Visually-impaired undergraduate laments broken home

A 25-year-old visually- impaired student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Sunday Adeniyi, says he is convinced that his dream of getting a quality education will soon be cut short by broken home.

He told our correspondent that the development had led to inadequate funding of his education.

Adeniyi, a part one student of Linguistics and African Languages, believed that this might not have happened if his parents were still together.

He added that the fact that he was blind was also working against him since his status as a visually-impaired person seemed to be an embarrassment to his friends and school mates.

He said, “I was not born blind, but since I became totally blind in 2004, it seems I have become a burden on everyone.”

Adeniyi said his sight problem started in 1992 with his left eye but in 2004, he also lost the right eye.

He said the impairment was initially detected by one of his teachers when he was in primary one.

He said, “In 1992, my teacher informed my parents that something was wrong with my sight. Since then, we have been moving from one hospital to another. We tried our best to prevent the affected left eye from extending to the right one and I actually managed to finish my primary education with my right eye.

“I had the most shocking experience the day I was writing my final common entrance examination paper. As I was writing, I noticed that my sight was getting dull. I couldn’t finish my paper.”

Adeniyi said his parents’ marital problem worsened his plight as both of them were preoccupied with their personal challenges.

He said, “I am actually suffering from the problem of a broken home. My mother left her matrimonial home around 1990. She left me before I started having challenges with my left eye and when she learnt of my situation, she got involved and was actually taking me to hospital, until when she suddenly stopped.

 “As things stand now, I may actually have to leave school because lack of funds is making life very unbearable for me. My father is really trying, but the fact is that most of the things we (blind people) use are expensive. This is why most of us don’t further our education.

“When I gained admission, I had to get a fairly used laptop because there was no much fund. Since then, the laptop has been developing faults.  Imagine there was a day I couldn’t attend a class because of N40. That day, there was no one to take me to the venue of the lecture.”

He also lamented the attitude of most of his colleagues, saying they see blindness as a communicable disease and therefore did not like to associate with him.

Adeniyi said, “People steal my things and that is always very painful and challenging. That reminds me of my condition.

“At present, I am having a very great challenge with my department. Due to the fact that the department is young and no visually impaired person has been to the department, there is no provision for people like me. And my colleagues have not been encouraging. 

Anytime I call on them for assistance, especially to read for me, they feel it is a waste of time.

“Anyway, those are minor issues compared to the fact that I might not be able to continue my education because of lack of funds. I really want to. Education will make a difference in my life.”