The story of Mary Slessor, who died in Calabar in 1915, is popular with many Nigerians. But that of Olusola Stevens (I prefer to call him Sola) is not. However, if I have a thousand garlands, I will put them on Sola, who also goes by the appellation, Pastor. He is the proprietor of Vines Heritage Home situated somewhere off Kuje road in Gwagwalada area council of Abuja. The home is “dedicated to safeguarding children from harmful practices, providing them with a nurturing environment, and empowering them through education.”
Prior to a chance meeting with Sola, the only story I ever read about an effort to save children, especially twins, from infanticide, was that of Mary Slessor. Not many would think that such a practice still holds in the present age and in a community that lies within Nigeria’s capital territory. That community is Tsoho Kaida. It is situated somewhere off Gwagwalada town. And, like Sola said, it will take about one to two hours’ drive on bumpy earthen road to reach the community. By description, Tsoho Kaida is still to be affected by civilization. That perhaps is the reason twins and babies whose mothers die during childbirth are considered evil babies. As a consequence, they are summarily denied the right to live.
I was full of doubts the first time I read the story of infanticide in the community. I had told myself that it was possible the story was creative writing, based on myth, by a social media content creator who was chasing clout and pushing for Mark Zuckerberg’s or Elon Musk’s money. I was wrong! However, I came face to face with the reality of the truth of this existential practice last Saturday when, in the company of Paul Liam, David Jatau, Clement Ariyo, Bhinwana Gazuwa and Jennifer Akor, all development communication scholars from the Institute of Strategic and Development Communication (ISDEVCOM) of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, we drove to Gwagwalada on an assessment tour of a community development project earlier executed by our predecessors. ISDEVCOM mandatorily exposes its Masters and Doctoral scholars to real-life situations where their theoretical studies in development communication are applied.
Encountering Sola brought to reality the narrative on infanticide as it involves twins and babies whose mothers couldn’t make it out of the labour room. There I was, sitting with Pastor Sola and other scholars in the midst of about 203 children, including 24 infants, some crying, some playing, some sleeping, in a hall where they all gather whenever visitors come around to see them and drop gift items to help. Before us were 25 sets of twins rescued from Tsoho Kaida, who would not have had a chance to experience life and living, in any form, had Sola and his team not acted with the speed of light. There were also other kids among the sea of little heads, also rescued from the community after they were labelled evil babies for the reason that their mothers did not survive labour. No one in the community knew of the impact of advanced medicine and nutrition on the reduction of maternal mortality. For the Tsoho Kaida community, it was simply a matter of culture. Twins are evil. Babies whose mothers die at childbirth are also evil. Nothing to argue there!
I could not imagine that such a practice still holds true for some humans. But it does. Sadly, as we were told, members of the community do not discuss the practice with strangers because it is tied to a cultural norm. Sola said, sometimes, the women would not want to kill their babies but angels of death, presented as kinsmen and kinswomen, prowl around ready to enforce their culture. They always find a way to get to the babies and ensure that they do not live. But Sola and his team work round the clock to ensure that the babies get a chance to live. Working in collaboration with another missionary group, Kauna Global Ministry, led by Pastor Andrew Tonak, resident among the Tsoho Kaida people, Sola is able to get real-time information on twin births and other endangered babies. This enables him to move in and rescue them before the angles of death reach them.
But according to Sola, the story is changing. Some members of the community are beginning to think through the cultural practice and are gradually working against it. Sola attributes this to more enlightenment and education, which is steadily opening the people up to the reality that twins, as well as babies whose mothers could not survive the childbirth process, are not evil. These community members, he said, also pass information to him about twin births and even go to great lengths to rescue such babies and ferry them to safety at his abode in Gwagwalada.
However, the impact of what Sola is doing reverberates back in Tsoho Kaida when such kids are reunited with their parents after the early stages of their growth at the Vines Heritage Home. He does not give the children out for adoption. Like Sola disclosed, some of the children have been reunited with their parents and the community. Some have attained higher education from the home. For me, I can only imagine the feeling among the community members and the parents when their twin babies who would have been long forgotten as dead are brought back and reunited with them.
However, what Sola and his team are doing from his settlement in Gwagwalada costs him a lot of money. For instance, he disclosed that he spends, on the average, about N500,000 weekly feeding the children; this includes buying infant formula for the kids. This cost is outside education, which takes about N1.6 million from his pocket, every term, for 165 of the children who are in different schools, including tertiary institutions and another N200,000 monthly on health and medication for the children. Mary Slessor did not spend this much to influence an end to the killing of twins in Nigeria while she lived. Economically, the times are different.
With the changing economic situation, it is only logical that Sola’s Vine Heritage Home needs help to see the 203 children there and more that would be rescued through their formative life until they are reunited with their community and parents. Federal and state governments, and corporate Nigeria are better positioned to give the children hope for tomorrow through free education and free medical care. This reality is also a challenge for Nigeria’s philanthropists. Tsoho Kaida community also needs to be liberated from the cultural practice that tags twins, as well as children who lose their mothers at their births, as evil children. This is a huge challenge for the government.