This is indeed a tough time for a University of Lagos graduate, Kelechi Uhegwu and her mum, Patience. They are both down with different sicknesses that require surgeries abroad. DGossip247 visited the family write on their predicament
We spoke twice on the phone before we finally met last week at her Shell Estate residence in FESTAC area of Lagos. Her sonorous voice resonated on each occasion and the thought of having such a sweet voice as a broadcaster pervaded my mind. But Kelechi Uhegwu, a graduate of Zoology and Genetics from the University of Lagos, make-up artist and a poet, is interested in how to improve her health status at least for now.
On the appointed date, I and a colleague waited with bated breath in a neat and modest sitting room where Kelechi lives with her mother and younger sister. As she wheeled herself to meet us in the family’s sitting room, her beauty complemented her chirpy voice as she introduced herself as Kelechi, “the girl you have been talking to since over a week ago.”
Kelechi, 31, contracted polio when she was one. She moved about in the past with the aid of either braces or crutches but has dropped them for a wheelchair due to excruciating pains that come with continuous usage of the two walking aids. Complication arising from polio has now resulted in Scoliosis and that is now the cross Kelechi, who graduated in 2008, now carries.
Scoliosis is a condition in which the spine bends to the side abnormally. In other words, it is a disorder in which there is a sideways curve of the spine or backbone. “My kind is paralytic Scoliosis. I usually go for physiotherapy but I discovered that after that, I usually feel worse. So, when I went for check-up, I was told to stop the physiotherapy and go for a surgery instead.
“When people have a curve of 30 degrees, they go for surgery but right now my own is 58.8 already, which is dangerous,” she said. Unfortunately, the surgery cannot be done in Nigeria. Kelechi was referred to Queen Medical Centre in the UK and she was billed £47, 000 because her case requires two major surgeries.
Although the hospital did not guarantee her the use of her legs, Kelechi observed that “there is no hundred percentage in surgery but I should feel better after that.” She admitted that it would be easier for the head of a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for her to raise the money, adding that, “I have been doing it (trying to raise the money) for years now.”
Recalling her university days, Kelechi attributed her completion of her education to divine intervention. “Climbing the staircase was difficult because my classes were on the third floor. Sometimes I shuffled classes or stay on the ground floor and wait for friends who attended the lectures depending on how I feel that day,” she said without betraying any emotion.
When asked how often she missed classes, she replied: “I don’t know but I just graduated.” You will be wrong if you thought her condition conferred on her any preferential treatment from her lecturers. Kelechi said, ”We have other physically challenged students too but some are stronger than the others.
Even if I give them excuses, they would use a case of another physically challenged person to judge mine forgetting that physical disabilities vary from one medical condition to the other.” Kelechi said she could not remember any case of discrimination against her while on the campus “but generally people related to me as a human being rather than a physically challenged person.”
After her graduation, she was posted to Katsina State for the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme but was redeployed to Lagos State after she took part in the three-week orientation programme in the northern part of the country. She added, “I served sometimes in National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
I was actually posted to Kastina State for the NYSC scheme but after the orientation camp, I was redeployed to Lagos to work with the NAFDAC. I worked in the agency’s laboratory.” After the completion of her NYSC scheme, NAFDAC offered her a job but after a year; she could no longer cope because of the stress of going from FESTAC to Oshodi where her office was and the challenges that come with her job. “Lab work involves lots of standing and movements so I couldn’t continue. After a year I stopped working because the stress was much. Movement was my major challenge in terms of public transport.
You know how Lagos is. I used to get to the office late sometimes. It was hectic I must say. There was a job offer based on welfare but I couldn’t work as a lab scientist, it was really stressful,” she said. When asked whether there was no way the agency could have lessened the burden associated with her work, Kelechi said, “You know how lab work is, once you start a job, you have to finish it and sign at the bottom that you did it so that in case of errors, they can refer back to you. You don’t share work in the lab.”
