agree with my husband, he now called Abiola’s other wife, Alhaja Bisi who said they should let him come out first whether conditional or not, he should just come out.

“Everybody now went to court not knowing that they have mobilized people to come to the court. Immediately my husband got to court with everybody there; when the Judge came out and read out the conditions attached to the bail which includes that he cannot travel out, hell was let loose.

“If you see the mob, my husband nearly died that day. They accused him of collecting money from Abacha. But before they could attack him, one man took my husband out of the court. They threw missiles at him, shouting “ole, ole,” he has collected money from Abacha, he wants to give him conditional bail.”

“That was when my husband said, okay, since God has saved him, he would just sit down peacefully on his own, that is like saying he has removed his hands from the matter.

“That same night Abacha called him, I was the one that picked the call in the Hotel at Abuja because my husband had to be drugged before he could sleep that day, his eyes were reddish; the stress was much.

“Abacha now told my husband on the phone that, “Baba didn’t I tell you, I told you, that man, let him stay there, don’t worry Baba”, that was all. Well, God knows everything, but I am very sure, maybe he wouldn’t have died like that.

“After that time, Abacha called the Muslim elders and told them that they should pray. You know the problems were too much then, NADECO, this and that, bombs going off everywhere. He now told them to pray against whatever was disturbing the country.

“We did our own prayers here, every state did. Arisekola now went to Abuja to tell Abacha that we have concluded the prayers in Oyo, Osun, Ogun. My husband was supposed to see Abacha a day before. I was not around, I traveled and came back a day before. He told me on phone that he has an appointment with Abacha. I was however not too comfortable with his going to see Abacha again.

“It was that same night that somebody called us from the Villa saying Abacha had died. My husband did not believe and told the person so, saying how can somebody he spoke with the previous day who asked him to see him that same day die? The next thing, Arisekola called to tell Baba he was going to Abuja immediately. And Baba asked him what happened, that he should wait for both of them to go together. But Arisekola told him that he has chartered a flight to take him down to Kano. Baba asked him what happened and he told Baba it appears his friend Abacha had died.

“Everybody in the house was disorganised, running helter skelter, because every time they use to attack us in this house because they saw us as supporters of Abacha especially since after the MKO court incident when he decided to stay on his own.

“My husband and Arisekola were very close, and Arisekola was a friend of Abacha. They thought my husband was also a friend of Abacha. They thought Baba had betrayed and abandoned Abiola. But after the ugly court incident where my husband was almost mobbed, my husband stayed away from making any further effort at interfering in the Abiola matter.”

Nonye Nweke adopted a five-day old child and by the sixth month, the baby was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. She tried everything to no avail and instead of bemoaning her situation, she decided to care for other children and parents in her shoes. Fourteen years after, she tells her story working with them 24/7 in this encounter with YETUNDE OLADEINDE.

The environment at the centre is neat, colourful and almost quite until you step in. A beehive of activities and you find children, teenagers all taking their therapies and being attended to. It’s a full house and the children and care givers are engrossed in their world. Oblivious of the world outside and you cannot help but admire their perseverance, dedication and passion.

Are the children making progress? you ask Nonye Nweke and she responds by showing you a photograph of a baby and she asks, ‘how old you think the child is?’ You reply saying, ‘two years old’ but she goes on to tell you that the child in question is ten years old. “When I saw the child, I also thought he was about 18 months. However, you could tell from the dentition and bone density.”

“Is Zimm her first child?” you ask. “She is the only child that I have. I am known as mummy Zimm because it’s on her account that I am doing this.” Next, Nweke takes you through her personal experience and how she got into setting up the centre.

“My daughter is adopted, so I don’t have her history, or what caused it. You know cerebral palsy is caused by damage in the brain and the damage could be as a result of jaundice and others. But for her, I am not quite certain what happened. But from the presentation, one can simply say that it was severe but the extent one does not know. She was adopted and I was told she was six days and I got to know when she was five months.”

How did you feel initially? “As a human being, of course you are shocked, angry, depressed, went through denial bitterness and all that. But I didn’t live in that for too long because I had the privilege of knowledge.” You also want to know if she is a medical personnel and she responds this way: “No, I am not. I never heard the word until that day the doctor said, ‘Your child has cerebral palsy.’”

Just before the revelation, Nweke was running a restaurant business in the same building where the centre is today. She continues her story: “The doctor said, she had cerebral palsy; that you can’t even train her like this. He advised that I should take her back.”

That was thirteen years ago. “Then we didn’t have internet like we do now, but I had the privilege of having a wireless access on my desk. So, I was able to read and it helped me to go through the ‘mourning’ period and to understand that it is not a personal thing. It is not something I did. It is a universal thing; something that happens all over the world. So, I knew I had to move fast and ask what I do.”

