He was hit by a car a few months after he completed his primary school which left him crippled. Fifteen-year-old Abdul Ali subsequently picked up his crawlers and mounted a trailer conveying some animals from Bauchi to Warri. His reason: to hustle!... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
Though not fluent in even pidgin English, Ali through an interpreter, was able to engage our correspondent in a chat at Hausa Quarters, a popular commercial enclave of people of northern extraction in Warri, Delta State.
Though he sleeps in front of market stores because he cannot afford an apartment in Warri, Ali said he’s happy to take life the way it comes.
When asked what kind of help he might desire, Ali said he would like to go back to school as far as the university level so that he could establish his own business.
Abdul Ali speaks: “I’m from Warri Local Government Area in Bauchi State. I am 15 years old.
“Mind you, I wasn’t born crippled. I had an accident just a year after I finished my primary school and my parents had no money to take me to the hospital.
“I was treated with herbal medicine, but the legs did not recover.
“So, after about a year, the man who was treating me said there was nothing he could do again and left me to my fate.
“I couldn’t even stand let alone walk with my legs. I started using crawlers to move about. My parents are back home in Bauchi State.
“I came to Warri on my own. I followed a trailer carrying goats from my state down here.
“I live alone here. I don’t have a house; I am staying here (pointing at a spot), so I sleep in people’s stores in the market. When it’s dawn, I go out to beg for alms.
“I make up to N3,000 some days, but on bad days, sometimes I can go home with just N300!
“I would love to go back to school. So, if I see anyone that is ready to help me, I will tell them to send me back to school.
“I have not been able to complete my secondary education because of lack of money.
“I would also like to go to the university to study Business Administration because I want to be a businessman in the future.
“I want to go into business in the future because I know that I won’t be able to work under anybody as a result of my condition.”
Ali is, however, perturbed by the unfriendly socioeconomic situation in the country, calling on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration to spare the poor and physically challenged in society.
“Since last year, they’ve been increasing fuel prices and things have been going from bad to worse.
“We thought the government is for the security and welfare of the people.
“If those who give us alms are lamenting hardship, what’s the lot of we with no limbs?
“The situation was already unbearable before the last insensitive increase in pump price to N1,200 here in Warri.
“Oga, help us tell Tinubu and his people that if they eventually kill all of us with hunger, they’d have no one to govern over,” he warned.
