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Badagry Community Honors US Diplomat
The ancient town of Badagry known to have still-standing, the
first 2-storey building in Nigeria and the relics of slave-trade
made yet another history on Saturday, May 19, 2007 when it
conferred a chieftaincy title on
Dr. Rudolph Stewart, the Information Officer of the US Mission in
Nigeria as the Fiwagboye of Ilogbo-Eremi of Badagry.
Like the title translates, Dr. Stewart earned the recognition out
of his exemplarily good character.
When
Families ALIVE International got the grant to work with boarder
communities of Badagry/Seme, little did we know that we were
getting much more than we bargained for. Today, it is history that
we have not only had a successful set of programs but has in
addition built a life-long relationship with the communities, the
US Mission/PEPFAR, and essentially witnessed the royal return of
our son's home-coming at Ilogbo that peaked when he,
Rudolph E. Stewart, PhD was
conferred the chieftaincy title of Fiwagboye of Ilogbo-Eremi. Rudy
as generally called by admirers, served as the US Embassy
Abuja Information Officer and supervised the various PEPFAR
programs in Nigeria including the PEPFAR Media program for Badagry
Local Government.
 Something
wonderful about Chief Rudolph E. Stewart, the Fiwagboye of
Ilogbo-Eremi is the fact he demonstrated and lived his passion for
the projects as despite the nerve wrecking traffic experience of
the Lagos-Badagry route (a 40 Minute trip taking between 3 and 4
hours), he was on the first Media Tour with us and returned to be on every other trip
after that riding and walking the difficult terrains of the
communities with a smile on his face. It was unbelievable for most
of us as each trip lasted till late, most times returning to town
about 10:00 PM. He visited every community on the project and every
partner facility and
STEWART (M) HOLDS 2 PEOPLE WITH AIDS ON THE PROJECT
noted the inadequacies with a desire to help. He didn't have to, but
he did take interest in the communities' economic and nutrition
value especially for those living with HIV/AIDS that he got a
special US-grant to rebuild their abandoned Fish Ponds. Stewart was
deeply touched and sought ways he could help the folks in these
communities when he found women and girls sometimes as young as 9,
10 were so vulnerable and susceptible to 'sex for bread' due to
economic hardship
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despite
the higher than national average of HIV-AIDS prevalence of the LGA. In no small way,
he broke a major myth in Magbon, one of the program target community
when he held in his arms two people living with full blown AIDS at a
community event leaving the folks astonished. That event actually
led to the change in the way people of the community viewed issues
of and people living with HIV and AIDS. Chief Rudolph E. Stewart is
a man of the people, indeed. |
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PHOTOS AT
THE INSTALLATION CEREMONY
as performed by His Royal Majesty, the Agbokejoye V,
Onilogbo of Ilogbo_Eremi Kingdom, Oba Moses Ayinde Adetunji
Olaleye with traditional support from his High Chiefs.
Pictures CLOCKWISE: His Royah Majesty, Oba Moses Olaleye
presents his newest Chief, Dr. Rudolph E. Stewart, the
Fiwagboye of Ilogbo-Eremi to the people of Ilogbo-land; the
Oba himself led his Chiefs in a royal dance to celebrate
Chief Fiwagboye, Dr. Stewart; at the Fish Pond side, helped
funded by the Chief himself, market women take turns to buy
fish at the Pond, and the dance-floor opens to the citizens
who joined in the celebration of their hero, Chief Rudolph
E. Stewart, the Fiwagboye of Ilogbo-land. |
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