By Oluwabunmi Awolusi
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Walk into a major store like Walmart etc, you can pull a wheelchair at the entrance, and take a ride around the aisles while you shop groceries. When you are done, drive the wheelchair back to the exit, and walk to the car lot.
The first time I stopped at Qatar Airport, I was dazzed at the sudden sight of a woman on a wheelchair. I was confused. We had both alighted from the aircraft and seeing her suddenly on a wheelchair sent the wrong signals.
It’s only in Naija, and by the orientation of our pentecostal pastors, that we see everyone on a wheelchair as being sick. Wahala! Once we sight a man on wheelchair, our adrenaline rush through and we want to do some zekebaba zuru kakasanda. We start nosing around. Calm down. E nor sick. E well pass you.
Most people you see at the airport on a wheelchair aren’t sick. Wheeelchairs are accessible on request, regardless of the class you flew. And there’s no standard time that meetings should take place between certain people. Top businessmen, politicians, elites, meet at night while we’re fast asleep.
Take a clue from the latest news of the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, and his team who had remained calm despite being sacked by an Election Petition Tribunal, but sustained his mandate after the Court of Appeal quashed the tribunal judgement.
Stop showing the world that the supposed smartest black nationals are overrated, so much that ordinary wheelchairs that are used in shopping malls seem to them like news. What the heck! Just because an election was won and lost? Let the court do her job. Please heal yourself and be healed.
#CJN
*Oluwabunmi Awolusi, a journalist based in the US, used to work with TheNEWS/Tempo/PMNEWS