Little Saints orphanage in the news

What happened is that in the year 2002, November to be precise, I celebrated 50 years of my father's death. And when I came back from Ijebu-Ode on the 16th, I was feeling so tired. On the 17th, I was sleeping and I heard school children shouting in front of my room. With annoyance, I came out, I said look, I'm coming to your school to report you, why can't you go to school instead of disturbing me? They said mummy, we are not disturbing you, there is a baby in front of your house. The lucky thing is that the tenants hadn't gone out to work, if they had gone out to work, they might have mistakenly crushed the baby. So I took the baby, wrapped him up with an Ankara fabric and took it straight to the Police Station to report the case to them. They were even telling me to take the baby home since I was the one that found him, but I could see that the umbilical cord was turning green. Then I rushed the baby to the hospital to have him cleaned up. They wrote prescripptions for me, and the anxiety that the baby should not die overwhelmed me, I bought everything including bandage ... I mean everything. And the lady doctor did a very good job. The following day, they wanted to discharge the baby, not knowing that the nursing sister there was negotiating for somebody to take the baby. She told me that I won't be able to take care of the child, so I should allow someone who can take care of the baby to take him. But I told her no! Because one day I have the mind that I will display the Ankara that was used to wrap the baby when he was dumped, and it could produce the woman who gave birth to him if she was still alive. So they did an emergency meeting in the hospital and the baby was released. Then I went around looking for a decent motherless baby’s home to keep the child. I realised that Little Saints Orphanage is a bit clean, they have beddings and all that So I went here, I met the matron and one lady called Janet Oriyomi. I talked to them and we finalized on the Child's take-over. They charged me N5,000 a month for the upkeep of the baby. And I said no problem. I also went out, bought dresses, baby food, feeding bottle and things that the baby needs and for all the other children too. I visited the home sometimes twice a year, sometimes thrice a year, sometimes four times a year. This is because I live abroad. Every year I celebrate his birthday for him at the Orphanage. He makes me happy. I have 4 children and 8 grandchildren, but I counted him as one of my grandchildren. When I bought shares, I bought for him too even the share dividends have just come. His name is in my Will, I  counted him as one of my grand children.

I have been communicating with him all along. Every Christmas, I used to buy a suit case filled with gifts for him and other children. Even when Reverend Dele George celebrated her 50th birthday, I came all the way from Britain, to show how dear she was to me. So when I came sometime last year, she was talking about adoption. And I told her there is no need for adoption, I asked her to put the boy in a private school, and I'll pay. You just don't adopt Nigerian children to foreigners, of what benefit is it? They will lose their identity, they will lose their culture, they cannot be traceable. So I told her point blank that I don't want it. She asked me to go and see a lady at Alausa, they call her Remi Jaiyesimi, Director of Social Developments to know how far a child can be legally adopted. Because I went looking casually dressed, she taught that I'm an "Iya Alata" (pepper seller). She left me where I was standing, she didn't give me any regard. I was bitter but I didn't show my annoyance. She told me I'm too old and that I'm already over 70 years of age, so they might not consider my request for adoption. So I replied her: "look, I don't pray for it, if this boy is my grandchild, and the mother died, will I throw him away? I told her there is provision for this boy for the rest of his life. She didn't give me any audience at all, I reckon she just counted me as someone who was irresponsible. I left her and went back to the Little Saints Orphanage. So I told Janet who is Rev. Dele George assistant, that the lady ignored me and that she cannot be treating sensitive children cases like that. We were not able to reach any final conclusion.

And when I came back last September because his birthday was approaching, they were shocked to see me. I was wondering what was going on, I had to ask them whether the boy was still alive. Then one of them asked, didn't they tell you that the boy has been adopted? I was shocked, I didn't know when I burst into tears. I just left. Then I called Rev. Dele George and informed her of the latest development. All she had to tell me was that she is not the one that gave the boy out, that it was the Government, and she told me to take my case up with them. Her response really baffled me, because it wasn't the government that gave her the child to look after, I did, so why was she referring me to the government? Interestingly that month, I still helped the orphanage to collect 250 pounds from my church in Britain, which I gave to her, she never told me the boy was’ no longer in her care, and she collected the 250 pounds.

