Timi Alaibe's Wife "Died in His Arms"

By: Nosike Ogbuenyi in Lagos, and Segun James in Yenagoa

Monday 2 February, 2009

Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Managing Director Timi Alaibe was by the bedside
of his wife, Alaere, when she drew her last breath last Saturday in London.

The 45-year-old mother of five [pictured above] died at a London hospital where she was receiving
treatment for cancer. A statement issued yesterday by Ekpein Appa on behalf of the bereaved Alaibe
family said the NDDC MD was by the bedside of his wife when she died. Alaibe had travelled to
London at the weekend to see his wife at the hospital.

Alaere's death has brought grief to many whose lives she had touched positively. Bayelsa State
Governor Timipre Sylva yesterday expressed shock at Alaere's death. The governor who is in
Ethiopia with Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan attending the African Union (AU) meeting
holding in Addis Ababa recalled the efforts of the late Alaere at bringing education and
development to the people of the rural areas of the state under her NGO, Family Reorientation,
Education and Empowerment (FREE) programmes.

Speaking through the Director-General of the Bureau of Tourism and Information, Mr. Nathan Egba,
Sylva said he had directed the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Gideon Ekeuwei, to
immediately raise a team to visit the late Alaere's husband, Alaibe, pending the time he
will return home. Sylva said the death was a rude shock to the people of the state and
commiserated with the Alaibe family in this trying period. The Alaibe family statement entitled:
"We Have Lost a Gem: Alaere Timi Alaibe" reads:

"It is with sorrow and deep sense of loss that we announce the death of Mrs. Alaere Timi Alaibe,
wife of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Niger Delta Development
Commission. She died at a London Hospital on Saturday, January 31, 2009. Her husband was by her
side at the time of death.

Born in 1964 in the heart of Lagos, she is a native of Trofani village in Sagbama local government
area of Bayelsa State. Alaere is the founder of the international award-winning non-governmental
organisation: Family Reorientation Education and Empowerment (FREE). She holds a Bachelor's
degree in Banking and Finance and a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the
Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt. In her lifetime, she attended
several courses across the world and was visible and audible at international conferences.

Her career in paid employment lasted between 1988 and 1994 when she worked as an accountant with
Elekrint Nigeria Limited, Lagos and Ashland Oil Company. She was a woman filled with dreams and
creative ability. One of the realities of that positive imaginations was the establishment of
Pretty Woman, a health and beauty company which she aimed at redefining the emerging face and
consciousness of the modern Nigerian woman with poise and confidence.

A consummate housewife and lover of people, Alaere took her passion for humanity to the next
height in 2000 when she established FREE with the sole purpose of helping the Niger Delta women
resolve the development dilemmas confronting them through the combined forces of literacy and
empowerment. What started informally as a community-based organisation was officially registered
as NGO in 2005 with a mandate to reduce the level of ignorance, alphabetic illiteracy, the
collapse of family values and general un-development in the Niger Delta region.

A pillar of strength for her husband and family, Alaere lived her vision and had plans for her
people. She remained a strong believer in intellectual liberation. Her vision was for the rural
dwellers although she was a citizen of the world. It did not take long for the world to make a
beaten path to Igbainwari Community in Opokuma/Kolokuma, Bayelsa State where her
organisation is headquartered.

Awards started pouring in from every part of the world. Top of the pack was the Confucious Prize
for Literacy 2007 awarded by UNESCO. It was the first time the award was ever given to any
Nigerian organisation or government. The award applauded FREE for creating a network of learning
centres and providing literacy skills to adults especially children.

Today, this woman is no more. She has passed on, leaving behind hundreds of adult women and girl
students undergoing training under FREE. She would be greatly missed by everyone; especially
those whose lives she touched directly, the expectant mothers and orphans who received free
health at FREE Support for Africa Clinic, the wayward girls she took off the streets and
whose lives she refurbished and empowered, the adult women whose future she renewed and
re-energised, amongst others.

But her footprints have outlived her. We mourn our sister, friend and mother. She came suddenly and
has left suddenly. Who can question God? No one can because He knows the end of the matter from the
beginning. Burial arrangements would be announced later. We pray that God will grant her passionate
soul a peaceful rest."

For more information on the late Mrs. Alaibe, you can also visit our awards page on the following link:
UNESCO Awards and Fellowships Given to Nigerians