By Edoamaowo Udeme
Beautiful Deborah Igomu is 14 but she will never enjoy what her mates have, she doesn’t have playmates because she has never walked, talked, sat, fed and dress herself and the reality is, she will never marry because she has been on diapers all her life, who will ever marry a person with all these physical challenges put together? Welcome to the world of Deborahs care givers, her parents, Mr and Mrs Peter Igomus.
From Benue State the Middle belt of Nigeria, the Igomus just like any other family having already had 4 children had welcomed Deborah as thier last child. after her delivery at Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria, The Igomus took little Deborah home but little did they know that they have been handed over a jaundiced child.
Mr and Mrs Peter Igomu took no notice until when a neighbour who happens to be a nurse came visiting to congratulate the family on their new addition, that she raised an alarm when she saw the baby. They quickly returned to the same hospital. According to Peter, “They had known that my baby was jaundiced but they discharged us without letting us know and when we rushed her back there they claimed there were no beds and referred us to another hospital”
“We went to two other General Hospital in Abuja but it was still referrals. By the time we knew what was befalling us, it was too late. My beloved baby was turned to this (pointing at a very badly deformed Deborah), This is what the Doctors at Wuse General Hospital did to my child”
Since then we tried all the medical treatments we could afford but to no avail. Sadly, Peter Igomu lost his job at the Federal Housing Authority where according to him, he was unjustly sacked. and her mother a petty trader is finding it difficult to cope with bills.
Deborah wears at least 5 diapers every day, the Igomus spend at least N400 for a pack of 5 diapers. Statistically by December 2017 alone, they would have spent N146,000 on diapers for just 2017 alone, with a mental calculation, one can only Imagine how much they have spent in the last 14 years.
Deborahs story gets worst when one realizes that she cant be left alone at anytime even at night, she is hyperactive, perhaps in a bit to pass a message, one notices that she goes into a fit struggling for words that never came but the little that escapes from her mouth is more of a groan that sounds like someone is being strangled.
While speaking with the parents, I also noticed that she was constantly checked and carried back to her matress as she struggles off it every other minute. ” You cant leave Deborah for a minute, even to go across the road to buy bread, by the time you return, she must have struggled off the matress and gets herself wounded”
“If I went to church, my wife stays home and vice versa, we are stuck at home. My wife and I haven’t attended any public function together, who will care for Deborah? We can’t leave her with her siblings” the distraught father said.
“A Catholic group tried all the help they could and even offered us a home where she could get care but we cant afford to take her there because she is always hyperactive and I dont think the could have been able to handle her”
“At a point, a family member confided in us that we should throw her away in a forest to die, but I can never do that to.my precious child”
Deborahs mother, in an emotional laddened voice managed to whisper in my ears, “God will bless my husband, without him, I would have died by now, he takes care of deborah more than me and the siblings put together” Evidently so, as I observed in my three visits to the family.
While Deborahs father could be nominated as the best father of the world, Elizabeth’s father abandoned her just when she was a foetus, Racheal, Elizabeth’s mother as a teen got pregnant for a young man in Makurdi, the state capital of Benue State, having met in town, the young man upon realizing that he would soon be a father denied the pregnancy and even skipped town.
Expecting to see a much elderly person, pretty Racheal in her very early 30s turned up for this interview.
Young Racheal only knew him in town and cannot locate his village, then, Elizabeth was born. Three months later Racheal’s father who worked at an orthopaedic hospital was quick to observe that her limbs were going jelly and that she may never walk. He was not far from the truth because Elizabeth at 14 is a pathetic case. Racheal added that immunization was miles away from her as she could hardly feed talkless of paying her way to a center. Perhaps, Elizabeth would have been fully immunized and that woild have saved her from Polio.
Watching beautiful Elizabeth smiling and practically crawling out with clutches to meet me, made me bit my lips, I looked slightly away from the mother and use my long nails to claw my palms, all in a bid to stop myself from breakdown but, tears have never been my friend, it always drops at the drop of a hat.
Luckily for me, Racheal was too shy to look me in the face throughout the interview and I pray she never noticed, I am still wondering how she would have been able to console me who went to “console” her.