So when she said it was the government that adopted the child out, it really shocked me.

So I asked my son to text the Lagos State Governor. So when Governor Raji Fashola got the message, he assigned Hon. Joke Orelope  Adefulire, the Commissioner For Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to look into the case, that was last September. The Commissioner was bitter, she vigorously attacked her (Rev George) and told her she had no right to give the boy away at all because he was under sponsorship by me. The way that lady behaved that day impressed me, but little did I know that she would soon be influenced. I have called her up severally on the issue, but nothing seems to be coming up. About 3 days after the meeting, she sent me the report of the meeting but nothing positive has happened afterwards.

And now, I don't have an idea of where the boy is. This is a child that I picked up as a day old baby and took care of him till date. He is now 6 years old. And right now, we don't know what is happening. What the Commissioner said is that they are still on it, you can imagine, this is an issue that has been going on since September. Somebody made an allegation against Rev. George and she denied it in your December 3rd edition. When I saw that one, I just felt that it's high time I came here and state my own case. This woman needs to be investigated. It's not only my child she has taken away, there are lots of children that she has also taken away. I got to know about some of those children, because this international adoption thing, probably you need to ask for its legal implication.

It's like child trafficking. Now, we don't know whether this adoption of children to foreigners is legal, and if it is, who approves such things. Then what steps should they take in monitoring the children. But from my own little knowledge, I want to believe that before you can even give a child out, the guardian of that child should be informed and they should seek his/her consent. But in their own case, they did not do that.

I mean, this is a boy that has lived in her Orphanage for 6 years and she has been collecting money on his behalf. And now she is creating news that a child cannot stay in the orphanage for more than 3 years, she never told me that from the outset. And moreover, if you go to their Orphanage in Ogudu, you see children of 16,18, 20 years of age still living at the Orphanage, so what are we talking about? I want my son back, because only God knows what has been done to the boy. What if the boy has been killed or something terrible has happened to him. You can’t trust all these foreign parent, you know. All I want is my child and I’ll not relent, until I have my child back”.

A few years ago, on the 16^th of November 2002, Mrs, Ajayi came to us that she found an abandoned baby boy in front of her house, just by her car and that she took the baby to the General Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos. According to her, she said the General Hospital wanted to transfer the baby to a particular motherless babies home, but she knows that most of the homes don’t take good care of babies and because everybody knows that Little Saints is of a high standard, she decided to bring the baby to us so that he could be well taken care of. When she brought the baby, we told her that if she would be able to go to the Police and get the Police extract, we can take the baby from her, but without the Police extract, we cant take the baby from her. And she said that was not a problem that she was going to do everything in her power to get the Police extract.

So she now went, got the Police extract and brought the baby to the Little Saints Orphanage.

So she now said to me that she loves the baby after her father who was late. You know usually we allow that. If a good Samaritan brings a child, in order to honour them, we name the baby after them. And as long as it’s a biblical name and just to thank you for what you’ve done, we name the baby after you. So she said she will like to call the baby Emmanuel, So I said no problem. Then she now said that she will like to adopt the baby.

So I said Mama, you’re too old to adopt, the Ministry will not allow you to adopt. So she said what about her children, I said, fine, no problem, any of them can adopt. Because there is a law that states that you have to be at least 45 years older than your child.

So if you are 50 for instance, the child you’ll be adoption must be 5 years old and below. At the end of the day, I said to her, fine, conditionally, if your children go to the Ministry because we cannot give out children without the approval from government and you get approval, of course, as long as we are convinced that you’ll take care of the child, we will give him to you.

