By Prisca Sam-Duru
Cordelia Okechukwu is a director with the Lagos State Ministry of Special Duties who works closely with the youths especially corps members. With special interest in uplifting the standard of health of Nigerians, she assists her husband in operating a foundation for community health support.
In this interview, she narrates how her experiences as house help gave her the needed encouragement to be a figure to be reckoned with in addition to resolving to assist other individuals live a meaningful life. She also gives practical methods of earning a living. Excerpts.
My background
My name is Cordelia Usonwanne Okechukwu, a graduate with degree in Education, from the University of Ife.
Cordelia Okechukwu
I also have a post graduate Diploma in Financial Management and Masters Degree in Business Administration in 1988. I am happily married to Pastor Aloy Okechukwu, a Chartered Accountant and Pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God. We are blessed with three male children.
I joined Lagos State Government in 1997 and have worked as Director, Labour Agency; Public Works Corporation; Public Service Staff Development Centre(PSSDC) Magodo and a Director at the Ministry of Special Duties from 2008 till date.
So how was growing Up?
Growing up was not easy at all. We were seven, that is, my grandma, mother, and my siblings. We lived in a one room apartment and things were seriously tough for us because my mother was a single parent. But with hard work, and God on her side, she was able to train all of us.
As a result of the ugly situation we found ourselves, I started my life as a maid with a family that was really nice to me and that was way back in Primary 2. Theirs was a very wealthy family and surprisingly, they were good to me.
Then, when I was in Primary 4, I left that family and proceeded to live with another relative who treated me so badly. My experiences were nothing compared with what happened during my stay with the first family. Between the period when I was in primary 5 and form 2 in Badagry Grammar School, I lived with another person.
It was not a fantastic movement from one home to another but I give glory to God. Within this period of living as a maid, the first family I lived with influenced my determination to work very hard and be somebody great in life because they were very wealthy even as far back as 1968.
To be honest, it was not fun living in a face-to-face building in this Lagos which to a large extent, contributed to my plight when I lived with the other families which did not take good care of me. All the same, I thank God for my mother who struggled to make sure my siblings and I later received sound education.
What are the lessons you learnt from all that?
My experiences in life have thought me that an idle brain is the devil's workshop.
Although moving from one home to the other as a house help wasn't the best at all, it shaped my thoughts about life because I decided to look at the positive side of everything. I will never support the idea of children being given out as maids because there are so much hazards involved.
What are some of the challenges you encounter working with youths?
I am not comfortable at all with the way our youths are living their lives. There is too much emphasis on higher education though it is a great idea to go to the university but what happens when the individual concerned does not have a sponsor? Nobody wants to learn a trade any longer.
It is higher school or nothing, and we no longer have people wanting to do apprenticeship anymore. Most of the young men these days want to become Okada riders because it is a money spinner while the girls want to become commercial sex workers because it is an easy and quicker means of making money.
By virtue of my job in the Ministry of Special Duties and my involvement with youth corps members, I try to let them know at every given opportunity, the importance of acquiring a skill during service.
Youths must wake up and discover how they can help themselves without depending on any assistance the government or anybody can render to them. I usually advice them to look for a need around them and try to meet that need and then, through that, money would start flowing in.
They should look for a service that is missing around their environment and render that service and I am sure, that will turn out to be a good starting point. For instance, an unemployed youth who lives in an estate where there is no single drycleaner can start dry-cleaning service by going to people's homes to collect and return their cloths, and money surely, will come.
Also, where there is no barbing salon, the individual in question can give hair cut service to people at home. This is home service and the person makes money without even paying shop rent. The same goes for a lady who can make women's hair.
This is particularly lucrative these days and also because she only has to get simple tools like combs which are cheap to get. Before long, rather than looking for a brothel to work as harlot, she would be known by so many and this would automatically lead to her getting a shop and expanding the business. Remember that the Bible says that we should not despise small beginnings.
There is dignity in labour so I advice that women should stop down-grading themselves and acquire a skill. As a matter of fact, list of skills is unending. They can start by rendering services to neighbours, church members, relations, husbands' relations, brothers and sisters, old school mates as well as their friends. They do not need to go too far to look for clientele at the beginning.
Are these parts of your job at your health foundation?
Well, I try to touch all aspects of not just the youths but everyone at the Foundation. The issue is that I believe people must be healthy to be able to work or acquire a skill in the first place, which is why my husband and I started the foundation for community health support.
Our mission is to make a positive impact on the lives of people in local communities.
To this effect, in December 2010 we were in Imo state and in another community in Osun state last April. Next, we will be going to Ibeku ,Yewa north in November. And as this project takes us around the country, we talk to the youths in the local communities on some possible ways to live a healthy and meaningful life.
What parents should do
At this point, I will advise that parents bring up their children in the fear and nurture of God. Do not encourage the children to cut corners be it to pass exams or get jobs or even to gain admission into tertiary institutions. Helping our children learn how to cheat in any way surely has a boomerang effect.
I must commend the Lagos state Ministry of Special Duties for the availability of skills acquisition centres in the state. Our technical schools have been upgraded and the women development centre in Agege is doing so much to empower our women.
But because the government cannot do everything for the people, Nigerians especially our youths must rise up to make a positive impact on their lives so that they can in turn affect others especially the less privilege, positively. By so doing, we would be eliminating violence and societal ills from our midst.
