The Silent Cry of Altine...

Okay, let me admit, I’m not fully recuperated; but I just couldn’t stay away any longer! I need to keep my mind occupied! Lying down all day and night just isn’t fun! The rebel in me has won and I’m back!


Now, as I told y’all in my last post, I met a lot of remarkable persons at the Convention; but two of them stood out for me - Dr. Samuel Ankeli and a lady simply known as Altine. Before I say more about them, let me share just a bit of my thoughts and feelings from the Convention, and before that, first a bit of background.


JONAPWD stands for Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria . It is an association of persons with various forms of disabilities including, physical / mobility impaired, visually impaired, deaf/hard of hearing, spinal cord injury, the developmentally challenged and albinos and so on. JONAPWD held her annual convention with over four hundred delegates in attendance drawn from all over the country.


This was my first time of attending the convention so it was quite a profound experience for me being in the same room with so many PWDs. As the program commenced and we waited for the arrival of delegates and dignitaries, there were musical interludes of Hausa music which I thoroughly enjoyed.


One striking thing was the diversity of disability on display even as the National Anthem boomed from the speakers…


..some could see and hear the proceedings but they couldn’t stand

…some could stand and hear but couldn’t see the proceedings

…some could stand and see but couldn’t hear the proceedings

…some could see, stand, hear but couldn’t comprehend the proceedings


That was deep for me…really deep; made me imagine all the challenges faced by the disability community in Nigeria , both at individual and community levels.


Trust me to introduce myself my style as I promptly got into an argument with some delegates about which disability was more ‘severe’ (without meaning to trivialize any disability). We were considering it purely from the viewpoint of vulnerability. But it was an inconclusive discussion (as is usual with such discussions), despite very many relevant point raised to support each viewpoint. Now, I’d really like to know what you my readers think. Is any disability ‘worse’ than others?


Yes, I did say I was going to say something about two humdingers. The first one, Dr. Samuel Ankeli is a visually impaired veterinary doctor, an activist for disability rights and a grassroots politician. He was the Chairman of the Convention Planning Committee. To be honest, the first thing that hit me smack in the face is just how handsome the guy is (Below is a picture I took with him….)

Dr Ankali and Duchess Irina

such beautiful but sightless eyes...yet such an insightful man

Sightless Dr Ankali is an expert at identifying beauty! I know, because I was his guinea pig! The first time we met, he went about his beauty-identification routine by first touching my nose, then my eyes, lips and then he said: “Wow! Irene you’re so pretty!” Yea, this blind guy identified my hotness so eat your hearts out! hehehe! By the second time we met, he could identify me just by my voice. A remarkable man Dr. Ankali is…very hardworking, brilliant, passionate, selfless…and oh so handsome and well built, smooth, suave, a perfect gentleman.

Now about Altine…just like Dr. Ankali, Altine is another sight for sore eyes…really pretty and with an amazing smile. She is however illiterate and speaks only Hausa, thank God for my fluency in the language (it’s my main language actually, next to English) I was able to chat with Altine in a sort of informal interviewish kinda frank way. What drew me to Altine is something that I just have to draw attention to. With the current North/South polarity in the country and the Muslim/Christian divide fuelled by the BokoHaramists, this is one sensitive issue, but I’m an advocate, so I must speak out.


Polio has ravaged and is still ravaging the Northern part of this country. As I said earlier, in all my years of living with a disability, I have never been in the same room with so many PWDs in my entire life so I had a lot of shocking moments when I witnessed certain physical conditions among the polio survivors. I was confronted with limb deformities such as I’ve never seen or suspected existed in my life, all attributable to polio. It took all I had in me not to stare, I would have taken pictures but in my line of work, preservation of human dignity is one of my personal and organizational core values so I refrained from taking photos and instead decided to use my imaginative and narrative prowess as best as I could to do an illustration. I will therefore attempt to paint a picture of Altine as vividly as I possibly can. As I describe this, I fight back the tears….


Altine is about 28yrs old, pretty and light skinned. Though an adult, she is about the total length of a child of 7yrs, she crawls on her stomach, using her hands to drag herself forward, her two legs are scissor like and crossed in the air behind her and pointing upwards. When she has to prop herself up, she uses her elbows and what’s left of her badly scraped knees as props and levers herself up to her destination, she cannot sit on her buttocks as the 2 legs are crossed behind her permanently so she resorts to lying down or half-sitting on her side.



In spite of her obvious discomfort, each time she passed by my seat, she would flash me a dazzling smile. The advocate in me got worried about the scores of badly misshapen and deformed conditions I saw especially among the women, so the researcher in me was prompted to ask questions and get answers.



Below is a transcript of my discussion with Altine….Brace yourself as you read….The entire conversation was conducted in Hausa language.


Me: (beckoning at her to come to me) How are you?

Altine: I’m fine aunty, how about you?

Me: I’m fine too darling, what’s your name?

