Pastor Solomon Abumere Folorunsho
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
By Sebastine Ebhuomhan
Pastor Solomon Abumere Folorunsho is the founder of the Home For The Needy, a humanitarian organisation whose motto is: giving hope to the hopeless. He coordinates the Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camp at No. 12, School Road, Off Upper Siluko Road, Uhogua, Ovia North East Local Government Area, Edo State. A humanitarian, he has quietly moulded greater leaders and followers from the multitude of orphaned children, abandoned children, out-of-school children, street children, the less privileged, vulnerable citizens, the poor, widows, and victims of bloodshed, rape, bombing, terrorism, banditry, killing and broken homes now exploring new meanings to life at the centre. Founded in 1992 to generally provide the needy with food, accommodation, clothes, health and education, the centre presently boasts of over 300 indigent undergraduates in different universities across Nigeria with a growing number of graduates capped and robed in the highest feathers from the greater number in secondary, primary and nursery schools. Mr. Ishaku Amos, one of the many brilliant leaders Folorunsho has nurtured, tutored and mentored, is presently on a fully funded scholarship for his PhD at the University of Illinois in Chicago, the USA, since August 2024. How has Folorunsho succeeded in his gigantic, seemingly impossible task of nourishing dying lives? In this interview he granted to Sebastine Ebhuomhan in the sprawling, orderly, serene, conducive ambience of the alluring centre, he revealed how he maintains a high level of discipline, responsibility and leadership for the over 4, 500 children and other persons in the centre. He recalled how the government of Mr. Godwin Obaseki unlawfully withheld thousands of bags of rice and jerry cans of cooking oil the Federal Government sent to feed the children of the centre and how the governor tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to close down the centre. Furthermore, he reminisced on the centre’s relationship with the government of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and its neighbouring communities. Lastly, he shared his belief in Governor-elect Monday Okpebholo and Deputy Governor-elect Dennis Idahosa, the lawmaker who currently legislates for Ovia South West and Ovia North East Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives.
You won an award recently, Sir. What is the name of the award?
I received the Most Outstanding Humanitarian Person in Nigeria, awarded by the International Institute of Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development; and also, I received a Doctorate in Humanitarian Services and Social Development. Those are the two awards.
This two-in-one award makes you a great individual, a great personality, and a great citizen recognized for contributing his best to the development of humanity. How do you feel after receiving the awards?
Yes. I thank God. I accepted the two awards to spur and to inspire people. And I dedicate them to the children that I have been caring for. Now, they know that when you are consistently doing good, one day, the world will definitely recognise you. They now know that God always recognises good works, and the world also recognises you even when you do not expect any reward. That is why I accepted. And all the children are really inspired by the awards. Everyone is now working hard (to be recognised). They know that one day, recognition would come.
What does this global recognition mean to your work?
To be candid, I did not deliberately work to get recognition. The purpose of what I am doing is not for the world to praise me. I am only doing it for humanity because I feel everybody deserves the best. Yes, everyone deserves the best. We were created equal, and we need equal opportunities to thrive. That is why I am working. That is why I am doing what I am doing. Then, it means encouragement. But I am really working to get a reward from God. It is the best when God rewards you. This one that the world gives to you is just for the purpose of encouraging others to do good.
You said your children are motivated after seeing you with the awards. This shows their positive reaction to whatever you achieve. How has it been easy to coordinate and manage them for success, especially in view of their large population?
Well, I do not want to use the word bitter-sweet. But that would have been the best way to describe it. It has been very tough and very challenging. But I thank God for those who stood with us, those who fought for us, those who gave us from the little they had, those who gave us from the much they had, those who believed in us, those who trusted me, and those who believed in the children despite that they came from a very terrible background like: bloodshed, rape, killing, bombing, broken homes, the streets, etc. They believed in us that what we set out to do was going to achieve good. Today, I am sure they are very happy to see some of the children becoming doctors. Five were inducted today as medical doctors after their graduation. To understand and appreciate the success of these children, you need to hear their stories. This is what encourages me. Just now, another one sent me his result. He studied Communication Engineering at ABU (Ahmadu Bello University). He was the best graduating student. He achieved a record of being the best-ever student in his department with a first-class result. Just now, he sent the record to me. The best! We have another one who also graduated from the ABU. At about five years old, this child went to the farm with his father. Terrorists came to their house after they left for the farm, poisoned their water, and forced his family at home to drink the water. His mother, brothers, sisters, and animals all died. He was the only survivor because he went to the farm with his father. A little time later, his father abandoned him and ran away with another woman. And that was how the child suffered until he found us. Today, he graduated as a pharmacist from Ahmadu Bello University. As I am talking to you now, he is in this compound. These great results and these awards are great inspiration and comfort to me.
