Aralola Olamuyiwa: Christmas will Be Nostalgic for Me This Year

Africa’s first female talking drummer, Aralola Olamuyiwa popularly known by her stage name, Ara, is not just a singer and entertainer but also a philanthropist who donates her time, money, experience and talent to help create a better world. The foremost female drummer in Africa as a way of celebrating Christmas with the poor. and on Wednesday, December 21 held a medical outreach for some of the youths and children under her initiative, “Eko Inspire Me”  at  Ketu Garage, Ketu, Lagos. In this interview with MARY NNAH, she spoke about the inspiration behind her initiative and what Christmas means to her

Why did you embark on today’s exercise?

Today we are having a medical outreach for our mentees and the beneficiaries of the “Eko Inspire me” project alongside their loved ones and friends. It is the end of the year and ever since we unveiled on October 19th this year to date, God has been very faithful.  God has been good to us and has granted us speed. So we thought it was worthwhile to do this medical outreach for them today. And also in course of our engaging them, we realised that there are a lot of minor medical issues and some critical medical issues that they are suffering from, especially for people who live in this kind of deplorable condition.  And even people who live in better conditions have medical issues as well, so you can imagine what it is like with them here. So we decide to go for a diabetes check, eye test, blood pressure, malaria, etc. So far, the turnout has been massive and they have been so appreciative. We have been here since morning and we have done a lot today.

Why at this particular period?

This is our major event to round off the year but that does not stop other projects going on underground. We want our beneficiaries to enjoy Christmas in good health and sound mind. That is why we are giving the less privileged this medical check-up for free so that if there is anything wrong you can easily treat yourself. There was a man that could barely see and when they checked him, they wrote a medication for him and he said he doesn’t have the money to buy it. Do you know that I sent someone to the pharmacy a few minutes after and when the person came back, she said the drugs cost just N500? These are things that touch me.

12 years ago when God was training me, my son was sick and I didn’t have money to buy malaria medication for him, and my boy nearly died. By the time I got the money and took him to the hospital, he collapsed just when I was going to get his medication. They gave him Oxygen and did everything possible, but my son didn’t come back. The doctor said I should put my mouth in his mouth and start breathing into him. You can imagine a mother in that state – my only child! But God brought him back and I told myself if I could go through that what about others who are less privileged? Soon after that incident, I started paying for medications for pregnant women and children. I also made a promise to God that if he blesses me, I will always do this. So it is a way of redeeming my vows to God to always reach out in love – it is not until you have billions.

Most people will expect food stuff at Christmas and not medicals. How do you convince them that they need this medical exercise?

I know what you mean, celebrating Christmas, people want to see chicken, jollof rice, drinks and music. All these are equally important but health is more important, it is those who are alive that celebrate Christmas. So let us start from here so that you know what your health status is and when Christmas comes, you are alive to celebrate. Christmas is about showing love and this is our way of showing loving and showing that we care and they are obliviously appreciative. We have over 300 people here today and I know more are still coming.

What does Christmas mean to you and how do you expect people?

For me, what Christmas meant to me years ago, is no longer what Christmas means to me now and I will tell you why. It is going to be the year I lost my mother,  she passed on precisely on the 28 of last month.

What Christmas meant to me when both parents were alive is different from what Christmas meant when my father passed about 10 years ago. Now, it is going to be my first Christmas without my Mom. I was at an event and they played Boney M and I got so emotional because these were songs we played growing up with my parents in Warri. We used to have the UBA End of Year/Children Christmas party because my father was a top manager with UBA and then different clubs that my dad belonged to will hold Christmas parties and we would attend with my dad.

So for me, I have already had mixed feelings about Christmas. It is going to be nostalgic for me this year. It is going to be quite emotional for me this year – the first Christmas without my mother. I won’t get her call and prayers this year. And we won’t get to go visit her as all the children and grandchildren will usually come together at her place for Christmas.

But then, it is a season to show love and we should show love every day but you know Christmas is special. The atmosphere is always different, somehow beautiful but for me,  it is different this year.

Tell us a bit about Eko Inspire me by Ara?

Eko Inspire me is a CSR initiative of my humble self, Ara.  It is a way of giving back to my society has gone through a series of storms in my life as well. For somebody who has been up there and then God took me on a training; that is the way, I see it. It was training because I believe that when God wants to use you or work with you, He will empower you and one of the ways that God empowers you as  His own is through thorough training. I had to go through that so that I can have full empathy and understand how people who are not as privileged as I am, survive.

We are looking at having a 100-bed space facility that will have facilities such as an educational center,  skill and vocational trialing centre, farmland, where different areas of farming will be done, a talent factory, and so on. We look at those on the streets we call them street kings and queens who have prospects and are not beyond redemption and who try to work with God as a tool to change their lives and their stories.

This was born out of an experience I had over 10 years ago with the calibre of people we are helping out of the street now at Oshodi during which I realised that they also have people who inspire them, whom they look up to and want o to be like. So there and then this project was conceived in my heart. 