This was all sentiment; because it’s the time we are seeing a God Samaritan who would be interested in an abandoned baby. Usually when a Good Samaritan finds a baby, they just drop the baby and go, they don’t even want to follow you to the Police Station. So when I saw that this old woman really love this child, I had compassion for her, and I said that this is nice. And don’t forget that at that time, 6 years ago, we were still trying to encourage adoption. Now I have a long list. If it was today, I wont even look at her face. I didn’t mind, so I told her that as long as you go and get your documents from Alausa, no problem. She now said she will be sponsoring the child while she is still working to get the document. She now said she will be sponsoring the child while she is still working to get the documents, I didn’t mind, because this is love and compassion. And she was very friendly to the orphanage.

She will come, buy some Little Biscuits and all that. She was sponsoring the baby for some amount per month consistently for a year. The baby was now transferred from this place, which is our baby unit to Akonwonjo, which is the main Orphange for the growing boys.

About 3 year later Emmanuel started Nursery, but I notice that this woman began to drag her feet. First, I never met any of the children who were supposedly abroad, because what she told me was that she was going to ask her children to come-down to Nigeria for the adoption approval. But 2 years, 3yeras, 4 years went by, not even a phone call from these children. Then Mama will come once or twice a year. The first year, she was very consistent, 2^nd year, she began to reduce gradually. Then I notice that most times, she was always abroad.

SO myself and my assistant, Janet Oriyomi, we now said that, look, the way Mama is going, it doesn’t look like her children are interested in the baby.

It looks like she was interested but the children are not, because the children did not even call the orphanage or send any e-mail. I was asking Mama, why are your children not getting in touch with us if they really want Emanuel? She said I shouldn’t worry, that they will get in-touch with me. In 2004, my assistant went abroad, so I now told her to investigate, because you see, adoption is a very sensitive issue, I don’t know whether Mama had told her children, I don’t really know what is going on in the family. But Janet decided to visit their home in London, to see whether she and forget some. She is quite aware of our every move. I told her categorically that that it was getting late for Emmanuel to be adopted, so that particular time, we had a foreign couple from Holland, who came around and adopted him.

Let me tell you what happened. By the time Emanuel started class, we noticed that Emmanuel had a problem mentally. He was not developing  like the other children. He doesn’t talk at all. She said Emma used to recognize her. We noticed that he was retarded during his nursery classes. We then carried out an investigation on him and we noticed that he is suffering from the trauma of the abandonment.

So for her to say that she is not aware that Emmanuel has problem is news to me. I didnt want her to have a totally negative report on the boy, and of course, I’m an expert.

So what happened to the child? Luckily for us, a couple from Netherlands wanted a Nigerian boy. Because there is a kind of collaboration with  some adoption agencies abroad and the Lagos State government for children with special needs, not for normal children. Because they know

that here, nobody will adopt a child that is retarded, disabled, hydrocephalus and others. They adopt them through an organisation called Ebun-Oluwa Foundation run by Mrs. Oni Okpaku. So Ebun-Oluwa Foundation are the ones that came here and processed the document, I didn't have anything to do with that. This was what happened in Emma's case.

They came around, and so I told Ebunoluwa that we have a child who is very slow and right now he is too old to be, adopted by any Nigerian parent. So they said they were going to find a family for him, which they eventually did.

The family came, saw the child and liked him. So they processed the document with the Lagos State Government and thank God, Emmanuel is now in Netherlands.

First of all, I didn't see her as a guardian, because there is a stakeholders meeting for us in the social welfare services and one of the things they say to us is that a person who finds an abandoned child cannot adopt that child, because of the stigma of the environment and because the motive will not be very clear. it is discouraged and not accepted. So if you find a child now and tell us you want that child, we will tell you to leave that child and take another one. It's all because the Lagos State Government wants to is courage people finding abandoned children and keeping them and after a while, you dont even know what happens to that child. The Orphanage is not under any obligation to give you that same child for adoption, just because you were the one that found him/her. So I didn't see her as a guardian, I only saw her as a sponsor, I have a lot of sponsors and I wont say because they were sponsoring a child, that now gives them an automatic right to take the child away, it's not done that way. And don't forget that we are talking 6 years after. So if she really wanted to adopt, she should have done everything in her power to get the child in a legal way within those period. Secondly, I called her and told her that it was over.

