By Bilesanmi Olalekanand Foluso Ajibulu

She is one of the foreigners who have found ‘home’in Nigeria largely because of the country’s hospitality. For Roberta Portea Mayson, a Liberian, apart from the name, language and maybe her friends, especially the childhood ones, there is really no difference between her country and Nigeria because here, ‘you are not seen and treated as foreigners’. Rebecca is the wife of Ambassador Dew Mayson,one of the presidential contenders in the forthcoming Liberia presidential election.

She and her husband have been living in Nigeria since 1995.” I find Nigerians very interesting, sympathetic set of people but quite competitive, they strive to do their best in whatever they do. There is nowhere in the world that you will not find Nigerians doing one thing or the other. For that, I admire them a lot. It’s a matter of time before Nigeria becomes a world class country because there is no profession in any part of the world that you will not find Nigerians in. Also, they are conscious of their culture, they like it, dress it, say it and sleep it.

“Everywhere we go and we see a black man in his Agbada, we say, ‘ Oh yes, that’s Nigerian,” she stated.

Giving her number of years in the country,it will not be out of place if she eats Nigerian foods. She says Nigerian and Liberian foods are similar except for few ones like pounded yam which incidentally is her favorite Nigerian food.”I have tasted Nigerians foods but not often, may be because all the ingredients for our local foods are found here in Nigeria, but I have taken pounded yam and Egusi soup which is very good though heavy.”

Childhood for Roberta was good. Everything was going on well until after she proceeded to the United States for her master’s degree and the war broke out in Liberia. Her initial reaction when the uprising leading to the war started according to her was that it would soon go down until the war almost consumed everybody. Her family members scattered within Liberia and outside of the country as everybody scampered for safety. They found each other after the war eventually but it was the aftermath of it that killed her father.

“My father died in Liberia in 2001. It was a difficult moment for me because during the war, he was missing for a whole year, we didn’t know where he was. You know it is one thing to know somebody is dead and gone, it is another to wonder where a person is, because you will not be able to categorically say what has happened to him or her.

So it was a difficult time. But he resurfaced because we put the information of his missing on the radio and it was through the announcement that he returned to Moronvia. The war had taken its toll on him and his health, it was not long that he passed away in 2001″,she said.

For the Maysons, their love life actually started in the University of Liberia. Roberta was there as a student while Dew was there as a research fellow. Roberta, standing by the door of the school library with her friends, saw a gentle man walked past them. She casually enquired about the young man from her friends who told her what they knew. Of all the information she got concerning Dew,his radicalism thrilled her the most.

Dew was a member of Movement for Justice in Africa,MOJA, a group fighting for the emacipation of the Liberian people. The group was so powerful and influential that it formed government with the late president Samuel Doe. Dew was a member of the government but he soon resigned when Doe began to derail.

“I met him at the University of Liberia. He was there to do research work. I remember that I was standing with some friends by the door to the library. He passed by us and I asked them who was that man and that was when I started having some thoughts about him, more so when I heard he was part of the struggle group, MOJA, Movement for Justice in Africa which was considered to be made up of rebels at that time.

That sparked my interest in him. Subsequently, we met through a friend. I had traveled out of the country to the US for my master’s degree before the war started,and he was already in France as ambassador but, because of the rising conflict in the Doe government, he resigned his ambassadorial posting. He resigned because things were not working the way it ought to because the agreement the MOJA had with the government before joining it was that the welfare of the people would be paramount but when the government derailed, my husband resigned”.

What are the chances of Dew in the coming election, I asked her.” His chances are very good and bright because he has always had the interest of the people of Liberia at heart and he has always worked for the people. If you call his name, the Liberians in Nigeria or any where he had ever visited, they know him and, from what we are seeing now in Monrovia, I think the people are interested in him becoming the next president and he is eminently qualify to be so. It is not because he is my husband,he is qualified to be the Liberian president more so when he is popular among the people he wants to govern”.

What gives Roberta joy are quite unique. Graduating from university, according to her, is one of them. But being used as part of creation of your own children is something each time she remembers she is full of joy. “The birth of a child is like participating in a creation. It marvels me how God could use us as vessels to bring forth our own images to this world. When I wedded too, it was a happy moment for me because I love the man and finally we are together. You know we women dream of lot, I don’t know what it is like for men, so I was lucky that I got married to the man I love; even my late father did comment about our relationship that ‘you are lucky to love somebody and the person loves you back’, so it was a special moment for me”.

The death of both parents is obviously devastating to her. The father died in Liberia while the mother two years after passed on in Roberta’s house here in Nigeria. However if you want blow her mind, take her to France:”I love France, it’s an interesting place to be. I love the people and their culture. Their sea food is second to none. The French people, just like Nigerians, are proud of their culture and passionate about it too. But anyday any time I will always love to be in France if given the opportunity”.

Roberta has a deceptive face!Until she tells you you never can tell that this woman who is in her late 30s is actually a mother of four, the youngest just graduating from the university. The secret of her youthfulness she revealed is her gene.”Until my mother passed on at 82, she had no wrinkle on her face. You took her for 60 years old at that time. I have had several comments like that that I don’t look my age. I am not on any special diet. I take lots of vegetable but beyond that,nothing more”.