‘I’m Believing God to Change My Status’

Life is not always the true reflection of peoples’ wishes and aspirations. Whilst it comes true for some, for others, it doesn’t. That in any way has not stop people from desiring the best for themselves like Bose Adigun, Ehime Alexwrites

The truth remains that; nobody would ever desire to be physically challenged in life. All the same, some persons are living in that fate.

Mrs. Bose Adigun, a native of Ekiti State is one unfortunate person whom her present circumstances seems to have prevented from living a normal life. But, a closer relationship with Bose would reveal that, she has refused to allow the physical disability to deter her from achieving her life aspiration or to be at the mercy of others: relatives, sympathisers or what have you.

The 47-year-old Bose, who holds an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) from the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, could be rightly called a goal-getter for doing what most normal people are finding difficult to do. Still believing God to heal her, on a daily basis, except weekend, Bose would leave Atan Ota, a town in Ogun State, where she currently resides to sell newspapers at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

She is not getting the encouragement coming from that far distance, she laments anyway. But, like the biblical saying that, wisdom is profitable to direct, Bose had strategically planned her movement to and fro in a way that she would not be a burden to anyone, and to help her outdo the challenge or challenges of having to transport from Ogun State to Lagos to be at her newspaper stand at Alausa.

Hear Bose, “I come all the way from Atan in Ogun State on a daily basis to come to Alausa here in Ikeja to sell newspaper. I have a method I use to get here every day. Because of my condition, coming from that place is not easy and if those bus drivers notice that I come here daily from Ogun State they would not carry me. So I have to apply my wisdom to make it easy for me. But if they see me entering their bus once in a week or a month later, they will not say, don’t enter! Don’t enter!! That is what they normally do, rejecting people like us.”
In a solemn voice, she said, “I don’t have another job, that is why you see me here today and tomorrow I will still be here. I am believing God to change my status.”

Always thankful for what God is doing in her life, and for her new business, she would also be grateful to the woman whom she had attached herself to assist her in getting out the newspapers from the various newspaper distributors. She said, “You know with my condition, I cannot be struggling to get paper and carry them. So, my Oga, (the woman who assist her) that owns this business brings the papers in the morning and when it is evening she will still come and carry the ones that are left. At the end of the day (sales), I take my commission depending on the price of the paper. My commission is N10 and above on each paper I sell.”

Ever struggling to make ends meet, Bose had been in business for a long time now. For people who know her, Bose had sold as a petty trader in Ogun State. She had also sold dollars, she said.

Like majority of Nigerians, Bose is not satisfied with what she does at present. Whilst she believes God to change her status, she longs to work as a sales woman in a supermarket or a well-structured business environment. If wishes were horses, Bose hoped to be a managing director of a firm. Great faith indeed! She has.

She could recall that on several occasions, she had applied for jobs, especially government paid job to fulfill her life ambition, but the opportunity has not presented itself. She lamented that during the pass administration in Lagos, the then secretary to the state governor was her friend whom she had sat one on one with, but the luck didn’t come for her to be employed in the Lagos State Civil Service. “Other people like me are getting the job, why haven’t I? She queried.

However, she said she remains grateful to the then secretary to the state governor who was helpful both in cash and kind and bought her a wheel-chair as at that time.

It is empathising to hear that Bose wasn’t born lame from her mother’s womb. But that circumstances made things to be sorrowful for her. She recalled and said, “No! I wasn’t born a cripple from my mother’s womb. All God did was perfectly perfect. As you stand, that was how I stand when I was small. I wasn’t like this. I thank God. God knows the reason why He allows it to happen. He is the only one who can allow this type of thing to happen, nobody else.”
But when THISDAY persisted to know what actually went wrong, she said in a hush tone, “It is only my parents that knew what happened. Maybe if you see them, they will tell you.” When asked if her condition came as a result of improperly administered vaccinations or some sought of medical inappropriateness, she simply said, “No! It is the work of enemies of progress.”

Bose, who would not ascribe any achievable feat to herself, lives in her own house, built in the course of the struggle for survival, although the building is yet to be fully completed she said. A goal-getter you would call her. From the business she does and from the monies she makes, she had bought her husband a motor-cycle, (Okada) which the man uses to work and support their family. She said, “Where I live is God’s property. I don’t have anything of my own,” Bose, always giving glory to God.

Bose, who today is living with her husband and three children, believes that everybody needs encouragement whether physically challenged or not. Her wish is that people would get serious with their life and do something meaningful for themselves.