We have had negative times too when officials of the Edo State government read wrong meanings into our good intentions. They brought a lot of trouble to us, and many bad things happened. Today, I am happy now that the government is going. But we thank God for some past governments that stood with us. Especially, the government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and the government of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Adams Oshiomhole’s government built a secondary school and gave it to us. Today, that school is producing wonderful intellectuals. This is why the children of this camp have never forgotten about him. They remember him every time. The time of his government was when we really felt governance. When Oshiomhole was in government, there was hardly no week that his wife would not come here like three to four times. You would see his wife playing table tennis with the children, cooking foods, encouraging them in one activity or another. She brought a lot of healing and hope. Once in a while, you would see Oshiomhole here, dancing, jumping, bringing foods, training the children. They really felt loved. Even when we started relocating some of them who we felt needed to be resettled elsewhere around Abuja, Jos, etc., we had access to his government. We would reach out to the governor. “Mr. Governor, we have about 150 people who have found a place where they can resettle after staying here.” Oshiomhole would simply send the Comrade Bus to carry all of them to the Government House. He would cook for them, they would eat sumptuously, he would give them gifts, clothes, wrappers and other things. At that time, he would give them N150,000.00 each. That was how we relocated people. We relocated over 7,000 people to different places. Some of them acquired lands and started farming. Others started businesses. At that time, Oshiomhole’s wife introduced them to skills like catering, sewing, etc, and gave them money to establish themselves. But we had over 3,000 persons who had nowhere to go. Quite a young population, most of whom are orphans, who stayed back here to go to schools. They don’t have fathers, they don’t have mothers, they don’t have anybody or place to go to. These persons are the ones that are still here today, who are now graduating as doctors, lawyers, engineers, and the different other fields that they are graduating from.
Do you think these children will still receive Comrade Adams Oshiomhole if he suddenly shows up here today, unannounced, since he is no longer the state governor?
(Laughs). Heheheheee… Oshiomhole won’t go home. Every day, they ask after him. When is Daddy coming? They call him daddy. Then, they also call him Oshiobaba. Once they see him coming, I won’t be able to control them.
Are you saying that since Oshiomhole left power as Edo State governor, he hasn’t visited here?
Let me tell you this. When Oshiomhole left power, he came with his wife within a year, along with more than 80 bags of rice. He gave us more than N3 million. Let me tell you what he did. While his wife was playing with the children, he was teaching the children from class to class, encouraging the teachers. He would sit down in some classes just to watch the teachers’ teaching. He gave some of the teachers N40,000.00 for teaching the children very well. Others got N30,000.00 each that day. All the teachers in the school were so motivated. That is why you can not come here and say anything bad or negative about Oshiomhole. These are his beneficiaries. It’s not like a made-up story. They have benefited from him. So, if Oshiomhole comes here today, in fact, nobody would even know that you are here. Even when they have not seen him, it is where he goes that they go. There is nothing I can do about it. If they hear that this is Oshiomhole’s direction, everybody would go along because he has made a mark in their hearts that nothing can erase. And there is nothing anybody can do about it. The children suffered for it. And it’s not as if Oshiomhole bribed them. He earned their trust and love by showing them what a father is, what a government is, and what governance is all about. He showed them the humanity that is in him even after he left the government. In fact, there are a lot of his support that I can not even mention now.
But you have just mentioned one of his supports. You said after leaving power as Edo State governor, Oshiomhole still brought 80 bags of rice for the feeding of children of this centre or camp…
(He interjected for a quick correction). More than 80 bags of rice. There are times he would just send money and say, “How are my children doing? Please use this money to feed them.” At other times, he would send food stuff.
Good. That leads to another question. If ex-governor Oshiomhole has done more even after leaving office, what has his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki, been doing for these children since he assumed power in 2016?
