Unless you are someone with lots of guts, you would be tempted to run away at the sight of him. His looks are scary, more like what the typical Nigerian child would call Ojuju Calabar (Calabar masquerade).
But on a closer look at him, you would notice tears intermittently rolling down his cheeks. It is not that he is crying; it is the mode that a wicked fire accident has set his face.
Spend more time with him and you will be stunned by his almost impeccable English, his desire to further his education, his natural intelligence and the story of how he lost his dad at a very tender age.
Then you will hear the biggest of them all: the chilling story of his fall into a fire at age four which has changed his winsome look into a monstrous one with his poor parents unable to afford a plastic surgery.
That is the plight of Mr Bassey Sunday Ejabu, a medical laboratory technician from the Agbara clan in the Ekureku group of villages of Abi Local Government Area, Cross River State. He is both fatherless and hopeless, not knowing where to turn for help to undergo a plastic surgery, following the severe burns he suffered from childhood.
Last Wednesday, this reporter ran into him at the Ngarabe Health Centre, Ekureku, where Dr Alex Egbona, who represents the Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency had visited in the company of some journalists and development consultants, as part of his enumeration of projects to be included in the 2020 budget.
Ejabu was as lively as every other person around. But because of his disfigured face, he seemed to gain more attention. Even Egbona battled with tears as he looked at him, trying to see how he could be assisted to get medical attention.
The story he told of himself was both pathetic and heart-rending.
He said: “It all happened in 1997. As at then, I was four years old. I had a very serious fever then. My mum gave me some medications and left me under the care of my elder brother as she went out to the farm.
“After some time, I felt cold, so I wanted to go close to the fire we had made that morning for cooking so I could get warm up. I don’t know what happened, I fell inside the fire and got myself burnt.
“When they heard of the incident, they took me to Eja Hospital, Itigidi for medication. After staying in the hospital for some time, I was discharged. There was a referral, but due to the low income of the family, since my parents were just poor farmers, they could not afford the money needed for me to be taken to a specialist hospital in order to carry out the surgery that was required.
“I lost my father when I was about 11 years old. As at that time, I just finished my primary education. I was preparing to enter secondary school and he died the same month I was supposed to enter secondary school.”
The mother, a local farmer, has been taking care of him since then, all alone. He fought back tears as he spoke, then he continued: “It has been very tough and difficult. I just survive by the grace of God. The challenge was too much, especially when it comes to handling the training of other children, because we are six in number.
“So, for my mum alone as a poor farmer to be able to raise the income to train us, it was a very serious challenge. But with God’s grace and determination, we just struggle to help ourselves through formal education, which is the basic thing now.
“With her low income, she knows the value of education, so she decided that even if it will take her tying only one wrapper, she must train us in school. As such, we enrolled in secondary school.
“But it has always been very difficult, especially when it comes to paying school fees, buying textbooks and other expenses. It has been very tough.
“But since we were determined to be educated, we tried our best to make sure that no matter how small the resources, we must go through school. Generally, life has been difficult.
“The challenging moment I have gone through, especially when it comes to my health issue as it is now, is based on the wound which has not completely healed.
“I find it difficult to go out and struggle on my own. I cannot do farming because of the wounds. And if it comes to going out to work or do business to raise money just like other youths do, working under the sun to do that is also a very big challenge. Anything that has to do with rain is also very difficult.
“So that has been the issue bothering me seriously. If I can at least have my health restored, it will enable me struggle.”
Even with his incapacitation, Ejabu believes his dream will not die. He has a dream to become a medical doctor, but he said he was not sure of how that would happen. Which is why he wants public spirited Nigerians to help out.
He said: “Another issue which is disturbing me is in the area of my education. My mother has tried and I have got a diploma. But I need to further my education.
“Because the money is not there, since my graduation, I have remained dormant and my condition cannot allow me to go out to the town and struggle or do whatever I can to raise money to sponsor myself.
“Another challenge is unemployment. At least, it was my wish while I was in school that as soon as I came out, government would offer me employment to enable me raise money to take care of myself and if possible, further my education. But since then, employment has not come, and it is usually said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Being idle is not good.”
For this reason, he has chosen to offer voluntary service to his community. Since there is no medical laboratory scientist at the community’s health centre, Ejabu decided to offer free services to patients in need of laboratory tests. He goes there every day to attend to patients. And he is doing with joy while waiting for help so that he can return to school or become gainfully employed, or both.
He said: “Actually, upon my graduation from the College of Health Technology, Calabar as a medical laboratory technician, I came down to the village and found that in the whole health facility in our community here in Ekureku, we don’t have a laboratory where diagnosis can be carried out for proper treatment.
“So, one of the staff in the facility, who was my mate in school, met me and told me that in their facility they have a laboratory unit and they have some of the equipment that are required in carrying out those tests; that the lab technician sent to their facility was transferred about five years ago and since then, the place has been dormant because the government had not transferred somebody to the place and the machines were getting damaged and developing faults.
“So, I took as a challenge upon myself as one of the ways of helping society equally. I got there and took consent from the people in charge of the health centre and they permitted me; that I should come there if I could stay there and run tests. So I went there, cleaned up the place and put the things together.
“What I am doing there is more or less voluntary work, because I am not paid. I am not a government employee. I just decided to stay there instead of being idle, and I have knowledge as somebody who has been trained in that field.
“So I said let me just be there where I can help my people. For the few months which I have been there, I think I have been able to do well, especially with some basic tests like genotype which the people really need to know before they go into marriage, to avoid bringing out children with sickle cell disease, which may cause medical crisis. So I have been able to run tests like blood group test, malaria test and other analysis.
“Actually in life, I desire to become a medical doctor. That has been my dream from even when I was small. I have been dreaming to become a medical doctor.
“The help I want from the government right now is one, I want the government to sponsor my plastic surgery. I also want the government to sponsor me to pursue my education. I want to advance, if possible, in a course like medicine so that I can in return contribute my quota to the growth of the society.”