BY ANOZIE EGOLE & ELEOJO ABUTU

As if her world has come to an end, Miss Felicia Umore, in her early 50s sat firmly in her wheelchair with a striped polo and a skirt, gazing into space. She has no children to take solace in. Nothing seems to interest her anymore. Felicia is no less a human but given the situation she finds herself currently in, she feels very low .

Her sorry story began when she had a particular ailment which she battled with for several years before she became finally paralyzed. Like a child’s play, Felicia never knew that she was going to be permanently put in a wheelchair.

She is one of the spinal cord injury patients who is housed at the spinal cord centre, located around Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos State. She was working with the Nigerian Girls Guild Vocational Centre, Ikoyi.

Narrating her story to Saturday Vanguard, the Akwa-Ibom born Felicia, said, “My being on the wheelchair was as a result of ill-health. It has been over twenty years now when I started using the wheelchair. I did not have any accident. I just woke up one day and found out that I could not walk again with my two legs.

“I was rushed to National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi where all efforts to get me back to my normal self-proved abortive. After several trials,I decided to come and stay in the centre here because, it is more conducive for people with this type of injury. Talking about her challenges , Felicia said that her major challenge here is finance.

She said, “ I am not yet married and that makes my situation worse because nobody comes to check how I am doing.” Almost all the members of her family are based outside the country.

“If I am married with a child,there is no way my child will leave me here without coming to know how I am doing,” she said.

She said that government keeps on making promises without implementing them, and that government has forgotten them.

“It seems our world is finished. Nobody cares about our feelings. The bill for the rights of the disabled that was sent to the government should be passed into law for us to feel accepted into the society.” She stressed that in developed countries of the world, government makes policies that will include those on the wheelchair.

“In civilised countries, government pays the disabled every weekend. If you help the helpless person,the blessings of God will come upon you. The government knows what to do,so they should do that for God’s blessings to be upon them”,Umore added.

Another victim of the Spinal Cord,Mrs. Adejoke Afolabi, kept cursing the 12th day of July 1984 as that was exactly the year her lovely and easy going life ended in the wheelchair. The 50 year-old mother of one daughter, who was just lying desperately on her mattress thinking about her life kept asking God why she was put in that condition.

She said she was into fashion designing, soap and bead- making before the accident but things have changed for her since the accident.

Narrating her story, she said, the accident which put her on the wheelchair happened on the 12 th July 1984 along Lagos Ibadan expressway.

“ As a student schooling in one of the schools in Benin,I was travelling to Lagos to spend my long vacation with my parents but little did I know that I was not going to reach my destination safely. The accident which happened 27years ago,permanently wounded my c4 and c5 vertebrate and my spinal cord and that left me paralyzed from my waist downwards.”

According to Joke, she was told by sympatizers that when the accident happened, she was rushed by sympathizers to National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos State,where she spent several years in the hospital. While in the hospital, she was living with the hope that one day, she would walk wih her two legs but at a time, she decided to throw in the towel.

She came to the centre to stay when she was discharged from Hospital because she could not continue stay in her former abode. Talking about her challenges, Joke said, “it is not easy being on the wheelchair for 12 years. My major problem here is finance. Where it will cost a normal person N100 to go to can cost us on the wheelchair up to N3000.

The expense is much.We on the wheelchair face a lot of embarrassment from the drivers because ot our condition. Sometimes, they will not even like to carry us because of our wheelchairs. Here in this centre, I am also faced with the problem of accommodation. As you can see, this compound is water logged and there is no drinkable water . Government should help me with a better accommodation and an electronic-sewing machine so that I can continue my job,” Joke pleaded.

For Engr Joseph Onwudinjo from Anambra State, January 1986 was the year he and his family can never forget in their lifetime as that was exactly the year he stopped walking with his two legs and began walking with a wheelchair. Onwudinjo said his story came as a result of an accident he had 25 years ago along Lagos Ibadan expressway.

“I was coming down to Lagos from my hometown Aguleri in Anambra East Local Government Area, when I had the accident. I was rushed to National Orthopaedic Hospital,Igbobi where I spent 20 years without anybody coming to know how I am doing.

“ Even the people I call friends didn’t come but I’m still very grateful to some good Samaritans who visited me there.”

After being discharged from the hospital, he could not pay for the house where he was living before because he spent all he had in the hospital and so, he moved down to the spinal chord injury centre.

“The problem with walking on the wheelchair is so many, especially the financial aspect of the problem. But to avert begging on the street, I learned how to operate the computer and to grind.”

He is therefore soliciting financial help from government to enable him acquire a grinding machine since that is one thing he can operate . Joseph said he is not yet married and is being taken care of by his niece.

Also sharing his own experience, Obioha Ononigbo from Abia State , the president of the Spinal Cord Injured Person Association lamented his challenges on the wheelchair. Mr. Obioha said his being on the wheelchair was as a result of an accident he had 25 years ago on his way back to Lagos State after successfully enjoying his annual leave with his family in Abia. The accident which he said happened at Lagos Ibadan expressway put him permanently in the wheelchair.

Speaking to Saturday Vanguard , he said, “ Life is much more expensive on a wheelchair than living a normal life.”

He spends double on a wheelchair than other people that are not on a wheelchair. He can no longer live where he was living before because of his wheelchair. He therefore needs an accommodation and is soliciting the effort of the government to help him in any way they can to solve these problems and treat them like human beings.

It is in view of all these challenges that the Spinal Cord Injured Patient Association, was formed. The center started as far back as 1984 in a bungalow at Maryland. But they have to leave the Maryland rented apartment because of several embarrassments from the landlord. Late Mrs. Mirian Babangida donated this portion of land where we are staying now to us through the help of the then Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Rasaki.

Though this centre was the brain child of the disabled, it is also a Non- Governmental Organization [NGO] and the funding depends solely on philanthropists, corprate bodies and churches. “We therefore solicit the government to come to our rescue financially to enable us pay our workers , get more infrastructural development and to equipped our facilities.

“We have sent a letter to the federal government asking them for assistance but they not have said anything. We therefore ask the government to stop treating us like abandoned people and come to our rescue. Mr. Obioha Ononuigbo the chairman, Spinal Cord Injured Persons Association, narrates.