- Assist us with food while we wait for God, distressed blind family begs Nigerians
The single room mud-made apartment the physically challenged Eze family is squatting day and night at Umabor village Eha-Alumona, Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State is enough to define their misery and sorrow.
The family has been battling with strange ailments for about 10 years without cure.
The father was struck with total blindness while his three sons became paralyzed within the space of a month.
Ever since, the mother of the house, who is the only member of the family without any physical disability has been burdened with the task of fending for the family through assistance from few spirited Nigerians.
Mrs. Mary Ugwoke Eze would be the one to bathe her blind husband and her three paralyzed sons and also roam about to struggle for food for them.
Narrating how they developed the health challenges, Eze Edwin Onyebuchi, the first son of the family who is on a wheelchair, said he slept and woke up with paralysis.
According to him, “I cooked with my mother the previous night and couldn’t stand up the next day and from that point, my legs started shrinking till I became totally paralyzed till date.”
He said that all efforts to cure him have proved abortive, adding that none of them was born with such deformities.
Onyebuchi, an unmarried middle-aged man, disclosed that the family was living in Enugu metropolis but had to relocate to the village after they were struck with the ailments about 10 years ago.
While his parents were taking him to different medical facilities and traditional homes for treatment, his father suddenly became totally blind while his two siblings also got paralyzed and dumb within the same period.
Meanwhile, relief came the way of the family when a Professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Mrs. Victoria Onu stumbled on them and provided them with drugs and food support.
Onu, the Head of Department, Special Needs Education of UNN, in an interview, said he met the physically challenged family without any means of livelihood for decades of their health challenges.
The first female Professor of Creativity in Africa said that she has been shouldering the challenges of the family for the past eight years she came in contact with them at Umabor village Eha-Alumona.
She said, “I didn’t know the family before now, I was touched by their unbearable health challenges. I was shocked to see a father, his three sons physically challenged, impaired eyes, withered hands and legs and speechlessness for several decades without food and water.”
According to the philanthropic don, “The family lives in the mud house of a single room attachment while their aged mother struggles to feed both the blind husband and her three adult sons before my intervention.
Onu who currently feeds, buys drugs for the family, has embarked on construction of a toilet facility for their use.
“I am excited about the way the family makes life very simple, not minding their impairment challenges. Something has to be done urgently to give them a sense of belonging,” she stressed.
Onu appealed to the federal, state and local governments, donor agencies, churches, philanthropists, non-governmental organisations across the globe, mostly Nigerians in the diaspora, to come to the aid of the Ezes to find food and water.
For Onyebuchi, Mrs. Onu has been the only one helping them to feed daily, adding that she buys drugs and other needs of the family for the past eight years she came in contact with them.
Notwithstanding their pitiable conditions, Onyebuchi lamented that some hoodlums steal from them.
On what he was doing before the mysterious ailments, Onyebuchi stated, “I learnt a mobile phone accessory business but lacked finance to establish before mummy (Onu) came to our assistance, established a small poultry farm with about 40 birds which some people came and stole.”
He added, “When we were born in the Enugu metropolis, none of us had any deformity. I cooked with my mother the previous night and couldn’t stand up the next day and from that point, my legs started shrinking till I became totally paralyzed till date. My parents exhausted their resources trying to revive me; there is no known hospital in Enugu I have not visited at the early stage of my problem.
“As my parents were battling with my condition, my younger brothers -Sunday and Izuchukwu Eze- took turns, their hands, legs withered, they became paralyzed and later our father went blind totally. That was how we found our lives living at the mercy of God before relief came from mummy (Onu) who took our health challenges to heart with food and drugs among others.”
Pointing at the room where his father and brothers were, he said, “Just enter inside and see our father lying down with two of my younger ones. This is the state of our lives. We were born healthy and started schooling at Maris College, Okigwe Imo State before my problem began.”
He appealed to Nigerians to assist them saying, “We are appealing to both federal and state governments to assist us to eat while we wait for God. No assistance tendered to us will be too small as we presently survive at the mercy of our mummy, Professor Mrs. Onu.
“She is currently constructing a water closet toilet facility, established small poultry with birds, bought food stuffs, drugs among others. We are soliciting help from philanthropists, NGOs and private individuals to assist us eke out means of livelihood.”
Finding it difficult to narrate how her husband and children became blind, crippled and dumb, Mrs. Mary Eze said, “If I tell you I understand how all this happened, then, I am telling lies.”
