I had the most shocking experience the day I was writing my common entrance examination. As I was writing the paper, I discovered my sight was getting dull. I could not finish the first paper when the second one started. This was in 1999. But in 2004, my two eyes stopped seeing anything again.”
These are the words of Sunday Adeniyi, a 25-year-old student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, whose education is being threatened by lack of fund and a broken home.
The 100-Level student of the Department of Linguistics and African Languages believes he would not be suffering if his parents were still married.
“At present, I am having a very great challenge with my education. My department was created recently and no visually-impaired student had been admitted here, so there are no facilities that may aid my learning given my condition. My classmates have not been helpful. Anytime I call on them for assistance, especially to read, they would feel like explaining some subjects to me would make them to be dull. Whenever I call on them, some run away as if I am a plague,” Adeniyi told CAMPUSLIFE in an emotion-laden voice.
He narrated how he lost his sight.
It started in 1992 with one eye and in 2004, he became blind.
He said: “I may abandon my education if there is no enough money to continue. This challenge has made life unbearable for me. My father is really trying his best but things are expensive. This is why most of us don’t further our education.”
He said there was a day he could not attend a class because of N40. “That day I was totally cash-strapped and there was no one to take me to the venue of the lecture. I tried to walk down to the bus stop to get a bike but that was impossible because I had no cash.”
He got a fairly-used laptop when he was admitted into the university but “the thing has been developing different faults since I bought it; in fact, it is a challenge for me because it is depriving me of preparing well for tests and examinations.”
Adeniyi explained how his mother abandoned him because of his condition. “I am suffering from a broken home, which makes my condition worse. My mother left in 1990. She left me before I started having challenges with my left eye and when she learnt of my situation, she got involved and took me to the hospital. But later, she stopped and finally divorced my dad.”
He said the visual problem, which eventually led to the loss of his sight, was detected by his teacher when he was in Primary 1.
He said: “We have been moving from one hospital to another since 1992 when my teacher informed my parents that something was wrong with my sight. We tried our best to prevent the affected left eye from extending to the right and I managed to finish my primary education with my right eye.”
He wondered why many people run away from him, saying some people see blindness as a communicable disease and do not like to associate with him.
He said: “Most times, I feel bad with the way people treat me. People steal my things and that is always painful. Each time I am treated badly, it reminds me of my condition. I am made to remember that it is because I cannot see; that is why people take my things anyhow.”
He urged the public to come to his aid to enable him to complete his education.
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