Erelu Bisi Fayemi & Madam Jolaade Osho
The
First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi has taken over the
responsibility of sheltering, feeding and clothing a 110 year -old
woman, Madam Jolaade Osho in Okeruku, area of lkere- Ekiti in Local
Government Area of the state.
The
aged woman was found in a ramshackle building during the verification
exercise for the Food Outreach Program for the elderly, known as
“Ounje Arugbo”. The project is coordinated by the Ekiti
Development Foundation (EDF) run by the office of the First Lady.
Mama
Osho was not able to make it to the meeting point for the exercise so
the team took the exercise to her doorstep and there they discovered
110 year-old woman’s lonely and pitiable living condition. The
frail looking woman was said to have lost her three children many
years ago and had no one to take care of her.
Erelu
Fayemi who was moved to tears upon hearing about the woman’s poor
condition, paid her a visit on Tuesday at her residence in Ikere
Ekiti, where she pledged to personally supervise her well being
henceforth.
In addition to changing her accommodation, and
making arrangement for her daily feeding and upkeep, the wife of the
Governor also assigned two nannies to take care of the woman.
Announcing
her decision to continuing taking proper care of the aged woman,,
Erelu Fayemi said: "It is very important for us to
remember that we have elderly people in our communities
who are vulnerable because they either do not have children or their
children are far away and had forgotten them or not able
to look after them.
“During
John Kayode Fayemi (JKF)'s first tenure, we had the social
security programme for old people, which meant we were
able to improve their lifespan. But over the past four years, the
social security scheme was jettisoned and many of them became
indigent.
"In
September we are restarting the social security scheme. I
thought l should supplement it with a programme called “Ounje
Arugbo”, that is providing food supplement for the elderly and
in the verification exercise for that scheme we found this old woman
in Ikere, who as we were told is about 110 years old.
"Her
children have died many years ago and she has no one to look after
her.
“Although,
sometimes extended family members drop by to see what they can do but
she has been living in very bad condition. I was appalled that a
human being can be living in such a place where animals should not
even live. So l am happy that we are able to do what we have done for
her, and l will like to urge members of the public to
reach out to old people in their communities, show them love as we
too will one day grow old and not everyone will have people to look
after them then."she said
The
visibly joyous Madam Osho was lost for words as she embrace the First
lady.
The
Chairman, Ikere Local Government, Pastor Kayode Olubode, thanked the
Wife of the Governor for her unrelenting effort and support for the
people of the state. The APC State Woman leader, Mrs Monisade Afuye,
who accompanied the First lady to Madam Osho’s home, also thanked
the state government for the planned reintroduction of the social
security scheme for the elderly citizens in the state, a development
she said would assist some other indigent elderly citizens in the
same shoes as madam Osho.
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