Stella Monye on a path to social change

Her powerful vocal was unmistakable that misty Monday June morning on radio. Her classic number, ‘Oko Mi Ye Duro Timi o’ was playing. Stella Monye is one of those Nigerian musicians whose music is timeless. In the late 1980s and early 1990s are songs ruled the airwaves side by side that of Onyeka Owenu, Sunny Ade, Charley Oputa, Blackky and Daniel Wilson. Her songs topped music charts.

But today, Monye has moved on to other greater callings beyond music. She now describes herself as a humanist who is passionate about showing love to her fellow being.  “Let’s put it this way,” she says. I have a lot of experience in social service work. You can say it fell on my laps but I will not let it fall on my laps if I didn’t have interest in the first place. It started from the interest, it fell on my laps and I have the wealth of ten years’ experience in human right, civil society and social services work.”

Monye’s humanitarian service has seen her served food in schools. Severally, she has visited special schools to provide support to caregivers.  “There was a time I was going to serve food in schools in Lagos. I would go to special schools for the visually-impaired, those hard of hearing and others. I used to make it a point of duty to serve these children food. I was working with a faith-based foundation in Apapa and I remember that in that organisation, we had other social service workers who were supposed to be the ones who served the food.

“But I always took it upon myself by going with them to make sure that the food was properly served. It made a lot of impact because the children were always coming to see me. There were so many other areas where I participated in social work. I had worked with the late Beko Ransome kuti, Gani Fawehinmi, Anthony Enahoro, Wole Soyinka and Gov. Oshiomole. I was working with the labour movement. I worked with Dr. Joe- Yinka-Odumakin. I was almost involved in all her civil society work. She still invites me up till today and I will go with her unless I am not in town. I have always had my hands full of social activities. When Pronaco was around, I did all the road show with them. I used music and it was fun and it was also hard work.”

Monye says she has been able to perfectly combine her new role with her music career as she has put together a group of singers to perform well known songs that highlight the plights of the downtrodden while on road shows feeding the poor.

“When it fell on my lap,” she explains, “I had to come up with songs about societal ills and whenever we had such outings, I would sing songs from Bob Marley, Fela and the likes. I remember I used to sing “Mr President’’ by African China. I will make sure that all the songs are relevant to the events. I would teach some singers the songs so that we could sing together while on road shows. So, it was another kind of gathering for me. I made a lot of people do what they had never thought they’d be able to do in their wildest imagination. It was fun. It has made these people become better individuals.”

According to her she drew singers from different places to promote the cause she believes in. “I had Lucky Okri that is Mike Okri’s younger brother as lead singer. I had Charity, a singer who works in my band and also does other professional singing elsewhere. I was able to gather them. They were great singers. I got up to 250 singers drawn from churches schools music departments for instance at the College of Education, Ijanikin. I had up 50 people that I have invited for such group work.”

Monye had previously promoted her social work on PRONACO’s platform now she has extended it beyond that. “I was on the NTA morning programme, AM Express for about two quarters and I gave them the band through the foundation that I was working for. I gave them the group of musicians. The music was tailored to what they discussed on the programme.

“I came up with a show that featured only female acts that had been in the night club circle with no opportunity to break into the mainstream. I showcased them. It was called the ‘Hook Up Show’. The first outing was chaired by Senator Oluremi Tinubu. She encouraged me and even provided us with a hall in Alausa-Lagos. Tinubu was one of the people who bank rolled us from the beginning. But at a point, I had to do other things. I was also thinking of screening it on television. That slowed me down a bit because I had to attend to other things. I will come back to it.”

She has also affected the lives of widows through her organisation, Women Health Initiative Nigeria. “For some time, I have had this organization called Women Health Initiative Nigeria. It was inspired by a young girl and she brought the baby and dumped her in front of my house. She was just sixteen, living with her uncle in that area. He was always abusing her verbally and reminding her that she had a baby out of wedlock and that she didn’t have a job. She really didn’t have a job. And she couldn’t take care of the baby. So she dumped the baby and ran away. The policewoman who stayed in the same premises was called. She then called my attention to the baby. We decided to take the baby to Little Saints Orphanage but then we needed to make enquiries as to who saw her dump the baby and where she stays. We had a lucky break.

“Somebody saw her lying on top of a broken down vehicle with the baby that afternoon. We found out that a lot of people know her. We traced her uncle and traced her too. We reconciled her with her baby and we gave her some clothes. We gave her some diapers for the baby. It inspired m. there are lots of girls out there with similar experience and they have no place to go because we have no social security in Nigeria. When I see incidents like that, I pick them up. A lot of younger girls who saw what I did for the girl came to see me in the house to ask for one help or the other. They wanted jobs, some I would help to get jobs. Sometimes, I would give them perishables from my kitchen. I can give you foodstuff. I did a lot of that. I had a baby as a teenager myself. Although the circumstances may be different, they may not be lucky as I was to get some care. But I just said this is one area I want to look into.”

Some times in the process of affecting lives positively, Monye has put her own life on the line. “I remember when I had a road show at Ikeja bus stop and the hoodlums came and tried to rob us. We had food stuffs in the truck and you know a hungry man is an angry man. You could see anger on these people’s faces. We took cartoons of biscuits, water and we packed rice in take away plates so when we encounter such, we would give them out. We have had very similar situations.”

Monye has a word of advice for government on how they can take social work further than where it is currently. “During the campaign, I overheard one of the parties promising to start social service scheme of about N5000. Some people were complaining about it but then let us start from somewhere and see how it goes and may be with time, it can be increased. Maybe the new government will be feeding children in school all over Nigeria. That is a huge task though. Sometimes, I ask how it could be done but it is possible. If we can do it at the NGO level, government should be able to do something. Fashola government supported a lot of NGOs in Lagos depending on your approach.

“We have the Ministry of Women Affairs set up by the Lagos State Government but I don’t know how effective they are. Some women I hear claimed that they have taught them some skills for empowerment. That is part of what we want to do as NGO. Get women to develop their crafts. We just need a centre to start this kind of thing. If international organisations can do it, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to do it. We are one of the richest countries in Africa. The N5000 social security fund should be passed into law. They can push the money up a bit. Things are very expensive in Nigeria. We can push the money up a bit.”

FUNKE OSAE-BROWN