Visually impaired entrepreneurs relive ordeal
Lament experiences with discrimination, exploitation
Three years after Nigeria passed the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018 into law, the bias against people living with disabilities in the country is yet to abate. Many of them, especially the visually challenged, have continued to be treated inhumanly and cruelly exploited by unconscionable members of the public. Some of them have also had their woes compounded by the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which caused untold setback to the businesses on which they had survived. INNOCENT DURU wonders if there would ever be special funds from the government to assist this class of Nigerians who may not have what it takes to compete with able bodied members of the public.
Car owners are always callous. I don’t know why and I don’t know whether the things they do to me also happen to other people with similar challenges.
“Sometime in February, one of them hit me where I was selling soap. The people tried to stop him, but he did as if he wanted to stop only for him to zoom off.”
Those were the words of Israel Godwin, a visually challenged man, as he began the sad tales of how able bodied and privileged members of the public frequently hurt his feelings and cause tears to roll down his cheeks.
He said: “On a number of occasions, they have hit me and broken my guard cane in the process. And if I raised my voice to complain, they would say, ‘What are you doing outside? Are you not supposed to be at home?’
“That is the challenge I face most times. It is unfortunate that it is car owners that are always guilty of this. The motorcyclists around the areas where I sell have been very supportive and caring. Ironically, they are the ones that people expect to care less about someone like me.”
Incidentally, Israel’s wife, Tovie, is also visually challenged, having lost her sight at the tender age of nine, unlike Israel who was already an adult before he lost his. But in spite of their physical challenges, they are happy living together as a couple.
Israel engages in making and selling soap to put food on the table for his family, but his wife, a graduate from Special School of Education, Oyo, is unemployed.
Israel said: “After making the soap, I carry it to the Tejuosho area in Yaba (Lagos). I also hawk it around Leventis and TBS areas, selling to food vendors. Passers-by also patronise me.
“In spite of the hostile attitude of car owners, I still go out to sell my products, because if I don’t, I would not be able to eat, take care of my family and pay the house rent.”
Adeniran Opeyemi, a member of a visually challenged musical band known as Pain and Pleasure Band, recalled how friends and families of people who invite them for shows express disappointment learning about their physical challenges.
He said: “Sometimes when some lovers of our musical band and music invite us to play at social functions, their friends and relations express disappointment seeing that we are visually impaired.
“Sarcastically, they would ask the host, ‘you mean you could not get better artistes to play at your party than blind people?’ It hurts, but we have learnt to accept our fate.
A visually challenged lady, Bukola Adeniji, who is into cake and beans flour production, spoke of how some people she supplied beans flour failed to pay.
She said: “I started cake making before I lost my sight eight years ago. But I started the beans flour business a month before the COVID-19 lockdown.
“Before I started the beans flour business, I did my research and spoke with market women who said I should be supplying them.
“After that, I bought a sealing machine, did stickers and got nylon bags for sealing in packs of five.
“I packaged it in such a way that it would be presentable. And a lot of money actually went into it before the COVID-19 pandemic came from nowhere.
“After making the bean flour, I would supply it to retailers. I had just done that when the lockdown was announced. But when I started calling the retailers to pay for what they had sold, they kept saying I should hold on. They have not paid me till today and my investment is stuck.”
Following the experience and prevailing economic situation, Bukola said: “I cannot produce bean flour again because a lot of money is stuck in it. When I was doing the beans flour business, the quantity of beans which sold for N600 to N700 now costs N2,000. How do I want to do it?
“For now, the beans flour business is a no go area. I am just trying to focus on cake.”
Before moving to his personal house, Hassan Adebisi, a visually challenged farmer, had told of how people always wanted to take advantage of his condition.
He said: “Sometimes, people take advantage of my blindness to steal eggs from my farm, pretending that they were coming to fetch water.
“I am a security-conscious person. If you enter my room, the alarm will sound to the point that everybody on the street will know.
