More often than not, people tend to imagine what they would have turned out to be if certain things didn’t happen in their lives. This is the case with Joy Ozobo, popularly known as Mama Chinedu, a 39-year-old ‘hustler,’ who said that life would have been different for her if she hadn’t lost her parents at a young age. A ‘hustler’ in Warri parlance refers to someone who lays his or her hand on anything that can bring money into the pocket. So, Joy, was met roasting fresh corn (maize) besides selling petrol in cans. She is also into sale of brake and engine oil, among others as means of survival.
Joy, who spoke with Saturday Tribune at the popular Giniuwa Junction along Warri-Sapele Road, said her misfortune started when she lost both parents. That singular incident made her engage in existential struggles too early in life. She dropped out of secondary school and confronted life squarely by doing menial jobs to survive. The hope of a better life in the future was bleak, she told Saturday Tribune.
“My name is Joy Ozobo, I hail from Agbarha and I am 39 years old. I attended primary and secondary school, but I dropped out of secondary school when I lost my father and my mother.
“As nobody would help me and my siblings, I began to work as a sales girl. From that job, I gathered some money to enroll for tailoring apprenticeship.
“While learning the skill, I met a youngman who began to assist me. I couldn’t finish learning the skill before my boss, who’s a pastor’s wife, left for Lagos where her husband was transfered to,” she said.
Fortune smiled at her in 2006 when she met her late husband, Morgan Ofashi, with whom she had five kids. Morgan treated her like a queen having known how she had suffered. However, life showed up with its cruelty again when she lost Morgan, a welder, to a sudden chest pain at age 40 and she had to do all she could do to make sure she and her children survive. By the time Morgan, an indigene of Kwale in Delta, passed, she was nursing a three-month old baby girl, Favour, who’s now in primary school.
She lamented that, though she has been doing her best to make sure she gives her children a good education, her best has not been good enough because most of the time she doesn’t have enough money to fend for her children as well as take care of their educational needs.
She said, “I married my husband around 2006 and I had my first child around 2007. My husband hailed from Kwale. If my father were to be alive, I wouldn’t have gone into marriage, I would have finished schooling at least to secondary school level. I wouldn’t have been scavenging on road sides to survive. The same thing applies to my husband; assuming he was still alive, perhaps things wouldn’t have been hard for me like this. Because he was making sure that I suffered no lack.
“He was a welder and NEPA official. He just returned from work one day and began to complain of chest pain and I just had my last born, Favour, that time.
“As he was complaining of the chest pain, I rushed to go buy some drugs across the counter for him. He couldn’t take the drug. Before I knew what was happening, he slumped and began to convulse. I had to cry out for help; my neighbours rushed him to the General Hospital, but he died before they got him to the hospital. He was just 40.
“Since he died, only me have been training the five children – two boys, three girls. The little hustle I engage in isn’t enough for me to cater for their needs.
“Two of them are about to gain admission to secondary school now and as I speak with you, I do not know where to source the money from. In fact, I’m still sourcing for N6, 000 to collect the Primary Six certificate of Morgan who’s already writing his JSS 3 exams now.
“As you can see, I roast corn to sell, but it’s a seasonal trade. What I sell most is petrol and unfortunately, the pump price has gone up due to the fuel subsidy removal. I engage in any ‘hustle’ that I can do so that my children can eat.
“We finish a four-litre bucket of garri only in three days. I can’t estimate how much I spend on foodstuff everyday.”
When asked what her late husband’s family was doing to help in the upkeep and training of the children, she said, with some hesitation, that though the family, initially, was forthcoming, they, however, except for two of them, abandoned them as time went by. “My husband’s sister is trying, sometimes she sends some things for the children. But most times, I have to call her and if I called, she’d send the children some foodstuffs. But for some time now, if I call her, she will tell me that things aren’t okay for her.
“Another of his sisters, who’s a graduate, always calls to check up on the children. Just that she hasn’t gotten a job yet to assist us.”
The five children – Blessing (girl), Morgan (boy), Destiny (girl), Chinedu (boy) and Favour (girl) – Beautiful and handsome, they are unfortunately, growing up fast on the street with attendant negative influences. That is the mother’s worry. She said she is working hard to train them to be responsible adults.
“This environment is not good for children, but the way I train them is that I always show them how criminal suspects are beaten to a pulp by the community boys in the area. I always tell them to make sure they do not take what doesn’t belong to them so they won’t end that way,” she enthused.
Mama Chinedu plead with government and well-wishers to assist her in training the children so that they would be able to finish their schooling and then learn a trade.
“I need help to train my children so they can finish their primary and secondary school. Two of them are in primary school. The senior girl is in Senior Secondary School (SSS) II. Next year, she will write WAEC/SSCE.
“I want to make sure they finish their secondary school and thereafter learn a trade,” she said.
Mama Chinedu, in spite of her condition, has fallen victim of bad boys. “Based on the fact that this area is rough, bad boys one day came to rob me of my hard-earned money which I wanted to take to the market. I cried to my bones as that was my little capital.”
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