No. I told her what I was going to do. I told her that this child is going abroad.

She told me she didn't want the child to go abroad because she didn't want the child's culture to change. But I told her that her own grand children are abroad, her whole family, why are you saying this child should not go abroad? She said that Little Saints is even better. She was now trying to convince me to leave the child in Little Saints.

Never! We never charge a penny for adoption, because that is what I will call child trafficking. Under no circumstance must you exchange a child for money, whether it's for adoption or fostering, you can come to the Orphanage and sponsor a child, but that child does not belong to you. You are doing a humanitarian service. So we try to discourage that.

The 250 pounds issue was money sent to us from her church in Britain, which was sent to the Orphanage. Meanwhile, there had been a bridge in communication between us and Mama since the last time she came home last year. The child was given out in January this year. and we didn’t see Mama

until September. This is to tell you that the woman has stopped interacting with us, there was a lapse. I dont owe Mrs Ajayi any explanation because I have given her almost five year to do whatever she wanted to do.

Her children did not call me, neither did I get any text messages from them. If only I got one text message from one of the children to say Mrs. George, please we are coming, what we are talking about will not even happen. It was when I called her that day in 2007, and she told me Little Saint Orphanage is better than most homes, that I shouldn’t even bother to give Emmanuel to anybody, that was when I knew that she was not serious.

So when she was leaving in 2007, I told her that, I'm putting Emmanuel up for adoption. That woman left my office laughing, she didn't complain and say anything about it, she waited for me to do it first. I'm a child of the most high God and I'm talking to you in the name of God. I called this woman and I told her that Emmanuel is going for an adoption abroad.

She didn't tell me all that.

But the point still remains that she wasn't ready to take up the child for proper adoption. And that’s my primary concern. What she was planning was for Emmanuel to stay in the orphanage and he would inherit these things later. But that is not acceptable to our own Vision, because the integration aspect is so important. You cannot institutionalize these children, and the government does not like it that you are keeping these children for a long time. They keep asking me, why are all these children with us. I have to keep giving them explanation on why each of them are still with us. So even if she had told me· about these acquired assets for the boy, I would haw advised her better.

I take responsibility for everything, why am I in this Ministry? It's because of my soft heart. When Mama walked into my office and was begging me that she wanted to adopt the child, and at that time, we were still begging people to adopt children, I just felt, what a good opportunity. If it was now, I wont even listen to her. And don't forget that she was not the one that was meant to adopt directly, it was her children who were abroad. So in a way, it is really not the person that found Emma, it's another person from the same family, that is why I did not agitate. And because I saw that she is really compassionate about Emma, how do you resist compassion? You can't! So I encouraged her to my regret. This is what I'm regretting now, because I didn't know she was such a person. I thought everything I told her was going to happen.

She cannot have the child back.

It is only the biological mother that can get that child back after a thorough DNA is carried out. Where the child is, is he a pauper? He is not suffering. And all your own children are all abroad and they couldn't adopt, they couldn't get in-touch with me.

So you want us to keep this child in an Orphanage until he is an adult and can inherit your properties. I don't get it. She can make contact with Emmanuel with the permission of the Lagos State Government, because the new parents are ready to meet with her. So why is she making all the noise when the child is being well taken care of where he is right now? I want to believe that there is more to this adoption issue and there is something she is keeping away from everybody. I'm beginning to even get very suspicious of her. It's an abandoned child, so what is the big deal that you must have the child back because you left an inheritance for him.

