Though Joel, Chisom and Esther lost
their parents, Jeremiah and Josephine Okwuchukwu, on the day of the Dana plane
crash, finding foster parents for the children is likely to free them
from poverty, Motunrayo
Aboderin writes.
Everyone our correspondent spoke to
at the crash site of Dana airplane in Iju, Ishaga, Lagos State, described the
family of Jeremiah and Josephine Okwuchukwu as very kind, loving and down to
earth. They were less than an average family. But one would not know until you
got closer to them. Things were not always rosy for the family. Before the
parents died, the family went through a very difficult phase.
Teachers and a cleric said that there
were days the children would not eat from morning till night. But one phrase
was common in the mouths of neighbours ‘the mother loved her children.’
A pastor, Mr. Godwin Simire, of Faith
Chapel International Church, said that Mrs. Josephine Okwuchukwu would have
done anything for her children.
He said, “She was a wonderful woman,
very hardworking and caring. She gave her all for her children. There was even
a day she told me that she found a pair of old socks in a dustbin which she
quickly washed and dried so that one of her children could wear them to school.
“That family went through a state of
penury. But you would not know unless you were close to them. Mrs. Okwuchukwu
did all she could just to make sure that her children live a comfortable life.”
Simire said that the husband, who was
an okada rider before his death, was not really
there for his family. He said his negligence started when he lost his job.
He said, “He used to work in a good
company, but was later retrenched. That was when he started ridingokada.
It’s like the family moved from grace to grass. Mrs. Okwuchukwu found it hard
coping. Imagine having money to buy what you want, then all of a sudden, you
don’t have money again.”
Simire said that the Saturday before
she died, Mrs. Okwuchukwu had said that if she was to die, she would not worry
about her children because she knew she had trained them to be independent and
strong.
The Pastor added, “Her four children
were very hardworking and committed to Bible study. They were very intelligent
and well-trained. Sometimes, after school, they would pass by our house
to eat. Those children went through a tough time.
“On the day of the crash, I had gone
to her house to visit her. I was worried because she had not been attending
church services. From January until May 27, we did not see her in church. Even
after May 27, she disappeared. When I got to her house, this was around 3pm, “I
asked her why she did not come to church, she said she was washing
clothes. I prayed with her and left. I did not see her husband. But from what I
heard, he had attended a men’s fellowship meeting at his own church that very
Sunday. During the course of the meeting, he took permission to go home.”
Simire said when he heard the news of
their death, he was very sad. “I thought the whole family had died. I was
later informed that three children survived. That before the crash, the mother
had sent the first boy on an errand and when he did not return, she asked the
other two children to go and look for him.
“After I heard that the three
children survived, I quickly ran to the crash site. I met the children outside.
The first boy did not want to leave the crash site, he kept saying ‘my mummy
will come out; we just left her now, she sent us on an errand’”.
When asked about the welfare of the
three children who have been adopted by the Lagos State Governor, Mr.
Raji Fashola, Simire said the second and third children were not really aware
of all that was going on and that it was just the first born, Joel, who looked
sad. “I visited the children some days back and while we were all talking, Joel
just broke down in tears. I felt so bad. But I know God will take care of them.
At least, they will now have foster parents. ‘’
Our correspondent visited the
children’s’ former school, a public school at Iju Ishaga, Fred Williams
Memorial Primary School. Once you get into the school premises, you can’t help
but say that the surviving children have moved from grass to grace.
A teacher, after hearing that the
children had been adopted by Fashola shouted, ‘Wan ti
fo lo, meaning these children have gone high.’
Describing the Okwuchuwkuws, Chisom’s
(the 2nd boy) class teacher, Mrs. Adeniran, said the family was one of the best
she had ever met.
She said, “The children were lovely.
Chisom is an intelligent boy. I always treated them like my own children. They
were so respectful and humble. They were so good in greeting people. Their
parents really trained them well. The only sad thing about them was that they
did not have money. Sometimes, the children will come to school hungry. There
were days they would not eat throughout. But the mother was always trying her
best. She would come to the children’s school at around 8 am and wait till 1pm
when the children close. She loved them. She might not have had money, but she
had love for them.”
Adeniran also confirmed a statement
that the parents had to die for the children to enjoy life. “The woman was
good. She hated the fact that she could not provide the best for her children.
It was like she had to die for the children to enjoy. The Friday before their
death, she said if she died, we should not give her children to her family
members because none of them cared for her. It’s like she knew she was going to
die. There was a day we spent over two hours talking. She just kept telling me
about her problems. I felt sorry for her especially because her husband was not
too supportive.”
Shalom’s class teacher, Miss Peace,
described Shalom, who died with her parents, as a quiet but intelligent child.
“She was so beautiful. She had a very good handwriting. She was in Nursery two.
At first, the school put her in Nursery one but the class teacher said that she
was too brilliant for Nursery one, then they moved her to Nursery two. I will
miss her dearly.”
Other class teachers, said the
children did not deserve to go through such pain. One of them, Mrs.
Kuteyi said, “Everyone in this school knew the woman. She was very friendly.
She used to come to school every day. She would sit down with the food sellers
talking while her children were in class. It’s like she always wanted to be
around them.”
Chisom’s best friends, Godwin
Ukpevegbu and Steven Obinna, said that life would not be the same without
Chisom. They were such close friends. They said they would miss him so much.
Despite the sad ambiance, the
teachers were happy that the children would now have a better life. The
Principal of Movet Group of Schools, Iju Ishaga, Mrs. Joy Adedoyin, who
had a good relationship with the family, said that the children would now have
the opportunity to go to a better school.
She said, “Before enrolling the
children at Fred Williams, Mrs. Okwuchukwu had approached me. She said that she
wanted her children to attend Movet School, but when I told her our school
fees, she never returned. I think she did not have enough money to pay our
school fees. I heard she also went to other schools around the neighbourhood,
but their fees were too high. She later chose Fred Williams Memorial Primary
School.”
Adedoyin said that on the day of the
crash, Mrs. Okwuchukwu was weaving the hair of her last child, “If the girl had
followed her siblings, she would still have been alive. But only God knows why
it happened like that,” he said.Th