Sad story of Lagos girl-child! My mother was using me to make money!
Written by FUNMI AJUMOBI
Sunday, June 1, 2008
IN Lagos, people can watch a victim die and street urchins too will seize the opportunity to pick pocket. About a week ago, an ugly scene happened on the popular Ikorodu road under Maryland bridge where some street urchins popularly known as “area boys” take a nap in the afternoon and also provides accommodation for residents that are homeless and helpless in the night.



Penultimate Wednesday at about 5.30pm when everybody was rushing home to beat the traffic congestion on Ikorodu road, a young girl of about fifteen years was found under the Maryland bridge crying. Seeing the girl who already had a look of an old woman because of her wrinkled skin and looking like somebody who would soon give up the ghost, passers by were just holding their heads and making signs like “what is this!, this is horrible! what could have happened to this young girl!”


Nobody stopped to make enquiries on went wrong with this poor girl. But can one really blame Lagosians for not stopping to do a good Samaritan’s job? Will they take her home when government hospital that one can run to will not even look at you twice not talk of asking for what had happened? What if the girl eventually died on the way to hospital, how will “the good Samaritan” face the hassles that will come from the police?


When I saw this girl, I thought of who to call to help and remembered Help for Helpless Foundation which specialises in helping accidents victims. I thought they might not be able to make it from Ogeere Toll gate where they are based, always ready to help accident victims along Lagos Ibadan expressway. I later summoned courage to call them and explained the situation and they immediately agreed to come there.


Thirty minutes later, at exactly 6.00 p.m., they called to say they were already there and met the girl lying on the floor and thought she was dead until they touched her. According to Mr Emmanuel Ojijieme, the care co-ordinator of the foundation, the girl was immediately taken to Ikeja General Hospital. I was monitoring them on phone. To my surprise, Mr Ojijieme said when they got to the hospital, the girl was rejected.


He said, “We took her to Medical Emergency which refered us to Paediatric Emergency Ward but the nurse we met there said we should register her and after registering her, the doctor on duty rejected her that there was no vacant bed to treat her. I even offered to buy mat because her case was of emergency status but he refused, insisting that we should look for another hospital to take her to.”


During their discussion, he called me that I should talk to the doctor to explain to him that this girl was picked under the bridge and that she was seen by a journalist. The doctor refused to talk to me. I told them that since it was late already and I could not join them from my place at Ikorodu, and I didn’t have any contact that could speak to the doctors on duty. I asked the team to find somewhere else the girl could be admitted. That moment I remembered the late Professor Jadesola Akande, a philanthropist who laboured in the service of women and girl-children. She would have made efforts to see that the girl was admitted in the general hospital that night.


I later sent a text to Honourable Abike Dabiri to ask if she could help with any contact that night but she couldn’t. She, however, continued to use her phone to monitor the situation that night as she said she was not in Lagos. The girl was later taken to the nearest police station at least for notification but was refused also because they didn’t have medical centre to put her.


There was another suggestion to take her to Nile Brigade Medical Centre but the nurse on duty said the commandant that could give her go- ahead to admit her was not around and so the girl was also rejected. So what could be other alternative was to look for a private hospital where one could at least make a deposit for her to be taken care of. Truly, seeing the poor girl, it is only somebody that has a pure and godly mind that could have admitted her.


Finally, at around 9.00 p.m., after three hours of moving up and down, a private hospital, Pure Heart Convalescent Clinic at Mafoluku admitted her and commenced treatment immediately. She was there and I went to visit her the following morning.


When I got there, she had been cleaned up and the medical director of the hospital had even bought skirt and blouse for her to change and also had extra to wear from the collections from Help for Helpless Foundation. When I decided to speak to her, she was still holding her black cellophane bag where she keeps her money that good Samaritans give to her under the bridge.


She spoke to Vista in Egba, Abeokuta dialect: “My name is Remi and I am from Abeokuta. My mother’s name is Iya Ibeji. I have been staying under the bridge for almost a year and I lived on what people give me. Iya Ibeji would oftentime come to collect the money I made,” the girl said. What a wicked act. How could somebody be using a girl to make money at the expense of the life of that child?



When asked about her address at Abeokuta and how to get Iya Ibeji, she refused to say anything on the grounds that Iya Ibeji had said she should not say anything. I later made contact with the Assistant Director of Office of Public Defender, Mrs Iluyemi, on the possibility of her helping the girl since I had seen them handle such cases before and she promised to make arrangement to meet with the ministry in charge and to also visit the place the following day. She advised that we should still keep her in the hospital.


Our effort was intended to help her to stay in a government home where she can pick the pieces of her life like going to school and having somewhere to sleep and be sure of at least a good meal a day. However, the following morning, we were told she had misbehaved in the night like somebody that had mental torture. I had to call the principal of Ikorodu Rehabilitation Centre to explain the situation and he said she should be brought to Ikorodu after contacting the ministry involved in Alausa Ikeja. Since penultimate Thursday, she had been among the inmates there.



The whole story is not about the help that one was able to render, but why must doctors in a government hospital be so unfeeling that they don’t even bother to check a patient brought in by an ambulance which signifies emergency?


Once they made up their mind not to admit, they stand by it. If what the patient needs to live is just five minute attention, what would have happened? If not for the favour that the private hospital rendered, would the foundation have gone back to drop her under the bridge? How would Nigerians who do not even have ambulance help in this type of situation? Lagos State government, especially the ministry of health and the management of Ikeja General Hospital should provide in-house training for their staff for Lagosians to have confidence in them in case of any emergency.


http://odili.net/news/source/2008/jun/1/300.html








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Women dey use their children nowadays to make cash. Na waoh.

I read the story and I am of the impression that the girl is mentally distrubed. Not sure if she was used by her mother for begging as well.

However, one thing is clear: the state of health facilities in Nigeria leaves too much to be desired