Physically-challenged people are human beings who for no fault of theirs, found themselves in such a pitiable condition. Senior Correspondent ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA interacted with them on their plight, challenges and their plea for help.
Sad. Dejected. Distressed. Frustrated. These are expressions that most physically-challenged people associate with, while others have no option than to be happy as they resigned their fate to God, thinking that they cannot remake themselves. They re-enact this while sitting in their wheelchair under the bridge at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, discussing their peculiar challenges.
TheNiche went there to find out the problems the physically-challenged are encountering and how they have managed to keep up.
Near the National Stadium, many of them cling to their crutches daily, waiting for any Good Samaritan to assist them either in cash or kind – words of encouragement to them also go a long way.
One-on-one with TheNiche
When TheNiche engaged them in one-on-one, Dayo Williams, who said she is a single mother of four children, simply described her situation as “very terrible”. Explaining their situation and numerous challenges to TheNiche, she said to feed is a problem.
Her words: “We are what we are, but nobody to assist us.”
To keep body and soul together, many of them are into sports that suits their condition. Unfortunately, they are reportedly not getting any allowance, even if they win in a sporting event.
Still speaking on her plight, Williams said he has a son in the university without anyone lending a helping hand. “My daughter also is about to enter university, but no money to train her. I no longer want to beg,” she added.
She lamented that she owes her landlord one and half years rent, adding that if not for her condition, she would have been thrown out of the building.
Another handicapped single parent whose name is Anna Ogie lamented that one of their greatest problems, especially the females among them, is their family.
“A lot of our problems are compounded by our mothers-in-law. Mothers-in-law are the major problem. They do not like us. They see us as nuisance to the family and treat us like slaves. Most often, they persuade their sons to abandon us,” she stressed.
Another big challenge they encounter is movement, especially in entering a commercial bus. They claim that some bus conductors and drivers do not allow them to board the bus because the transporters are always in a hurry and would not wait for them to board.
The doubt on the part of bus conductors that the physically-challenged cannot pay the fare contributes to their plight. According to Ogie, to see a bus to convey them is always very difficult, as they cannot go very distant places on their wheelchair.
She said: “To enter bus or keke (tricycle) is a problem. Some drivers even reject us due to our condition.”
For Balogun Ganiyat, the issue of accommodation is one the challenges they encounter. She pleaded that they be provided with good accommodation, positing that the disabled need to have a quiet home and should be well taken care of by the federal and state governments.
Jonah Gbolahan, a physically challenged who ventured into sport as a coach, said, as a family man, his responsibilities are stagnated due to lack of regular income. He said that most of them have spouses and children to cater for, without reasonable and regular source of income.
“Some of our members who did not attend formal school need empowerment,” he said, stressing that unemployment is one of their challenges.
“Imagine that as a coach, I have not gotten any job, but have submitted my Curriculum Vitae (CV) to government. They promise to give me job; but till now, I have not heard from the government,” he lamented.
He, however, told TheNiche that currently there is a programme for the physically-challenged. It is sponsored by Desmond Elliot, member of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA) representing Surulere constituency.
According to Gbolahan, the programme, which runs for one month, is to train his members, especially the females, on bead making, soap making, manicure and pedicure. He appealed to other good-spirited individuals, corporate and civil society organisations to organise such empowerment programmes like shoe-making, hair dressing, fashion designing and other crafts.
Discrimination
Gbolahan lamented that there is discrimination against them in employment. “We have attended many interviews but not taken on the condition that we cannot climb the staircase or lift; that we are not physically fit to do the job and other reasons they usually give.”
Ahmed Quadri and Waheed Kashim, while corroborating Gbolahan on the issue of employment, appealed to the federal and state governments to help them out of the quagmire. They also implored employers of labour to stop rejecting them, but give them a sense of belonging and the chance to prove their worth.
They actually agreed that to climb the staircase or enter into the lift is not easy for some of their members, but have appealed to various governments and employers of labour to assist them with lift assistants who would push them onto the lift and pull them out when they get to the floor of their offices.
They however noted that some companies have no lift.
Disability law
Speaking further on behalf of his members, Gbolahan made a case for the enactment and implementation of Disability Law which was passed by the Senate on March 27, 2014.
The Senate had on March 27, 2014 passed the bill which would legally protect persons with disability from discrimination. The bill which was sponsored by Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman from Kogi State, seeks “to integrate such persons into the society and establish a commission for persons with disability”.
The bill prescribes a fine of N1 million for corporate bodies and N100,000 or six months imprisonment or both for individuals who contravenes the law.
The bill is that it will help to curb, if not totally eradicate, the challenges currently facing the community of the physically-challenged. If signed into law, it will serve as an important gateway to effective participation of the physically-challenged in our society. It will also shut the door against their treatment as outsiders in policies and government activities.
Physically challenged people are those who are permanently deformed in any part of their body by nature (birth), sickness or accident.
Expressing their plight, Hope Okorejior and Joseph Orido appealed to federal and state governments to emulate the western world by taking absolute care of the disabled. They believed that with the implementation of the law, life would be very easy for them because “we do not want any of our members to be beggars anymore”.
They added: “For us in the stadium, we rely on sport to sustain ourselves. Unfortunately, the committee for the disabled sports have not organised National Sports Festival (NSF) since 2014, which we usually participate in and sometimes get little cash from. It is from there that we make our living, especially for those of us in sports.”
They explained that for others elsewhere who are not into sports, life is very difficult and unbearable for them due to hash conditions they found themselves.
Social life
Speaking about their social life and association with the larger society, Gbolahan said they were being discriminated against before, but now, everything has changed.
“We are no longer facing or encountering discrimination. We thank God for that,” he admitted.
Another handicapped, Muda Alao, aligned with him that they now mingle with other people who are not deformed.
Nevertheless, narrating his plight further, Gbolahan said he was not born handicapped. According to him, the 43-year-old said his problem started when he was two and a half years old. He is now married with children and they are all happy with him.
He however thanked God for his life, even as the challenges of paying his children’s school fees and others stare in his face because of his present unemployed status.
One of them pointed out that even the sports in which they participate do not guarantee their daily bread. “If you do not win gold or silver, there will be no employment for you. For now, there is no festival, no competition and no other event for us to make money. It is really sad,” she expressed
Supplication
While speaking to TheNiche, they appealed to private and public organisations, especially civil society organisation (CSOs) to come to their aid. “We have graduates and want them to be employed. We have over one million physically-challenged people in Lagos State alone. We want our members to be remembered in the scheme of things, including employment.”
They pointed out that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos promised that he has good plans for them.
“We wanted one of our members to be among the newly-appointed commissioners, but he said no to our request. However, he said he has very good plan for us.”
They claimed that they voted for the governor and therefore should be taken care of, imploring the federal and state governments to look into their plight. “We have suffered enough and we want our plight to be looked into by the government.”
Reports have it that Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, and his Ekiti counterpart, Ayodele Fayose, appointed some physically-challenged persons in their cabinets. If the reports are anything to go by, other state governments have no excuse in this regard.
Ganiyat Balogun wants the federal government to alleviate their problem with at least N10,000 monthly stipend to each of them, expressing that they could manage the amount to sustain themselves. They collectively pleaded for help, saying that if they are not in such condition, they could have been gainfully employed. They are begging because of their condition.
“There is no provision for us by the government, no employment. We need shelter. We need to collect something at the end of every month from the government. We cannot continue to beg on the road. We depend on government and philanthropists for survival, but no group is taking care of us,” she lamented.