Like Deborah, Elizabeth never attended school, in fact her speech was affected too but her mother, Rachael, said she recently became a bit audible
” I want to take her to a school around here in Mararaba (a surburb of Abuja) but I am worried about the distance and there is no school close by here, I also work so I leave her behind most of the time”
“Nobody is helping me, I am caring for her alone and also leave her as I go to work in a security outfit daily, I ask neighbours to keep an eye on her for me”
When asked why she made the decision of caring for her as some mothers would have either abandoned them or left them in other people’s care at home and come to work in the city
Racheal said ” I couldn’t bring myself to do that, infact one if my relations suggested that I throw her into a river as she will be a burden to me forever”
“In my place, throwing a disabled child away is a norm because everyone believes the child is bedevilled, If I had left her at home, she wouldn’t have been alive today I am sure of that”
“I have lost many marriage proposals once the men realizes that I have this child they leave me, I lost one very serious relationship last year and still haven’t been able to get over it but I cant throw my Elizabeth away”
“I wish I can afford a school where she could attend and I will be visiting her but, with my meagre salary, its impossible” Racheal added
While Deborah and Elizabeth cases are peculiar , Ishaya “Wonderful” Monday, a tribe of Jabba, Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, shows that leaving children in the hands of care givers may sometimes be disastrous.
In Ishaya’s case, his farmer parents left him with his maternal grandmother and went to farm, he was just seven months old. Grandmother had set fire in a fire place inside the hut in a bid to do some cooking and left to get something a bit far from home, Little Ishaya “Wonderful” tired of playing crawled to locate her and had his two hands stuck in fire.
His yelling attracted neighbours but before help could come considering funds and the distance to the only available General Hospital a few hours from the village, “Wonderful” had lost his two limbs. What is left of the hands today, over 20 years later, is from the ankles up, there is nothing to show that there were once fingers on it.
What really earned him the nickname “Wonderful” is the dexterity at which Ishaya uses what is left of his limbs, He does everything for himself without help, He cooks, washes, dresses, showers, writes make phone calls and even rides motorcycles with those limbs.
In fact I got attracted to him when I observed the dexterity he applied in removing a phone from his pocket when it rang speaking with the caller, perhaps not satisfied with the message, he dashed down to a phone center very close to where I sat, bought airtime and loade and called back, I was aghast.
“I only noticed when I was growing up that I was different from others, I didnt know what happened to me until I approached my parents and they explained, I initially blamed my grandmother but later left everything to God for sparing me during the incident” said “Wonderful”
“At a point, I observed that others were going to school and I wasnt so I told my parents that I want to go, their initial worry was understood and they were shocked when they realized that it paid off. I could write”.
“By the special grace of God, I will be graduating from an ECWA theological school next year and hope to become a preacher and motivational speaker”
On how he learnt to be so independent, Wonderful said “My parents are poor farmers, I was becoming a burden to them and my siblings so I started helping myself”.
“I ride a motorcycle with these limbs and by the special grace of God I will drive my car with these two limbs. I pray that I will one day own one, that explains why I haven’t learnt to drive yet, I also have a wonam on my life who has accepted me this way and I will get married someday” He said proudly.
These three, are victims of a probable avoidable circumstance, For Deborah, lack of adequate health facility and awareness caused Deborahs plight. the same hospital she was delivered in turned their backs on her and the parents were not aware of the damaging effect of jaundice.
For Racheal, Elizabeth’s mother, abstinence or family planning would have saved that young mother the pain she is going through right now. While the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has come to the rescue of creating awareness on Family Planning issues and with the recent FP 2020 target drive and accelerated effort towards attaining the National coverage, it is hoped that there will be very few “Elizabeths” by 2020
For Ishaya, but for funds, lack of a nearby health facility and downright neglect by a care giver he would have had his limbs today. This explains why the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA) on the orders of the Nigerian Health Minister Prof, Isaac Adewole, has embarked on rehabilitation of healthcare facilities around the country. The prayers is that healthcare workers should take the challenge and work in rural areas where the need is greater, if this effort sustained, there should be adequate healthcare delivery in every nook and cranny in Nigeria.
Even though there are no Federal Government established medical facilities for the likes Deborah and Elizabeth, International organizations like United Nations Children Fund’s, (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) have been neck deep in ensuring child rights to health and health funding to ease the pains parents like Mr and Mrs Igomu, Racheal and Ishayas parents.
With SDGs 2030 target, one is hopeful that Nigeria will be named one of the achievers of Goal 3, especially, on the good health and well being of the children.