Governor Oborevwori
OpenLife Nigeria reports that succour came the way of Mama Sarah Usimame Oisakede, mother of late former President of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Comrade Moses Oisakede, who died 25 years ago in a fatal motor accident on September 1, 1999.
It will be recalled that Oisakede met his untimely death on his way to resolve expulsion issues of over 104 students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, who were protesting the poor condition of their school.
Twenty five years after his death, FOOSTODEY, a Foundation with Oisakede’s associate, as International Coordinator, facilitated the building and furnishing of a 4-bedroom bungalow for Mama Sarah Oisakede at Otuo Community in Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State.
The foundation spent N52.5m on the project with N22million from its coffers, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and wife, Tobore donated N18million altogether while other donors made up the balance.
The elated matriarch of the Oisakede family was full of praise and prayers for Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his wife, FOOSTODEY and all donors to the project.
She said, “25 years ago cement used to sell at N200 a bag, today it is selling for N10,000, now, when everything is difficult for everybody you still remembered Mama Moses and built a house for me.
“God who created everybody will not allow you to suffer. Governor Oborevwori and his wife doesn’t know me yet they assisted me. You took away suffer and shame from my life, you will not lack anything good in your life.
“We thank you for crying out and all those who heard you and supported this project. Your lives will be a success and your going out and coming back will be without any hitches.”
Moses’ elder brother, Kevin Oisakede, expressed gratitude to Governor Oborevwori, his wife and all donors, saying, I have kept touch with the constituency Moses left and I thank God that not everybody forgot that they were in activism together.
“Around June, 2024, I got a call from Moses’ associate that God Ministered to him to build a home for Mama Oisakede. He is another son who has made mama to forget the pain of Moses’ loss.
“I thank every true friend of Moses who have been able to put this together for mama. Moses was a selfless man who was always ready to give out what he had for others.”
For Moses’ mentor, Mike Igaga, he described the late students leader as a fearless man who faced issues headlong, saying, Moses loved peace and was ready to fight for the well being of others.
“Moses stood for justice, equity and fairness, Moses ended activism because if NANS was what it ought to be after Moses, the mother shouldn’t be getting a home now.”
Speaking during a visit to Mama Sarah Oisakede at Otuo, Moses’ associate who chose to remain anonymous, said the late Moses Oisakede meant different things to different people.
“For me, I repeatedly said Moses was for me the last true NANS President. Moses was the leader that was born with leadership.
“His leadership was so inspiring that at the time I met Moses as NANS president, I was also one of the victims of the high-handed, military dictators disguised in academic garbs that were in charge of our tertiary institutions across the country.
“Democracy had just started in 1999. Coming from a military background, they had sent all of us out of school for being student union leaders and demanding for the basic amenities such as electricity and water that students required to study.
“Moses became NANS President at the time when NANS had been fractionalized between the government agents NANS and the true NANS.
“Moses did not need government funding, neither did he depend on the CDHR wing that funded the other arm of NANS. Moses’ message was quite clear. He was going to be president of Nigeria’s students.
“He was not going to be president of CDHR, he was not going to be president of Aso Rock. But he was going to be President of Nigeria’s students.
“True to his promise, Moses became the first NANS President to institute the Directorate of Action and Mobilization of NANS with the principal objective of ensuring that wherever there were issues between management and students, NANS quickly moved in, to resolve such issues before they escalated into crisis.
“It was Moses that brought to fore the three C’s of NANS, consensus, consultation and confrontation. For him, there was need for consensus, consultation and confrontation in resolving issues.
“Moses was never scared to confront but he would give the management of such institutions enough room to at least open rooms for negotiation and look for a peaceable way out of whatever issues they were.
“Another thing that was endearing about Moses, there is one quality that you don’t find among leaders of this generation, Moses was completely humble and accessible.
“For him, honour and integrity were a matter of nature, he didn’t need to be reminded at any time. He was built on an ideology and thank God you have met with Mike Igaga who was like the mentor of Moses’ ideology.
“Moses came to PTI to resolve the PTI dispute, i had told him to come but the day he came i was not part of the meeting, but when Moses left that meeting everybody on the management side of PTI were impressed because I heard the feedback.
“They said, how the hell do students have so much facts to negotiate with management with so much experience? And that was Moses for you. He was committed to the resolution of all the crises across all the campuses in Nigeria.
“His hostel in Ekpoma was virtually not his own, all you needed to do was just get to Ekpoma and you said you were looking for Moses. The moment you got to the hostel and Moses was not around. Somebody in the hostel would ask you, have you eaten?