“I fixed the alarm bells in my room after someone who was with me in the sitting room crept into my bedroom and took my ATM card from my wallet. He had earlier seen me giving my son the ATM card from the wallet to collect money for me.
“There are quite a number of people who have tried to defraud me. There was one that collected money to work for me but gave me a fake address. When I didn’t see him, my wife took me to the address he gave us. The house was a mansion and the landlord said there was no such artisan in his house.
“He (landlord) was also shocked that somebody could do that to me. I later got the fellow arrested, using my high sense of intelligence gathering.”
Hassan said such exploitation has stopped since he moved to his own house.
‘How we lost our businesses to COVID-19 pandemic’
If businesses of sighted and able bodied people suffered setbacks from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, one could imagine the fate that could have befallen businesses that are run by visually challenged individuals.
Justina Mokwue, a fish farmer and caterer, said: “I have been doing the business for the past eight years.
“During the lockdown last year, there were no feeds for us to take care of the fishes. I was using imported feeds but the prices were so high, and at one point, we searched everywhere but couldn’t get the feeds.
“Electricity has also been a huge problem as I needed to pump water frequently to replace the ones in the ponds. Sometimes, I would need to dry the fishes to avoid them eating up themselves.
“When I needed to dry the fishes with electrical appliances, there would be no power supply and that would make it impossible for me to do so. “The restriction of movements also made it impossible for us to have access to the farm, which is located in Ogun State while I live in Lagos State.
“The fishes started feeding on themselves when we could not get feeds for them, coupled with the challenge of accessing the farm while movements were restricted.
“Each fish ended up weighing more than 700kg, far and above the table size.
“Rather than watch them die or eat up one another, I had to dry all of them and sell them off albeit at a loss. I was using a rented farm where there were other farmers.
“I had to sell off everything I had then because of the challenges, and till date, I have not done anything on fish farming.
“Before, I was rearing and hatching fish, but now I only buy from farmers, dry them, repackage and sell to offices. I lost over 5,000 fishes and I couldn’t raise another money to start off again.”
Besides her fish farming business, she said her catering business was seriously affected too. “Most of my customers who were coming from abroad to buy from me couldn’t come because of the COVID-19 lockdown. My other customers who are into restaurant business were also not operating.
“I was unhappy when all that was happening. All my day to day expenses were from the income I got from the business. If I didn’t produce, there was no way I would make a profit.
“At that time, I started looking inward to see what else I could do to get an income. I subsequently started to produce duvet and bedspread, but it was not moving as fast as other businesses that are centered on consumables.”
Adeniran Opeyemi, who said he was born blind, said: “Most of us (band members) are not having any income. Because when the lockdown started, we could not go for shows and we had nothing to take care of ourselves.
“A month before the lockdown was announced; we had an accident with our vehicle. We spent all the monies we had been saving to fix the vehicle on feeding our members. We eventually sold the vehicle when there was no money to repair it.”
The setback the COVID-19 pandemic caused Bukola’s business still lingers in her memory.
Her words: “I have two friends in UNILAG (University of Lagos) and LASPOTECH (Lagos State Polytechnic). I used to supply them cake and they would sell and give me my money. “When the higher institutions were shut down because of COVID-19, I could no longer supply them. I only relied on the income I was getting from the supply I was giving to people that were selling for me in primary schools.
“The income from primary schools was small compared to what I was getting from the higher institutions. Besides, many people have stopped doing birthdays because of the pandemic. It is only by the grace of God that I am surviving now.
“The business environment in Nigeria is not encouraging, especially for those of us who are physically challenged. We need an avenue where we can get more customers and sell our products. We are competing with sighted people.
“Before a person with sight challenges would get to any place, the sighted one would have got there. We the disable need a platform where we can market our products. It would not be out of place for the government to help us with a website where we can showcase and sell our products. ”
Also sharing his experience, Israel Godwin said: “The lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic had a telling effect on me. Then, there was no movement, and as a result, I could not go out to sell my product which is the sole source of the income from which I take care of my family.