When asked whether she was not aware of the implication of choosing Zoology and Genetics, a course which will most likely make her work in a laboratory, she admitted that she only acted on impulse as a science student in the secondary school when she chose the course. “Well, I was not given a proper orientation while I was in secondary school I guess. But when I found myself in science class, I loved biology and I was intelligent enough.
“When I got into the University of Lagos, I was given mathematics and zoology to choose from because I was admitted through diploma. So, I chose zoology and genetics,” she added with a smile that brings out her beauty each time she does that. On whether she might further her education after her surgeries, she exclaimed and gave an emphatic “No!” “Going to school was really stressful.
Even God will be angry with me because He delivered me the first time through all the stresses. Besides, Nigerian schools do not have the platform where the physically challenged people would be comfortable going for lectures. Until those changes are made, I am not going back.” She said it is better for her to be a makeup artist than being a lab scientist.
Describing make-up artistry as her passion, she said it is capable of bringing food to her table if she gets jobs regularly but regretted that “I don’t get jobs all the time.” On whether she visits her clients for jobs or they come to her apartment for their make-up, she said when she was stronger she visited them at home but her deteriorating health condition could sometimes hinder her movement outside her home. “Before now, I was a lot stronger but over time I didn’t have the strength. I used to have and I am having lots of pains now. So, when I visited the hospital of recent, the doctors said it is time for surgery after an X-ray.
Even as a child, I was told I would go for surgery but the pains were not as severe as of recent. Before now, I used to go for jobs on my own but now, I don’t stress myself so as to avoid pains,” she said. When asked whether she could still use crutches instead of moving about in a wheelchair, she said, “Yes. But it is very painful now because the strength lies on the back.” On the average, she charges about N45, 000 for bridal and engagement make-up depending on the relationship between her and the client, but she has not done such job in the last three months.
“I have had more of the everyday kind of job like people who just want to have make-up on their face and all that. I also have students that learn from me,” Kelechi said. When asked how she felt that in the last one year, Nigeria has not recorded any polio case and the country would soon be declared polio-free, she said the development was good for the country but also appealed to the government to take care of those who had contracted polio.
Kelechi believes government is not doing enough to tackle health issues in the country “because they don’t even know the number of people that have polio in the country. In terms of accessibility and movement to churches, mosques, schools and all that, the government has a whole lot to do in that aspect. May be a bill should be passed to help those in this condition.”
She said except for proximity, she would have loved to engage in sports at least to cushion the effect of her sedentary life. “It is only at the National Stadium, Surulere, that they have sports for the physically challenged. She still visits her Nigerian doctors regularly because of the need to monitor and control her high blood pressure.
Kelechi, who lost her father 15 years ago, said some of her friends particularly the males still visited her to find out about her well-being. She said her physical challenge is not necessarily hindering her from getting married. “Well, even without the surgery, I can still get married if I want to. I don’t think physical disability can stop people from getting married.
It is just about your personality, you are still who you are and can attract positive people around you.” Her friend and neighbour, Mrs. Sheri King, who appealed to Nigerians to help Kelechi, said the lady’s family needed urgent help as Kelechi’s mother, Patience, has also been confined to a wheelchair after she contracted tuberculosis of the spine.
She said, “When I met Kelechi and we got talking, she said her mum was not feeling fine because she has tuberculosis of the spine. And I asked how can one person be going through all this? That is why she (Kelechi) has high blood pressure because her mother is not feeling well, and her younger sister ( Chidinma Uhegwu) who was a 200 level student at the University of Lagos studying cell biology and genetics had to quit in 2013 in order to take care of both her mother and elder sister.
So, she has a lot going on in her,” she said. On why her sister quit school, Kelechi said though the decision was painful, she added that she took the decision because of the need to take care of her and their mum because the family could not engage the services of a house help. “Assuming we have money to pay someone to take care of us, my sister will definitely return to school. But we can’t afford that for now and that is why she stopped going to school for now” she said.
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