It's already a closed case and they've told her she doesn't have any case, since the adoption was done legally. There is nothing I do in my Orphanage that the government does not know about. I always give a feed back on all activities being carried out in my organization to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and also the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development. So I don't just take decision on my own here, we do all things legally and that is why we are covered. And to me, I believe that there is nothing she can do, because our source is God. Le

What happened is that in the year 2002, November to be precise, I celebrated 50 years of my father's death. And when I came back from Ijebu-Ode on the 16th, I was feeling so tired. On the 17th, I was sleeping and I heard school children shouting in front of my room. With annoyance, I came out, I said look, I'm coming to your school to report you, why can't you go to school instead of disturbing me? They said mummy, we are not disturbing you, there is a baby in front of your house. The lucky thing is that the tenants hadn't gone out to work, if they had gone out to work, they might have mistakenly crushed the baby. So I took the baby, wrapped him up with an Ankara fabric and took it straight to the Police Station to report the case to them. They were even telling me to take the baby home since I was the one that found him, but I could see that the umbilical cord was turning green. Then I rushed the baby to the hospital to have him cleaned up. They wrote prescripptions for me, and the anxiety that the baby should not die overwhelmed me, I bought everything including bandage ... I mean everything. And the lady doctor did a very good job. The following day, they wanted to discharge the baby, not knowing that the nursing sister there was negotiating for somebody to take the baby. She told me that I won't be able to take care of the child, so I should allow someone who can take care of the baby to take him. But I told her no! Because one day I have the mind that I will display the Ankara that was used to wrap the baby when he was dumped, and it could produce the woman who gave birth to him if she was still alive. So they did an emergency meeting in the hospital and the baby was released. Then I went around looking for a decent motherless baby’s home to keep the child. I realised that Little Saints Orphanage is a bit clean, they have beddings and all that So I went here, I met the matron and one lady called Janet Oriyomi. I talked to them and we finalized on the Child's take-over. They charged me N5,000 a month for the upkeep of the baby. And I said no problem. I also went out, bought dresses, baby food, feeding bottle and things that the baby needs and for all the other children too. I visited the home sometimes twice a year, sometimes thrice a year, sometimes four times a year. This is because I live abroad. Every year I celebrate his birthday for him at the Orphanage. He makes me happy. I have 4 children and 8 grandchildren, but I counted him as one of my grandchildren. When I bought shares, I bought for him too even the share dividends have just come. His name is in my Will, I  counted him as one of my grand children.

I have been communicating with him all along. Every Christmas, I used to buy a suit case filled with gifts for him and other children. Even when Reverend Dele George celebrated her 50th birthday, I came all the way from Britain, to show how dear she was to me. So when I came sometime last year, she was talking about adoption. And I told her there is no need for adoption, I asked her to put the boy in a private school, and I'll pay. You just don't adopt Nigerian children to foreigners, of what benefit is it? They will lose their identity, they will lose their culture, they cannot be traceable. So I told her point blank that I don't want it. She asked me to go and see a lady at Alausa, they call her Remi Jaiyesimi, Director of Social Developments to know how far a child can be legally adopted. Because I went looking casually dressed, she taught that I'm an "Iya Alata" (pepper seller). She left me where I was standing, she didn't give me any regard. I was bitter but I didn't show my annoyance. She told me I'm too old and that I'm already over 70 years of age, so they might not consider my request for adoption. So I replied her: "look, I don't pray for it, if this boy is my grandchild, and the mother died, will I throw him away? I told her there is provision for this boy for the rest of his life. She didn't give me any audience at all, I reckon she just counted me as someone who was irresponsible. I left her and went back to the Little Saints Orphanage. So I told Janet who is Rev. Dele George assistant, that the lady ignored me and that she cannot be treating sensitive children cases like that. We were not able to reach any final conclusion.

And when I came back last September because his birthday was approaching, they were shocked to see me. I was wondering what was going on, I had to ask them whether the boy was still alive. Then one of them asked, didn't they tell you that the boy has been adopted? I was shocked, I didn't know when I burst into tears. I just left. Then I called Rev. Dele George and informed her of the latest development. All she had to tell me was that she is not the one that gave the boy out, that it was the Government, and she told me to take my case up with them. Her response really baffled me, because it wasn't the government that gave her the child to look after, I did, so why was she referring me to the government? Interestingly that month, I still helped the orphanage to collect 250 pounds from my church in Britain, which I gave to her, she never told me the boy was’ no longer in her care, and she collected the 250 pounds.

