BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA-AGBONKHESE

In the last seven years of her husband, Senator Liyel Imoke, piloting the affairs of Cross River State, Mrs. Obioma Liyel-Imoke has devoted her soul to advancing the status of women and children across the nooks and corners of the state.

“I’m making sure Cross River is fit for women and children,” she would always say.

In this exclusive chat with Feminista in Calabar, the First Lady speaks on her work with these two groups which, she says, are critical to family growth and societal development.

Your husband describes you as a wife who genuinely shares his passion for service; in what ways have you actually proved that?

My husband’s obsession is reaching those who need government the most. So, his focus is usually on people who need a change in their lives. I thank God he has been able to express that passion to me.

Now, it’s about whose life is being touched. Not those who are already very comfortable, but the ones who need to be touched.

Through what medium are you helping to realise this vision?

I have Partnership Opportunities for Women Empowerment Realisation, POWER, which is like the mother of all my projects. POWER is a holistic way of empowering women and the plan is to help them take their skills to a greater level. We came up with A State Fit for A Child, ASFAC, and in the process, we realised that a lot of babies were being abandoned on the streets.

I investigated and found out that girls get pregnant, run from home, put to bed and throw away those babies so that nobody knows. So, to rehabilitate these girls, we launched Mothers Against Child Abandonment, MACA. MACA has two homes which are the Refuge Baby and the Refuge Girls, where we teach life and vocational skills.

Most of these girls have returned to school. To spur them back to school, we thought of giving them a role model. That led to the initiation of the Calabar Carnival Queen, CCQ.

I also facilitate a spiritual development programme called Cross River Pray. Other projects include Breath of Life which is creating awareness on pneumonia; Destiny Child Centre, for the reintegration and rehabilitation of street children and Giving Life Options to Widows, GLOW, for assisting widows.

For how long has POWER been running?

POWER has been in existence for seven years now. It’s about empowering a woman holistically like I said: financially, health wise, physically and spiritually. But in the process, we realised we can’t do that without making sure children thrive, no matter the circumstance of birth.

By that realisation, we went into a lot of child protection projects as earlier listed and I thank God we’ve been able to save hundreds of abandoned children and assisted quite a number of teenage girls.

How do you get these children?

We pick them on the streets. Of course, people still throw away new born babies. That’s why we went into assisting girls who are carrying unwanted pregnancies. They’re not ready to have children. They think the best thing to do is to throw the child away.

So, we got the word out there; letting them know we will take them in and the government of Cross Rivers State will also look after their babies. But for those girls interested in keeping their babies, we are helping them get a head start in life again.

Rather than waste time and resources on teenage mothers, why not embark on a catch-them-young campaign so that you have less of teenage pregnancy?

We’re doing a lot of that also through the Calabar Carnival Queen mentioned earlier. The project of the queen, who, currently, is, Nancy-Olive Aisagbonhi, is to be a role model for young girls. She talks to them about the benefits of abstinence being the best way to avoid teenage pregnancy, and then teaches them how to make correct choices about their sexuality.

You’ve been the mother of this state since 2007. What’s your advice to women?

I’ll just say we owe the world a responsibility to produce children who can hold this country together. I’ll advise mothers to please go back to the basics, try and remember what we were taught when we were growing up. They must begin to learn to inculcate them in our children, especially with regards to integrity and responsibility.

Are you saying women are drifting from their primary responsibilities?

I believe this has happened not because many mothers are irresponsible but because they have had to be bread winners in their homes.

So, they’re occupied with putting food on the table. But I still must say it is most important for them to understand that the children God has given to us are more important than anything else and we need to give them quality time and basic moral background to survive.

Your advice for youths

It’s a crazy world out there. So, to every youth, I’ll say it may just serve you better to focus on yourself, the things you need to achieve and how best to achieve them. Like I always tell young people, hard work never kills. So never expect anything on a platter of gold. Don’t ever stand for mediocrity and always try to be the best. That way, you’ll always succeed.