• It’s only God that is for us; government keeps failing us, they lament
By Vivian Onyebukwa
The present economic situation has posed a big challenge to Nigerian citizens. Prices of items keep skyrocketing every day that even workers are finding it hard to survive. Not only workers are caught in the web of economic woes but other able-bodied individuals. Then the question that bothers many a citizen: how do people with disabilities cope?
Saturday Sun spoke to some people living with disabilities to find out how they have been coping with the present harsh economy, and many have recounted harrowing tales.
“Typically, it’s a struggle everyday for people living with disabilities in Nigeria, and it’s even worse now”, said Chima Dike, an Imo State indigene. Dike said the economy had become unbearable for people like him with disabilities.
“It’s almost like it is against their existence. The economy is breaking down the walls of independence that some disabled people have managed to build over the years, making them dependent on people for a whole lot more than they normally would, financially, physically, mentally and otherwise,” he noted.
He said the difficult situation had, thus, created a constant worry of how to navigate through the difficulties of the harsh economy without the suffocating pressure crushing them. As he said, things like medicines and other health-related needs/aids, cost of food, transport, and others, had become harder to assess.
“It’s taking more effort, having to live life with a disability in this situation daily with no near end in sight, because our needs have remained the same (if not increased). With the decline in the economy, most disabled people’s lifeline is now more than ever hinged on hope – hope that they don’t drown before things probably get better,” he lamented.
Dike’s disability is called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, which appeared in his childhood and affected his lower and upper limbs. “It is a rare condition that just happened. Though the doctors say it’s hereditary, there’s no trace of it in the family tree, which is also a rare occurrence,” he explained.
For Faith Ijiga, a Benue-State-born indigene, who resides in Port Harcourt, coping with the current economic reality isn’t something she can recollect without emotions. Ijiga is a Christian fiction author and a graduate of the National Open University of Nigeria with a BA in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.
The 28-year-old lady was diagnosed with cataracts when she was barely six months old. She had a failed surgery at the age of one in a government hospital that resulted in her eyes being beyond medical remedy. As a result of that, she had to grow up as a visually impaired person.
Her take on how she had been weathering the hard economic situation in the country didn’t sound sentimental. “This is one of the difficult times in not just the lives of persons with physical challenges but many Nigerians in general as well. But what I can say is this: a journey that takes a mile to travel for an able-bodied person, it will take three miles for a physically-challenged person to travel down the same road.
“I’m not saying this to solicit anyone’s pity or to make it look pathetic, but this is just the reality. For example, it is now more difficult than ever for physically challenged graduates to get a job. This has certainly been the case for me and it is not like I don’t have the qualifications. The economic situation is also having psychological effects on Nigerians, and this is affecting persons with physical challenges.
“A good example of this is when a blind person is travelling from one location to another. We find it difficult to get help from sighted people, because they are too distracted with their own problems and solely concentrate in their hustle to survive this harsh economy.
“Sometimes when you call out, you would be ignored, because people think you want to beg them for money. What about the emotional effect that it is having? The high rate of depression because you are not able to get what you need. Notice I said ‘need’ and not ‘want’.
“As a single lady, who is visually impaired, I often wonder what family men and women who are physically challenged might be passing through on a daily basis, faced with the inability to provide sufficient resources for their families. I am a writer – this is one of the things I know how to do best, and it is a means of survival for me, but it is still not easy coping with the economy but I still have to survive.”
In his own case, Ayo Samuel, a native of Ondo State, resides in Lagos State, where he is doing his transport business. Samuel told Saturday Sun that the accident he had in 1993 as a student had demobilised him, making him walk with clutches. “I was going to school, so as I wanted to cross, a vehicle hit me. I thank God I am still alive till today,” he said.
Despite his condition, he is married with four children, thanks to his job as a conductor and a driver. “Anyone in our condition should not think that the person can’t do anything. There is ability in disability,” he said.
Sport has been a way some of the persons with disabilities eke out a living. That is why Thomas Osajede came all the way from Edo State to Lagos State for greener pastures. Relating his story he said: “I have been in Lagos for a long time. When I was coming to Lagos, I thought there was a provision for persons with disabilities like a hostel. But when I came I discovered that the issue of accommodation was another thing.
He admitted sadly: “Some of us sleep under the bridge and, during the day, you find your way and continue with the sports. But after the sports, you now talk about how to feed. Because of the way the system is in this country, the government does not even have the statistics of the number of people living with disabilities that are under the payroll of the government.
“So, the majority are on their own trying to survive through sports. Although it is another means the government can help persons living with disability, since the resumption of this government in office, things have gone so bad that healthy persons find it hard to take care of their transportation, not to talk of persons living with disabilities.
“For us living with disabilities who are restricted to wheelchairs, the public buses may not want to carry us because of the inconveniences we might cause them for the time or space. So, for that reason, they might want you to pay for a charter, which may not be possible for the person –somebody who doesn’t even have a job.”
To survive, Osajede said he had taken to playing table tennis almost every time to make sure that he was chosen for competitions. He, however, regretted that most times the government would not have money to sponsor the events.
“I don’t know how I will survive. Government should make provision for people living with disabilities, specifically those like me, a para table tennis player; I’m not under any government event. So it is very difficult for people like that to survive.” However, he hoped that a better Nigeria would come one day.
Unmarried without children, he said he was sceptical of bringing in children into the world to suffer when he was not ready to take responsibility.