So when she said it was the government that adopted the child out, it really shocked me.

So I asked my son to text the Lagos State Governor. So when Governor Raji Fashola got the message, he assigned Hon. Joke Orelope  Adefulire, the Commissioner For Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to look into the case, that was last September. The Commissioner was bitter, she vigorously attacked her (Rev George) and told her she had no right to give the boy away at all because he was under sponsorship by me. The way that lady behaved that day impressed me, but little did I know that she would soon be influenced. I have called her up severally on the issue, but nothing seems to be coming up. About 3 days after the meeting, she sent me the report of the meeting but nothing positive has happened afterwards.

And now, I don't have an idea of where the boy is. This is a child that I picked up as a day old baby and took care of him till date. He is now 6 years old. And right now, we don't know what is happening. What the Commissioner said is that they are still on it, you can imagine, this is an issue that has been going on since September. Somebody made an allegation against Rev. George and she denied it in your December 3rd edition. When I saw that one, I just felt that it's high time I came here and state my own case. This woman needs to be investigated. It's not only my child she has taken away, there are lots of children that she has also taken away. I got to know about some of those children, because this international adoption thing, probably you need to ask for its legal implication.

It's like child trafficking. Now, we don't know whether this adoption of children to foreigners is legal, and if it is, who approves such things. Then what steps should they take in monitoring the children. But from my own little knowledge, I want to believe that before you can even give a child out, the guardian of that child should be informed and they should seek his/her consent. But in their own case, they did not do that.

I mean, this is a boy that has lived in her Orphanage for 6 years and she has been collecting money on his behalf. And now she is creating news that a child cannot stay in the orphanage for more than 3 years, she never told me that from the outset. And moreover, if you go to their Orphanage in Ogudu, you see children of 16,18, 20 years of age still living at the Orphanage, so what are we talking about? I want my son back, because only God knows what has been done to the boy. What if the boy has been killed or something terrible has happened to him. You can’t trust all these foreign parent, you know. All I want is my child and I’ll not relent, until I have my child back”.

A few years ago, on the 16^th of November 2002, Mrs, Ajayi came to us that she found an abandoned baby boy in front of her house, just by her car and that she took the baby to the General Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos. According to her, she said the General Hospital wanted to transfer the baby to a particular motherless babies home, but she knows that most of the homes don’t take good care of babies and because everybody knows that Little Saints is of a high standard, she decided to bring the baby to us so that he could be well taken care of. When she brought the baby, we told her that if she would be able to go to the Police and get the Police extract, we can take the baby from her, but without the Police extract, we cant take the baby from her. And she said that was not a problem that she was going to do everything in her power to get the Police extract.

So she now went, got the Police extract and brought the baby to the Little Saints Orphanage.

So she now said to me that she loves the baby after her father who was late. You know usually we allow that. If a good Samaritan brings a child, in order to honour them, we name the baby after them. And as long as it’s a biblical name and just to thank you for what you’ve done, we name the baby after you. So she said she will like to call the baby Emmanuel, So I said no problem. Then she now said that she will like to adopt the baby.

So I said Mama, you’re too old to adopt, the Ministry will not allow you to adopt. So she said what about her children, I said, fine, no problem, any of them can adopt. Because there is a law that states that you have to be at least 45 years older than your child.

So if you are 50 for instance, the child you’ll be adoption must be 5 years old and below. At the end of the day, I said to her, fine, conditionally, if your children go to the Ministry because we cannot give out children without the approval from government and you get approval, of course, as long as we are convinced that you’ll take care of the child, we will give him to you.

