The skies darkened at the crack of dawn. The tiny stars that lined the previous night had gone to sleep at the sight of the unsettling dark clouds that heralded the coming of the rains. The time is 5.37 am, and it’s Sunday, a day when most Christians go to worship their God. Saturday PUNCH reports that every member of Bethesda, located at the Agege Motor Road, Mosalashi Bus Stop, Surulere, Lagos.
The reporter alighted from a cab right after an overhead bridge; the skies opened up, and heavy rains pounded the area.
Our correspondent took shelter under a shed housing a horde of men who smoked marijuana and downed some sachets of dry gin.
Loud music of the late Fuji maestro, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, blasted from the Mp3 player nearby.
Close by, a lady in a peach hijab, who had an infant tied on her back, struggled to make a fire with wood and charcoal.
The more she struggled, the more the rains poured, with an accompanying thick breeze, frustrating her efforts.
Tired, she moved closer to the shed for shelter, greeted the men and sat on the same bench our reporter sat on.
As the angry sky took a break for a moment and little rays of morning sunshine peered through the clouds, this reporter walked down the street on the leading of a lad to the building that housed the church which is named after a pool in Biblical Jerusalem, believed to have healing powers.
Outside the high black gate, a small pond had gathered.
On the walls were large paintings of a boy and a girl, dressed in white and black and doing some creative work, and another boy working on the computer. The inscription, ‘Greater sight is in the mind,’ was conspicuous on a part of the wall.
On knocking, the gatekeeper peeped through an opening at the gate to confirm this reporter’s appointment before he opened the gate, which gave way to a large compound.
Our correspondent, on entering, discovered that the gatekeeper was blind.
“Can you see those two steps there? Climb it; go right and you will meet Mummy’s assistant, who will confirm your appointment,” he said with impeccable command.
As the reporter sat, waiting for the founder of the home cum church and school, Dr Chioma Ohakwe, a tall, visually-impaired young boy armed with two buckets full of clothes walked past.
He bumped into a pillar that stood leftward, which caused one of the buckets to fall. He picked his bucket right up, packed up the clothes that fell and continued his journey down the stairs as though nothing happened.
He walked almost too briskly down to a nearby tap, filled an empty bucket with water and walked back up to get a pack of detergent.
Three visually-impaired children – Kuton, Aisha and Alimat – ran across the hallway in a similar white-on-blue outfit. They held one another’s shoulders as they did, giggling and singing.
Mrs Ohakwe, a preacher, said the service was set for 6 am and would begin in a few minutes.
At 6 am, many visually impaired persons trooped out of their rooms in their numbers in shining white-on-blue with red ties for guys and scarfs for ladies to the hall.
Our correspondent, who sat at the back, observed as they took their seats and giggled away with their friends.
A young man in his 20s walked up to our reporter and welcomed him to the church. It was almost like he could see the journalist.
“Can you see me?” our reporter asked.
“It depends on what you mean by ‘see’,” he replied and extended his right hand to shake our correspondent, giving out a wide grin.
“My name is Samuel Chima. Our Mummy (founder) asked me to greet the man at the back. That was why I came to you. Welcome to our service. Is it your first time?” he asked.
“Yes, it is,” replied this reporter.
He smiled and told our correspondent to ‘relax’ as he would have a good time worshipping in the church.
After the gesture, he walked to the technical area, where he began to set up some wires.
He tweaked a thing here and there, tested the piano and adjusted the sound till it was perfect.
Then, he stood right in front of the piano, ready for the singer to begin the praise and worship session.
The church pastor, Chimaobi Onyekachi, a visually-impaired man, who looked like one in his 30s, mounted the podium thereafter and led a series of prayers. As he left, the choir sang a chorus.
Our correspondent gathered that the pastor was married to a fully-sighted woman whom he now lived with.
Lost sight of measles
Twenty-two-year-old Chima lost his sight to measles at age nine.
The Afikpo-South Ebonyi State indigene said when the episode with measles began, his parents did not take it seriously, as it was a disease ‘common to children’.
He said he would have occasional headaches and body pains, which later became unending but painkillers were not too far from his reach so his parents used them to subdue the pain.
“My eyes would be red and I would be thirsty. My head would feel like it was too heavy for me to carry. I would cry all day but I was told that was how measles was, and I should endure. I was given some medication and some things to apply to my skin for the reddish sores, but they seemed not to work.
“My parents did not pay attention to it. They thought it was just a normal headache and body pain that would disappear with the disease, but the pain was too much for me to bear. Some days, it can be so bad that I would strip myself in search of succour because my entire system was on fire. In all, I noticed that my eyes were going dim by the day but I also felt everything would be alright once the measles disappeared,” Chima added.