Naturally, you want to know what kept her going in the midst of the trauma. Her words: “Principally, you want to help your child and then suddenly you found that there were so many people in your shoes, who didn’t have the benefit of the education and knowledge that you have. My philosophy has always been that what you have is not really yours, even if it is knowledge. So, the question always has been what I have is for others. Normally, you have something and you just want to keep it to yourself. I have knowledge and I want to share.”

So, Nweke had to put on her thinking cap trying to figure out what she was going to do beyond her child. “One shouldn’t just help oneself, you don’t grow that way. In doing that, I am able to not just see my child but to see a lot of other children, other families who still don’t have the benefit of information that I have or slight economic advantage that I have.”

When Nweke therefore found out that there was a dearth of knowledge, dearth of information, she made up her mind to bring succour to children with cerebral palsy.

“Initially, what I wanted to do was a support group but I found out that in Nigeria, we are not matured enough for that group because basically a lot of people are hungry and you find that for many, disability has become a passport for poverty. We spend so much on the child but there is no social support. The rich ones, educated ones are fine. Some would find a way by getting passport, visa and travel with the child. Once you find your way, that is fine. So, people just tend to think just for themselves.”

But, somehow, Nweke wasn’t just comfortable thinking about herself. “So, I decided to think beyond myself and that has helped me to heal fast. It’s been 13 years; my daughter would be 14 years this year.” This is obviously something that occupies her times and she answers this way: “Yes, it is a 24/7 thing. The children live upstairs and I live here as well.”

Cerebral palsy, she states, is a broad spectrum and you have mild and severe cases. “Everyone, whether you are on the mild or severe spectrum, they all improve. For us, when we talk about improvement, many think this is if she is now going to university. For us, that is not improvement. We look at the child and see that she is improving and not getting worse and that is what happens across board.”

Unfortunately, she notes that many of these children are abandoned and usually made to suffer. “It is actually what made me start what I am doing. A lot of children on her spectrum are just are just left alone. Autism with cerebral palsy are disabilities but they manifest differently. For children on the severe spectrum, most of them are the ones that are often neglected.”

To buttress her point, Nweke makes a comparison with children who are active at home and those who are quiet and often neglected. “So, someone has to speak for them. If you go to some homes, you would just see them lying on the bed, nobody does anything for them because they think it’s never going to work. So, why waste your time on them? But that is not the point; we want to see the children making progress.”

You ask Nweke to talk about some of the memorable cases that she has handled since she began 13 years ago, and her face brightens. “I would tell you something and like they say pictures don’t lie. This is the picture of one of our children when he came to us. Then after some years, this was him. You can see that he has made wonderful progress compared to where he was when we met him. For instance, you can see how we got him from this to this state.

“In 2016 July, this child was in a private hospital because LUTH was on strike at that point. He was so ill that we had to invite Professor Elesin, the consultant paediatrician at LUTH. The private doctor had worked so hard and he just didn’t know what to do. His bill came up to over one million and that was because the doctor discounted so many things for us. We thought he was going to die but he didn’t die.”

How does she raise funds for such bills? you ask. Helplessly, she responds with a sigh: “We beg now.”

She goes on to show you another photograph of the boy on her desktop. “Here we were feeding him through the nose before we started feeding him with the tube. This is the tube we inserted; the tube is two hundred dollars and we have to change it every three months and sometimes it may not last up to that. So, for me, the question is where the child was. If the child has severe brain injury particularly for cerebral palsy and they don’t get the necessary care, you find that as the years go by, the child degenerates.”

She continues: “Like this young man here, he came in 2015 and a couple of months later, we got him to be like this and today this is what he looks like. So, would you now say he is making progress or not. For us, every child matters. It is not all of them that would go to school. Now, we are talking about inclusiveness for every child, irrespective of status. If you place a child like this in the classroom, what is he going to be doing? You are just going to leave him there. He is going to urinate and defecate all over. So, it is better for him to be in a place where the people are managing him well. And then you have to check.”

What happens, according to Nweke, is that people don’t go and check, particularly those who need support. “Last year, you were here and remember in your head that you saw Samuel. When you come back without looking at the pictures, you can look at him and ask questions about his progress. Is it that they are not doing therapies for him? Are they giving him his medications and everything he needs. All this are important questions people should ask. When he came initially, we couldn’t even sit him on any chair. After a while, we could only put him in a corner chair like this when we want to feed him. But today, you can see him. He has made awesome progress.”

To update herself, Nweke reads and the internet has been a very useful resource. “I read a lot and then every year, I go to Belgium to understudy. If you look at the kids, you would see that their hands are tied. I stumbled on this therapy about seven years. I go to Belgium every year to understudy them, come back and train my staff. I have also been to Turkey; there is a cerebral palsy centre where I learnt some things too.”