Forty-three-year-old Daniel Emiru’s life took a painful turn in 2003 after he sustained a spinal cord injury. He tells AYOOLA OLASUPO about the ups and downs associated with his struggle to survive.
Where
are you from?
I’m from Adadama community in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State. I was 21 years old when I had this accident in 2003. I’m 43 years old now. October 2025 will make it 22 years since I’ve been on the sick bed. I only spent 21 years before the accident and an additional 22 years on the sick bed.
How did you sustain the injury?
It all began after I completed my secondary education in 2000. I travelled to Onitsha in search of greener pastures, so I started working as a machine operator. I used to operate the machines used for producing plastics, and that was my first work experience. Two years later, I decided to go to a driving school with the little savings I had made in two years.
It was after the training that I started driving as a private and commercial driver. On a fateful day, October 10, 2003, while I was working for a pharmaceutical company at Omuoba Phase 2 in Onitsha, Anambra State, my sales manager called to deliver goods to a place.
I did as the sales manager instructed, but on our arrival at the customer’s place, she was not around, so we waited till almost noon. It was then I realised that since we had other customers to attend to, I suggested to my motor boy that instead of waiting for a single customer the whole day, why couldn’t we attend to other customers with that particular pure water?
We should distribute it to others who were available and needed it, then maybe on our next trip, we should go back to check if the woman would be around. My motor boy accepted my idea. So, while we were getting out of the gate of the fenced shop, a customer called us from my left side that she also needed pure water and that if we were not supplying the first woman again, we should give her.
What happened thereafter?
I parked and gave her the quantity she needed. After we dropped the water for the customer, I was about to climb into my vehicle, but it was in the process of entering the car that a stray cow unexpectedly ran towards me from behind. I was not even aware.
The cow attacked me by using its horns to lift me up. At a point, I was lying between its two horns, and when people started shouting, the cow used its horns to throw me up. I realised that with the way the cow flung me away, I even somersaulted in the air.
So, it was when I landed on the ground that I was unable to stand up, and that was the last day I stood on my feet. Everybody there thought it was a minor thing when the accident happened because they thought I would stand up after a while, but I couldn’t.
They were just there, standing by and saying, ‘Let’s give him some time to get up. He will stand up.’ I can’t tell whether I fainted or not, but it was after a while that I shouted, ‘Why are they just standing? Why can’t they help me?’ I knew I said that, but I didn’t know how long it took me to speak out. I can still remember that I was the one who sought help that day.
Did the bystanders attend to you after seeking help?
Yes, they were just holding me. It was when they were trying to support me to stand up that the injury became severe because it was at my neck level. I realised that one of the bones in the spinal cord connecting to my neck had shifted. When they were trying to raise me, nobody supported my head, and it just fell back.
That was when I shouted that somebody should hold my head, and that I was feeling very severe pain in my neck. That was how the injury became worse. They suggested that I should be taken to a nearby clinic.
What did the doctor say?
The doctor at the clinic I was taken to discovered that it was not an external injury, but an internal one, and it was only an orthopaedic hospital that could handle it. So, he referred us to the Teaching Hospital in Enugu. The next day, we were able to arrange for a vehicle before going to the Teaching Hospital in Enugu.
At the teaching hospital, it was detected that it was a spinal cord injury. Although they requested the sum of N75,000 at that time for the surgery, I was told that here in Nigeria, at that time, spinal cord surgeries were not always successfully done, and that the only solution was for them to take me out of the country. But due to a lack of communication at that time, I was not able to reach the company I was working for within a few weeks.
How much did they say it would cost you to travel and for the treatment then?
No, there was no talk at all. The doctor just said it, and there was no initial plan for it. But for them to attend to me at that teaching hospital, they said I should pay N75,000 as of that time.
Was the company you were working with aware of your condition, and was the N75,000 paid?
No, we didn’t go there with any of the company officials. It was only me, my motor boy, and others who took me there, and there was no phone with us. The accident happened on Friday, so we went there on Saturday. The director of the company was from Enugu State, and he used to travel to his village in Enugu State every weekend.
So, that Friday, he travelled to Enugu. When the incident happened, the company received the information that same evening. When we arrived at the teaching hospital on Saturday, the man visited us and gave the go-ahead to treat me, and that he would take responsibility.
The director used to travel to Enugu on Friday and return to Onitsha on Sunday. So, he assigned one of his managers, the sales manager, to always come and check my health at the hospital in Enugu. So, anytime the company wanted to know how I was doing, they would send the sales manager to check if they would need to settle any medical requests.
Unfortunately, whenever the sales manager left the company and got halfway, he would just lodge at one hotel for two or three days, before returning to the company without seeing me. He would tell them that everything was going well with me. As of that time, the only reliable means of communication was for the rich, so I didn’t have direct access to the company or the director due to my position at the time.
How did you know that he used to lodge at a hotel?
The incident happened in October, and because my mother came from the village to stay with me after some time, she would say she was leaving because of her farm. So, in January, when there was no information from the company, my father and my elder brother came from the village to see me, and after explaining to them, they went to the company to find out what was happening.
That was how the director brought the files where he wrote the estimated cost of what he had spent through the sales manager. So, when they called the sales manager to explain what happened, my elder brother got provoked, and they started fighting him. That was how we discovered what happened and how he never visited me.
He was always diverting everything that the company gave him to come and settle my fees or see how I was doing. He would return to the company and give them fake information. My brother was so furious. He fought the sales manager, and when they eventually settled, I think the company gave them money.
I didn’t even know because at that time, I was not in a good position. It was the money the company gave them that was used to arrange for a vehicle and take me back to my village in Cross River State.