In the second month, when the situation did not improve, Chima said he was taken to a hospital, where doctors said he had suffered severe damage to some of the tissues in his eyes and would need to be admitted.
According to him, his parents rallied for money and he was given some care.
After spending two months and two weeks in the hospital, Chima said his eyes improved and he could see for a while.
But, after his discharge, the eye continued to dim until it went completely blind.
“It was like someone was playing with the switch in my eyes, adjusting it and tuning it lower and lower every day. I would see something but it would not be as bright as it was supposed to be. My mornings were not always what I knew them to look like – bright and sunny. They had a dimness I could not explain,” he said.
Chima said he told his parents and they were concerned.
But he just came out of treatment, which cost his family an arm and a leg, so going back was not an option.
However, his parents made sure to get him some eye drops and some medications they could afford.
The body pain and headache came back, and his sight became blurry. He woke up one morning and discovered he could no longer see.
“It was like I was mad. I knew my eyes were open but all I could see was darkness. I was just nine. How do I get myself to accept that I was now blind? I couldn’t even begin to understand. I was already in school. I finished my primary education and was set to go to secondary school. How will I read? How will I write? It was a confusing moment for me. Even my parents did not know what to do,” he added.
He was rushed to a nearby general hospital, where it was confirmed that he had become blind.
“My parents cried. I am not sure I cried myself, because I was still trying to understand what they meant. The previous night, I could see. What then did they mean that I was now blind? I refused to believe it. Since I still had the measles, I told myself that once the measles healed, my sight would come back. It is more than 12 years now and I still cannot see,” he stated in a sober tone.
Chima said it was torturous for him to transition from a fully-sighted child to a visually-impaired one.
“I could not see but I wanted to play with my friends. Once they saw me coming out, they would run away from me. My eyes were still open but you could tell that I could not see anything because it had become clouded with what looked like an extra film of flesh.
“I didn’t understand why they were running from me. I wanted to just play with them like we used to, but it was now impossible. I asked one of them why no one wanted to play with me and he said his parents warned him sternly that he shouldn’t associate himself with me. I told my parents and they told me not to bother. While all this went on, in my heart of hearts, I still felt I would see again someday when I got much better. I didn’t know it was something permanent,” he added.
In search of a solution
Chima said his parents would not accept the fact that their son had become blind.
They, according to him, took him to every hospital they could find in search of a solution.
The doctors were clear – Chima could no longer see again, and with surgery, it was a 50-50 chance, which they were not willing to gamble on, as the young boy still had his life ahead of him.
His parents, Chima said, did not give up.
“When medicine failed, my parents turned to religion. There was no church they did not take me to for prayers. They fasted, prayed and gave money to different prophets, who promised that I would see again if their faiths did not fail.
“We kept going in and out of different churches, till I told myself that I was done. I was almost 15 then. I had stopped schooling and lost everything I thought was mine. Life was now sour for me and I was tired of deceiving myself, believing the lies that something was going to change. That day, I accepted my fate,” he said.
He noted that when his father came to him the next day, asking him to prepare as there was another ‘powerful man of God’s coming to the city, he refused.
Although his father was insistent, Chima said he did not move an inch.
This made his father livid, accusing him of being too stubborn to search for healing.
Chima said after spending more than five years at home and having missed out on secondary school, he decided it was time to go back to school.
That was where he met Mrs Ohakwe, who took him in.
With a little brush here and another push there, he was ready to sit the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination.
He wrote the United Tertiary Matriculation Examination the following year and was admitted to study political science at the University of Ibadan, where he graduated with a Second Class (Upper) Division in 2022.
‘I play piano, bass, lead guitar’
Chima said on getting to Bethesda, he joined the church for the blind, where he developed an interest in playing the piano.
Before his visual impairment, Chima said he was a lover of music and had a sonorous voice, but did not see himself playing any instrument till he became blind.
“At first, I thought I would not be able to do it. Then, I was still finding my way around navigating the world with my disability. But the moment I laid my fingers on the piano, I knew I was not going to let it go,” he added with a guffaw.
Chima said he would play it alone when everyone was in their rooms, practising simple tunes till he then knew he was perfect enough to play it to everyone else.
His fellow visually impaired classmates, who had learnt the instrument, also assisted him.
Our correspondent watched in awe as he played the keyboard with dexterity, smiling and tapping his left foot as he did.
He said he had been playing the piano, lead and bass guitar for more than six years and had played in important centres both in Nigeria and abroad.
“I feel good now. I have no regrets. Looking back over my life, I find out that I am doing way better than some of my childhood friends who are physically sighted.
“They are not doing as well as I am doing. They cannot do the things I am doing. I am comfortable. I graduated at 22. I will be going for national service with the next batch and God will give me a job when it is time. I have no regrets at all, and I am not bothered about whether or not I see you again. I don’t need any pity,” he added.
