In 2013, I had two accidents in quick successions. These happened when Boko Haram terrorists held Maiduguri to ransom. Life was really tough and movement was largely restricted, wrought with incessant curfews. I was nursed at home where, for two weeks, I was bedridden. Gradually I regained my health (or thought I did), but the accident had affected my gait and sprint.
The situation remained uneventful from 2014 until September 2019 when I attended the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg, Germany. Mid-air, between Abuja and Dubai, I felt an excruciating pain in my lower back. I took painkillers and managed to effectively partake at the conference. But since I returned in October 2019, I’ve been living with severe pain every day until today. I had two MRI scans in Maiduguri and Abuja and the result showed what doctors called DH with Cauda Equina Compression.
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Few people knew about my plight because I try, daily, to be cheerful, to take my drugs, and to live as happily as I can before I’m able to raise enough money for the needed corrective surgery. To God be the glory, today (Friday, February 5, 2022) is one of my happiest days. Governor Babagana Umara Zulum was informed of my predicament and he generously funded my treatment with 3 million. I got the fund through my boss, Malam Isa Gusau, Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy to the Executive Governor. As everyone is aware, I am a Christian from Kogi State but it didn’t matter to the governor.
His kindness is for everyone regardless of religion or ethnicity. In fact, he had given 10 million to another Christian in my community that had a kidney problem in January 2021. Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum is a quintessence of humility, kindness, and compassion, a fact people who really know him could attest to. I am grateful to the governor for his kindness to me and everybody else that has experienced his generosity firsthand. I’ll be grateful if you pray for me and join your voice with mine in thanking the amiable professor for this act of kindness. Allah ya saka da alkhairi.
Jack Vince is a special assistant to Governor Zulum and he wrote from Maiduguri.
