IF you are a regular at the celebrity hangout, O’jez inside the National Stadium premises, Surulere, Lagos, then you much have encountered comedian Vershima Mende, popularly known as Crazy Legs.
Though physically challenged, with legs cut off at the knees, the handsome young man in his early 20s would rather not sit at the roadside and beg for alms like most of his mates with less disability.
“I will rather dance and make money than to go and sit at the roadside and beg for alms like most disabled people do. In fact, I always feel embarrassed when people give me money at the bus stop while I wait for the bus. I always tell them politely, sorry, I am waiting for the bus like you, and I am not here to beg. But many would rather insist I took the money and sometimes I do because you know human being, they will begin to say I am a proud person.”
Is he a proud person? “Yes, I am a proud Nigerian who believes that I must work hard to make a living and not constitute a nuisance to the society by begging for alms.”
It will surprise one to know that Crazy Legs is also an athlete. He has represented Nigeria at the All Africa games held in Congo, though he did not win any medal in the sports for physically challenged athletes.
“I got to the final in weightlifting in the 170kg category.”
He is into Short Put, Javelin, Discus (class 57) and Lawn Tennis. He also plays football. All these started in 2010 when he realised that people living with disability are still participating in sports.
“I have never allowed my condition to limit me, so most times I chose to play football with able bodied men just to prove that what they can do, I can do it too. Although I notice that they treat me with caution in the field of play, something I am really not comfortable with anyway. Of a truth, I don’t often think about my disability because everything I have wanted to do, I have done,” the Benue State native said.