The opposite. Obaseki has done the totally opposite! Oshiomhole’s successor did not want to see the children here. We went through horrible time with Obaseki. He was like a hot rod. In fact, I don’t know how to describe him. The children do not know him as a good person. He set up committees several times to close down this place. He sent people here several times to come and count the children so as to know whether the figures I gave them were correct or not. He was absolutely against us from the beginning to the end. In the beginning, Oshiomhole introduced him to us. Oshiomhole told us that he was going to be the new governor. Of course, we were very happy when he did the first Christmas here. Things were okay until it got to the time the federal government sent more than 6,000 bags of rice to these children. At that time, we didn’t know about it. We didn’t know that such bags of rice were sent to us that we didn’t receive. Usually, the FG would send things to us directly. Oshiomhole made sure that the FG was supplying food stuff to us directly while the state government pays for the logistics of sending those things. And the FG now wrote me a letter. They first of all called me to ask if we received the items that were sent to us that I was yet to acknowledge. I said we didn’t get anything. And they said, what? So, they wrote a letter to Edo State governor (Obaseki) and copied me, saying so, so, and so items were sent to me. They said they were coming next week to formally hand it over to me like they normally do. When they did that, I wrote on the letter and forwarded it to the government. That was the beginning of our troubles. At that time, the children were fasting. Overnight, they came here around 12 to 1 am at midnight. Out of 6,000 and something bags of rice, in addition to oil and other things, they brought 2, 101 bags of rice. When they brought it, we were happy. I begged them to let the trucks wait till late morning time because the children were fasting. They have not eaten. But the government people forced the children to offload the trucks that night. After offloading, I asked them about the balance of over 4,000 bags of rice and the jerry cans of cooking oil and other products. That was the beginning of our problems. We felt that, normally, they could send something and some people could do whatever they liked. So, we decided to ask questions. But they flared up. Yet, we kept it cool. At that time, there were DSS, NSCDC, Army, and Police personnel here. We give them reports of everything we do here. In fact, those DSS and Army personnel asked them, “why are you angry? They are only asking questions. Look at the letter. It stated what was sent.” From then, it was one bad tale or another. They went to the press and made allegations against us. I began getting calls that we wanted to bring down the government. From then, it was either one committee or another coming here in relation to one petition or another. To the extent that government officials went to radio stations to allege that I take the children here to cities to beg for money in the morning and bring them back here in the evening. All manner of lies! So, you can see we did not feel his government throughout his tenure. But the children were resilient and determined. I told the children, “Look, you would have to make do with what we have.” That is how we endured until today. They can speak for themselves. Some of them are more well educated than even some of the government officials. How can you look at somebody who made nine (9) A and compare him or her to someone who does not even have five (5) credits? Are you now telling me that these inducted medical doctors are the beggars you see on the streets of Benin City? Are you saying these graduates are the people I captured from somewhere for the purpose of using them to make money on the streets of Edo State? These are brilliant children. I just took one child to the United States of America recently. He graduated with a first-class degree as the best graduating student of his school and got a scholarship to study for a PhD. at the University of Illinois. He is being celebrated already. These are the children you wanted to send back to go and die. These are the people you do not have mercy on. The story speaks for itself.
Are you publicly saying that you are yet to receive the balance of the bags of rice, jerrycans of cooking oil, etc, that the Obaseki government unlawfully withheld as of today?
We did not get them. From then till now, we have not gotten them. The letter is in the public domain. If you Google it, you will find the information because we submitted it to different agencies here. I am sure it got to the public through those agencies. The Nigeria Customs Service wrote a letter to us. The issue is that you can not fight the government and succeed in whatever way it offended you. But then, President Muhammadu Buhari, too, was not nice to us. His government was not nice. He brought religious consideration into governance. A lot of lies were being peddled and the children were at the receiving end. Today, after a long endurance from the children, the North is benefitting. The literate people we are sending back to the North were taken from there as homeless and IDPs. They came as displaced illiterates. But we are sending them back to the North as doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals. So, you can now see that what they thought initially is not exactly the situation. We are happy now. And we are praying that the in-coming government of Edo State will continue from where Oshiomhole stopped.
What is your relationship with the in-coming government of Senator Monday Okpebholo?
