SEATED in a vast office, with little sunlight streaming through the window, Mrs. Roli Sheila Uduaghan casts a glance at her visitor. Her eyes are also on the files on her table. She is simply dressed, formal, so to say. No chunky earrings or bracelets. She brims with smiles
This afternoon, she is scheduled to hold meeting with some members of her Foundation, so, the chat, she begs, should not last long.
Her tone is warm, as she says, “ We’ll talk for only 10 minutes, I have to attend to other urgent matters.”
Ten minutes, I wondered. To get fact from the lady, who recently bagged an award for her services to humanity?
As I ponder on the first shot, she snaps me out of reverie, saying with a diction that sticks out in rhyming lore, “what I miss most as a governor’s wife is my freedom.” A fit of laughter fills the air. “I can’t go to the market freely.”
There’s an excellent atmosphere in the room and suddenly, she breathes, ”my mission is yet to be fully realised.”
She says her mission is to alleviate the suffering of women and less-privileged in Delta State. And in five years, she has done so, albeit, quietly. On May 12, however, she will make some noise about Mastercare Foundation, which in the past five years has addressed the plight of women, especially widows in that state.
On that day, the foundation will host wife of Acting President, Dame Patience Jonathan, in a
programme themed Lending a helping hand.
To be held in Asaba, Delta State, it is an opportunity for Mrs. Uduaghan to highlight Mastercare’s activities.
According to the lady, since the Foundation’s inception, it has made remarkable impact on the lives of widows, women and children in Delta State, which the world has to know.
“Part of the project has been the provision of working tools and equipment, which includes free farm in-puts and implements (fertilizer, cassava stems, premium treated maize for higher yields) to boost their earning, distribution of gifts to the children, execution of certain projects such as the free eye-care programme, provision of empowerment tolls like boats, fishing nets, tricycles, hair dryers and other saloon kits, and many others,” she says innocently.
ON November 2, 2009, Mastercare Foundation, in collaboration with John Hopkins University, United States of America, marked the first World Pneumonia Day in Delta State. The event featured a rally and lectures from different professionals on the causes, symptoms and prevention of pneumonia. She says plans are still on the way to initiate projects that would create more opportunities for women and children to live better lives.
Mrs. Uduaghan opens one of the brochures on her table and details her assistant to bring it closer. “Women need to be given a sense of belonging, direction and self worth so that they can live responsibly, comfortably and contribute meaningfully to the growth and development in the society,” she said. “I selected widows because that is where the group of people I feel greatly for lies, because of what they are going through when their husbands die,” she snorts.
Uduaghan explains with a deep chuckle, “it is a programme I have been doing for five years now, even before I became the governor’s wife. We have been working for some time now. May 12 has been set aside for public presentation — a kind of outdooring… you know, we want to tell the world what we are doing, I can’t just come out to show the public empty basket.”
She says, “most of the time, I deal with the women directly. Just like this event, I invited people and I told them to get me 10 women from each local council, who are in business or want to pursue a career,” she pauses and adds, “whatever I do, I go down to the grassroots; I do most of the things myself. I do not have much money to do these things, so there is no way I will now give it to somebody that will not value what I am doing. When you see the people I give, you will know that of the truth they are in need. I do not deal on word basis, I also scrutinise them.”
MASTERCARE is also launching a Business Career Clinic in Delta State — a women empowerment initiative — that will highlight available business opportunities to the Delta woman.
This programme entails lectures and various training programmes on different business ventures that the women can build on. The lectures are to hold every month over a period of 10 months in diverse locations in the state. The first lecture holds in Asaba on Thursday, May 6.
According to her, through the empowerment programme, “we want to find out what they actually want to do, if they have the opportunity.”
She adds, “for those we assist, we don’t just give them money, every assistance is dependent on what they are actually doing and what they want to do. For those that are hairdressers, and do not have the means to establish themselves, we give them a full package of a salon… but we don’t rent stores for them. We also give them grinders and refrigerators to sell cold water and drink, amongst others.”
As the governor’s wife, one of the major challenges she faces is the misconception of what the position is all about. “People just sit and imagine that governors’ wives have solutions to all problems, they can answer all problems; they are even God; and when they do not see what they expect, they try to blackmail you or call you names. They do not realise that as a governor’s wife, you are just a housewife like any other one out there. You are really doing what you are doing for public not for any man,” the youthful lady says, sipping the liquid in her glass.
ON Nigerian women, Uduaghan had this to say: “They are very industrious; never mind the extent we have reached now, we are trusting on God we will get there one day. They are the best of women that I have ever come across. They are patient, industrious and very hardworking; you cannot do without the average Nigerian woman.”
Why are Nigerian youths left out in her project? She answers, “ I can’t serve everybody. As I said earlier, this thing I am doing is not a governor’s wife project; I am doing it, as a call from God and the youths are not part of the project. It is only for widows and children but if the youth fall into the group of widows/children, fine. I am not the governor; it is the governor that is responsible for everybody.”
Asked what her style is, she answers, “I do not know, I just wear what I wear that suits me, and maybe, the occasion I am going to. I like wearing free clothes, I do not like tight-fitted clothes.”
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