I Never Surrendered To My Disability – Okoro
Posted on July 21, 2018
IKPO IGBINOBA, Lagos
Nkiruka Okoro (sitting) after coming first at 2018 Access Bank Lagos City Marathon
If commuting in Lagos, a city with a huge population but a critical infrastructure deficit is a challenge to the able-bodied Lagosians, then it is a nightmare to the physically challenged.
In spite of the massive population of the physically challenged in Nigeria’s commercial capital and Africa’s most populous city, the facilities to make life easy for them are conspicuously missing.
In the layout of the roads, markets, bus terminal, hospitals, airports, shopping malls etc, it is glaring that those who planned the city didn’t have a thought for the disabled.
Perhaps the new Lagos which is under construction has the disabled factored into its smart-city ambition.
This story is however not about Lagos but about a physically challenged athlete who has refused to be a victim not just of the Lagos horror but all the fiery darts life has been firing at her.
Nkiruka Julian Okoro’s story is the familiar heart-rendering stuff told almost everyday by the physically challenged in a society that is not inclusive.
“Life is really tough for the disabled in this country”, Nkiruka begins in the chat with PM EXPRESS at the National Stadium in Lagos.
“From moving around the city, commuting between our homes and our places of work, our interactions with the wider society, it is better to imagine what the disabled goes through on a daily basis than experience it”.
Nkiruka, who is a wheelchair racer said sometimes she feels like the society and the people are conspiring to make life difficult for her and other physically challenged people.
“It hurts me sometimes to think that everything is programmed against me. The society doesn’t have facilities to make life easy for us. And then we are treated with disdain, in fact discriminated against.
“It hurts and there’s nobody who is ready to listen to our story not to talk of assisting us”, Nkiruka laments.
Almost yielding to her emotions, she adds “Sometimes you feel so bad and depressed that you get confused about what to do”
But the athlete, full of spirit, grit and ambition has refused to be subdued by the challenges.
Nkiruka stressed that in spite of the seemingly overwhelming challenges, she had always dreamt big and given her best.
“As a disabled athlete facing all the challenges, I’ve always been on top of my game, because my dream is to rule the world in my event.
“I have never surrendered to the problems I face everyday. The problems even serve as stimulus to achieve great feats”.
Nkiruka’s resilience has started yielding results.
Since taking to sports in 2008, Nkiruka’s profile has been on the ascendancy.
She started off with table tennis and in four years was dominating her class in spite of the presence of veterans.
In the National Sports Festival of 2012 hosted by Lagos, Nkiruka won silver in the individual event and gold in team event for Delta state.
However, due to lack of regular competitions, the 26-year old athlete dumped table tennis for Wheelchair Race in 2016.
“I had to leave table tennis because there were no regular competitions. How does an athlete survive without competitions?”
In 2017, Nkiruka joined the field of athletes jostling for laurels in the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon.
She came third in the 10 km wheelchair race.
“I was excited with my performance and I realised that wheelchair race was the path for me”.
Determined to be the best, Nkiruka gave her all to the tough training regimen designed by her coach, Babatunde Kolawole.
And her efforts paid off grandly early this year, when she returned to the Lagos City Marathon to conquer the field. She earned a million naira for her efforts.
For an athlete who earns N20,000 a month as a grade level 4 officer in the employment of oil-rich Delta State, a million naira is a fortune and the prize money was indeed a great relief.
“I have to be candid, the prize money saved me from a lot of trouble. What I receive as a staff of Delta State which is N20,000 a month is grossly inadequate for my day to day existence”, she lamented.
Since she was employed in 2013 after winning gold and silver medal for Delta State in the 2012 National Sports Festival in Lagos, Nkiruka has always complained about her poor pay to her employers.
“Unfortunately, when I complain, nobody listens. Since 2013, I have been collecting N20,000 as grade level 4. What does one do with N20, 000 in a month with the high cost of living?”
The Access Bank Lagos City marathon has provided a lifeline for Nkiruka and the Ebonyi state indigene has vowed to dominate the event.
“With the prize money in the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, I have to work very hard to win the top prize”.
But she is not limiting her participation in the sport to the Lagos event.
“I am ready to race anywhere in the world against the best opposition because my ultimate dream is to rule the world”.
She boasted that she has what it takes to be the best.
“With the type of coaching I am receiving, I have the confidence and capacity to face any opposition. My only problem now is that I don’t have a wheelchair for racing”.
Nkiruka said except a public-spirited person or some corporate organisation comes to her aid, she would never own a wheelchair.
“I can’t afford the wheelchair because it is very expensive so I’ll only count on philanthropists and organisations which support good causes to assist me with a wheelchair”.
“With my own wheelchair, I will rule the world”, Nkiruka enthused.
At birth some twenty six years ago, Nkiruka was a bundle of joy to her parents.
They christened her Nkiruka which means “your future is bright” at birth. Though she was not born with a silver spoon, Nkiruka’s parents made her childhood memorable in Nnewi, Anambra State in the southeastern part of Nigeria.
But tragedy struck when she was ten years old.
“I had malaria fever and I was taken to the hospital in Nnewi. The doctor administered some drugs and injection and that was how I lost the use of my left leg”.
From a bundle of joy, Nkiruka became a burden of grief and the parents refused to accept her.
She recalled “For six months, my parents left me in the hospital insisting that the doctor should restore my leg”.
“But at the end when it became clear the doctor couldn’t reverse the damage, my parents took me back”.
The life-changing incident evokes sad memories for Nkiruka but the positive side of the tragedy is that it triggered the dream to be great in the youngster.
She is on course to achieving her dream and borrowing the phrase made popular by motivational speakers, Nkiruka declared “I’ll turn all the obstacles on my way into stepping stones”
“I have to be a great Wheelchair racer, a world champion, that’s the only way I can wipe away the pain and sorrow inflicted on me and my family by the doctor who caused my disability”.
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