THE OMO OLOORE STORIES
STORY 9: I COLLAPSED!
In 2012 while I was still Commissioner for Youth and Sport, the Ministry organized a series of events at the time. One of such events was the Oyo State Job Fair/Empowerment program for young people.
The idea of the empowerment part of the program was to provide young people with skills, start-up kits and a seed fund with which they could commence operations when the program was over.
We had this program twice in my tenure and over 2000 youths were trained through that program and the skills acquisition ranged from Barbing to Hair dressing to Fashion designing to Graphic design to Event management to Photography and Videography.
Here is how we selected the participants – we created a website and people were directed to apply to be a part of the skills acquisition program.
We gave a 30% slot to public office holders who had candidates interested in the program while we gave 70% to the members of the public who would be selected based on merit.
A screening committee was set up with my humble self as the head. I wanted to be sure that only people who merited to be in the program got in so I really rolled up my sleeves and got involved. I wanted to be able to beat my chest to say ‘yes, only those who merited to be in the program got in.’
Being a part of the program was such an eye opener for me. After we released the names of those who had qualified, we invited them over to verify their credentials.
Among those who had applied to be selected were people with two Masters degrees. In fact, there was someone with a PhD who applied and I was just like – ‘whao!!!’ It was then I confirmed my conviction that we were sitting on a keg of gunpowder with the issue of unemployment in the country.
All these discoveries made me doubly committed to see the event through to fruition.
We got trainers in different skills sets – we made sure they were people who had built pedigree in their vocation.
During the period of the training, we had a top government official come around to talk to the participants and just admonish them. This time, it was the deputy governor that we had invited so he came two days to the end of the program.
Just before it was my time to mount the podium to speak, I realized that I was feeling feverish. I was seated next to the Deputy Governor and then, next to me was the Permanent Secretary for Youth and Sport.
I was in my seat and I knew that I was getting out of shape. I was extremely tired and it felt like I’d collapse in that chair on which I sat. The MC called my name to come over and give my speech – he had no clue what was going on with me. I leaned over to the Deputy Governor and told him what I was going through; then he signalled to the Permanent Secretary to go up and read my speech on my behalf.
As the Permanent Secretary was reading the speech, I mustered all the strength in me and made my way out of the auditorium.I got out and I couldn’t find my driver, obviously he had gone on to chill.
In the end, he was found and then I told him to take me straight home. Before we got home, I called my brother and told him to meet me at my place. I can’t remember how I made it to the door but as I entered the house, I collapsed on the floor. I was immediately rushed to the hospital.
Now, this incident happened two days to the closing ceremony of an event that we had worked so tirelessly to put together and the Governor himself was billed to come during the closing ceremony in two days’ time. I was on medication and I had drips being passed into me. The doctors who attended to me told me I had to be on admission for some more days. My mother came to the hospital to be with me, my brother and a couple friends also came too.
On the third day when the Governor was coming to close the event, I was still in the hospital. It was also the day we were supposed to give out the start-up kits and the seed-funds worth millions of Naira to the beneficiaries of the program. That morning, with the drip line still in my hand, I sneaked out of the hospital. I had made arrangement for the event’s branded t-shirt and face cap to be brought over to the hospital and so I changed into the outfit inside the car. Then, we headed straight to the venue of the event.
As I appeared at the venue, people saw the drip line and began to ask why I had come when I wasn’t fully okay yet. The event opened and it was the Speaker,Sen. Monsurat Summonu who came up first. Immediately she saw me she also asked why I had come.
Then came the governor, he saw the drip line too and he was furious. He scolded me big time and he directed that we completed the program on time so I could go back and rest. I couldn’t bear to be in a hospital bed while such a big event was going on.
I had dragged myself there because I just wanted to make sure that everything ran smoothly and thankfully the event went as planned.
After the Governor gave his speech, we took him round to show him the things we were giving out and he was really impressed. He handed over the startup kits to a few participants for picture-taking and documentation while the rest would be done by us as he had to leave and attend to other state matters.
As he was leaving, I walked him to his car and when the convoy had begun to move, I headed back to the auditorium. Then, people began to signal to me that the Governor was beckoning to me and I walked up to his convoy. He said he noticed that I was going back to the auditorium and he directed that I should head back to my car right there and then; and go back to the hospital. I said ‘yes sir’ and after he had left I went back to the auditorium. We made sure that we distributed the kits and the funds and it was a successful outing.
To my dismay, as I was leaving the venue of the event – we saw a couple of people boldly selling their startup kits right there in front of the hall!
The people for whom I had sneaked out of the hospital were selling the things we had put in place for them right where we had given them. If I had died when I snuck out of the hospital, that is how they’d have gone on to sell their kits and life would have moved on and I’d have remained dead.
I learnt a big lesson - no matter what you’re doing in service of the people give your very best but also, prioritize yourself. Stay alive.
(join me every Wednesday at 6pm, as I share with you personal stories from my journey so far and the lessons I have learned from them)
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