By Uche Nwosu
It is a truism and universally accepted that individuals with the milk of human kindness and with the passion to contribute meaningfully to the enhancement of humanity are not born in the society by the accident of history.
They are designed and equipped for a particular purpose by God. This is why their compassionate activities in offering succour to the deprived and less privileged despite daunting challenges have always been confounding to the ordinary mortals.
Either as public officers or private individuals, there are at least one or more efforts and virtues that stand them out as people who are divinely set aside for human liberation.
This is why it is gladdening that one year after the Okezie Ikpeazu administration came on stream, Abia citizens could sit back to relish the quantum of benevolence, generosity and love showered on not only the underprivileged, but the destitute in our society by the Abia First the Lady and wife of the Abia State governor, Deaconess Nkechi Ikpeazu.
A basic element of her compassion is the sterling zeal to accommodate the women and the voiceless in the scheme of things, even as she strives to offer comfort and relief to those who are not only deprived but in need.
When she is not building homes for the homeless, she is settling medical bills for indigent women and children in our hospitals who cannot pay their medical bills, thus helping the government to immensely reduce maternal/infant mortality and mobility in the state.
Interestingly, Deaconess Ikpeazu carries out her humanitarian deeds without hubris or adding unnecessary air. She is simply happy to perform her divine task; drawing inspiration from the 18th century English writer, Rudyard Kipling who said, “Those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in golden chair; they shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comet’s hair”.
In the last 12 months, the Office of the First Lady of Abia State has built over nine houses for widows and an indigent woman, paid hospital bills to the tune of about N15 million to many less privileged, distributed various consumable substances and non consumable items like wheel chair, wrappers, fertilizers to those who are in need.
This is excluding the huge sums of money she personally doled out to poor students and women, a gesture that cuts across all septa of the Abia society. Indeed, adding the new office complex she built under the one year she has served as Abia First Lady will lead even her critic to conclude that she, like her husband, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has come to stoop and conquer at a period of austerity when some in leadership positions hide under the austere times to fumble and wobble.
Within the past one year, her office had visited a number of churches, charity homes and schools where the First Lady made cash and material donations for their welbeing. As a woman of God, Deaconess Ikpeazu organizes a weekly prayer session where the affairs of the state are tabled before God for intervention and blessing.
She preaches for peace, tolerance, good neighbourliness amongst children, women and entire Abian citizens. Remarkably, during the last year’s Nigeria’s Independence anniversary and the 2016 Children’s celebration in the state, Mrs Ikpeazu feted children in the state to some sumptuous lunch and gave them dazzling gifts thereafter.
Her admonition to women and children that they should keep alive the labours of our heroes past in each of the occasions underscores her enthusiasm to midwife, with her husband, the governor of the state, a new nation nay a new Abia where hard work and reward for excellence will be the underling principle of state policy.
That the right of the Abia child is protected concretely is attributed to the efforts of the Abia First Lady who had, within the last one year, ensured that children were provided with opportunities to assume their positions. Besides, the Office of the Abia First Lady has within the past one year galvanized and encouraged Abians to speak their mother tongue, the Igbo language.
As a matter of fact, during a cultural exhibition by the Abia Women Public Service Association Cultural Exhibition, Mrs Ikpeazu tasked parents and guardians to inculcate in their children the desire to not only communicate in their mother tongue, but imbibe the Igbo culture and norms as a way of preserving the Igbo culture and heritage.
Deaconess Ikpeazu through her office also showered gifts to the Baby of the Year 2016 in the early hour of January, this year and also provided some consumable items to parents of a triplet in Umuahia. Her office has packaged a holistic healthcare delivery programme, with emphasis on reduction of maternal mortality and mobility.
Joyfully, her humanitarian programmes within the past one year glided gracefully with an uprightness of heart, bearing in mind the postulation of the 18th century American humourist, Ewyn Brooks White, that “As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may not spread and the scene is not desolate”.
.Uche Nwosu, a Public Affairs Commentator, wrote from Umuahia
