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Ismaila Olayiwola is 19 years old. He does not know his father. The surname he bears is that of his maternal grandfather.
He does not know his name either, and calls himself another one. He speaks as if he has a little tongue twist which makes his words unclear. He doesn’t know about money and materials and their values. He just picks things at random, without any particular plan for them. He gets beaten at times by those who don’t understand his mental condition. It is so obvious that he has mental retardation, though he walks and appears normal.
At his age, he is not in any school. Most times, he gets locked up in his grandparents’ home so that he would not stray away whenever anyone at home is busy or is engaged in other things. Sometimes, he follows his grandmother, Mrs Labake Olayiwola, who lives at Olunde in Ibadan, Oyo State, to prayers for spiritual deliverance.
However, last Thursday, as the grandmother gave him dinner to eat and went to bring him water to drink, Ismaila disappeared into darkness of the night. By the time the grandmother returned to where she left him and did not see him, she became worried.
She searched till about midnight and returned home. Sleep eluded her. ‘Where is my grandson? Where will I find him? Hope he had not been mistaken for a bad boy,’ Mrs Olayiwola kept thinking.
By 5am, she was out again, asking neighbours whether they sighted Ismaila. None of them did.
Unknown to her, help came the boy’s way when he was found at Aba Aafa area by members of Oluyole Security Surveillance Team, under Oluyole Local Government Area of the state, led by the Commandant, Olusegun Idowu. They subsequently notified the grandmother.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on how the boy was rescued, the Commandant said that the vigilante group members were patrolling Orisumbare Supo area of Olomi Community at about 12 midnight when they heard shouts of ‘thief! thief!! from the residents. “We later learnt he entered the house to sleep. The chairman of the area did not allow him to be touched but the people tied him so that he would not run away.
“I was called and when we got there and saw the boy, we sensed that he was not a criminal. We untied his hands and asked him questions, but he could not respond coherently. “We asked him if he understands Yoruba but he replied: ‘Mi o gbo Yoruba’ (I don’t understand Yoruba) in the same dialect. We asked of his name and he said it was Joshua. We asked him where his residence was, and he just said ‘Ago.’
We started taking him round from Olomi, to Ile Shehu, to Agric. We got to Okunade and turned to a neighbourhood when we saw a man who recognised one of us. He was the one who made us to know that Ismaila’s grandmother had been looking for him. He was the one who took us to the boy’s residence and we saw the worried grandmother who burst into tears,” Commandant Idowu explained.
Ismaila’s grandmother, who also spoke, told the Nigerian Tribune of how the boy left the house when she went to get him water to drink with the food he was given as dinner.
“Last Thursday night, I gave him dinner and wanted to bring him water. Unfortunately, unknown to me, I didn’t shut the door very well so he left home.
“I searched for him that night but could not find him. By 5am on Friday, I started the search again. I also asked neighbours who knew him and they said that they didn’t see him. As I was returning home, I was told that he had been found.”
Going into the background of Ismaila’s mental retardation, the grandmother said he got it from his mother, her own daughter.
“I gave birth to my daughter in 1980. She is my third child. She is the only child among others who didn’t go to school. She does not even know how to count money.
“She is with me and just fetches water for people to pay her. She could not marry because of her condition but a man first exploited this and impregnated her. She gave birth to a son named Joshua. Joshua also exhibited his mother’s traits but not as much as Ismaila’s own. I was the one taking care of him until I was able to trace his father through someone and handed him over,” she said.
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Continuing, Mrs Olayiwola said that her daughter was impregnated again and abandoned, leading to the delivery of Ismaila.
“The man did not show up when she was pregnant. We asked my daughter to take us to his family but she kept taking us to wrong places.
“Ismaila is bearing my husband’s name because the man who impregnated his mother disappeared. Till he was two years old, he could not talk. I was thinking that his tongue was tied, so I went to State Hospital, Adeoyo, Ring Road, Ibadan, where they said he didn’t have tongue tie.
“At first, I was taking him to daycare centre but at a point. I was told to take him away because he couldn’t talk. I was advised to take him to the midst of other children so I took him to another school.
“Whenever I took him to the school along with his food in a flask, he would leave his and eat other children’s own.
“Whenever he saw things, he would take it or leave the house, and I would be looking for him. He would pick things without knowing the value. He could pick a phone but we would collect it back from him. People know he has this kind of problem, but sometimes they beat him because of the way he takes their things,” she explained.
Talking about an experience Ismail had, Mrs Olayiwola said: “One day, I asked him to fetch water and I helped him to bring the bucket in. While i was doing that, he went to hide somewhere and got his foot hooked in a Water Closet and his heel bone came out. I spent over N20,000 then to treat the foot.
“Since then, I have been making efforts to make him better mentally. He can’t talk very well and he is not bright. My husband is in 70s and blind. He stays at home.
“I have been going up and down because of him, taking him to churches to pray.”
The grandmother disclosed that in the past, she was working in a biscuit factory at Alomaja area to sustain the family before it was closed, saying that she now joins caterers to help in cooking to get something to survive on and take care of her grandson.
Shedding tears again and wiping off with her veil, the grandmother cried for help from good-hearted citizens to cater for Ismaila’s mental issue.
“I’m so tired of everything. The man who impregnated my daughter is an alcohol addict, and immediately he knew my daughter was pregnant, he disappeared and has been untraceable. My daughter is also affected.
“I will like him to be put in a place where he can be taken care of by experienced hands, while I’ll be going to visit him.”
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