By Obiajulu Agu
On Monday, July 6, 2026, I was being conveyed to the Spine Clinic of the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi Lagos (NOHIL), praying fervently that the car makes it to the hospital and return safely without any trouble.
Battling crippling paraplegia, I am constantly very worried about making it to and returning from whichever destination I am headed for without car trouble that could require compulsory emergency evacuation either ways. Also haunting are how heavy-handed, merciless and ferocious in meting out their brand of justice to motorists whose vehicles break down along the highways are certain officials within the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) could be.
Unfortunately, the reality of the fears concerning the car materialised quite some distance on the way to the hospital. The car had on the way developed an issue in which the left back wheel was getting snagged by the body, until the vehicle totally ceased rolling. Thankfully, we were off any major road and far removed from the metropolis to run into trouble at the hands of prowling LASTMA operatives. By the time we managed to get the car fixed, the day was far gone. I phoned the hospital and was given another appointment for Monday, October 19, 2026; a date over three months away.
I am fervently praying to keep this latest appointment in order to break the seeming jinx on finally having the long-pending corrective surgery for my degenerative lumbar spinal disc issues. It’s been lingering for too long, and the issues compounding by the day. Notably, it was in the course of the delays that paraplegia set in on me.
I am ever so thrilled that a long-healed bedsore is no longer a causative factor in the delays for my proposed procedure. Similarly, my high blood pressure had been successfully checked and the prevailing level deduced as qualifying me for the surgery through the medication recommended at NOHIL. I’ve also undergone several tests including X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), urine, and blood. I’ve also been at the NOHIL Cardiology Clinic and was referred for electrocardiogram (abbreviated ECG or EKG). A non-invasive medical test that records the electrical signals of the heart, doctors use it to check the heart’s rhythm, measure the heart rate, and diagnose potential heart issues like a heart attack, arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), or heart damage. So I had also secured the fit-to-go confirmation for my heart
I am in good cheer in spite of the shenanigans of a certain doctor at the Spine Clinic, name withheld, in requesting, in spite of having already covered the cost of the total quantity of blood to be used for the surgery in my hospital wallet, that I go ahead to arrange to procure blood possibly from donors. I have long covered the total surgery costs estimates provided by the hospital. Therefore, my queries reserved for this particular doctor are: “Did you bother accessing and perusing my online patient file before your blood request? Who is that requested blood actually meant for?” Certainly not for me, AGU OBIAJULU AMD, patient identification card number 10039338?”
Despite the attempted suspected scam by this doctor, I am more than ever ready and poised to have the surgery and receive the restoration I so much desire. Apart from going ahead to heal my bones and veins, the surgery, expectedly, will also restore me psychologically. My total healing will chase away the ugly memories of the beat down by the rogue elements of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit overseen by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, who caught me for filming them extorting commercial motorcyclists in Apapa, Lagos State, on a certain day some years ago. The gravity of the jackboots’ attack against me, which effect eventually translated into an ailment later diagnosed at NOHIL as degenerative lumbar spinal disc disease, convinced me that their intentions had been to either kill me on the spot, or maim me and leave me with permanent disability. Thankfully, they failed on the first count. Although they succeeded in seriously injuring me, I am still fervently praying against their ambitions to maim me or leave me with permanent disability.
Most unfortunately, the incumbent Executive Chairman/Vice Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCOC), Mr Tunji Bello, was then the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, as at when the Taskforce’s members attacked and sadistically battered me.
As helpful caregivers move me around by carrying me physically, and assisting me in various other ways to give my life some semblance of normalcy, I do my best to avoid thinking it too much how so much down that my life has been dragged low by murderous members of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit. I do that conscientiously to check depression from being added to the multifaceted health challenges wrought in me by the heartless goons.
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