Young Nigerian woman who was abandoned by her mother at 7-month-old achieves success, becomes a remarkable Lawyer
Awele Ideal who was abandoned by her mother at 7-month-old achieves success, becomes a remarkable Lawyer
A young Nigerian woman named Awele Ideal has defied the odds to succeed as an award-winning lawyer in Nigeria.
Despite being abandoned by her mother at just seven months old and enduring years of abuse from her stepmother, Awele remained determined to change her fate through education.
Left in the care of her father and an abusive stepmother, Awele suffered severe maltreatment throughout her childhood. She endured prolonged hunger, often going days without food.
The abuse was so extreme that she once resorted to eating leftover food meant for the family dog. ” Sometimes I went hungry for days. She would so starve me that I would be seeing death. On one occasion, I was very hungry that I had to eat our dog’s leftovers food,” she recounted.
Awele’s suffering caught the attention of a kind neighbor who, upon learning of her plight, took it upon herself to secretly provide Awele with food every day till they moved out of the compound.
”Our neighbor’s son caught me eating the dog’s leftover food and he told his mother who later that evening invited me to her house and asked me if what her son said was true. I was so terrified that I begged her not to tell my stepmother, because she will kill me if she knew that I ate the dog’s leftover instead of throwing it away,” Awele said.
”The woman wept and promised to give me food every day without my stepmother’s knowledge, a promise she kept till we left the compound,” she added.
In addition to starving her, Awele’s stepmother inflicted brutal punishments. “My Stepmother flogged me mercilessly until I would faint at times. She would also apply pepper in my vagina, eyes, armpit, and neck, tie me up and abandon me in one of the toilets for days without food,” she said.
Despite these hardships, Awele remained committed to her pursuit of education. She excelled academically, knowing that education was her only escape from the torment she endured.
”I knew that the only way to escape was to achieve educational success, so I never joked with schooling. So you see, I have every right to be hateful, bitter, jealous, arrogant, sad, negative, and toxic but I chose not to,” she said.
Driven by her passion for education, Awele obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Delta State University in 2010. She then proceeded to earn a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Benin.
Afterward, she attended the Nigerian Law School, where she was called to the Bar in 2011 as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Today, Awele Ideal is a renowned lawyer, mediator, arbitrator, child rights advocate, and the principal counsel of Ideal Chambers, a law firm based in Asaba, Nigeria.
Source: Political Economist
