Ijeoma Ibijoke Jummai McDougall (nee Iheme) is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Kairos Initiative. The human resources professional has worked as a producer with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the United Kingdom and has impacted the lives of thousands of less privileged people both in the UK and Nigeria. Through her charity organisation, Kairos, she pushed for the enactment of a law that gives the parents of premature babies additional maternity leave to take care of their children. Recently, the bill was passed at the UK Parliament. In this interview with RAUF OYEWOLE, Ijeoma, who was honoured with the Cheshire Woman Award 2023 for her contributions to charity and empowerment, shares the inspiring story of her life.

Tell us more about yourself
My name is Ijeoma McDougal. I live in the United Kingdom (UK). I am a Nigerian, but I am the kind of Nigerian that confuses people because I read things written in Hausa language, I write things in Hausa and speak the language fluently, though my father is Igbo and my mother is Yoruba. So, I am a WAZOBIA Nigerian in the UK.

Here in the UK, I do a few things. I have a human resource qualification. I went to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, but when I got here, I trained to be human resources professional. So, I have qualifications in Employment Law and I work for the civil service. Also, I work as a Family Court Magistrate. I’m on the board of trustees for some really good charities and I set up the Kairos as my own charity initiative. I am married with two very lively and active daughters – one is eight while the second would be six next month.

As a person, I have a high sense of justice. We were brought up to know what is right and what is wrong and this means that when we see something going wrong, it’s difficult for me and people in my family to keep quiet about it. So, I get quite passionate about issues that matter to me.

You recently won an award. Can you tell us more about this great achievement and how it happened?
I got a letter in the post saying I was a nominee for the ‘Cheshire Woman of the Year Award’ and I couldn’t believe it. This is because, first of all, I don’t know who nominated me and I don’t know why they nominated me. I earlier mentioned to you some of the things I do but I didn’t know which of these things was the reason I was nominated. And if I am honest, for a long time, I thought it was a scam; somebody was trying to pull my legs. The letter said, “You can bring a plus one”, that is, you can bring somebody to the event. I was thinking if this was real or not. Secondly, I didn’t know if I would go because ‘Cheshire Woman of the Year’ is too big; there’s no way I would even be acknowledged. So, I just thought I would get to meet other women who are doing great things. Before I received the letter, I saw a lady on Facebook celebrating that she had received a nomination for ‘Cheshire Woman of the Year’ and I was so excited for her because she’s a scientist and she creates all these products that help to relieve pain and all that. So, I thought she was going to win. I couldn’t think of a better person to win the award.

When I then received the letter of nomination in the post, I thought, ‘they’re putting me in the same category as that woman, it’s impossible, I don’t stand the chance.’ But then, I went for the awards and they started to read out the person that won, because there’s only one winner of the ‘Cheshire Woman of the Year Award’ each year.

Let me give you some context about Cheshire. Cheshire is a very big County. Like everywhere, Cheshire has some poor parts, some rich parts, but it’s a big County where there are a lot of people doing big things. We even have real housewives of Cheshire, that’s to give you an understanding, the caliber of women in the room and the kind of work that they do, the kind of things they have achieved. And then, there’s me, a little Bauchi girl from Nigeria (laughs) in the same room with these people. But when they started to read out the nomination, they mentioned two examples, they mentioned my name and I just started crying.

They gave two examples of things that I did. We (all the women there) were all talking to each other before the event started: “oh, are you a nominee, what have you been nominated for?” And everybody could say very clearly what they were nominated for. But me, my answer was always, “I’m being honest with you, I don’t know!” People were laughing but it was true. So, when they started reading the examples, it made me really emotional because the main things that I was nominated for are things I didn’t remember, I had forgotten about some of them. They said that there was a lady I put on Facebook who was in the hospital that didn’t have food for her and her children and I just got people on Facebook to donate food to fill up her cupboards. It’s just me; that’s just what I do because if somebody is hungry, you feed the person.

They gave another example that I found some housing and furniture for a homeless family. This is something that, again, I didn’t do myself. I asked people for help and people gathered to help. So, I didn’t think I should be getting the credit. They said those were the main things that I was doing within the community that got their attention. Then, they decided to look into me further and they started to see the Kairos Initiative that I set up, the work I do there. They started to see my personal story, things I’ve had to cope with, things I’ve fought against. They started to look at my career and all that.

Like I said, I’m a human resources professional within the civil service but I started as a messenger. When I first moved to the UK, I thought I’d just come and go into a job but that was not my story. I struggled to get a job. I started as a cleaner.

