Abuja’s disabled join FCT’s army of entrepreneurs

Though challenging, self-employment has been successful for some determined disabled individuals. As more and more of the businesses they start succeed, their talents and skills have often been hidden due to some obvious challenges caused both by nature and society. Disability itself is natural or accidental, but in spite of all these shortcomings, some disabled […]

Though challenging, self-employment has been successful for some determined disabled individuals. As more and more of the businesses they start succeed, their talents and skills have often been hidden due to some obvious challenges caused both by nature and society.

Disability itself is natural or accidental, but in spite of all these shortcomings, some disabled youths in Abuja have acknowledged and believe that ‘disability is not inability’. Such belief has, therefore, precipitated them and metamorphosed their status from almajirai (child destitute) to ‘successful’ entrepreneurs.

Although a very few people with disabilities are being employed and remain employed (especially with the high illiteracy level that is common with such groups in Nigeria), the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is unacceptably high.

Because of the difficulties in finding gainful employment, they often suffer neglect and face lots of challenges, physically, financially, emotionally and opportunity-wise. It is against this backdrop that these young disabled entrepreneurs adopted the ‘We Can’ attitude, which they have used to upgrade their social and economic standards in Abuja.

Muntari Ibrahim, one of the disabled entrepreneurs, told Weekly Trust that he came to Abuja as a child destitute that was engaged in begging. He said he was stationed around Jabi/Utako as well as other areas in the FCT and roamed the streets begging for alms to keep body and soul together.

“I started my life in Abuja as a destitute beggar. As I was doing that, people always advised me that I am so smart thus I would be able to do something reasonable with my life. So from there, I developed a change in attitude. I spoke to myself and the message was that I can actually sell something even if it is biscuit, sweet or something.

“Right from that point, I started feeling shame whenever I was on my begging activity. There was this pain and bitterness in me as a beggar. I began to hate the begging idea even though I did not have the option to leave it at that time. But my morale decreased and I was not doing it with the zeal I started with, especially as a little kid,” he said.

Muntari also said the challenges he faced as a beggar were enormous and painful, especially the way and manner that some alms givers used to treat him with despise. He said he used to wake up from his sleep as early as 5am, pray and get ready for his begging schedule, moving from park to park, thinking and always cracking his brain on which location would be better and more lucrative for the day.

“You have to wake up very early, because by the time people have gone to their places of work, there would be nothing for you. The most challenging moment for me was when I met one of my childhood friends from our village in Wuse market selling something while I was begging. I felt like digging a hole and burying myself inside,” he said.

Muntari picked up the challenge and was determined to venture into trading, thus, he started saving the little money he was making from begging and eventually realised 15,000 naira, which he invested in the sale of pens, football clubs souvenirs, pocket wallets, key holders and lots more.

According to Muntari, the 15,000 naira he raised has now grown to hundreds of thousands of naira. “I was selling my items on the ground before God helped me to buy a tricycle, which I was using to move around for my business and back home after market activities. Now, with all sense of humility and to God’s glory, the venture and my worth have grown. I don’t use the tricycle anymore, I have bought a car and I am married with two children.’’

His intention is to have a bigger business later in life. “I want to have a shop where I would be selling these things inside,” he vowed. He said with God, nothing is impossible, but as a human being, it’s good to make good efforts, as God is always there to assist and lift one up. “Some of my almsgivers are usually surprised whenever they meet me. Some of them are my customers now; we have maintained our relationship. They are so happy and proud of me.

“Disability is actually in the mind and one can only lose it when he is disabled in the brain. God has deposited one talent/blessing or the other in every human being. It is, therefore, imperative for people to identify such talents. Disability may reduce the maximum potentials, but there are other ways to explore them,” he reiterated.

He also concluded that he does not wish to go back to begging neither does he wish it for his children. “I stopped begging since I picked up this trade. Most of my friends in our community (disabled persons’ village, Karimajiji, Airport Road) have joined in the trading business. Most of us have quit begging. I even give alms now, God has blessed me. Like this afternoon when I went to eat in a restaurant, somebody saw me with my crutches and thought I was one of those beggars. He removed 100 naira to give me. With all humility, I felt somehow slighted.

“I didn’t like the scenario, but I knew he didn’t know. I didn’t collect the money; I simply told him na gode (thank you) and drove my car back to my business spot. I always experience such scenarios, but whenever they give me, I do return such alms to the giver with sincere thanks. Collecting such would amount to greed, because I really don’t need it. Haba! How can I still be collecting N50 or N100?”

In his own narration, Isiaka Haruna, a young man perhaps in his early 20s told Weekly Trust that his storyline is almost the same with Muntari’s. He said the psychological feeling of shame while begging crept into his psyche when some adolescents visited him.

“I was a child destitute in my home state. Later, as I grew older, I moved to Abuja and continued begging for alms. It was in the process that one Alhaji that always gave me alms asked me one day if I was enjoying what I was doing or wanted something else to help myself. I told him I needed something else and he promised to advise and also give me small capital.

“He then sent one Igbo man to show me the rudiments of buying and selling handkerchiefs, towels, mufflers, clothes and other cotton materials. That was how I started,” Haruna narrated.

He also confirmed Muntari’s theory of shame in begging. “I used to feel shame when I was begging, especially whenever people told me that I am young and not blind in disability and could be useful to myself. The moment any almsgiver delivered such lines to me before eventually giving me the money, the rest of the day would just be sad for me. I always felt like the whole world hated me. I didn’t know that it was the truth,” he said.

Haruna also said he hates it when people attempt to give him alms now. “Some people don’t know that I do my little business that sustains me much more than a lot of other able-bodied people now. The only disability that can stop someone from venturing into trade is leprosy and blindness. As a leper, people might tend to avoid buying items from you, because of the exchange of money and items involved. For the blind, it won’t be easy for them except with a helper. For me, I thank God for the kind of disability I have,” he said.

He added that he has built a three-bedroom apartment in his village in Katsina State, got married and is also planning to buy a car very soon. “Maybe the next time you come around here, you’ll see my car parked close by me,” he said laughing.

“I am working very hard and also praying to God to expand my business. I want to be as successful as Dangote and I believe it is possible. If God can bring me out of almajirinci (begging) to this level, I believe there is nothing he would not do to take me to greater heights. I am still young, strong and focused. Even though I’m not educated, I am up and doing,” he said.

He vowed to work hard so that his children won’t have to kick-start life with the kind of experiences he faced. Self-employment offers many of these disabled entrepreneurs freedom to work at their own pace despite the challenges posed by the Nigerian society socially, infrastructural, psychological and otherwise.

With the Nigerian environment that doesn’t seem to accommodate their special needs, self-employment seems to offer the hope of making a living and achieving self-sufficiency amidst the kind of poverty that is eating deep into the fibre of the downtrodden.

“The Nigerian society often misunderstands and undervalues the abilities of people with disabilities and getting employment has always been a great challenge for even the educated ones among them.

“Employers always feel reluctant to hire a person with disability mostly because of the fear of satisfactory and efficient performance delivery,” said Mr Maxwell Jude, a sociologist. But the rising trend of these disabled entrepreneurs seems to be another way out. Government, however, needs to look for better ways to provide compatible infrastructure to assist their businesses and also help the businesses to grow better.