In a familiar characterization and seemingly steering responsibility, the Honourable Member of the Kogi State House of Assembly in it’s hallow chamber, Hon. Omotayo-Adeleye Ishaya was sacred, positive and costumed to function in that ecstasy of a highly profound vigour and strength to match words with actions especially during her electioneering campaign penultimate a year ago.
Unfortunately, such highly promising and passionate desire to enhance her constituency with great ideas to harness and maximize potentials of young and old, women and children was stalled by a burden culminated more to ill-health and death of her dearest husband in last four months ago.
To Omotayo, the past one year she had to care and take her late husband to hospitals within and outside the country was mentally subverting and psychologically sapping, no doubt, it’s financially draining as well.
Omotayo who spoke passionately with the National Trust’s Editor, Martins Mejabi, narrated the ordeal of her husband’s sickness, her inability to meet up with legislative responsibility at the chamber of the Kogi State House of Assembly as a legislator representing good people of Ijumu and the unfortunate experience of the later demise of her husband after much has been expended in the last one year.
But she has reason to appreciate God Almighty for He giveth and taketh and for her husband’s life well spent.
As pathetic as the story was, she said “am now a widow”. “I now feel the excruciating pain widows feel in standing alone through thick and thin for the family’s needs”.
Regressing on the marital journey, she chronicled how she met with her darling husband in her cousin’s wedding at Kaduna. According to her, he was a great man. A lawyer and contractor. An encyclopedia and a repository of knowledge. She described him as a man who loves his family dearly.
While reflecting on one year in office, Hon. Omotayo felt humbly apologetic to her constituents for being unavoidably unavailable in the past one year as a result of her late husband’s ill-health and death.
Nevertheless, the last Saturday saw her widow’s mite which coincide with world widows’ day as she invigorate a selfless spirit in widow’s mind by supporting and empowering 100 widows in Ekinrin-Adde with #5,000 each during the annual Ekinrin-Adde Day celebration held on 22nd June 2024.
This selfless endeavor and demonstration of love has attracted alot of accolades and sympathy for someone who just lost her husband barely four months ago. But for her, she sees that as a tip of an iceberg as a necessary responsibility not too much for the people. Because, according to her, such magnanimity is required more often times to cushion the effects of economic downturn and to relief the windows of the burden of struggling alone without any supporting hands. Of course her stan is strongly bent on the believe to help one another – “Eni keni tiiwo bani kpa lati se-iranlowo fun, oun na leni keji re, tanju re”.
Her unwavering love and commitment to ensure widows become preferential point wasn’t unconnected to the realization of widows’ plight, as she experienced in the recent times.
Meanwhile, she has promised to keep the portion of the sheer of love alive by lending a supporting hands, raising the bar of self-help to the people of her constituency when and where necessary.
