Firebrand activist and President, Women Arise for Change Initiative, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, is one of the most courageous women in the world. In the course of her human rights activism, she has come face-to-face with death on several occasions and escaped by the whiskers.
The activist, who has has been in the struggle for decades, learnt the ropes from the likes of the late fiery legal luminary, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN; the late Beko Ransome-Kuti and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka.
Born in Zaria, Kaduna State, Okei-Odumakin started exhibiting signs of an up-and-coming activist right from her kindergarten class. Then, the fearless Okei-Odumakin would defend her friends against the bullies in her class. She later grew up to become a tomboy, having been born and raised in a family dominated by her male siblings.
I had wanted to be a nun. That was what I wanted all my life. I wanted to be a nun at the age of 14, but my father threatened to disown me. I was too young to be disowned. Not only did my father threaten to disown me, he also was to print my obituary because he said I did not want to procreate. After that, I cried all through the day and night. I then told my mum to tell my father that I was willing to continue my education
Originally, the activist had wanted to just go into the seminary to become a Catholic nun, but her father vehemently opposed her decision to toe that path. He even threatened to disown her if she should go ahead to actualise her dream.
She says, “I had wanted to be a nun. That was what I wanted all my life. As I said earlier, I wanted to be a nun at the age of 14, but my father threatened to disown me. I was too young to be disowned. Not only did my father threaten to disown me, he also was to print my obituary because he said I did not want to procreate. After that, I cried all through the day and night. I then told my mum to tell my father that I was willing to continue my education.
“When my father returned from his trip to the United Kingdom, he then took me to one Dr. Archor, who was the Director of Basic Studies, and told him that I would be living in his house. I lived there for a week and promised my father I would stay on campus. My father then opened a hard cover note book for me to clock in and out, which he kept with the director of SBS.”
But her father’s unfavourable disposition to her decision to live an ascetic life as a nun did not douse her interest in taking up the cause of the less privileged as well as caring and fighting for humanity. What her father dissuaded her from doing as a nun, she strove to achieve in the secular world of human rights activism.
But Okei-Odumakin’s entry into the world of activism was not that smooth. She initially met with a daunting situation, but she decided to trudge on without allowing herself to be cowed by anyone.
She adds, “I did my National Youth Service Corps scheme at the 35th Amphibious Battalion, Eburutu Barracks, Calabar with soldiers. I interacted with the soldiers intensely. I came back to the University of Ilorin in 1990 to do my Master’s in Guidance and Counseling. While I was at the University of Ilorin in 1985, I had a lecturer who saw that I was brilliant and asked what I wanted to become in life and I told her that I wanted to become a nun. She was the one who motivated me to read about Martin Luther King and other people like Karl Max and Malcom X. That was how one quotation, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” by Martin Luther King changed my life on March 10, 1985 and, by May 1985, the position of the Secretary for Women in Nigeria, Kwara State branch was vacant. When it was time for us to reel out our manifesto, I was the first person to speak; I started quoting from Martin Luther King’s book, people started hailing me and the third person did not bother to come up. That was how I became the secretary of Women in Nigeria, Kwara State branch in 1985. That was how I became born again into the struggle.”
But what is the motivation behind her choice of the Spartan way of life of an activist? Okei-Odumakin says, “It is my love for fellow beings and my quest for justice. I hate injustice and want to see a plural society, where the rights of every Nigerian are respected. I want a Nigeria that is free of oppression and where all can achieve their goals .So, I have never thought of being involved in any struggle at the initial stage of my life. In fact, while growing up, I had wanted to become a Catholic Nun, before one thing led to the other, including my Dad’s vehement resistance to that particular ambition of mine, at the said time.”
This Amazon has certainly paid her dues in the course of fighting for humanity. She has suffered immensely in the hands of the operatives of the country’s security agencies, having been brutalised on many occasions and even shot in the leg during one of the public protest marches.
“I have, at least, a record of being held 17 times in various detention facilities across the country, majorly due to my involvement in human rights issues against successive regimes and majorly in the course of the several agitations for an end to military rule in Nigeria,”
she says.
Recalling how she escaped death by a hair’s breadth during one of the public protests, Okei-Odumakin says, “Saving life is a daily engagement for me and I believe it’s the same for every other person out there. It is part of humanity and I have benefited from this on numerous occasions. I will give two quick examples. The first was at Campus Square (May 2003), where Citizens Forum organised a rally led by Prof. Wole Soyinka. We were shot at and teargassed. Gani Fawehinmi fell on top of a soak away while the late Beko Ransome-Kuti’s glasses fell and got broken. I was slapped several times and was about to be shot when Prof. Wole Soyinka appeared and stood between my attacker and I. This singular intervention saved my life. Also, during a protest for the actualisation of June 12 (August 1994), I was shot on my leg. When I stood up, the officer guarding the dead bodies assisted me to escape mass burial, and many others I can’t even recall.”
Inspite of the routine drudgery of the life of an activist, Okei-Odumakin has won 502 local and international awards over the years. But a particular one fascinates her most-the United States International Women of Courage Award-bestowed on her by the US government. She is the first Nigerian woman so far to receive such an award.
She enjoins women to always fight for their rights, stressing that they must be courageous.
“Our people, particularly the women, must at all times understand that human rights are God-given possessions which no one under any guise has the right to deny anyone of. I will, therefore, urge women to desist from being afraid of expressing themselves and fighting for their rights. Courage is important and it’s a virtue they must embrace because, “Dare to Struggle, Dare to win,”
she says.
The activist is, however, worried about the menace posed by hard drugs to the Nigerian society. She sees the problem of drug abuse not only as a problem for the youth but a menace that can engulf the Nigerian nation, if utmost care is not taken.
