Rising cases of abandonment of children suffering mental and physical disabilities in Sagamu, Ogun State, create anxiety,Temitayo Famutimi reports Blessing, whose age is estimated by doctors to be 16, suffers mental and developmental impairments. Apart from being dumb, the teenager, whose ethnic identity is yet to be determined, finds it difficult to understand when other people speak to her. She was dumped on Oba Erinwole Road, Sagamu, Ogun State, in May 2012 by unknown persons believed to be her loved ones. Unfortunately, street urchins in the community took advantage of her condition and raped her for many days before a Good Samaritan came to her rescue.
On a Saturday afternoon in May 2012, after being tipped-off by the Good Samaritan, officials of the Sagamu Local Government Council swung into action and rescued Blessing from the clutches of the urchins as they took turns to rape her in the premises of a primary school on Oba Erinwole Road.
Before her dramatic rescue, she had been injured on the head while resisting her attackers.
Medical reports and case notes obtained by our correspondent from the Idera Hospital, Ajaka, Sagamu, where she received treatment after being taken to safety, stated that she suffered injuries to the head and leg. The reports added that she was a victim of “child assault.”
After managing her case for five days, Blessing still could not utter a word, not to talk of giving a description of herself or the part of the country where she came from.
Doctors at the hospital concluded in their report that her “general condition remained the same” and that her situation could only improve if taken to the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State for mental health care.
In a bid to reunite Blessing with her relatives, the Community and Social Development Department of the Sagamu LG went on radio and television to declare her “missing but found.”
Despite repeated efforts to locate her runaway parents or guardians, nobody came for the girl.
“She has gone through a lot since she was abandoned. She was raped and assaulted physically. Besides, after all the medical treatment we exposed her to, she is still unable to speak.
“The improvement we recorded was that she was able to murmur in tones in which she alone understands,” Director, Community and Social Development, Sagamu Local Government, Akeem Ambali, recalled.
Worrisome statistics
Ambali lamented that Blessing, who the local government rechristened since her real names could not be ascertained, is just one of the scores of physically and mentally challenged children abandoned by their parents in the town.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka-trained social worker stated that on the average, five cases of child abandonment are recorded in the local government area weekly, adding that the majority of the affected children usually suffer one form of physical disability or another.
From the Sagamu interchange on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the doorstep of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital gate; the Local Government Council Secretariat on Aiyepe Road; to the various communities on the Benin-Ore-Lagos Expressway which falls within the LGA, children who suffer this treatment are simply dumped either in trash cans, dumpsters or on the road side.
Findings revealed that while the few ones who suffer less-daunting or no physical disabilities are easily attached to motherless babies’ homes and other social welfare facilities, those suffering disabilities usually find it hard to get one.
“Sagamu is a cosmopolitan town and it is situated in the middle of the transit route between Lagos and Ibadan. The town is also a major route for accessing the eastern part of the country from the west.
“We are recording a lot of abandoned children cases nowadays. Some people will even dump their children at the entrance of the local government secretariat and vanish into the thin air.
“Over the years, we have seen more mentally or physically challenged children being dropped and abandoned indiscriminately within the town.
“The challenge is that the abandoned children who are mentally or physically challenged are not easily received by social welfare homes. The management of these social welfare homes usually complain of lack of adequate facilities to cater for those special cases of abandoned children suffering disabilities.
“Even the existing facilities run by the Ogun State Government are filled to the brim as we speak and so what we have been considering is the alternative of taking those with deformities to private homes who, however, charge exorbitant fees”, Ambali stated.
Besides, due to paucity of funds, the local government authorities have been unable to transfer her to the neuropsychiatric hospital in Abeokuta as advised by the doctors at the Sagamu medical facility where she had initially received treatment.
Spiritual healing home to the rescue
In view of the financial constraints, the local government opted for unorthodox methods to cure her mental illness. Blessing was subsequently admitted to the Irapada Spiritual Healing Home on Ikenne Road, Sagamu where she was an inmate for about 11 months.