Wonderful. It’s a wonderful relationship. We have a very good relationship with the incoming government. For example, if you look around you here (points his hand from his sitting position), the solar lights that have lighted up everywhere, the current deputy governor-elect put them here as a member of the House of Representatives. He gave these children solar lights. In the nights, when we do not have fuel to power our generators, these children congregate around each solar light to read their books. Do you think they will ever forget such a person? Now, if you look towards there (points to another direction), that is a new transformer. He brought that transformer as a lawmaker. It has been connected. We raised money to connect it. It is set to be commissioned. Sometimes, he brings books for them, he brings marker boards, and he brings desks. So, if he can do these as a representative, what do you expect when he becomes the deputy governor? The governor-elect sent us 300 bags of rice even before he became the governor-elect despite the fact that this place was not his senatorial constituency. Senator Monday Okpebholo sent us 300 bags of rice, and Honourable Dennis Idahosa sent us 250 bags of rice. Altogether, we received a total of 550 bags of rice from both of them. And these things came at a point when there was no food at all. No food at all. But what did we get from those who are in power? Nothing. We got no access. All roads were blocked. I was expecting that the current government would continue from where Oshiomhole stopped. At least, by offering scholarships. Come and see for yourself. Many of them are now in different universities. Over 300 of them. We are owing the different universities to the tune of millions. Thank God some of them are now on scholarship. But there are a lot of them we have not paid their fees. Nothing to buy books for them. I had expected the Obaseki government, going by the way we worked with Oshiomhole’s government, to facilitate other agencies to help us. A lot of people use government patronage to assist the needy. To the extent that the United States Ambassador visited here during Oshiomhole’s government. The Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives visited here during Oshiomhole’s government. We wanted to continue with that relationship. But for this current (Obaseki) government, some people would call us from the United Kingdom. They would say, “Pastor, we wanted to come. But we called so, so, and so people in government. They said they could not support or guarantee our coming.” Either they will tell them they are taking very good care of you or they will tell them you are doing fraud. “We will wait until when they leave power before we visit. We don’t want government problems.” We endured that kind of story. And we are happy that a new wine is coming. With what we have seen, we believe that the incoming government will do much for us. Unlike his deputy governor-elect, who has been here, Okpebholo has not been here. Yet, he sent 300 bags of rice to us. And we received them, thankfully.
From the look of things, the road leading to this camp is one of the worst roads in Benin City. Moreover, how do you generate your drinking water?
We have boreholes. But most of them have broken down. We are in need of clean and good water right now. We need solar pumps. Presently, we operate on generators. It costs us a lot to buy petrol and diesel. I know they will soon commission the transformer. Even after they fix the transformer, we still can’t depend on electricity to pump water. With what we have heard about the governor-elect, we believe in him. He called to speak with me on the phone and said, “Pastor, don’t worry. I know what I’ll do.” Both himself and his deputy governor-elect have called me. We have hope that they will do more than Oshiomhole did. We have hope that when they assume power, they will fix our road. I have heard how the governor-elect fixed many roads in Esan Land. Even his deputy, I have seen many roads in this local government that he did as a representative. I have absolute belief that Governor-elect Monday Okpebholo would take Edo State to greater heights. I have absolute confidence in both of them because of their pedigree.
So, what is your advice to those who have doubts about Edo State direction under Okpebholo and Idahosa?
They should give the new government time. Let us give them time to work. I’m very sure they will do something new. I don’t think anybody wants a repeat of the last eight years.
You listed impassable road, bad water, and abandonment by the Obaseki government as some of the things challenging this camp. What are the other challenges you may like to share with society?
I want society to support us in feeding these children. I want society to support us in educating these children. Moreover, this place has come to stay. The world should know that we started this work in 1992. We started with street children, orphans, widows, and children from broken homes. Today, we can make reference to those early children by saying, “Look at that person. He is now a magistrate. He was like you.” Displaced people started coming here from 2012. We did not start with them. We are actually registered with the federal government to care for the needy in society. Needy like orphans, needy like displaced, needy like widows, etc. Anybody that has needs like home, food, health, that we can meet. That is what we register to do. Thank God the Federal Government gave us that approval. The Federal Ministry of Education gave us that approval. We have an MOU with the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning. So, we have been doing this work for years. We were doing it quietly. Then, the displaced persons came in. Boom! That was what blew us out as people began to pay attention. They started believing that something good is taking place here. So, I want to encourage the incoming government and others in the society that this place is a good ground to raise up children who are frustrated, people who one thing or another brought down to the bottom of life. This place is a place where lives can be restored again and made better.
