By Gabriel Enogholase, Benin

For widows in Edo State, penultimate Saturday was a day to remember and cherish. Reason? It was a day they were hosted to a highly rewarding New Year celebration under the  auspices of a Widow Empowerment Programme.

It would be recalled that the Widow Empowerment Programme was inaugurated in December 2013 by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to cater for widows in the state following the widely publicised saga of a widow, Mrs. Joyce Ifijeh, who was reprimanded by Governor Adams Oshiomhole for street trading.

The PDP had tried to take advantage of the controversy generated by the incident by offering the widow the sum of  N250,000 which she initially accepted but later shunned following a rapprochement by the governor. Her refusal of the offer had prompted the party to extend the gesture to all widows in the state.

With the inauguration of the programme in December 2013, widows from the 18 local governments areas of the state thronged the Edo PDP secretariat located at Sapele Road in Benin where the PDP “spoiled” them with bags of rice and money. Indeed the women had every reason to rejoice at the end of the day as the event turned out to be a Christmas/New year party for them.

And from every indication, the programme has come to stay as many widows continue to benefit from it. One of such widows was 34-year-old disabled Mrs. Juliet Oni, who got the sum of N100,000 and two wheelchairs to aid her movement. Another was Mrs. Juliet Imobhio, a woman whose husband allegedly lost his life in the hands of officials of the Edo State Traffic Management Agency, EDSTMA. Succour came her way and that of her three children when the PDP raised the sum of N2 million for her to take care of her family.

The 2014 Widows Empowerment Programme was no exception as no fewer than 1000 women were at the party’s secretariat where they were hosted to Christmas and the New Year party by the PDP. After entertaining the women with food and drinks, they were each handed 20-kilograms of rice.

Speaking at the occasion, Edo State PDP chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, noted that many have doubted the sincerity of the programme when they started in 2013, saying some people thought the initiative was all about politics.

“When we started this thing, some people said Dan Orbih gathered women for politics. Today, these same people have seen that this is not about politics; this is about supporting widows in our society. The truth is that Edo people have seen that the government of the day is full of tricks. The people have seen that all the promises made to them have not been fulfilled. I want to advise those who are in government, whatever position we found ourselves, it is not because we are the strongest or the best, it is because of God’s grace.

“That is why I will advise those in position of authority to always remember God in everything they do. Don’t say because you are now in a position, you can now equate yourself to God.

“We have been faced with a whole lot of things that hitherto were unknown to the politics of Edo State. One thing that has come out of it is that Edo people are waiting patiently to effect a change in the government. We don’t have silver or gold but we have joy in our heart that Edo State will soon come out of the present inept leadership. This is the joy we have invited you to share with us.

Orbih also charged the women to vote massively from President Goodluck Jonathan, noting that it was expected of all sons and daughters of the South-South geo-political zone, irrespective of their political affiliations, to rally round President Goodluck Jonathan so that he would bring more development to the zone and the country at large.

He said: “This is the first time God will be making one of our own President of this country. Our son, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, is today the president of Nigeria. As our elders say it, ‘whether a daughter is beautiful or not, her mother likes her’. There is nothing anyone will say that will make us abandon Jonathan because he is our son. God has chosen him for us and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

“If it is by man, he would not be president because he is from a small place call Otuoke. God went to that small village and picked him. So, anyone fighting Jonathan is only fighting God because he is the anointed president of Nigeria. He did not even show interest in the office but God picked him out of the crowd and said ‘I have chosen you’. This is not politics but fact. Either you like it or not, Jonathan is from the South-South and we are from the South-South as well.

Some of the widows interviewed by Vanguard Metro were full of praises for organisers of the programme for remembering them when others in the society had forgotten them. According to Mrs. Roseline Osagiede: “The rice was the first food item I would be getting for the Christmas and New Year celebration. I thanked the Edo PDP for locating and assisting widows like me.

“I’m a widow and my husband died about seven years ago. I can’t express my joy for the rice given me. Before this, nobody had given me anything. God will bless PDP and give them the desires of their heart”.