At the spiritual healing home sited on an expanse of land spanning about six plots, Blessing freely mingled with adult inmates who suffer varying degrees of mental illnesses.
When our correspondent visited the healing home, its superintendent, Biodun Adele, who boasts a Diploma in Theology, claimed to have given Blessing an all-round treatment which included “stream bath and anointing oil.”
The Ijebu-Ode born spiritualist further claimed that he had contributed immensely to the rehabilitation of the foundling.
“When she (Blessing) was brought there she was unable to speak. In fact, you can’t decipher if her murmuring was French or Japanese. She couldn’t even look after herself.
“She showed varied symptoms of mental illnesses, such as tearing her clothes indiscriminately. But before she was taken away from here, she had stopped exhibiting those chronic mental symptoms,” Adele enthused.
But, after the obviously uneventful sojourn of the teenager at the spiritual healing home, the local government authorities realised that she needed to be better taken care of, as, according to them, her case was peculiar and unlike other adult “patients” at the unorthodox facility.
Approval not backed with cash
One of the social workers working closely with Blessing, Mrs Olayinka Adesanya, told our correspondent that they felt she needed motherly care and attention to fast-track her full rehabilitation.
The abandoned teenager was then withdrawn from the healing home and provided with shelter at the local government health facility in the Sabo area of Sagamu from where she is transported to the local government secretariat daily to foster her close monitoring and fed.
Officials at the LG’s community and social development department said they have reapplied to the council to provide funds for her full treatment at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta.
“From experience, the initial sum of N250,000 would be needed to get her fed, accommodated at the hospital and enable doctors carry out the initial round of medical examination and treatment.
“The Community and Social Development department of the local government has already written the council and our request has since been approved. But the problem we are facing is that there is no cash-backing yet for the approved expenses,” the CSD director, Ambali said.
Why I abandoned my son —Father
While efforts aimed at ensuring the full rehabilitation of Blessing continue to hang in the balance, the management of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, has raised the alarm over the increase in the number of abandoned children in the town.
Investigations showed that the OOUTH has yet to find a lasting solution to the case of a boy suffering from cerebral palsy who was dumped at the entrance of the hospital in March, 2013 by his father.
In a one-page abandonment note titled “Save his Life,” dropped beside the foundling now named after the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, and christened – Feyintola Amosun – by the hospital authorities, the absconded father gave reasons for his condemnable action.
Stating that he did not abandon Feyintola “intentionally,” he argued that he had “emptied his pocket” and had nothing left to take care of the welfare of the boy, who is now bedridden.
He added in the note that the boy’s mother ran away from home “many years ago” and left him with the responsibility of caring for the boy.
The note read, “Sir/Ma, I am begging the concerned people to help me save the life of my son. He had been going to school and walking with his two legs and talking before the sickness started.
“I have tried many ways, both natural and medical, of solving his problem and exhausted all my pocket (sic). I didn’t dump him intentionally, but due to my empty pocket. Even to eat is very difficult for me and there is no work to cater for the boy.
“I know that he will still survive the sickness and I don’t want death for him because I don’t know what he can become I tomorrow.
“I am using this medium to plead with the doctor, director (OOUTH CMD), nurses, members and non-members of staff and other concerned people to help me take care of my boy and put him in a motherless babies’ home. His mother has left him and run away many years ago. Thank you sir/ma. Long life Nigeria, Long life Ogun State (sic).”
Feyintola was promptly taken to the Pediatrics Ward of the hospital and given medical attention and since then, he has been a ‘tenant’ of the medical facility.
According to medical officials looking after him, cerebral palsy, the condition Feyintola suffers from currently has no cure but can be managed.
The congenital disorder has left him with speech disabilities, while his motor skills and muscles – such as breathing, bladder and bowel control — have been affected.
Our correspondent who visited him at the OOUTH Pediatrics Ward observed that Feyintola could neither talk nor walk. However, he freely moved his legs on the wheelchair where he was placed.
Rejected by welfare homes
As in Blessing’s case, the OOUTH management has tried in vain to find a social welfare home for Feyintola. Head, Department of Medical Social Services, OOUTH, Mr. Emmanuel Adebayo, stated that the Ogun State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare had tried in vain to help out with Feyintola’s case.
