Jodie is in Agony

Jodie is in Agony

Musician Joy Eseoghene Odiete, popularly known as Jodie, is beset by the difficulties of raising a boy-child living with cerebral palsy. Ferdinand  Ekechukwu reports

As songstress, Jodie, real name Joy Eseoghene Odiete, frantically seeks support for Nigerian parents with special needs children, notes and video clips of her on Instagram, gives her off as one who is emotionally strained, drained and depressed. Reading her posts and looking her image, one need not much to conclude that she has gone through harrowing experience in the process of  taking on her predicament.

Above all, she seeks funds and plans to, at least, put up a home for children with special needs. Nigeria is home to an estimated 32 million people with disabilities, most of whom are children, according to a February 2022 report.  Jodie, also a mother, is beset by the difficulties of raising a boy child with special needs.

Flashback to Jodie’s life to limelight after she released her hit debut single, ‘Kuchi Kuchi’ in 2010. The song went as far as becoming an anthem in many Nigerian households in Africa and beyond. Many at the time did not even remember that some three years earlier in 2007, the singer had participated in the maiden West African Idols competition and was one of the favourite finalists among the top 10 alongside Nigerian musicians Timi Dakolo and Omawunmi.

Her streak of success suffered setback soon after that feat a couple of years later. She got married to David Nnaji, a Nollywood actor and producer in October 2015. The marriage went down after the birth of their son in April 2016. The child is now 6-year-old and lives with cerebral palsy. Jodie recently bares her mind about life, plight, challenges and the realities of raising a special needs child. “Chinua has never said ‘Mummy’ in his life…” Jodie shared in a separate post.

While she has done all sorts of jobs to provide for her child, the expensive child care takes it all. In a three parts post which she labeled “An Open Letter”, Jodie wrote: “I sang a song, Kuchi Kuchi in 2010, which Kings and Queens have listened to and enjoyed”, Jodie recalled. “I am using the soft spot that song may have created to make this appeal. In the past 6 years, I have hawked beaded jewelry in offices like Total, Noah’s Ark, DDB etc. I have sold hair care products. I have begged. I have borrowed. Nigerians are kind. . .”

Continuing, she said “The truth is, I am a nobody, but I was inspired years ago to sing a song even when I didn’t know myself – a song that still resonates till date. Who knows? Maybe the essence of Kuchi Kuchi was not for my popularity, but to respond to the silent cries of mothers who gave birth to special needs children. Maybe its essence was to speak for the blood of the special needs children that has been spilled in secret by helpless mothers who did not know what else to do.”

Revealing that many have advised her to kill or abandon her son, Chinua, “because such children are sent to swallow up finances.  

Judie adds: “My finances have been swallowed. My friends have abandoned me, because I am a beggar. My debts are new every morning. But I am a mother who would rather die first before her son does not eat. Maybe helping some Special Needs Children in Nigeria and seeing some mums having a fighting chance at life will help fill some void. I don’t know, but this is my reality”

To some extent she chides the hospital where she had her son for his condition. And would have preferred a General Hospital if she knew how things would turn out. The singer said because of her son’s disability, she “cannot keep a relationship” as her soul is “shattered”. She disclosed that special needs children don’t eat regular food and need special care and this drains finances of parents.

She added that her son’s situation makes her fall ill “almost every 3 weeks due to stress”. The singer then said that her and other special needs parents have suffered alone for too long because they have been ashamed of the stigmatisation. But she said this shame “has to end” so they can get help for their children. “We are now shameless. We are now helpless. We have gone mad… We need a permanent solution,” she wrote. Jodie is not alone.

She then called on the government, non-governmental organisations and other authorities to provide a “permanent solution” for the care of special needs children so that parents will not have to go broke to care for their special needs kids.

She concluded: “My head is heavy. My eyes hurt, because I cry every night. Don’t wait for singer of Kuchi Kuchi to die first before you do a memorial service while her child is left to suffer. Do not spend a dime when I’m dead. Do all you can about it now while I’m alive. I beg you Nigerians.”

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