Being the mother of a boy, whenever I see those miscreants, I feel serious for them, perhaps that was why God gave me a boy. And whenever I am taking my boy to school, I say, ‘you see those boys, the difference between you and them is that you have a caring mother and you are privileged,  they are not as privileged as you are otherwise you are not different from them.’ And one thing that I have done that I thank God for allowing me to do is that as my boy was growing up I used to take him to the orphanages, less privileged homes, and SOS where he mingled with them and thereby realise that he has a mother like a father. They don’t have any but you have one, so appreciate that you even have a mother. Some of them are even deformed from birth and their parents threw them away from birth. So it is good to understand that not all of us have privileges so that he will know how to relate with them and of course our society will be a lot better, safer, tourist friendly and we can sleep with both eyes closed at night.

Whether we take it or not, it is this group of people that cause damage in traffic, robbery and all kinds of things and I can tell you that these people don’t want to live this life but there are no platforms for them to live a good life.

The initiative is called Eko Inspire me because it is taking place in Lagos. Tomorrow we might go to Delta State, Ebonyi or Abia or Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, and so on.

So what happens to the name, ‘Eko Inspire me’ when you start taking the campaign to other states in Nigeria?

If we go to Ebonyi state, for instance, it will be ‘Ebonyi Inspire Me’, if we go to Oyo, ‘Oyo Inspire me,’ so because we are in Lagos that is why it is Eko Inspire me. It is an ARA initiative fully supported by the government of Lagos Babajide Sanwo-Olu. When we wrote a series of letters to about 10 of their ministries asking for partnership, a lot of people didn’t understand why but from the onset, I knew that institutional support is paramount in this kind of project. Of course, I had to meet with MC Oluomo about four years ago telling him the plans I had on the ground and he gave me his full support. Like the governor said when he hosted us a few weeks ago, the government of Lagos state cannot turn its back on this kind of project because Eko Inspire me By ARA is assisting Lagos to carry out some of their responsibility. 

You said an experience you had 10 years ago inspired the initiative. Can you shed more light on the incident?

The car that I drove on that which happened to be my youngest brother’s car broke down in Oshodi that night. That was about 10 years ago and we all know what Oshodi was like 10 years ago. While this happened around that NAFDAC area, I was scared and within three minutes, they came out I was scared and what I did first was to hide my phone in my boot because I like wearing boost all the time and then I told them ‘guys please help me take care of this car for me, let me quickly get something over there.’ And I ran for dear life. When I got to where people were, I brought my phone out and started making calls telling people what had just happened and so when my backup came, I went back and of course, more than 10 of them were all over the car some sitting on top of the care and all smoking.  Of course, I had backup then and so I was confident when I git there I engaged them asking why there were always on the streets,  if they were never tired of being on the streets and if the police were not harassing them and they responded in Yoruba that it’s the police that will get tired, that the police keep picking them and also keep dropping them back.

I then asked them what they want to become in life and if they had anyone that inspire them in life and they started mentioning names of celebrities one of them mentioned Prof. Wole Soyinka and that he wants to be; like Prof. Soyinka and I was like really? He said yes, that the man speaks posh English and that he would like to be speaking good English like him, which means that he wants to go to school and be educated. So, there and then I realised so much within that one hour that I was there. They became so friendly and of course, I gave them money when I was leaving. I felt it was God that made me stop there. It was God that made that car break down there to enable this project to kick off.  And I thank God that He put me through that process.

How long has this project been running?

This has been on from the moment the seed of the project was sown in my heart 10 years ago.  From there till now I have been working underground, of course, I didn’t want to do it because I was like where do I start? But God took me on a journey of a series of training, He brought me high and took me low. I refused and God showed me pepper until I decided that God if this is what you want me to do, a plea I am ready but show me that you will back me because this is not a talking drum.

Even though I have been doing charities before then without making noise about it, this very one there is no way that I will do it without people not knowing this because the kind of resources I will put into it is huge and it wasn’t something I could afford all alone, so I prayed over it and told God that if this was really what He wanted me to do, I will do it. And trust me between October 19, 2022, and today, December 21, God has been faithful. We have touched so many lives and got scholarships to children and we have been able to empower over 50 women who are into trading and many other things.

Who exactly are your target audience?

Our target audience is that boy and that girl who is on the street and has lost hope. If you hear the stories of a lot of them, you will get emotional. Some of them are orphans, some were sent out of their homes and some are abused by either their stepmothers or stepfathers. Some even got raped while out there sleeping under the bridge in the rain and all of that. We are looking at those of them who want something out of life and who are intentional about making it and have prospects and are not beyond redemption.

How do you gain their trust because these people are difficult to tame?

These are people who are used to being abused, people taking advantage of them, and all that, and would be difficult for them to trust anyone. I started with just a few of them by showing love such that each time I pass by I just drop money for them by being friendly with them and by dropping money for them each time I pass by and from there they started noticing me. Then I started stopping by to talk to them and I made sure it was consistent and from they started turning towards me and trusting me and when I realised that I have gained their trust to that level and gradually they became my friends,  I started talking to them about what they would want out of life and assuring them that they can still do something with their lives no matter what they have gone through in the past.