‘My wife refused to dump me after I became disabled’
Weekly Trust: Can you tell us briefly about yourself? Mr. Henry Bulus: I am 34-years-old, from Kaura local government area of Kaduna State. I am the first born in a family of seven. I took to professional driving after I lost my parents in one year, having dropped out of secondary school in SSS two […]
Weekly Trust: Can you tell us briefly about yourself?
Mr. Henry Bulus: I am 34-years-old, from Kaura local government area of Kaduna State. I am the first born in a family of seven. I took to professional driving after I lost my parents in one year, having dropped out of secondary school in SSS two at Fada Atarkar school in Kaduna.
WT: Why did you drop out of school?
Bulus: Like I said earlier, my father and mother died the same year and there was no body to help me pay my way through school. Life became difficult for us. So, I had to stop schooling. I dropped out of school when I was about 20 years old. I came to Abuja in 2001 to look for a driving job because I learnt how to drive while in the village. And when I could no longer go to school, I decided to relocate to Abuja to see if I could get a driving job. I got it and my first job was driving the chief of Igbo in Jabi.
WT: Why are you driving Keke NAPEP now?
Bulus: It is because I am deformed. I was driving the Igbo chief and one day, he permitted me to come to Orozo to see my family. I usually spent a week with him and thereafter, he would give me a day off to come and see my family in Orozo. So, I went out to relax within my neigbourhood in the evening. But on my way back to the house to sleep, I picked an Okada, and had an accident. A vehicle hit us and I sustained serious injuries.In fact, one of my legs got badly broken in the process. The person that hit us took me to the Asokoro General Hospital for treatment and the doctors said there was no option than to amputate it .That was how I lost my leg.
WT: What was the reaction of the man you were driving, when he heard of the accident?
Bulus: He didn’t know about it in time. There was no GSM then. I spent one week in the hospital and asked to be discharged when the leg was amputated because the fee was getting higher and higher. I completed the treatment at home. So, when I was at home, one of my brothers who is a Mobile Police officer came and took me to my oga. When he saw me in this condition, he shouted in disbelief and out of pity he gave my N30, 000. That was how I lost the job.
WT: Are you married?
Bulus: I married in 2005 and my wife’s name is Hannatu. I got married to her before I had the accident in 2008, on August 4. My wife is from the Gbagyi tribe in Abuja. When I had the accident, she was my source of inspiration and didn’t bother that I lost a leg. She showed me more love and care, even though her parents wanted her to dump me. They kept pressurising her to abandon me and marry another man. Their excuse was that since I have become disabled, I would find it difficult to feed her. But she refused to dump me; but the parents kept mounting pressure on her to the extent that she developed mental illness. Her father is a traditional chief in Gbagyi. Even at that point, my wife didn’t succumb to their wish and they got tired and turned their backs.
Today, we have two children, all boys and the eldest is five years old and the second one is three. We have now reconciled with the parents and sometimes, even at Christmas, my father –in-law would buy clothes for them. But if I have money, I buy. So, in order not to disappoint my wife or make her regret for not abandoning me as her parents wanted, I had to look for something to do that can bring me money to take care of them. And Keke NAPEP came handy and I had no money to buy my own, so I started hiring it. And up to this moment, I still hire it
WT: How do you manage a sick wife that has a mental problem and the children, with no steady income?
Bulus: Anything I set my eyes upon, I do, just to raise money to take care of them. That’s how I got myself hiring Keke NAPEP to ride. I run the Keke NAPEP on Nyanya-Karshi route only. When someone hires out the keke NAPEP to me for half-a-day, he chargesN1,500. And at close of work, I could get N3,000; but for a full day’s hire, it is N2, 000, I could get N4,000 at the end of the day, then pay the owner appropriately and keep the balance.
WT: Are your children in school?
Bulus: Yes! They are going to a public primary school in Orozo. I still manage to pay the school fees because it is not high. Sometimes, they charge N1,500 or at best N2,000. So I pay from what I earn riding Keke NAPEP.
WT: When passengers notice that you are on crutches and driving them, how do they react?
Bulus: My passengers don’t dread entering my Keke. Some rather offer kind words of encouragement to me.
WT: Apart from riding Keke, what else do you think you can do to earn a living?
Bulus: I was into driving and there is nothing I can do in my present condition except driving. I was a mason before, but I can’t climb the staircase anymore or withstand the rigours of the work. But while I cannot drive a manual vehicle, I can drive automatic vehicles. But I think if I get my own keke, it will help me better.
WT: Have you ever had an accident with Keke NAPEP?
Bulus: I had an accident with Keke NAPEP once. I loaded passengers in Nyanya and I was heading towards Orozo and somewhere around Kurudu area, my front tyre burst, so it skidded into the gutter, but nobody was injured.