By Suyi Ayodele
Mothers are unique beings. The Benin people say of mothers: Iye-N’gie – mothers are precious. In my Yoruba heritage, mothers are gold (Ìyá ni Wúrà). They are special beings. In this part of the world, Africans regard the womenfolk as pillars or backbones of the family setting. The importance of a woman in an African home is well illustrated in the part of a chicken shared to a mother and the parts given to the other members of the family. In a typical African setting, when a fowl is used either for sacrifice or during festive periods, the portion given to the woman of the house is the back. Boys are given the legs and the girls the wings. These parts are significant in their own ways. The legs of a chicken given to the male children tell them to plant their feet solidly in the family. The girls get the wings because they are expected to fly away to other lands and families, where they will be married as wives and will be entitled to eat the back of the chicken in their new families. The man offers his wife the back part of the chicken to underscore the support the woman has given to him and for being the pillar on which the family rests. The man takes the gizzard because it is the rarest part of the chicken. Our traditions frown at any woman who eats the gizzard when the man is alive. Such a woman is considered arrogant. Children and the very young ones cannot also eat the gizzard when there is an elderly man around. Such an act by a younger one is known as Àfojúdi (haughtiness) in my place.
Mothers are sui generis in the upbringing of their children. They do many things for the comfort of their children. One of such things is to sing lullabies to rock a child back to sleep in the middle of the night. How they do all that, singing and dancing at the same time without drums and chorus beats one’s imagination. While most fathers sleep and cannot be bothered by the cries of the babies at night, mothers are up dancing to the beats of their mouths and the tapping of their feet. And they make melodious songs. They sing lullabies when they go for postnatal. During pregnancy, expectant mothers sing, at the pre-natal wards, the “Egbé ólómo wéwé, àbíyè, egbé ólómo wéwé; egbé ayò ni egbé àwa, egbé ólómo wéwé” (we are a group of expectant mothers who are sure of safe deliveries; ours is a joyous group). When they deliver safely, they change the songs to the early morning lullaby of “Ijó omo mo jí f’òwúrò mi jó abiyamo fèhìn so” (I wake up in the morning to sing the cradle song, let every mother gyrate with their backs). We have cases where fathers relocate to different rooms because of the disturbing noises from the babies. In our recent past, a crazy father in Owerri, Imo State, one Confidence Amatobi, cruelly beat his two-month-old baby boy, Miracle, to stupor such that the baby’s badly fractured hands had to be amputated! Miracle’s crime: he was disturbing the deranged father with his cries! Mothers endure the cries of their babies anytime of the day. As the children progress in life, the songs change.
The mother of Omowumi Blessing Olajide is one of such wonderful mothers. She sang lullabies for Baby Omowumi. In her cradle, when Omowumi was restless, Mummy Olajide sang:
Hì sèé Kéé mi -Who is calling me?
Omo li mí jo – Am feeding my child
Hì sèé Kéé mi – Who is calling me?
Omo li mí wè – Am bathing my child
Kó bá s’ùpàdé olómo lú wè hí rè – If it is the meeting of mothers, you are going
Kò bá hí lo képè mí ò – When you are going call on me
kepe mi, kèpé mī o – Call on me, call on me o
Kò bá hí lo képè mí ò – When you are going call on me
And Baby Omowumi went to sleep. Her mother had high hopes and she prayed to God in a song: “Angélì èwe je kó ‘mòmi dàgbà. Je kó mí dàgbà ki nda ìyá graduate” (You guardian Angel of babies, let my child grow up so that I can be a mother of a graduate). God answered her prayers. Omowumi grew in leaps and bounds. She went to primary school and did well. She proceeded to secondary school and God crowned her efforts; she passed her examinations. The mother was happy. Omowumi and her mother sang, after the former wrote her JAMB examination: “Uninífásití dára, ní bi tí àwon òmòwè wà. Nìbe lókán mi fé lo. Jèsu yío mu mì dé bè o” (University is good. That is where the brilliant ones are. That is where my hear desires. Jesus will take me there). God answers prayers. Omowumi gained admission into the University of Ilorin. She finished her first year in the university in flying colours. Her sophomore year was equally successful. She moved to her third year. Hopes rose in the family. Her mother was full of praises to The Divinity for endowing her beautiful daughter with wisdom and understanding. Mummy Olajide started counting days. She calculated that by June 2023, Omowumi would be out of the university as a graduate. Alone in her room, she sang: “Orí mi àpéré o ti jómò mi sàyìyè” (My destiny, you have allowed my child to excel). She untied her wrapper, held the edges and danced to the right, and then, to the left. She held her head and thanked the Almighty.