Adeyinbo Kehinde Omobolale from Lagos State had polio when she was four years old. Even at that, her parents did not neglect her, which she said, had helped her in certain ways to survive the economy. “My parents tried to give me education up to a school certificate even though I could not go further to university level,” she recollected.
“When I finished school, there was no job then, especially with my condition. When I was in school, I hardly mingled with people with disabilities. I hardly saw them. One day, my ‘school mother’ invited me to the stadium. When I came, I saw different people with different styles of movement. I joined sports, but, at one point, I stopped, because I was developing big muscles, which made me start looking like a man.”
She started playing table tennis and represented Kaduna State. She stopped when she had her child, because she needed to take care of her. However, she hasn’t been involved in sports for 20 years now.
According to her, she couldn’t get other jobs, especially when she did not have a university degree, which, she said, was also a problem. “To survive the harsh economic situation, I do several businesses with the little money I made from sports. I also help people to get international passports, which is no longer lucrative now because of the new policies on it.
“I am into the transport business with Korope (nini bus) which someone bought for me and I got a driver while I work as conductor, because I need to get my money so I would be able to deliver to the man who bought the minibus for me, pay the driver and also make small savings for myself,” she said.
In her transport business, Omobolale complained about officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA), which she said, had made the transport business difficult for them, despite their physical disabilities.
“They charge you with all kinds of offences that you won’t remember when you committed them. It’s not easy for us at all. I hardly go home. I sleep inside the Korope, because I live in Ikorodu, which is far for me.
“I stay here till the weekend, then I go home so that I would be able to meet up with my expenses, including taking care of my daughter. The father of my child went abroad and abandoned us. Another challenge is that, even when you have money and want to rent an apartment, landlords feel sceptical with persons living with disabilities.
“Most members of the society don’t even pity us. Even as a conductor, LATSMA people don’t pity us. One threatened to drag me out of the bus one day, even as a conductor.”
Polio has really ravaged the world. Most of the persons living with disabilities were caused by polio. Ifeanyi Nwafor from Delta State but based in Lagos is one of the victims of polio. At barely six months when she fell ill and was taken to the hospital, an injection was given to her, which led to polio, from his narrative.
“In olden days, they would say it was injection, but it is nowadays that the world knows that it is polio. Actually, I was not the only child that was given an injection, so why would mine lead to this kind of condition? So, definitely it was polio. I grew up to see myself like this. Thank God, I was able to go to school to have my school certificate.
“That’s where I could stop. In those days, who would train you up to the university? Which company would employ someone using a walking aid? Then, I was using a locally made tricycle to go to school. That was the reason I could not further my education.
“At some point, I decided to learn tailoring. I started earning a means of livelihood by taking care of myself without bothering my mother. Even before I learned that trade, I had started making little money for myself by selling small things at home such as sweets. In life you have to keep moving,” she recounted.
Nwafor did not stop at tailoring. She later got to know about the stadium facilities for all. She said it was at a programme for the physically challenged that she got the information about sports for the disabled.
“I did about two sports, but I could not combine my tailoring work with sports, so I started reducing my tailoring work. I was also having backache, so I wasn’t that active. The money I got from sports, I used it to go into another trade which is jewellery,” said Nwafor.
She also learned catering. “Now I make finger foods. We have to encourage ourselves no matter what society may look like. Even if the government is not encouraging us, the little one we have we have to manage it,” he added.
She appealed to the government to make provision for people with disabilities at least on a monthly basis as done in the Western world, noting that many of them are unemployed.
“Look at the way things are in this country. Sometimes I wonder how we survive. It has been the grace of God. They should make life easy for us. We are citizens of this country, bonafide ones for that matter. They should consider us and come to our aid. Many persons with disabilities are without accommodation.” Indeed, the echo of her lamentation struck a disturbing note.
Also recounting her own polio story, Patricia Amako from Delta State said she was diagnosed of the ravaging disease at three years old. “Going to school was not easy then. After my secondary school, it is not easy to survive in this country as a person with a disability. Now I am a sports lady and a transporter.”
Amakor used the medium to beg the government to come to their situation, especially accommodation. “It is a vital role for the government to play. In other civilised countries, they pay allowances to the disabled to survive. I feel bad as a citizen of this country.
“Sometimes I do feel bad. I regret finding myself in this country. I am a mother of two. I thank God. Disability is not inability. Even those who are graduates among us can’t get jobs.
“I have always prayed for this opportunity to talk to our government. They should provide us even if it is accommodation where we can pay stipends. Some of us sleep under this bridge whether it’s raining or in the sunshine. Some come from other places other than Lagos, because it’s not all the parents that have the mind to take care of their children with disabilities.
“When they see that the child is challenged, they see the child as useless. But we give kudos to our own parents who brought us up to this level. It’s not easy for us. Government should come to our aid. We struggle to survive.
“I’m a single mother of two. My predicament is as a result of an accident. I studied at LASPOTECH, but because of unemployment, I decided to be a bus conductor, and it has not been easy because of LATSMA. They are the terrorists that we have in Lagos now. With LATSMA on the road, you won’t be able to do this job well,” lamented Oluwakemi Yusuf from Ogun State.
She blamed the government for not taking care of the needs of people living with disabilities. “Government has failed us severally so I don’t even want anything from them. Let me just be managing myself. They don’t have anything to do for us. It’s only God that will help us.”