Public varsities lack facilities for physically challenged students

Put your legs in the shoes of paralytic people and feel the pinch they endure on daily basis. Hear the stories of physically challenged students in Nigerian public universities struggling to earn a degree and you will be moved to tears. Inside mostNigerian universities, facilities for physically challenged students are lacking.
Lecture halls located on elevated floors seem like Mountain Everest for students living with disabilities.
Pushing a broken car up a steep hill looks much easier than the strenuous struggles made by paralytic students to ascend the multiple staircase. Using the rest room, bathroom and kitchen makes life miserable for them. In spite of these discouragements, scores of physically challenged students in public tertiary institutions walk the tight rope to school, rather than feed on the bread of charity.
It was a cold morning at the University of Benin (UNIBEN). Students clutching their books and bags were rushing for their early morning lectures. Among the students was Martins Onovo Chinedu, a 100 level Optometry student. He rolled quietly from the male hostel in his wheel chair to attend a class located 1km away. His hands turned the shinning metallic wheels slowly, as he navigated the collapsed spots of the road with the speed of a snail. With nobody to assist him, he moved as slowly as his could, unmindful of the fact that the lecture might have commenced. Moved by compassion, a student volunteered to help. He smiled generously, as if in anticipation of the kind gesture.
Chinedu, 24, is among the many physically challenged students in Nigerian tertiary institutions, who defy their disabilities to join the educated class. Unlike other physically challenged persons wallowing in self pity and depression, others struggle for a better rewarding in a society where selfishness and greed are virulent.
A native of Amaechi Idodo village in Enugu State, Chinedu was afflicted by polio at the age of five. He was subsequently confined to the wheel chair for the past 19 years. According to him, his travails started one fateful morning when he woke from sleep but was unable to move his legs. His late grandma shouted at him, unknown to her that her grand son had been paralyzed in his limbs. She was benumbed to discover later that her beloved son who retired to bed hale and hearty the previous day, had suffered paralysis overnight. It was an incident that broke the heart of everyone in the family.
The young Chinedu was rushed to the General Orthopedic Hospital Enugu, where medical personnel confirmed that he was stricken with polio. He had to enroll in a special school for the disabled all through his primary and secondary school days.  “I attended Marist Brothers in Abia state which was made especially for the disabled and that was all through scholarship,” he said.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
Getting to the university was a dream come through for Chinedu. However, the joy of being in the university does not erase the fact that he had loads of challenges to bear. His first challenge was living in a hostel purposely designed for able- bodied men and ladies. Everyday, he waits for a Good Samaritan that would help him climb the steep staircase in the hostel and his faculty.
Aside the challenge of movement, he told the reporter that using the rest room during school hours and in his hostel was always difficult. On several occasions, he would struggle with his wheel chair to the entrance of the toilet and bathroom and wait patiently for someone to help him get into the rest room. Even though he might be pressed and his bladder bulding to the seams, he had no option but to wait. He told the reporter that he undergoes the same process each time he uses the bathroom in the hostel.
“As you know; everyone is always in a hurry to have his bath in the morning. So, I have to wait for a very long time outside the bathroom. Using the toilet is even more rigorous as I would need someone to carry me on top of the toilet seat and bring me down when I am done. Not everybody will have that patience”, he said.
Chinedu recalled that there were special toilets and bathrooms for the physically challenged, which he used in his secondary school days and wondered why such facilities were not available in universities. “You won’t need anyone to carry you. You just move around like a normal person on your wheel chair. You need absolutely no assistance from anyone,” he said.
He told Expdonaloadedloaded.blogspot.com that cooking remains a difficult exercise for him because the facility was designed for the use of able-bodied students. “I don’t cook here, I give my roommates my foodstuff to cook for me. Sometimes, I buy food from the restaurant and this has been telling on my finance. Some friends cook and also share with me”.
Expdonaloaded blog took Chinedu’s case to the Dean of Students Affairs, Prof Friday Osagiede, explaining the struggles of the physically challenged students and the possible ways of alleviating their woes.
Osagiede said UNIBEN is friendly to physically challenged students. His words: “We give preferences to the physically challenged, we allocate some particular type of rooms to them, rooms that are closest to the restrooms, at least that is what we can do for now. But in the new hostel donated by the NDDC, we have four rooms at the ground floor specially equipped for the physically challenged and also to accommodate those that help carry them around”.
Chinedu expressed gratitude to the Dean for allocating hostel space to him without subjecting him to stress. Although most public universities have limited bed spaces, he is among the few that had an allocation.
He also told this reporter what gave him the urge to get educated instead of living the low life of begging. His words: “As you can see, I am a man. I want to work to help others. I can never go to the street to beg. God has helped me to overcome that. I applied for pharmacy because I wanted to help develop drugs that would save lives and make life better for others but since I was given Optometry instead, I still appreciate it. Hence I would study it with the passion it deserves, and develop myself in the field so that I can eventually become the best. As you can see, a friend just gave me something to eat, but you know in a much conducive place I would cook for myself. I have my foodstuff but I can’t cook. I have refused to roam the streets to beg, never. I said to myself that I would be educated and work to give to others; this is what gave me the will to be educated- the passion to help others. All my admission processes were sponsored by friends except my school fees, I can’t go and meet them for it anymore, and this is because they have tried a lot. If I had any scholarship, school fees would not be a problem. I just need the opportunity to get educated so I can as well train my younger ones. I would also need a better wheel chair, probably electrical wheel chair as this one I have gets bad often and whenever it does, I wouldn’t be able to go to class that day”.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
He also called for better roads on campus to relieve him the stress of navigating waterlogged spots, whenever he tries to transport himself to class.
Chinedu, who lost his parents last year, told this reporter that his room mates had been so kind to him. “My roommates have been angels, even if I usually have some altercation with some of them, we relate as normally as we should. We joke, laugh, argue and discuss normal issues. I played football before, although that was in my secondary school days. I usually stay at the goal post for my team. But now I play only table tennis because it is less stressful”.
Chinedu’s roommate, Paul Ochio, described him as a wonderful roommate with a kind heart. He said Chinedu has integrated himself into the society in a perfect way unlike some physically challenged persons who are usually shy and recoils into their shell.
“He is a special roommate and we all take delight in giving him the help he deserves. He argues, speaks boldly, in fact there is no dull moment with him. God help him to fulfill his destiny,” he said.
Just like Martins, several physically challenged people left to fend for themselves. The few who refused to beg at the mosques, churches and highways, comb the streets for alms.Chinedu told Expdonaloaded blog that he  wants to change the world. But that dream can only be possible if the world gives him a place to stand. By taking issues concerning the physically challenged seriously, especially in the provision of public infrastructure tailored to their specific needs, nothing would prevent them from touching the sky.  Perhaps, their abilities, when properly encouraged, explored and harnessed, could even heal the disabilities that had left this nation in a wheel-chair.