Are there displaced people from Edo State in this centre, or is it just populated by people from outside the state? I mean, how can out-of-school children on Edo streets benefit from this camp?
If I must be honest with you, we actually started with the Binis. One of our successful daughters now working at the Ministry of Justice is a Benin girl. One of the five inducted doctors I just spoke about is a half-Benin and a half-Delta origin. The mother is from Benin. The father is from Delta State. The father died when she was nine years old. She started staying with us from the age of nine. She is now a medical doctor. So, our people are benefiting from here too. Everyone around us here, the community where we stay, and the neighbouring communities all have their children attending our schools free-of-charge. (The interviewer raises his head and eyebrows in doubt). Yes! All the children attend our schools here free-of-charge. And a lot of people who can not pay school fees come to school here. There are those from Esan Land, from Edo North, from Bayelsa and other states. People from different places are here. You can interact with them if you want. People from the streets come here to attend school free-of-charge. They are many. It is free. So, the children here are not only children from the North. People from the North only came in years later. We have another one who just graduated from the University of Benin, where he read Mathematics. He is from Benin. In fact, some of the teachers we have here today are people who have been here before, and they are from this state. This place was not set up as an IDP camp. It was set up as a Home For The Needy for people who have needs: whether you are Edo, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba etc; whether you are Christians or Moslems or any other religion. That is what this place was set up for.
Since you have been leading these children, there has not been any controversy like camp leaders sleeping with the children or any of them sleeping with another. None of these children has been nabbed for drug, fraud, rape, robbery, kidnapping, violence, etc. How did you successfully nurture many children on the paths of godliness, morality, responsibility, patriotism, and leadership even on the face of widespread deadly cultism ravaging the entire Edo State?
It is tough. You see, we have a very strict regulation here. Myself, I have to follow the regulations, first and foremost. Everybody looks at me as an example. As you can see, the female side is separated from the male side. The time everybody meets is when we are doing sports, fellowship, or things like that. You can not just go to the boys’ or girls’ side. To go and do what? For the grown-ups, if you want to marry, we allow you to marry. But outside that, we do not allow such things. When you are coming into this centre, we give you our conditions. We do not want cultism. We do not want rape or any other bad thing. We do not hinder you from marrying. It is normal to marry. But outside of marriage, we do not want any affair, and we do not want any other thing. We do not want to see our children getting pregnant, giving birth, or anything like that. So, if you agree to our conditions, we allow you to stay. If you do not agree, we would not allow you to come in. We hate failure. We want people who want to succeed. There were those who came here but could not keep to our conditions. They could not keep up to our standard. They left. They are very few. Wherever they are today, they must be regretting when they see those who have become doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals. My life is very plain and simple. I am not a cultist. What I do not do, I can not accommodate those doing them. I am not involved in all those things and evils that you hear in society. So, we do not allow such things here at all. I am free with the children. Every one of them has access to me, the leaders, and the workers. Ours is a leadership thing. And that is just our principle. If you want to stay with us, obey our rules. If you can not obey our rules, then you can not stay with us.
Looking ahead, what do you see this centre becoming in the future? Do you see it outliving you or you outliving it?
That is exactly what it is set up to be. I hope that the world would be so nice to people that we will not have needy people again. But as far as such persons still exist, this centre will continue to give helping hands to those people in the society who need help. It is not about me at all. It is about the needy. Even when I am no longer here, if the world remains and I am no longer here, these children would continue to pioneer this place. A lot of them are becoming leaders already. They are taking up responsibilities by themselves. I have taught them that, and they would continue to do this work. Like we have heard of great persons in history who did things like this before we were born, their works outlived them. So, this work is going to outlive me. It is something that has come to stay.
*Sebastine EBHUOMHAN is an award-winning journalist and media consultant from Edo State, writing from Abuja. He can be reached on: usie007@yahoo.com and 08037204620.