This was all sentiment; because it’s the time we are seeing a God Samaritan who would be interested in an abandoned baby. Usually when a Good Samaritan finds a baby, they just drop the baby and go, they don’t even want to follow you to the Police Station. So when I saw that this old woman really love this child, I had compassion for her, and I said that this is nice. And don’t forget that at that time, 6 years ago, we were still trying to encourage adoption. Now I have a long list. If it was today, I wont even look at her face. I didn’t mind, so I told her that as long as you go and get your documents from Alausa, no problem. She now said she will be sponsoring the child while she is still working to get the document. She now said she will be sponsoring the child while she is still working to get the documents, I didn’t mind, because this is love and compassion. And she was very friendly to the orphanage.

She will come, buy some Little Biscuits and all that. She was sponsoring the baby for some amount per month consistently for a year. The baby was now transferred from this place, which is our baby unit to Akonwonjo, which is the main Orphange for the growing boys.

About 3 year later Emmanuel started Nursery, but I notice that this woman began to drag her feet. First, I never met any of the children who were supposedly abroad, because what she told me was that she was going to ask her children to come-down to Nigeria for the adoption approval. But 2 years, 3yeras, 4 years went by, not even a phone call from these children. Then Mama will come once or twice a year. The first year, she was very consistent, 2^nd year, she began to reduce gradually. Then I notice that most times, she was always abroad.

SO myself and my assistant, Janet Oriyomi, we now said that, look, the way Mama is going, it doesn’t look like her children are interested in the baby.

It looks like she was interested but the children are not, because the children did not even call the orphanage or send any e-mail. I was asking Mama, why are your children not getting in touch with us if they really want Emanuel? She said I shouldn’t worry, that they will get in-touch with me. In 2004, my assistant went abroad, so I now told her to investigate, because you see, adoption is a very sensitive issue, I don’t know whether Mama had told her children, I don’t really know what is going on in the family. But Janet decided to visit their home in London, to see whether she and forget some. She is quite aware of our every move. I told her categorically that that it was getting late for Emmanuel to be adopted, so that particular time, we had a foreign couple from Holland, who came around and adopted him.

Let me tell you what happened. By the time Emanuel started class, we noticed that Emmanuel had a problem mentally. He was not developing  like the other children. He doesn’t talk at all. She said Emma used to recognize her. We noticed that he was retarded during his nursery classes. We then carried out an investigation on him and we noticed that he is suffering from the trauma of the abandonment.

So for her to say that she is not aware that Emmanuel has problem is news to me. I didnt want her to have a totally negative report on the boy, and of course, I’m an expert.

So what happened to the child? Luckily for us, a couple from Netherlands wanted a Nigerian boy. Because there is a kind of collaboration with  some adoption agencies abroad and the Lagos State government for children with special needs, not for normal children. Because they know

that here, nobody will adopt a child that is retarded, disabled, hydrocephalus and others. They adopt them through an organisation called Ebun-Oluwa Foundation run by Mrs. Oni Okpaku. So Ebun-Oluwa Foundation are the ones that came here and processed the document, I didn't have anything to do with that. This was what happened in Emma's case.

They came around, and so I told Ebunoluwa that we have a child who is very slow and right now he is too old to be, adopted by any Nigerian parent. So they said they were going to find a family for him, which they eventually did.

The family came, saw the child and liked him. So they processed the document with the Lagos State Government and thank God, Emmanuel is now in Netherlands.

First of all, I didn't see her as a guardian, because there is a stakeholders meeting for us in the social welfare services and one of the things they say to us is that a person who finds an abandoned child cannot adopt that child, because of the stigma of the environment and because the motive will not be very clear. it is discouraged and not accepted. So if you find a child now and tell us you want that child, we will tell you to leave that child and take another one. It's all because the Lagos State Government wants to is courage people finding abandoned children and keeping them and after a while, you dont even know what happens to that child. The Orphanage is not under any obligation to give you that same child for adoption, just because you were the one that found him/her. So I didn't see her as a guardian, I only saw her as a sponsor, I have a lot of sponsors and I wont say because they were sponsoring a child, that now gives them an automatic right to take the child away, it's not done that way. And don't forget that we are talking 6 years after. So if she really wanted to adopt, she should have done everything in her power to get the child in a legal way within those period. Secondly, I called her and told her that it was over.

