Hearing the moving story of Isiuwe Daniel Isiwoso, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member currently serving at the State House would move the stone hearted to pity.
At 14 years, by either fate or design, his collision with a man leaving the Mosque after Jumat prayer led to his blindness and it almost ruined his lofty ambitions.
Thinking that life had lost its true meaning and at the verge of committing suicide after wasting excruciating six years at home without a solution to blindness, succour finally came his way. According to him, the journey to surmount odds had started after the six years when he got the opportunity to embrace Braille education that saw him through from secondary school to higher education at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN)
However, recalling how he embarked on that journey to carving a niche, he revealed that he passed through many tough and challenging situations including the pain and difficulty of depending on his classmates to record lectures, recalling that many people even had to avoid him like plague.
Today, he announces triumphantly, that he has cast all that behind him especially after wedding a lady of his dreams on February 1 in Abuja. His spouse equally graduated from the same institution. The union, he noted dried the tears of his mother, who still could not believe that her first son is blind.
Facing blindness
It is a long story but I would say that the incidence was more or less a domestic accident, which occurred when I was still a teenager of around 14 years. I was playing with my younger brother, while he was running and I was pursuing him, I collided with a man from the Mosque after Friday Jumat. I fell flat on my face and became completely blind. I lived in Zaria, Kaduna State with my family then.
Immediately after the collision I shouted repeatedly that I can’t see again. My eyes had turned inside out that even at the hospital, the ophthalmologists said that they could only do their best medically to return my eyeballs into normal position but it will take divine intervention for me to regain my sight.
I visited the best eye hospitals even in Lagos and almost travelled to India before we were discouraged that only God could restore the sight through miracle. It is not possible to calculate the amount we have spent on medication but we spent so much.
Since the incident, I have survived by the grace of God because when it became obvious that I have lost my sight after all manners of medical solutions, I spent almost six years at home without going to school, or taking up any vocational activities.
It was on my sixth year idling and wasting away at home that the opportunity of going back to school came, but I had to start by learning how to read and write using Braille in a special school in Kaduna. It was after mastering the use of Braille that I returned to secondary school. When I finished, I wrote West African School Certificate (WAEC), wrote JAMB and gained admission to UNN to study Political Science.
Living without sight
I faced horrible challenges I would not want to recall again. There were harrowing experiences especially as we don’t have the facilities in this country to aid physically challenged persons like me to study. The study materials for the blind are very expensive. A Braille machine sells for at least N160,000, which made learning more challenging.
So, what I did in the university was to get friends that would help me do audio recording instead of using the Braille machine to follow the lecture since we don’t have the equipment. I will listen to the audio recordings, analyse and memorise them and use typewriter on the day of examination to write so that the lecturer could read my scripts and mark them.
The frustration came to the head that at a time, I felt like committing suicide. The thought of killing myself took over me when I thought I don’t have any opportunity of continuing my academics because of the blindness.
I had to stay at home even when everybody left the house, for six years. My saving grace was when the opportunity of going back to school materialised. I had to pick up the pieces of my life from there.
What sustained me from then till now was the grace of God. However, I must add that listening to the words of God actually helped me. Going to church and hearing the word of God was the secret source of my strength and encouragement. It really made me strong to keep pursuing success.
Unwilling helpers
Some of my course mates willingly assisted me in so many ways, but many others would refuse and say they have their own business to handle. The willing ones helped me record lectures even when handling their own assignment wasn’t easy. Sometimes I appreciated them with one or two gifts to motivate them to do more for me.
It was not easy overcoming the rejections I suffered in the hands of some people. I recall a particular incident when I wanted to get a fiancée. I spoke to one lady who insulted me thoroughly, asking me how I could claim I love her when I don’t know how she looks.
In fact, there were some of them that won’t even want to sit down close to me or walk with me on the road. But I am grateful to God for seeing me through.
Getting a wife
Convincing my wife to marry me was not what I could attribute to my power or skills. It happened because she really loves me. I want to believe that God is behind the whole thing. Incidentally, we graduated from the same university. It was not difficult convincing her because she already has the love for me without which, it would have been a bit difficult.
My proposal was like a fulfilled dream. I cannot say if she was surprised the day I proposed to her because when I told her about my plan for her, she only requested that I give her time to think and pray about it.
People discouraged me from marrying him —Wife
Former Miss Charity Chinyere Ugwuarum, now Mrs. Chinyere Isiuwe, a native of Nkanu West LGA of Enugu State, deserves an award. It is not easy to pass through the pressures from friends, mother and relatives, as she did, and still went ahead to marry a blind man, according to her desires.
Mrs Isiuwe, a graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, said she passed through trauma and dilemma before finally saying ‘I do’ to her heartthrob and fellow corps member in Abuja recently. Despite the pressures, she said what sustained her was the revelation she had, directing her to marry a physically challenged husband even before she met Daniel.
Difficult decision
It was not really difficult making up my mind to marry him because prior to his marriage proposal, I had a revelation even before I gained admission to the UNN in 2008, about getting married to a physically challenged person even though it was not a blind person.
Then, I didn’t have anybody in my life, not even a boyfriend or somebody close to me that was physically challenged. I don’t know how that dream came about, but I met him in our Redeem Christian Fellowship as an acquaintance then. One thing clear was that I admired his kind of person.
I admire his wisdom, courage and dedication to church programmes. He was always coming to programmes on time, he is a very likeable person who always have friends around him ready to help. So, I just admired him from a distance because we were not close then.
Parents objection
One thing I believe is that when God is involved in something, it always goes smoothly. My father was late but honestly, my mother fought the battle to stop the marriage with everything she has. My siblings were divided but incidentally my younger sister who had met my husband in school then, knew how good a chorister he is. She only told me to follow my mind.
After several prayers, I met my uncle concerning the marriage, and he handled it with maturity, advising me that somebody can get married to a normal person only for the man to become blind or deformed shortly after the marriage.
He tactically endorsed the marriage but warned that I should be sure of the kind of marriage I was going into. There were friends and relatives that confronted me to ask why I made such choice. But I always told them that there was no going back since I have made up my mind.
How he proposed
I can’t really remember now but the only thing I know is that he asked me if I would like to marry him the day he proposed. I told him I will not say yes or no until I pray and think about it. It took me up to one month to make up my mind because in marriage we need such time to think of the new life one is entering even if the man is not physically challenged.
Marriage is not something you just rush into. You have to put one or two things into consideration so that you will not have problem along the journey of marriage. One thing I detest with passion is divorce. I cannot just stand it. It is better I took my time to get it right than rush into the marriage only to rush out.
Friends really tried their best to discourage me from going into this marriage but one particular question I always asked both friends and my family members was what if I were the one blind, won’t they pray that somebody should marry me.
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