At a summit for people with disabilities, my path crossed that of Margaret Uko Ekanem. She gave a wonderful speech at the occasion and I invited her after for the TV programme. Thankfully, she obliged and we had a good show.
The other day I was the host of a television programme, “Wake Up Nigeria Show,” designed to discuss the challenges facing Nigeria on a day-to-day basis. This show featured experts as guests. One feature I invested so much energy in was the disability segment titled, “breaking beyond the barriers.” That segment showcased people with disabilities to our teeming viewers, the challenge(s) they faced, how they broke the hoops. Our guests were used as reference points, to providing solution to the problems faced by special people in Nigeria.
Not one of my guests had anything positive to say about government. Their’s were cases of self-help. They achieved what they could without governmental support. I have seen many with lack of faith in themselves. You wouldn’t blame them. Nigeria, is far from being a caring-collective-society. It is one where people with disability have been vetoed out of significance by religious persons, those who claim to know God but make room only for those with full limbs and government policies are tilted to the so-called fit people.
At a summit for people with disabilities, my path crossed that of Margaret Uko Ekanem. She gave a wonderful speech at the occasion and I invited her after for the TV programme. Thankfully, she obliged and we had a good show.
I found her to be bold, with zest for life. She managed, at the time, a cosmetic company with a high turn-over of staff, many of whom were sacked because they took advantage of her visual-impairment to steal many of her cosmetic products. Life for people with disabilities is so austere and not governed by strict rules. How can you explain situations where so-called able people are always nimble-footed to cheat them.
Margaret Uko Ekanem lost the use of her eyes suddenly as a JSS 3 student of Federal Government Girls College, Abuloma, Port Harcourt. The school, like others built for the able, had no facility for the blind and so she had to go to the school for the blind at Afare Uku in Umuahia, Abia State, where she was taught all she needed to know so as to cope with life as a blind girl. She ventured out from there to Queens College, Lagos and, obtained a Diploma in Mass Communication, from Our Saviours Institute of Science, Agriculture and, Technology (OSISATECH) in Enugu State.
She was happily married to a journalist with a private-radio-station in Port Harcourt. On my programme, she mentioned her daring moves to see a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, her home state. Both he and his wife were in Nsukka to be honoured by the University of Nigeria. Security was tight as usual but she hung around the arena where the vehicles of the first family were parked and pushed her way there after the occasion. Thanks to fate, she caught the attention of the governor’s wife who asked her security detail to allow her journey in a car following hers and thereafter introduced her to her female-special-assistant.
That became her waterloo as the same assistant made sure her demands never got to the governor’s wife until they left government house. Although the governor’s wife was kind to give her some money that first time. Helping the vulnerable for me goes beyond the piquant-symbolism of handling out nickels.
Margaret wasn’t looking for a human mustard-plaster. All she wanted was a job in Nigeria or scholarship to school abroad. The PA to the governor’s wife talked her out of scholarship and never gave her the chance to meet with her principal, save for that time she rail-roaded their convoy. All of these, we discussed on set in 2016 and we hadn’t met each other since then, until recently. She heard my voice as a studio guest at Nigeria Info 92.3 FM and asked that I visited her - which I did, for the first time, at her Koko-Ama residence near Marine Base in Port Harcourt.
Shockingly, I found out from her that her husband had moved out of the house, away to another. He said he was no more keen on the union. He was able to do so while she was out of the house. She told me she had to go to FIDA(International Federation of Women Lawyers) to report him, and he was told to provide sustenance money for her and their daughter and pay for accommodation they all occupied (before he moved out). I am no adjudicator but I think a journalist should know better. Instead of leaving a visually-impaired person in the lurch, why not do the needful. Options, legal, are many and healthy. Even though I am no St. Simon Stock, conscience wouldn’t allow me steal into my house, move out my belongings to another, commandeer my child who is less than six years old away from her mother and play evasive games knowing that the mother is visually-impaired.
As at my last and only visit (so far), the landlord had cut power and water supply from Margaret’s apartment because of rent which is past due. He seems to be joining issues with Margaret instead of the man who married Margaret and signed the lease-holding document. Why join issues with a visually- impaired lady who is mistreated. I had to run errands for her for the brief period I visited. How can she cope all by herself? If she had a job, all that might not be a problem. Certainly, she could then afford to keep a helper close to do her bidding. Her separation has left her without a business and means of income.
There are many Margaret Uko Ekanem out there, ready to contribute to the growth of society, to be useful to self, away from being a burden but society doesn’t care about them. Can’t anyone out there give this lady a job? The state of Akwa Ibom where Margaret is from can at least take the lead to show that like the state of Lagos, people with disability not only need love but must be shown unconditionally love. According to George Washington, “let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
I end this essay with questions for government and society. Can there ever be a place for humour in the life of the disabled? Are there disabled friendly environments in Nigeria? Do we have barrier-free restaurants and alternative routes for the disabled? How do the disabled manage to deal with self confidence? How do they feel when they have to ask for help? Are people with disability lawless? Do government and society owe people with disability anything?
Abah wrote from Port Harcourt.
Hello, my name is Nathaniel Ayobami . I'm a 22 year old student Nigeria .
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