No. I told her what I was going to do. I told her that this child is going abroad.

She told me she didn't want the child to go abroad because she didn't want the child's culture to change. But I told her that her own grand children are abroad, her whole family, why are you saying this child should not go abroad? She said that Little Saints is even better. She was now trying to convince me to leave the child in Little Saints.

Never! We never charge a penny for adoption, because that is what I will call child trafficking. Under no circumstance must you exchange a child for money, whether it's for adoption or fostering, you can come to the Orphanage and sponsor a child, but that child does not belong to you. You are doing a humanitarian service. So we try to discourage that.

The 250 pounds issue was money sent to us from her church in Britain, which was sent to the Orphanage. Meanwhile, there had been a bridge in communication between us and Mama since the last time she came home last year. The child was given out in January this year. and we didn’t see Mama

until September. This is to tell you that the woman has stopped interacting with us, there was a lapse. I dont owe Mrs Ajayi any explanation because I have given her almost five year to do whatever she wanted to do.

Her children did not call me, neither did I get any text messages from them. If only I got one text message from one of the children to say Mrs. George, please we are coming, what we are talking about will not even happen. It was when I called her that day in 2007, and she told me Little Saint Orphanage is better than most homes, that I shouldn’t even bother to give Emmanuel to anybody, that was when I knew that she was not serious.

So when she was leaving in 2007, I told her that, I'm putting Emmanuel up for adoption. That woman left my office laughing, she didn't complain and say anything about it, she waited for me to do it first. I'm a child of the most high God and I'm talking to you in the name of God. I called this woman and I told her that Emmanuel is going for an adoption abroad.

She didn't tell me all that.

But the point still remains that she wasn't ready to take up the child for proper adoption. And that’s my primary concern. What she was planning was for Emmanuel to stay in the orphanage and he would inherit these things later. But that is not acceptable to our own Vision, because the integration aspect is so important. You cannot institutionalize these children, and the government does not like it that you are keeping these children for a long time. They keep asking me, why are all these children with us. I have to keep giving them explanation on why each of them are still with us. So even if she had told me· about these acquired assets for the boy, I would haw advised her better.

I take responsibility for everything, why am I in this Ministry? It's because of my soft heart. When Mama walked into my office and was begging me that she wanted to adopt the child, and at that time, we were still begging people to adopt children, I just felt, what a good opportunity. If it was now, I wont even listen to her. And don't forget that she was not the one that was meant to adopt directly, it was her children who were abroad. So in a way, it is really not the person that found Emma, it's another person from the same family, that is why I did not agitate. And because I saw that she is really compassionate about Emma, how do you resist compassion? You can't! So I encouraged her to my regret. This is what I'm regretting now, because I didn't know she was such a person. I thought everything I told her was going to happen.

She cannot have the child back.

It is only the biological mother that can get that child back after a thorough DNA is carried out. Where the child is, is he a pauper? He is not suffering. And all your own children are all abroad and they couldn't adopt, they couldn't get in-touch with me.

So you want us to keep this child in an Orphanage until he is an adult and can inherit your properties. I don't get it. She can make contact with Emmanuel with the permission of the Lagos State Government, because the new parents are ready to meet with her. So why is she making all the noise when the child is being well taken care of where he is right now? I want to believe that there is more to this adoption issue and there is something she is keeping away from everybody. I'm beginning to even get very suspicious of her. It's an abandoned child, so what is the big deal that you must have the child back because you left an inheritance for him.

It's already a closed case and they've told her she doesn't have any case, since the adoption was done legally. There is nothing I do in my Orphanage that the government does not know about. I always give a feed back on all activities being carried out in my organization to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and also the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development. So I don't just take decision on my own here, we do all things legally and that is why we are covered. And to me, I believe that there is nothing she can do, because our source is God. Let her go to all the newspapers in Nigeria, let her go to all the television stations in Nigeria, I stand on the truth.

t her go to all the newspapers in Nigeria, let her go to all the television stations in Nigeria, I stand on the truth.