By Clara james, Uyo

A 22-year-old woman in Akwa Ibom State, south-south Nigeria, has been feeding her four children with chicken and fish feeds, apparently because of poverty and hunger.
The children are all girls, the oldest five years old and the youngest slightly above one year.

The woman, Grace Eseneowo, a widow, works at a small farm in Eket Local Government Area of the state. The farm, which is a fishery and poultry, is at Ikot Abia community in Okon Eket.

She lives in her father’s house in the community and earns N15,000 monthly at the farm, it was gathered.

Grace’s pathetic story became public a few days ago after a digital content creator, QueenPraise Uzoma, who got the story from her father, John Uzoma, who is the farm owner, posted it on her Instagram page.

On Thursday, the farm owner, Mr Uzoma, explained how he discovered that Grace was feeding her children with animal feeds.
“We had discharged her because she wasn’t showing up at the farm regularly. But her uncle and others came to beg that we should keep her, and my wife was saying that since she lost her husband, she’ll need money to keep going on, so let her work. So, last week, I went to the farm and sent for her,” said Mr Uzoma, an Anglican priest serving in Uyo.

“When she came, we were discussing and the other farm hand said she could come back to work but should not bring the children to the farm. I said to him, that I did not have any issue with the children coming to the farm. Are they destroying anything? He said no but that they eat the feeds for the chicken and the fish.”
Mr Uzoma said he was shocked by what heard.

“If the boy had told me this in the girl’s absence, maybe I would have felt the boy didn’t want her to work at the farm, but the girl was there.
“So I asked the girl, is that true? She said yes. I said, why? Don’t you give them food? She said they (the children) sometimes stay for three days without food.
“My heart failed me. I am a father. I am a pastor. I felt terribly indicted. So, the little I could do was that the plantain I had cut to bring back to Uyo, I gave to her, and then I gave her the only N2,000 I had on me.”

A resident of Okon Eket, where the farm is, told the media that Grace usually prepared the animal feeds as akamu (fermented cereal pudding) for her children.
“I wouldn’t know about that. I didn’t go to that details,” Mr Uzoma said in reaction. “I was particularly touched that the children were kept hungry.”
Mr Uzoma later narrated Grace’s story to his daughter, QueenPraise, when she visited.
“We are trying to rehabilitate the girl, we have paid rent for her and have bought a lot of food items for her and the children,” he said.
QueenPraise, as of 13 August, said on Instagram that she raised N1.4 million as donations online for Grace and her children.

Meanwhile, the Akwa Ibom governor’s wife, Patience Eno, has stepped in to help Grace and her children.
“While thanking QueenPraise for drawing attention to this worrisome situation and raising over a million naira overnight from empathetic and generous Individuals, organisations and others, the First Lady has directed her NGO, the Golden Initiative For All and her aides to work with the Ministry of Women Affairs and female stakeholders in Eket, to fashion out a holistic support for the young mother and her children,” Uduak Ekong, a spokesperson to Mrs Eno, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“To start with, the Governor’s wife has made an initial personal donation of Five Hundred Thousand naira only in support of plans to provide immediate accommodation, food supplies and other basic necessities for the young family of five,” the statement added.

Akwa Ibom State has one of the lowest poverty headcount ratios in Nigeria. According to NBS, the state currently has a poverty rate of 26.8 per cent, falling below the national average of 52.1 per cent.
The state is ranked 27th on the national poverty rate ladder released by the NBS in 2019. The agency has not released new data on the state poverty rate since it was last published.
The National poverty headcount in 2019 was 70 per cent; by 2020, it had increased to 72.32 per cent, according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Nigerian youths recently took to the streets to protest against economic hardship and rising food prices in the country.
“POS is our only employment now in Nigeria,” an Akwa Ibom resident said in Uyo during the nationwide protest.
“Good jobs are reserved for children of the elites immediately after graduation,” he added, advising that the governments at all levels should do more to create jobs.
The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, has put out an ambitious plan to fight unemployment and poverty in the state through agriculture and rural development. His administration has been building and donating low-cost housing, “compassionate homes”, to the poor in the state’s rural communities.

Hope for Grace

Grace dropped out of school when she was in SS1. Now, she wants to learn hair-dressing as a vocation, according to Mr Uzoma.

“There’s a take-home to this,” Mr Uzoma said of Grace’s story.
“These people are from a family, and a wealth-to-do family for that matter, but they abandoned these children. People should do more to help their relatives, regardless of family rivalry.”