At this point, I had no confidence. Though I had my degree and all that, I still had no confidence. So, I started from the very bottom as a messenger and I sort of climbed up the ladder and got all the qualifications. These were all the things that they looked into and decided that I should be given the award. Nobody was more shocked than me about this award.

What does this award mean to you as a Nigerian living in the UK?
Where I live in the UK, is not like London. I live very near Liverpool but I don’t live in Liverpool. So, where I live is not very racially diverse; you don’t see many black people there. The few of us black people here are very visible; we can’t hide. Wherever you go, you are likely to be the only black person there for a while.

It then means that for this award, I’m visible for the right reasons. It means that people are seeing me whether I like it or not, but they see me for the right reasons. This award also means that all those struggles, all the times I’ve been doubting myself, all the times I’ve been wondering if I was doing the right thing, all the times that I was down and out but refusing to give up, the award has made them worth it. The award means I should continue. It means it’s not the end of the journey. It means I now have a platform that I can use to do even more work.

I want to thank the Cheshire Woman Awards because what they have done has brought attention to the work I’m doing. What they have done has really boosted my confidence and gave me a pat on the back to make me believe that I have been doing the right thing. The award came at a time I wasn’t sure, when I wasn’t feeling confident. It’s giving a boost to do more.

What is the significance of this award to Nigeria as a country?
When I tell people here I’m a Nigerian, the first joke they will say is ‘I received an email from a Nigerian prince asking me for my bank details, that’s the scam that we get here.’ You get an email saying my client is a billionaire who died and he didn’t have a will, give me your bank details. You understand? That is what we are known for.

We are the biggest country in Africa and the largest population of black people in the world. The reputation of Nigeria becomes that of the black people. If our reputation is Yahoo Yahoo boy, corrupt politicians, scammers, insecurity, you can’t go and visit Nigeria because you are afraid of being kidnapped. That’s unfortunate. But there are so many people like me who live in other countries and we are doing good things. So, Nigeria, in my opinion, must celebrate that some of us are working to change our reputation. If we succeed in doing that, it will help us socially and economically and provide more opportunities for people. It means that the next time I will be meeting these women at the award ceremony, they will stop and listen because what they know as Nigerian woman is I. For Nigeria, this award is great because of its visibility for the right reason. We need our reputation to change.

There are so many young Nigerian ladies who are currently depressed, heartbroken and confused about their ambition. Considering your story, how can you advise them?
That was I; everything you describe there, that was I. Instead of giving advice, there are a few things that I will give. First of all, we make the mistake of letting life happen to us rather than us making life into what we want it to be. We are just living our lives from day to day and wait to see, and then we react to it. We wait to see what happens and respond to it. We have forgotten how to make things happen to ourselves. We need to be intentional. We may not know what the final destination is but we can decide what the next step is. Some of us are not taking any steps. This is the dream we want and this is the life we want. It is so big that we don’t know where to start.

My first advice is to break it down and identify your next step. Your next step could be to send an email. It could be to go and knock on that door or go and greet that man and say good afternoon. Your next step doesn’t have to be something huge; identify the next correct thing to do and do it. That way, you are being intentional and you’re moving. It may be slow but in the direction you are trying to get to.

Secondly, when we fail, because it’s not all the things that we put on our minds will succeed, it is over when you say it is over. No matter how many times you get knocked down, it is only over when you say it is. If at the moment you are feeling it is over, that is your choice because there is always another step to take. You should open your eyes and identify what it is.

What do you do at The Kairos Initiative?
When I was eight years old in Bauchi, that was the first time I experienced a religious crisis. We are a Christian family and some of my parents’ best friends are Muslims, different tribes and everything was fine. We were living in peace with no problem, but very few people decided to cause divisions, they started drawing lines that divided us. As a result of that, Bauchi or North East Nigeria became an unsafe place.

When you talk about North East Nigeria, the next thing you say is Boko Haram. So, in my mind, where I grew up, my hometown, parents don’t want to send their children to go for national service. If my mum and dad did not come to Bauchi, I wouldn’t be here. If not for Bauchi in particular, I wouldn’t be here because my father is from Imo State and my mum is from Kogi State. Where would they have met? So because Bauchi and the North East have become this undesirable place, the religious crises, the poverty intersecting people economically, businesses are failing, whether we like it or not, people are suffering. It’s not what it used to be when I was a child; people no longer have dignity.