Adebayo, a clinical psychologist, explained that all the social welfare homes where he had combed within and outside the state had refrained from admitting him to their facilities.
He said, “As social workers, we have visited all welfare homes in Ogun State, including those run by faith-based organisations. They all appreciated our efforts over the boy in question, but they said there was no space. They insisted that it would be bad for them to take two babies on the same bed.
“I have been to the Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home in Lagos. The centre is meant for mentally and physically challenged children, but their response was negative.
“Even the Ilorin special needs schools, where we used to send abandoned physically challenged children to over the years, rejected Feyintola on the grounds that the demands of taking care of him would be too much for them to cope with.
“As a matter of fact, like we have been doing here in OOUTH since March 2013, anyone or institution taking care of him would have to be buying diapers everyday as well as put one person on standby to attend to his needs,” Adebayo stated.
Hospital admission without illness
Yet, medical experts warn that it is imperative for Feyintola to be relocated from the confines of the teaching hospital as he faces risks of contracting infectious diseases with his continued stay.
Chief Nursing Officer in charge of the Pediatrics Ward of the OOUTH, Roseline Solarin, said though the ward, which caters for about 24 patients daily, still regard him as one of their patients, he does not suffer from any illnesses that could warrant his admission in the hospital.
“He is not sick, but since he has been abandoned here, we have been taking care of him. We feed, bathe and clean him up and change his diapers which he soils at least four times every day.
“Apart from the feeding which the OOUTH management has been graciously providing, other members of staff and good spirited Nigerians also contribute money, items of clothing, diapers and other personal effects for his upkeep.
“But the truth is that he does not belong here. His continued stay here puts him at risk of contracting infections which could be airborne or through other means. We urge well-meaning Nigerians who can be of help to come to his aid,” she added.
Underscoring the need for him to relocate to a welfare home, Adebayo, the OOUTH chief medical social services officer, added that for the sake of all round development and socialisation, Feyintola needed to grow up in an atmosphere of love, happiness and understanding other than in a hospital environment.
Stakeholders strategise
Commenting on the persistent abandonment of children in the Sagamu area and its environs, Adebayo said the development had left the hospital management with no other choice than to collaborate with the local government council with a view to managing the situation.
“We have been having a serious headache over the rising cases of children being abandoned. We now spend both government allocated and personal funds to take care of this category of vulnerable kids. At times we have three or four of such cases at the same time,” he added.
To cope with the emerging trend of child abandonment in the Sagamu axis, the local government council, it was gathered, has been beefing up the staff strength of its social and community development department.
Ambali, the director of the department, said its staff strength currently stands at 25, one of the highest among LGAs in the state.
“Whenever the need arises, we would approach the Local Government Service Commission for more social workers to bolster our social services care and support unit.
“We have observed that due to economic challenges many people are facing in this country, people drop their children indiscriminately. But poverty is not an excuse. Mentally or physically challenged children can become somebody enviable in the future. There is ability in disability.
“So we really need to educate our people to change their attitude. We need to improve their knowledge about how important it is to give necessary care to those that are challenged either physically or mentally,” Ambali observed.
A former Chairman of the Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani, flayed the absence of adequate facilities to take care of the abandoned and vulnerable children suffering mental disabilities in the country.
“In developed societies they have homes and adequate facilities for the vulnerable. Why can’t we have fully-equipped welfare homes to take care of abandoned children with deformities and ensure that their safety and welfare is not negotiable?
“We simply don’t have responsible governments in this part of the world. In saner climes, adequate provisions are made for the vulnerable. Those children need to be provided with good quality social welfare schemes going by their condition,” the public affairs commentator stated.
When contacted, the Ogun State Police Command stated that it had begun public enlightenment campaigns to check the menace of child abandonment in Sagamu and other parts of the state.
“We have a good working relationship with the Ogun State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. All the abandoned babies rescued by the command are handed over to government through the ministry. Besides, we have always enlightened members of the public on the consequences of this act,” Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, said.
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