“The lockdown was really bad for me. I don’t even know how I survived it. I can’t explain how God did it that we scaled through that turbulent period. I cannot just explain how we were doing it.
“The palliatives they said the government was giving out to the people didn’t get to me. God only used some people to help us.”
On how he raised money to start his business, he said: “I raised money to do the business through financial assistance from friends.
“After I graduated from the Vocational Training Centre at Oshodi, there was no money to invest on what I learnt from the centre. I learnt handicraft from the centre. I learnt how to make shoes, tablet soap, tie and dye and all that.
“Most of those skills require high capital. That is why I opted for making liquid soap.”
Hassan Adebisi said he was forced to sell off his chickens at a loss because of the challenges caused by the pandemic.
“The pandemic badly affected us. Unfortunately, we received no help. Some government officials that invited us for possible assistance only picked few people. Now I have a land on which I want to start fish farming but I don’t have enough resources. If I get support, I will do well.”
One of the coordinators of visually challenged people in Lagos State, Ope Akinola, decried the economic situation of the country which he said is having a telling effect on people living with disabilities.
Skunks said: “I retail technological devices that people with disabilities need and train people on how to use them. I started the business in 2004.
“COVID-19 affected our business seriously as we had to wind down for some time and stay at home. We made no income during that period.
“The problem we have had after the lockdown is that the prices of goods have gone up. Importing goods has become very expensive. The transactions we used to do for $2 is now about $8 to $9.
“Lots of the materials used by people with disabilities are heavy and are brought from places like China. When you have to bring in such products, you have to pay about $9 per kilogramme.
“Sometimes, the cost of bringing them is thrice the cost of the goods. It is making things very awkward.
“Government’s spending has also been low. Our business is what they call pampers business, because the people who buy them are not the ones using them. It is always government agencies and NGOs that buy them for the users. Spending has also come down from those fronts.
“It’s quite tough on the business. We have to tighten our belt and look for alternative income.
“It has been a very horrible period for our members who have businesses. Getting around has not been as easy as it used to be before the outbreak of COVID-19.
“A lot of disabled people depend on faith based organisations for their survival, but many of them have stopped their charity programmes. A lot of our members are stranded and on many occasions we hear stories that make someone feel very bad.
‘How we lost our sights’
Explaining how he lost his sight, Israel Godwin said: “The eye challenge started in 2000, but I was still partially seeing then. I was on medication at that time but my salary wasn’t enough for me to continue buying the drugs.
“The drugs were costing over N4,100 every two weeks. I had to quit my job as I was earning N11,000.
“Before then, I was with a company in the Badore area of Ajah. From then to 2003, my sight problem became so serious that I couldn’t see anything again.”
After losing his sight, what to do next to at least earn a living became a huge challenge for Israel.
He said: “In 2011, a friend introduced me to the school for the blind. I didn’t have the resources to do it so I went to my church where I met someone who volunteered to pay the bills. He paid about N90,000 for the two years I spent in the school.
“After that, I wanted to go further to a higher institution but the man said he would not be able to support me beyond what he had done.
“It was after that I started this liquid soap business. The income does not sustain me and my family as such because sometimes, before I exhaust my wares, the capital would have been tampered with.
“Where I really make money is where people see me on the road selling it and give me money to support the business. That helps me to some extent, especially now that the cost of chemicals for producing the soap has gone high.”
Israel’s wife, Tovie, said: “I was nine years old when I lost my sight. Aside from being visually challenged, I also have hearing problems. I just graduated from College of Education, Oyo but I am yet to get a job. I can teach social studies or civic education.”
Bukola recalled that she lost her sight after falling sick for some time.
She said: “I had my catering shop before I lost my sight, but I had to shut it down when the problem started because I was very sick. I had measles all over my body and also high fever. Everybody around me was very worried, running helter-skelter to keep me alive.”
Justina said: “I lost my sight five years ago as an adult. I was working with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and doing this business by the side. That was why when I lost my sight; I continued the business that I know how to do.”
