Dr. Emmanuel Bassey, a Nigerian based in Australia, lost his sight after a failed correctional eye surgery. Determined to continue his quest for knowledge, he got a scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree is Disability Policy and Practice and emerged as the overall best foreign student. He spoke about his challenges and achievements in an online interview with OKORIE UGURU.
HOW would you describe your background, particularly your growing up years?
I was born and bred in Apapa, Lagos, before I moved to my state of origin, which is Cross River State, for tertiary education at the College of Medical Sciences, University of Calabar to study Medicine.
How did your physical deformity come about?
A few years after I graduated from medical school, that is the post-medical internship (housemanship), I had cataract and was referred to an eye specialist facility in Ikeja for cataract extraction surgery. This resulted in hemorrhagic complications (bleeding), and since then, I could no longer see. It was like going to the hospital with some vision and leaving the hospital without any.
Why did you opt for surgery and how did you feel when you discovered that you had lost your site?
The surgery was the definite treatment for cataract and the ophthalmologist assured me that I would see clearly without glasses after the surgery. As a medical practitioner, losing my sight was devastating and I mourned for two years. It was a difficult period for me and my family. Sincerely, I can’t tell how I coped. But one thing I do know is that God’s grace is key, and it is the reason why I’m still moving.
How did you overcome the challenge?
Like I said earlier, God is my pillar and He is the reason I’m moving on. After hanging on for two years, my uncle, Prof. Itam, advised that I should go for visual rehabilitation at Hope for the Blind Foundation, Zaria, which I did for three months in 2010. During the training, I was wondering what to do next. Where would I go from there? How would this training help me? So many unanswered questions were in me then, but I left everything to fate.
After the rehabilitation training, I was a different person to some degree. For instance, I accepted my new health status fully and it dawned on me that I had to live with it, which is different from the way I had lived my life up till that point. Accepting my condition was the beginning of a new journey of my life, including career and community life. Thus, the visual rehabilitation training was an important milestone in overcoming the challenge of acquiring a visual impairment.
Why did you decide not follow the bandwagon of begging among the physically challenged?
I had a career already, I’m a trained medical doctor, so what I had in mind was the way forward. Obviously, I could not undertake clinical practice without vision, but I’m a functioning being. So the question was what would I do now? The way forward is not begging or seeking for pity. The way forward is discovering and building a career. This will, to some degree, influence the negative notion of people on disability in the society.
How did you get into the academics?
As mentioned earlier, I had my primary and secondary education in Lagos, then tertiary education in Calabar. So I was already on the academic path as a growing child, but losing my sight made me to take another academic path which is different from the path I would have taken as a trained medical doctor.
After my visual rehabilitation training, I was employed at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to spearhead the visual rehabilitation services in the eye clinic in 2011. This unit is the first of its kind in tertiary eye hospital in Nigeria and the goal is ‘continuum of care’, that is as patients are diagnosed clinically blind by the ophthalmologist in the consulting room, they will be referred to the unit for rehabilitation training. Instead of people travelling 2,000 kilometres from Calabar to Kaduna or Lagos for the training, they can now undertake the training within the society.
With the quest to acquire more skills and knowledge in this field, I earned the Australia awards scholarship to undertake a Master of Disability Policy and Practice (MDPP) at Flinders University, Australia. This has broadened my knowledge to advocate for all forms of disabilities.
How did you get to Australia?
I won the Australia scholarship awards for postgraduate studies in 2014. So I am under the Australian government’s sponsorship.
What are the challenges of studying there?
The key challenge of studying here is having financial security, which is seemingly the basic challenge to studying anywhere in the world. Another key challenge is understanding the educational system, which is quite different from what we practise in Nigeria.
How did you manage to emerge as the best African student there?
Point of correction, I emerged as the best international student. This includes all international students in all institutions in South Australia (six universities and other tertiary institutions). The point is that I am the first African to win it and also the first to win it from my school. So I came top in the state of South Australia.
The key to my success is diligence, discipline and dedication. As the author, Fredrick Douglas, notes, ‘if there is no struggle, there is no progress.’ So I struggled to attend classes, complete my assignments and do exams and quizzes. And in the end, I came tops. Glory be to God.
What did it take to achieve that?
Self-determination, perseverance, believing in yourself and keeping in mind the fact that all things are possible irrespective of a disability.
What is your message to Nigerians?
I would like you to take as your watchword these words of the American novelist, Pearl S. Buck: ‘All things are possible until they are proved impossible, and even the impossible may only be so as of now.”
Are you married?
Yes. My daughter was born in Australia.