Then darkness enveloped her space. A shrill cry was heard afar off. Mummy Olajide strained her ears. The news she heard was unbelievable. Someone wailed in the neighbourhood: “won ti pa Wumi” (They have killed Wumi). No, it cannot be, the mother mourned! Who did it? How did it happen? Who did I offend that decided to scorch me with the fire of a child (Ta ni mo se to fi ina omo jo mi)? She wailed holding and clasping her arms across her breasts. She held her two hands to her head and stamped her feet. The agony was too much. Neighbours joined in the wailing. It was a re-enactment of the biblical passage: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not” (Jeremiah 31: 15). The difference here is that the wailing was in Ilorin, Kwara State. Mummy Olajide’s precious daughter was killed by some corrupt seeds sired by some cursed semen.
According to the reports, Blessing Omowumi Olajide, aged 24, was a 300-Level student at the University of Ilorin. On Thursday, June 2, 2022, at her home in Tanke area of Ilorin, where she stayed with her aunt, Omowumi was gang-raped by the trio of Abdulazeez Ismail, Ajala Oluwatimileyin, who were assisted by another suspect, Oyeyemi Omogbolahan. While having the rough carnal knowledge of the poor lady, the devil incarnates tied her hands and legs and stuffed rags into her mouth. Omowumi kicked the empty air and tried in vain to shout for help. She died in pains. Her body and private part, according to the police, bruised. What a way to go; what an agony for the beautiful soul! Not done, the assailants took away her phone and ATM card. They sought the services of two siblings, Abdulkarim Shuaib (a.k.a Easy) and Kareem Rasheed (Rashworld), who are experts in phone repair to unlock Omowumi’s phone and ATM, which they used to withdraw about N149, 000 from her GTB account. The long arms of the law later caught up with the suspects and eight of them were charged to court.
Delivering a 165-type-written-page judgment, Justice Ibrahim Adebayo Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, who was said to have wept openly in the courtroom, sentenced two of the suspects (Abdulazeez Ismail and Ajala Oluwatimileyin) to death by hanging, one (Oyeyemi Omogbolahan) to life imprisonment and the two siblings (Abdulkarim Shuaib (a.k.a Easy) and Kareem Rasheed (Rashworld)), to three years imprisonment. Hear Justice Yusuf: “While the prosecution established the ingredients of conspiracy and armed robbery against the first three accused persons, it proved beyond reasonable doubt that injury was inflicted on the deceased and she was raped to death. I direct that Abdulazeez Ismail and Ajala Moses Oluwatimileyin be hanged by the neck until they are pronounced dead”. Three other suspects: Abdulateef Abdulrahman, Daud Adebayo (Bashman) and Akande Oladoja, were discharged and acquitted by the court. Appraising the judgment, the prosecutor and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Salman Jawondo, lamented that: “The irony of it all is that all those involved are young men of 19, 23, etc. It’s quite unfortunate. And that shows that we have to work on our future in this country”. None of the three devils who snuffed life out of Omowumi is of her age.
But that is not the most shocking aspect of the unfortunate incident. Omowumi’s aunt, Omolara Kuteyi, in whose house the promising young lady was gang-raped and murdered, noted during the trial that the family was greatly shocked by the incident as some of the suspects are familiar faces. In one of the reports of the coverage of the trial, Kuteyi told BBC Pidgin English Service thus: “Di family bin shock say some of di suspects be known faces. Wen dem bring dem in, we no sabi say na di pipo be dis. Three of dem we stay togeda as neighbours for di same environment. Some of dem be students of di school”.
As the felons responsible for cutting short the promising life of Omowumi and dashing the hopes of her parents and relations make their ways to meet their makers and to serve their terms in the correctional centre, Omowumi’s mother can only sing:
Óró nlá le dá – It is a great grief that you have caused
Èé óró nlá le dá – It is a great grief that you have caused
Èyin té pa Omúwùmí tí jè ódágbàà – Those who killed Omowumi and did not allow her to reach old age
Óró nlá le dá – It is a great grief that you have caused
May Blessing Omowumi Olajide’s soul rest in peace.
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