The bottom line, as to why Kairos Initiative exists, is to see if we can restore two things, including unity. We don’t help people because of their religion. We don’t help people because of their tribe. We just help people in the North East. Secondly, dignity, which is why the projects that we do, we are very practical. And that is why some people can tell you that Kairos Initiative paid their rent for two years or they paid their children’s school fees, or their medical bills, or they put them up for an apprenticeship and gave them money to start a business.

We are trying to restore unity and dignity so that people can start to hold their heads up high. It’s not easy to beg for money but we know in Bauchi, there are people who don’t have just the basics. That’s why we go extra for Christmas, we get children Christmas presents, things that they will be excited about, things I wanted when I was a child. Christmas is an exciting time for the children.

For Sallah, we do the same. We sew clothes for almajiri kids so that they can have some excitement. I was in Bauchi two years ago for Christmas and I said to my dad that we needed to throw a party because everywhere was dry. Around Sallah, you just see people going to the mosque with no excitement anymore. That’s what we’re trying to do. We are trying to make us united again. It doesn’t matter what tribe you are; my family is a good example of that.

Many minority groups in the UK are facing different challenges. Tell us how you have been able to deal with these challenges?
It’s been very hard, I must be very honest with you. In Nigeria, when we get a visitor, we go all out. In my house, there were times when I slept on the sofa so that a visitor can have a bed. That’s how we treat our visitors in Nigeria. When I moved to the UK, I expected the same thing. I expected people to automatically be how I would have been to them but they have a very different culture here. You have to earn your place, and that’s okay. Also, where I live, if you are different, you will stand out. There are people who have preconceived ideas of who you should be. The pictures and videos they see on TV are Africans with flies all around their mouth, hungry and sick. That’s what some people believe Africa is. When I turned up with my high heel and my skirt and university degree, some people don’t know how to take it. Minority groups go through a lot but there is a choice for us to make. You either become a fire in your belly to show them and prove them wrong or it can be the excuse that you decide to just remain small. Racism can make you to be determined or break you. It had broken me. There was a time I was struggling to progress in my career; if they offer any opportunity I raised my hand because I was trying to get promotion. I was now getting poised to the extent that people say ‘Ijeoma’s name is in the newsletter today’. A lot of people say you only get that because you are black and I feel like ‘Oh! I didn’t get it because I worked hard? I got it because I’m black?’ Even if you’re doing well, they feel you’re doing well because of this diversity.

You wrote a book, Surviving 0 to Five Years Old #Mumofgirls. What inspired to write the book?
Lockdown nearly killed me. I was locked in the house as a career person. I go to work and my children go to school. Now, in lockdown you said I should stay at home. What inspired me to write the book, it’s a small book, it’s a book from one mum to another. It’s just like a gist; how to cope with this and that and not claiming to be an authority.

You led a group of some mothers of premature babies in the UK to your member of Parliament (MP) to seek for extension of maternity leave for them, which has been passed. Can you tell us more about this?
I’m joining the people who are taking credit for it because eight years ago, I had a very premature baby. She came three months earlier than the expected time; now I’m the breadwinner. We have calculated that I could be on maternity leave for six months and we have to go back because we have bills to pay. Now because of my HR background, I know the employment law. As soon as they said to me that the baby has to come now, there were a few things that started crossing my mind – ‘Oh my God, I have to be in the hospital. Is the baby going to be okay? Am I going to be okay?’ I started thinking ‘this means that my maternity leave starts three months earlier than I planned’. In my case, by the time the six months had reached and I returned to work, my baby was still on full oxygen and couldn’t go to nursery. It meant how do we pay our bills?

Anyway, I thought it was unfair because we have all sorts of benefits in this country (UK) for people who are down on different things: for disability, for ill health and so on. So what’s in place for parents who are working but have a sick or premature baby? I started the petition and went to see my MP (our legislator) and told him to put it on his agenda. He told me to go and find somebody else who is further along the line because I could not be the only one on the petition. I found a charity and I told them that I wanted to help. I also found a lady who was down and needed support and could not go to work. At that time, I had gotten about 10,000 petitioners who signed the petition. We worked together and spoke with some other MPs. They said as someone who has had a premature baby I would be a perfect person to explain the situation. So, I went to London with my baby and went to the Houses of Parliament and I spoke to these MPs from an employment point of view and the fight started. After that, we got the government to sort of agree to our proposal. They didn’t make it law but a guideline for employers. Just a few days ago, it was passed and these parents can get up to 12 weeks of assistance while staying with their children in the hospital. I started the fight years ago. I did mine and went back to the background and it moved to the point where we are now.