When Samuel Elija learnt about a vacancy at a school not too far from his home in the Gawuna area of Nasarawa Local Government, Kano State, he thought his over eight years’ search for sustainable employment was about to end. He did not know that fate had something more devastating lined up for him.
Elija, a Kano-based graduate of Sociology from the Kogi State University, completed his studies in 2012 but could not find a well-paying job and therefore started working as a classroom teacher in a private school just to keep himself busy.
On his way to submit his curriculum vitae (CV) at a nearby school where the vacancy was advertised, he was knocked down by a car.
This accident in January 2021 has left him bedridden, compounded his woes and suffering.
Speaking with Kano Chronicle, Elija said: “After the accident, it was discovered that I sustained fractures on my leg and I was treated locally. From there I attempted to walk but I couldn’t. I was taken for another local treatment and it also failed.”
He lamented that when the situation deteriorated, his parents were advised to visit a hospital, which they have been trying to avoid all this while because of lack of finance.
“We went to Dala Orthopaedic Hospital and they said I must undergo surgery, which will cost N1,562,736.75 and we don’t have anything,” he said in tears.
He said the parents of the boy that knocked him took him for the local treatment and paid only N20,000 out of N60,000 charged in the second local treatment, and from then, they did not hear from them again.
“My parents are poor and I’m the one supporting them to survive but for the past one year, I couldn’t even walk out of our house if not for medications. I want to beg people in the name of God to please rescue my life so that I can continue like all other people,” he said with teary eyes.
When Kano Chronicle visited their house, his aged parents, along with his siblings, solicited for assistance to settle the medical bill.
