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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
She’s widely known as Nwanyi Ambulance or Ambulance Woman. What she does for a living has taken over her real name. If you are in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, particularly the new Industrial Market area and you say you are looking for Mrs Chinwendu Nnadi, it would be quite difficult to get her. But when once you mention ‘Nwanyi Ambulance’ (the ambulance woman), any other person around knows her.
Saturday Sun got wind of the exploits of this woman in the scary corpse conveying business in Umuahia and set out to track her, to find out how a woman has been able to become a trailblazer in a business where most men would rather die than get involved in.
So, the reporter, on the appointed day, set to meet the ever smiling and jovial Nwanyi Ambulance, who many of her fellow womenfolk and men alike, fear to come closer to.
When the writer got to the new Industrial Market, Umuahia as directed, despite her office being at the last row of the expansive market, one was able to locate her with ease through inquiry made at the first gate. That was how popular the woman is in the area and beyond.
Settling down for business, the woman gave her name as Mrs Chinwendu Nnadi and the husband’s name as Okechukwu Nnadi from Umuapu, Isuochi in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State. She also gave the name of their company as Sekuse. While the husband is into full time casket making, Chinwendu is doing it big in the corpse conveying business.
Marriage and the urge
Chinwendu told this reporter that when her husband married her, she was working at the Port Harcourt office of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission. On the insistence of the husband and in order not to allow the marriage crash, she resigned from her job and came down to Umuahia to live with her husband.
“So, when I came down to Umuahia, since my husband is a casket maker and has hearses, I told him I would like to be driving one of the vehicles. He refused. My husband said there was no way his wife would be an ambulance driver, moreover, when we had enough drivers.”
By then, according to her, the family had about four hearses (the people here know them more as ambulances) with different drivers handling them. She said as an obedient woman, she had to obey her husband.
Genesis of ambulance driving
Nwanyi Ambulance told Saturday Sun that the opportunity of what she had been looking for over the years presented itself in 2008. Hear her, “My journey to driving a hearse started in 2008. On a particular weekend of that year, all our four vehicles were fully booked to convey corpses to various places.
“But something spectacular happened, on the night to the day they were to carry the corpses to their various places. One of the drivers called to inform my husband that the mother died that day and he would not be available for the job.”
Would Sekuse Ambulance Services disappoint the people and cause postponement of already scheduled burials? Nwanyi Ambulance provided the answer. “Since the owners of the corpse were insisting on our keeping to the terms of the agreement, I asked my husband to allow me to drop the corpse and he obliged me. So, I carried the corpse and dropped it in Imo State and came back without any problem. And since then, I have been on the job.”
Competing with men
Hearse driving, especially in this clime, is strictly men’s business. And even at that, due to its scary nature, not all men would attempt to venture into it. But this is a business Chinwendu entered into and within a short period, she started competing favourably with men who had been in the business for years, and she is presently surpassing them.
“Within a short time, people who needed our services started coming to me. Even when our drivers were assigned to them, they will reject them and said they needed me.
“Today, I have become so popular on the job that my male colleagues envy me, saying I take their jobs from them, to the extent they wanted to kill me, but God did not allow them.”
Nwanyi Ambulance informed that she started driving hearses with Volvo, but presently, she drives a Hummer SUV. “It does not mean I don’t drive any other vehicle, it depends on the one people want,” she said,
The lady boasted that no man can do the type of show she performs when she’s carrying a corpse. “At times, my vehicle will be in motion, I would jump down from it in a commando style and be directing its movement without touching the steering. This outstanding show I perform attracts more customers to me.”
Chinwendu who said she at present has about five SUVs in her fleet, was not forthcoming on whether the shows she perform with the ambulance while conveying corpses are natural or is laced with some spiritual power. When asked, she said: “It’s not everything that is discussed in public.”
First female hearse driver
When asked whether she was the first female hearse driver in Abia, the lady said: “I’m not just the first female hearse driver in Abia, but also in the whole of Nigeria. I started the job in 2008. Any other woman involved in the job now is merely imitating me.”
Transborder business
Chinwendu’s type of business does not confine her to a particular place as she moves about all over the country and even beyond. “I operate interstate. There is no state in Nigeria I cannot go to bring corpses. At times, I travel from Umuahia, Abia State to Ghana and Lagos to bring back corpses. In fact, getting Ghana jobs is more lucrative because we charge between N300,000 and N350,000 to bring one corpse from there. For Lagos, we charge N150,000.
Carrying stubborn corpses
The lady revealed that at times, those in her line of business encounter stubborn corpses that would not want to be taken home for burial. “Yes we have stubborn corpses like the one I told you about earlier, but immediately I enter the ambulance, it would calm down.”
When asked if stubborn corpses obey as a result of her spiritual fortification, Chinwendu responded: “Don’t you know that I am a woman? Wherever there is something diabolical and a woman comes in, that thing would be destroyed. There was a particular incident when one of our drivers was taking a corpse to Akwa Ibom State. Just before they left Umuahia, the corpse became stubborn, forcing the hearse’s four doors open. The driver locked the doors again and wanted to continue the journey, but the same thing happened. In fact, this drama played out four times and the driver had to call me on phone. Immediately I arrived and entered the vehicle, there was calmness and I took the corpse to its destination without any further problem.”
