Muhammad Mustapha, a schoolteacher, holds a degree in History from the Gombe State University. Even though he is blind, he can browse the internet, chat on Facebook and Whatsapp. The 31-year-old was at Shehuri Ward of Maiduguri, though he’s from Mafa local government area of Borno State. He started his early education in 1992 at Special School for The Blind in Maiduguri, proceeding to the University of Jos for a diploma in Special Education after which he sat for JAMB and got admission into the same university to study History. He shared his experiences with Daily Trust in an interview, and herewith are excerpts:
Daily Trust: At what age did you become blind?
Muhammad Mustapha: My late father told me that it was between the age of 3 to 4. He learnt there was a special school for the blind here in Maiduguri, sometime around 1992, and he took me to the school. There, some of my teachers who are also physically challenged discouraged us from begging and gradually I developed interest in education.
DT: You now have a first degree; do you intend to go further?
Mustapha: I am preparing to go further. I want to be educated to the point that I can become an educationist and contribute to the growth of this state and the nation at large. I want to serve humanity; in fact I am aspiring to become the first blind professor in Nigeria. I did mention earlier that it was Prof. Mande that offered me scholarship but now I find it difficult to continue with my Masters degree. There are some reading and writing materials for our Masters degree that we don’t even have in this country because of lack of government support. Recently I checked online and discovered the materials are very expensive.
DT: We hear that you navigate social media, as well as the internet very well. How do you do it?
Mustapha: It is surprising when people ask me how I chat with my friends on Facebook or WhatsApp. I told you I studied History. When we were in 100 Level, we were 44 in my class. I was the only blind person among us, but at the end, only 16 of us graduated. The teachers, who were foreigners by the way, produced aids for visually and physically handicapped people because they have interest in educating us. Actually, we studied with regular students in a regular class.
The society is not kind to us. I get angry daily because most times when I walk down the street, I hear people asking, “Where is he going to?” Some will say, “Hey, blind man, there’s no road here!” A policeman once told me, “They don’t beg here.” And of course that provoked me. Many believe that a physically challenged person must be a beggar and that’s simply not true. There should be a measure of respect from the society for us.
DT: You were with Governor Kashim Shettima recently. How did you meet him?
Mustapha: After my graduation, I was idle. A BBC Hausa service reporter interviewed me and aired it. Governor Shettima heard the interview, especially the fact that I complained of being jobless. I said I could not be employed as a blind man without first seeing the governor. Blind people like me can’t operate Keke NAPEP or be a taxi driver. The governor sent his Senior Special Assistant on Social Media, Barrister Yusuf Shettima Gubio, to locate me. He took me to the governor and after speaking with him for about 15 minutes, he gave me appointment as a teacher. I felt fulfilled and proud that as a physically challenged person I could sit and talk with a governor.
DT: As a blind teacher, what challenges do you face?
Mustapha: The governor told me that I will find it easy to teach in a normal school but I think it would be difficult because of our culture so I quickly opted to train my fellow disabled persons. It would be easier to control them. Our culture here in northern part of the country is that people don’t believe that the blind and other disabled people can do something else apart from begging. Also, they don’t believe that we can be educated and even educate others.
DT: With the ongoing security challenges in the state, what do you think can be done to assist people living with disabilities against Boko Haram insurgency?
Mustapha: Let me start by saying we need to be considered, especially by the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) coming to offer assistance to people in the state. Surprisingly, NGOs do not consider us. Actually people living with disabilities in Borno State, even without the crisis, are suffering.
I want to appeal to the government and NGOs to assist people living with disabilities because things are not easy. A lot of disabled persons here in the North want to go to school but there’s nobody to support them. Our writing and reading materials are different from the normal people’s own and cost higher. Normal person can walk into a local store and buy N30 pen and keep writing for a long period of time. But our writing material for nursery pupils is not less than N15,000. You can see the differences. Our colleagues from the southern part of the country have better chances because their state governments, society, churches and mosques all support them by giving them necessary assistance; but here we lack all these.
My mentor, Professor Abdulahi Mande, is the one who has been supporting me. Without him, I don’t think I would have a degree certificate. After I got admission into the university, I was walking on campus one day and he sighted me as he was driving past. He stopped and asked what brought me to the school. I told him I just got admitted into the school and I had come for screening. He told me to come to his office the following day and ask for the Vice Chancellor. That was how he sponsored my undergraduate studies. If we can get ten of such men in every state in the North, it would go a long way, and begging would be reduced to a bare minimum.
