By Kayode Emola
In our chaotic world, it is very easy to forget one another due to the constant demands of the precious little time we have. It was in the year 2020 that I first encountered our illustrious Yoruba daughter. It was a meeting organised by the then Yoruba World Congress UK with a group of professionals that eventually became the Yoruba Global Directorate.
Barrister Janet was among the 4 delegates from the Global Directorate who met with our team of 5 from YWC UK. Although that meeting didn’t go down well, Barrister Janet and Barr Taiwo Odumosu requested a follow-up meeting, which has never happened until this day.
Barrister Janet and her team went on to form what we now know as the Yoruba Global Directorate and YWC UK is nothing to write home about. However, one of the fascinating things about Barrister Janet is that she is not a quitter. She is a fighter and that is what she did until she took her final breath on Saturday 14, September 2024.
When the meeting between her team and the YWC UK didn’t go as planned, she didn’t buckle. She and her team went ahead to create the Global Directorate and she was very prominent in their Saturday’s weekly meeting until she eventually left the Global Directorate.
After leaving the Global Directorate, she formed many small groups that accomplished unspeakable feats. Prominent of them was the Interfaith group that brought three major religious groups (Christians, Muslims, and Yoruba Traditional Worshipers) under one roof to pray. This has never happened in the history of our people as Yoruba, even though we are well known for our religious tolerance.
This interfaith group which still thrives till date was able to achieve a lot together. The group was established in 2021 after Chief Sunday Igboho was arrested in Cotonou. The group met constantly to pray for God’s intervention and Chief Igboho’s early release. God attended to the prayers of the Yoruba people by ensuring that Chief Igboho was released from prison into house arrest before his eventual release.
Barrister Janet didn’t rest on her laurels after Chief Igboho was released from prison. She went on to successfully create her oko etile farming project which has revolutionise home farming in our Yoruba communities. She pursued this vision passionately and will constantly share the successes of the farming project on social media encouraging others to join the train.
Aside from being a Barrister of law, she completed a nursing degree back home in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom before relocating to the USA. Her background in the health sector is demonstrated in her charitable works as she never misses an opportunity to bless the lives of those that she encounters.
Barrister Janet is an embodiment of compassion and she radiates the light of God that shines brightly for all to see. Her departure from this life will be sorely missed not just by her immediate family but by the entire Yoruba nation struggle. Barrister Janet still has a lot to offer our Yoruba nation struggle but her passing has made those contributions fade away into the skies.
By the time we come to raise our Yoruba flag to which Barrister Janet composed a very beautiful song, I hope and pray that she and many others that has passed away will not be forgotten. The labour of our heroin Janet will never be in vain and her contributions to our struggle will continue to be in our hearts.
For those of us who are still around, this is the time to start making a positive impact and more so on our Yoruba nation’s struggle. The time is now to liberate our people from the bondage called Nigeria. Let us all join our strength together for this noble cause so that we can bring about the positive change we want to see in our society.