Altine: My name is Altine

Me: Altine is a lovely name. I plan on giving my daughter the name (truth)

Altine: That’s nice aunty; hope you will invite me to be the godmother (laughs). Aunty, you don’t look Hausa but you speak it so well. Where are you from?

Me: (I laugh) Guess where I’m from Altine (I’m trying to loosen her up and get familiar)

Altine: Aunty I’m illiterate, how would I know? But I can tell that you’re not Hausa….Ok ok….you’re from Yorubaland

Me: (amid laughter) Wrong! I’m nyamiri (Hausa way of describing the Igbo) but I was born and brought up in Kano .

Altine: No wonder! You speak like a Hausa donkey (colloquial Hausa expression)

Me: Altine, but why do you and your friends (other women) choose to crawl on your hands and knees, if I’m able to get you wheelchairs, wouldn’t you rather be on wheels at least to maintain your personal hygiene (I am very big on hygiene)

Altine: Yes, some of the women would be able to use wheelchairs but some of us wouldn’t because of the peculiarities of our conditions. For instance, I used to use a wheelchair when I was younger, but my father sold it to be able to pay my dowry when I was being married off. Besides my legs worsened to the point of crossing behind me so I won’t be able to sit on a chair anymore unless you want to get me a ‘wheelbed’ where I can lie down and wheel myself (she laughs)

Me: (laughing along) Altine, so you’re married? Where is your husband?

Altine: Yes I am married aunty; been married for 10 years. My husband is not around. He’s a person suffering from leprosy.

Me: Hmmm…how old are you? Do you have any children and where are they?

Altine: I’m not up to 30 years, but I know I’m more than 25 years. (I pegged her at 28). Yes, we have 2 children (on further probing it turns out that both kids (ages 4 and 7) have polio as well). My husband has another wife with 2 kids too, they also have polio.

A long pause from me…I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing

Me: what do you do for a living?

Altine: I sell kolanuts

Me: Kolanuts? How much would you make in a day from sale of kolanuts?

Altine: Not much, sometimes 150-200naira, but it augments what I get from begging..

Me: You beg as well? *awkward silence* then I change the subject

Me: Would your fellow women like me to get wheelchairs for them?

Altine: Aunty any kind of assistance at all would be appreciated. But let me be honest with you, food comes first on our list of priorities. If you give us wheelchairs without food, we may sell them to buy food. Although we need the wheelchairs to help us get around, but will our children starve while we ride around in expensive ‘disabled cars’?(She’s referring to wheelchairs here) (laughter again)

At this point I was overwhelmed with emotion. Her colleagues were beckoning on her to join them, so I let her go. I asked if she had a phone, she didn’t, but said she would get a number I could use in reaching her and give to me the next day. I made a promise to get whatever I could for her and her womenfolk. She turned to leave and suddenly, as if on second thoughts, she held out her hand for a handshake, the same hand she uses to crawl past gutters, crawl into toilets, etc. I, the ‘germ fighting freak’, took her hand and even leaned down to give her a hug. In that moment I knew Altine had given me a test. She wanted to know if my ‘concern’ for her wellbeing was genuine. She had probably seen me sanitizing the seats, the banisters, the handrails etc so she wanted to know if I would walk the walk and not just talk the talk. I am so glad I didn’t fail the test. I didn’t fail the test because I am genuinely concerned for Altine and her womenfolk. Sadly, the next day we had crowd control and many of the local PWDs were not let in, so I didn’t get to see Altine again till I left but when I’m good and ready I will find Altine by hook or by crook.


I will speak very briefly on the issue of polio in Northern Nigeria. For how long will this continue? Women like Altine abound in Northern Nigeria. Her four children have polio and on further enquiry from locals, I found out that most women with polio have at least one kid with polio as well. I am making this a Northern Nigeria issue because I have never seen such polio-related deformity in the South. What is the reason? These women and their children don’t even stand a chance from day one of entering this world! They’re condemned to life as beggars, even when they have enormous potential. What are Northern leaders doing to address this scourge in their land?


I am by no means rich, but I am passionate about causes I believe in. As a single woman, I currently finance the education of three children with disabilities in primary and secondary schools in Abuja. They’re not in the poshest of schools, but they are in good schools and they are receiving a good education. I am a well-educated and independent woman today because my parents believed in education especially for me, the least I can do is give someone else that same fighting chance my parents gave to me.



Many times I have been torn between buying cooking gas at home or buying a new deep freezer or even buying a new blackberry or iPad and paying the fees or buying books for the children. Each time I ask myself, ‘Irene, which one will let you sleep at night?’….My answer has always been the same.



Since my return from Lafia, I suddenly feel inadequate, I feel like I’m not doing enough, I need to get wheelchairs for those women, I need to get food, clothes, drugs, for those women, but how? That’s the question….How?


I can’t get Altine's words out of my mind; I can't stop thinking that she has spent her whole life struggling with the challenges of an illness without the appropriate mobility aids for herself! And now, her children…. Altine has become for me, the voice of the polio survivors crying out for recognition…the silent voice that no one will hear unless we decide to listen….Are we listening?






Duchess