• FAT SHAMING • TONYE COLE: CAN WE CHOOSE TO LIVE AND NOT DIE
The story is told of a missionary expedition that went on a medical outreach in the remote parts of Lagos State. Accessible only by water, dugout canoes the main mode of transportation, the community was cut off from the bustling metropolis and devoid of all the many amenities that reminds one of being a part of a larger society. As the expedition prepared to return home, they sighted a young girl hiding by her small, dilapidated home. Something about her stopped them in their tracks and approaching her they found a beautiful girl, not looking a day older than thirteen with an arm so heavily infected it had grotesque open sores oozing with fluid. The pain on the girls face was palpable as was the shame in her soul. It turned out she was eighteen years old and for four years had carried this burden, dropping out of school and kept hidden from sight.
The doctors took one look and determined to transfer her to the city where the battle to save the arm began. For nine months they tried, cleaning, treating, grafting, medicating until one day they concluded the infection had gone so deep for so long her entire being was now in danger and if they would save her life they needed to lose her arm. It was a big decision to make for she was also left handed and learning to cope with one arm was tough enough not to talk of now learning to do everything from scratch with your weaker hand. With unparalleled bravery, already displayed all through the battle to save her arm, she went to the theatre and her entire arm was taken.
The Creator of All mankind set within each one a freedom of choice, the highest of which is that over life and death. Because life comes in various forms, death also has its dimensions too but in every case, human beings have been given the authority to make choices that will either lead to sustaining life or accelerating death. Having chosen not to die, she took to life with gusto, learnt in record time to use her right hand, writing, crafting, drawing and painting.
She determined to return to school and succeeded in securing a place in one of the country’s foremost private secondary schools on a full scholarship. As I watched her leading her peers and even adults by example I was buoyed by how her story reflects everything wrong about our nation and yet fully embodies everything possible too. Like the diseased arm that was slowly taking her life, Nigeria desperately needs a surgical procedure that removes the corrupt cancer of inept leadership killing us thereby releasing the spirit of hope that restores life.
We the people are the surgeons so when the time comes again may we choose life over death.