Nwanyi Ambulance said God has always been with her. “Any stubborn corpse that gives my colleagues problem, when I enter the vehicle, the corpse would obey me and I will drive it to its destination. “Before I move my vehicle for a journey, I always hand over the journey to God and with that, I am covered.”
How it feels being an ambulance driver
The lady said she feels no special way doing an exclusive men’s job.
“I feel no way about the whole thing. I just joined the ambulance /hearse driving with my husband’s consent and to assist him.
“I feel no other way than happy that I am doing a male dominated job and, in most cases, doing it better than them. After all, it is said that what a man can do, a woman can do even better!.
I fear no corpse
There are some measure of fear exhibited even by men when beholding dead bodies, especially those that are not relatives. But that’s not so for Nwanyi Ambulance.
“I do not entertain any fear for corpse. Once they are inside the hearse, I move on straight to my destination without any fear. I have nothing to fear about any corpse. It is the dead that is supposed to fear the living and not the other way round. Why should I fear a dead body?
“If I should carry a naked corpse to the mortuary without being afraid, what else are we talking about? There was a day I brought a naked corpse from the hospital to the mortuary. A man that saw me come down from my ambulance ran away, saying he never believed a woman would have the mind to do such a job.
“When I am on duty, many people don’t believe I am a woman. One day, I was taking a corpse to Benin, Edo State and a female relation of the corpse joined me in the front seat of the hearse. All of a sudden, her husband asked her to come down from the hearse, insisting there was no way another man would have her sit in front of the vehicle. It took much time to convince the man that I am a woman.”
But one thing Chinwendu said has been going for her is that when people look at her that way, it makes her feel very proud instead of being ashamed or feeling belittled.
Demand of hard liquor
“The demand for hard drinks and other things by ambulance and hearse drivers are rites given them for conveying corpses to their destinations. Once a hearse driver takes a corpse to its destination, the relatives will give him or her the rites,” she said.
“Before, we used to collect Schnapps, four tubers of yam and a fowl. We use the liquor to pour libation, thanking God for granting us journey mercies.
“It is not that we cannot pray without the hot drinks, but we use it since everything pertaining to dead body goes with tradition.”
How husband feels
“Like I said earlier, initially my husband never allowed me to drive the ambulance or hearse, but since Providence made it possible, he had no choice. Presently, he feels happy and proud that I drive an ambulance about and I am known all over the place. He does not entertain any fears about my safety at all because in most cases, I drive better than some men.”
Career job for children
The lady does not see anything wrong in allowing any of her children take up the job as a career. “Yes, I will allow any of my children interested to join me in the hearse driving business. After all, when I started driving it in 2008, I was pregnant. I went to Olokoro, Umuahia to drop a corpse and I was in labour. Immediately I dropped the corpse, I gave birth to the child I named God First.
“So, to answer your question, if any of my children wants to be a hearse driver, I will give that person full support. After all, it is what I’m using to train them and solve my other problems.
“I am even planning to teach my first daughter who is in the School of Nursing how to drive the ambulance. She has long been disturbing me to teach her.”
Work schedule and cash inflow
Nwanyi Ambulance revealed that there is no week she does not convey up to three or four corpses and that’s how money comes in. But she’s not forthcoming in giving the accurate amount she makes in a week as she said it varies.
“At times, like I said earlier, I can get a job to go to Lagos or Ghana. Their amounts vary and this makes it difficult for me to say how much I make in a week.”
People’s perception
The woman said people perceive her from the negative or awkward point of view. “At times, when I am coming into a place, if people see me, they will run away. There was one of my friends who used to disturb me every time to give her money and I told her I would like to teach her how to drive the hearse so that she would start getting money. She responded by telling me she never knew I hated her so much and that from that date we were no longer going to be friends again. That was how our friendship ended.
“Anytime I am conveying a corpse, any place I enter and come out from my vehicle, people will be running away from me, I don’t know whether they see me as a ghost.”
She said the only people that feel free with her are her children. “They do not fear me, perhaps because all of us are involved in casket making.”
Charges
Chinwendu said she does not charge more than others to convey corpses, adding that, at times, she charges less due to the fact she is a woman and that she always allows that motherly love to guide what she does in that regard.
“However, some people on their own give me more money than they give my male counterparts. For instance, when we stopped collecting yams and fowls as our rites and asked our customers to monetise them, if I tell people to give me N5,000 for female and N6,000 for male corpses as rites, some of them will pay me N12,000 provided I will be the one to drive the ambulance.”
Fulfilling job
“I don’t think there’s any other job I can do today except to drive a hearse or an ambulance. After all, I was working somewhere before I resigned to start my present job. I don’t think I can enjoy any other job better, no matter how lucrative. I feel very happy doing this job,” she said.
Advice to women
Chinwendu advised women not to be afraid of driving ambulances or hearses. She insisted that there’s nothing to fear about that, adding that all the women need to do is to have the mind to do the job.