“Moses did not have a certain set of income, but he had the restaurant where he was paying bills upon bills for students from other campuses who converged on Ekpoma for Moses to come to their campus to solve one problem or the other.
“That was Moses and he was able to balance that with his academic work. That ability to inspire trust, inspire confidence, inspire leadership in people, I have never found in any other NANS President after Moses passed on.”
When asked what inspired him to embark on the project, the associate said, “I have this nature of remembering my friends irrespective of what life throws at us. I believe that friends should not just be friends at the moment of comfort.
“When we came to bury Moses, that was when I made a commitment. Moses’ father was seeing us off and he prayed that ‘the pain I am experiencing now will not be the pain of your parents’.
“That was after we had laid Moses to rest and of course that meant the pain of losing a child should not be our pain and that of our parents.
“That thing struck me and I made a vow, I said, God if I start working, wherever this family is, I am going to give them a million naira and I am going to look for them anywhere by NTA Newsline, social media or any other means.
“So sometime in 2014, I remembered that promise I had made and then I called up Mama Oisakede and I sent in that N1,000,000 million Naira and from there, from time to time I reached out to her.”
“I remembered that if Moses was alive, perhaps he would have been Governor of Edo State by now and mama will not be moving from one place to another.
“We had a very small budget when we started. I thought it was something that I could run through with, but at a point in time it became clear that this was not something I could run alone.
“So I reached out to His Excellency, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and he supported us, he gave us N3million and we started other Comrades supported, Mr. Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Emomotimi Guwor, Mr. Victor Arokoyo, Mr. Chinedu, Pharm. Ike Klinsmann, Olorogun Efe Mrakpor, Johnbull Adaghe, Ambrose Obioha, Tijani Kabiru, Ayodele Adewale, Olusegun Olayele, Saleh Kuba, Uzor Tiga, Zayaan Tambari and a few other persons contributed.
“But I can assure you that their contribution was very instrumental to the completion of this project.
“What I found most interesting about it is that if I go into the story of the number of persons who rode on the back of Moses Oisakede to become what they are in life today, you will be shocked to see that it took this long for a mama to get a roof over her head.
“Philip Shaibu is the immediate past Deputy Governor of Edo State, without the death of Moses Oisakede perhaps he would never had been where he is today. The same goes for Dino Melaye, Herman Hembe, Tony Nwoye, Reuben Izeze, Osadebe Andrew Uche, Ayodele Adewale, Victor Edoro former Speaker Edo State House of Assembly.
“Everybody rode on the back of Moses, the death of Moses was the opening that opened the doors for most of them.
“But at death, they were unable to render assistance. When people ask me why are you doing this? I said, Moses was my friend. I don’t know how to define friendship. Moses was my comrade. I don’t know how to define comradeship. Moses was my brother. I don’t know how to define brotherhood.
“So to get this far, eventually, it took the active support of Her Excellency, Deaconess Tobore Oborevwori who had given N2.5million at first through her Foundation, ‘You Matter Charity Foundation’ and when she saw what had been done, she realised that her foundation has a mission for widows.
“She just said she was going to take care of the interior decoration. That is aside from the fact that all the electronics you see here, including the gas burner, the cylinders, the television, the sound system, all the standing fans, she procured those ones separately.
“And this cost her N3.6 million. So if you add N3.6 to that, plus two million, her commitment to this project is about N10 million.
“Now His Excellency on his own part, had given us three million when we started. Then we got to the point where the place was ready, I said, if I were doing this house for my own mum, as I had done, would I not put water there?
“I was running away from the water challenge because of the topography. I knew that the aquifer here is very, very far and to get good water here, we need professional geologists to carry out a study and all that.
“So eventually we decided, okay, since we want to put the water there, let’s see what it will cost and they gave us a bill of N5 million naira.
“I went to his His Excellency, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori again and he agreed to bankroll it and that’s how he bankrolled the water project that you saw behind.
“So, Mama has basically everything that she needs to live a comfortable old lady’s life and it’s not to make her forget about Moses, it’s to make her remember that just as Moses continually said throughout his struggles, that ‘life is worth living only to the extent that it is lived in the service of humanity’.
“That her son did not die, that Moses lives even now. Moses lives in defense, in the ideology that he professed while he was alive and it is that ideology that has brought this to Mama. So Mama, your son lives and will never die.
“Neither Governor Oborevwori or his wife are from Otuo or Edo State, yet, they showed uncommon empathy when called upon. One as Moses’ former schoolmate and the other as an advocate for widow’s welfare and care.”
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