Weren’t you responding to treatment at the hospital before you were taken back to the village?
There was no treatment, and since nobody was showing up, I was completely abandoned there. That was what happened. So, my father took me to the village. One thing is that my father believed so much in traditional medicine. He was born in the village, grew up, and spent his life there.
With his experience, the majority of our village farmers were palm wine tappers, and they always fell from the palm tree, while none of them survived it. So, he had the mentality that anything related to spinal cord injury is a deadly illness that is not curable.
That was why he didn’t listen to any suggestion that could result in mild healing. He just dumped me in the house, possibly thinking that maybe one day, they would knock at my door to greet me, and I wouldn’t respond, and they would just bury me because there was no attempt to even take me out at all.
Are you saying that your father abandoned you?
He never believed that spinal cord injury could be healed, cured, or managed because no traditional orthopaedic doctor was visiting me for anything. It was only my mother who was going for consultation with all those spiritualists to find out the cause of the accident, but in terms of treatment, nothing was done.
They were only concerned about their spiritual consultations. They were thinking about how a cow could attack their child, and that it was a spiritual matter. So, what they were after was just going from one herbalist to the other. They could even travel out of the state just to know why the cow attacked me.
How did you feel when you learnt that you had spinal cord issues?
Although I never had any spinal cord challenges, I thought maybe in two or three days, I would be back on my feet. I never knew it was a lifetime condition. So, I never for once had any negative thinking or mentality. I was just relaxing there, hoping to one day or within a short period; I was not even considering two or three months or two-thirds of a year. I thought maybe after two or three days or a week, I would rise again, but this is how I’ve found myself today.
I left the village in 2013 when there was a communal crisis between my state and the neighbouring state to the extent that the neighbouring state was hiring assassins to invade my community. So, when the crisis became tough and worsened, my people had to lock me inside my room and fled to the city; Calabar. They left me at home from January to April 2014.
While they were in the city, I survived through some Igbo boys that were around in the village. They didn’t go anywhere, but almost everybody in the village did. Those boys were like local hunters, and they were the ones confronting the thugs and the assassins. Although my father was a popular person in the village, I was also friendly. Whenever the boys did one or two things in their town, like roasting yams and plantain, they would give me some.
They would say, if I needed something, I should let them know. Then they would fetch water for me to drink because, at that time, there was no pure water in the village. That was how I sustained myself within those three months. One day, I had the opportunity to get a small phone, so I cried out on Facebook that I was lonely in the house.
Luckily, one Adamawa man who was staying in the United Kingdom saw the post and called somebody from Delta State to find out if my post was true. So, the man in Delta State had to chat me up, and I gave him my address. So, the man took me out of the village to Abuja. That was how I left the village till today.
You’ve been battling it for 22 years. How has this affected your daily life?
As I speak, it’s only my memory that is working. I’m completely paralysed. Even my hands are not functioning. It is only my brain that is working. I can say it is only my head and everything attached to it, like the eyes, the nose, and the mouth, that is 100 percent functional. From my neck downwards, it’s completely paralysed.
I can neither move my hands nor my fingers. My hands are completely paralysed, and I don’t even feel any sensation from my neck to my feet. It does not move me because I encourage myself that no matter what, I’ll walk again. I never for one day let my condition weigh me down. I don’t have a wife. I don’t have anything. I don’t even have a family like this. But that is not even the issue at the moment. The most important thing is that I’m still alive.
After you left for Abuja in 2014, did any of your family members reach out to you to know your condition and where you were staying?
Yes. They do reach out to me once in a while, especially my mother. Whenever my mother wanted to visit me, two of my siblings would accompany her, but she was always complaining that she needed to monitor her farm, so her mind was not always here whenever she was around. Her mind would still be in the village for her farm work.
What are some of the hardest moments you’ve faced in this condition?
The hardest moment for a man is the current hardship because initially, things were not like this. People were assisting me, but the hardship started when former President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power in 2015 because the majority of those assisting me were not in Nigeria; they were importers.
So, since then, they complained that the closure of borders was affecting their business, and the level of assistance started reducing. It’s even worse right now because everyone assisting me is struggling to sustain his or her own family, and that is challenging. To be honest, I’m not even concerned about medicals anymore.
At least, if I sleep, I shouldn’t have the danger of waking up alive. I should get help with what to eat. As I speak, I have some sores. There are even open wounds, and it’s risky for an infection. It’s only God that is sustaining me right now. I need to at least be able to take care of my open wounds so that my body will be neat.
I need toiletries like soap, detergents, antiseptics, and others, which I cannot afford by myself. I believe one day, God will call me, but if there is any way anybody wants to help me in taking care of myself, I’ll not reject it. The care is what I’m soliciting because the major challenge for me now is feeding, and my daily needs.
The day the cow attacked me in 2003 was the last day I stood on my feet, and that was 22 years ago. I could neither walk nor sit with my buttocks. I’ve been lying down since then, and due to that, my knees, hips, and feet are now stiff like firewood. They no longer bend unlike before.
Didn’t you make any effort to get a wheelchair?
I have a wheelchair, but it’s useless because if I sit on it, my feet cannot lie on the pedals. My knees are supposed to bend to allow my feet to lie on the pedal. Someone even sent a brand-new wheelchair last year to me from Scotland, but it’s now useless. The organisation saw me on social media and sent me the wheelchair that was worth over N3m. I didn’t reject it.
Do you experience a kind of stigma from people around you?
Not at all, everybody around me is 100 per cent friendly with me. So, I did not allow my condition to dissociate me from people. Everybody around me, children, youth, and adults, is friendly with me.
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