Oko Opo Foundation Provides Succor To Widows In Ogun, Doles Out Cash Gifts, Food Items

ABEOKUTA – As part of effort to cushion the effects of widowhood and alleviate the suffering of the widows, occasioned by the current economic hardship, a non-profit organization, Oko Opo Foundation on Tuesday, empowered 100 widows with cash gift and food items.

This empowerment programme was parts of the activities to launch the Oko Opo foundation.

The widows which had a free ride to and fro the venue of the launch at the Pelican Valley Estate Laderin, Abeokuta also benefited from health awareness and sensitization talk from experts on age related health condition as well as the appropriate response tips they needed to adopt in order to cope effectively.

An octogenarian widow, and the mother of the chief promoter of Oko Opo Foundation, Iya Adinni of Ginti Community Central Mosque Ikorodu, Alhaja Sidikat Adeyemo, encouraged the widows to be closer to God and fight off lack, boredom and despair by engaging in productive ventures and being people – oriented.

Similarly, a veteran broadcast journalist, Chief Eddy Aina urged the widows to pay more attention to their age, diet and health to prolong their lifespan, advising that with some of them having reached the age of 40 years and above, they should henceforth eat more of vegetables, fruits, unripe plantain, fish or crayfish and less of beef, salt, rice, gari, amala, yam and other sugary products because of their high sugar contents.

According to him, with old age setting in and the body system also losing its vigour and vitality in respect to food metabolism, high sugary food could spike blood glucose level, compound an existing diabetic condition or trigger one in someone.

Aina who noted that there is an estimated 15million widows in Nigeria, lamented the inhuman conditions some of them were being subjected to in parts of the country, especially in the South – East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, appealing to the governments and wealthy Nigerians to emulate Oko Opo Foundation and the Chief Promoter, Ambassador (Dr) Babatunde Adeyemo, by him joining hands with him to alleviate the suffering of Nigerian widows.

In the same vein, Mr. Lekan Jaji, an author and publisher, also spoke on “Acceptability” – a way of empowering the widows to accept the reality that their departed loved husbands had gone and would not physically return anymore.

He noted that getting into this phase of acceptability would the widow to move on with life and forge a new frontier instead of dwelling on illusion that leads to frustration and incapacitation of the will to function productively.

Speaking on the event, the Convener of Oko Opo Foundation, Dr. Babatunde Adeyemo who remains highly impressed with the huge success the Oko Opo Foundation formal launch recorded, especially the sight of the overjoyed widows, said the passion to make things happen positively in this country and change the narratives informed the reason for the establishment.

The philanthropist who also doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of Pelican Valley Nigeria Limited, a foremost Nigerian real estate firm behind Pelican Valley Estate Laderin where unusual home happens, Pelican’s Brief Estate, Pelican Ecostay Apartments and Pelican’s Greenish Acre Farm Estate – all the three located at the Kobape – Masa corridor of Ogun State, revealed that the Foundation is a “covenant” between him and God.

He also revealed that he has expended almost N150million planning the project since the idea was conceived about 10 years ago, in addition to donating two acres of land towards providing housing in the future to the most vulnerable widows among them.

He said, “The motivation is simply the passion to make things happen in this country and to also change the narratives. I came from a very humble beginning, a very humble background where we suffered a lot. My father was a philanthropist, he was a senior civil servant, he spent almost 27 years in service but my Dad didn’t build a house of his own. He was busy using all his money to empower people. From my home town he empowered them, sent them to school. Unfortunately, he was retired suddenly and we moved from there into uncompleted building. We stayed in an unknown persons uncompleted building without electricity, doors and windows for about a decade.

“So, I was privileged to see a bush, a thick forest turning into a town. So, any thick forest that I see now, I don’t actually see the forest in there, I see the town in there. So, that actually motivated me towards establishing Pelican Valley Nigeria Limited. And something I learnt from my father as well is that there is no amount of money you have that can secure your future or secure the future of your children.
The only way you can secure your future is to invest in institution, invest in people. Those are the things that will stand the test of time. And here I’m today, I’m not a multi billionaire but I’m contented with what I have and I see reason for me to touch the heart of people positively.

“We still have people that have billions but could not do what we are doing. It is in the blood. It is hereditary. For example, most of my staff, apart from given them their salary, I give them daily stipends because I can’t afford to work with somebody that is hungry. So, the same integrity we have brought into real estate. We are one of the best in Ogun State right now. We are the Omoluabi in the real estate business. We have been into this business for almost 14 years without a single court case and I have four lawyers under my retainership. We have 100% positive reviews and we are still pushing on on this.

“So, I want to bring those integrity and goodwill to help the widows and I’m doing this to live by example. I have committed over N150million of hard earned funds into this project. This building that is called The Podium where the programme is being formally unveiled was purposely built for the foundation. We spent almost N150million to put this place together. It was long term project, I conceptualised this project in the last 10 years and I have been systematically working to achieve it.

He called on other well-meaning Nigerians and philanthropists in the country to assist the vulnerable in the society.

“We are just using this opportunity and avenue to call on people of like minds to join us, to join this crusade. This is not about somebody looking for what to eat. Like the Pelican bird, the spirit of Pelican is, ‘working together to empower ourselves’. We are building this to work together to empower the less privileged in the society. This is not a short time affairs. In the long time projection, I have donated about two acres of land that we are going to use to build houses, one bedroom short let apartment for the most vulnerable widows who don’t have roof over their heads among other plans we have for the widows.”