JUSTINA NGOZI OBIEFUNA: “I was in labor when insurgents struck the hospital and I was abandoned by the doctors with my child’s head already coming out…”
Justina Obiefuna was the sixth child of fourteen children and poverty was so entrenched in her family it was practically a lifestyle in her family. She recalls that growing up, she was forced to watch the harrowing spectacle of her father being nicknamed “Ojiugwo,” (debtor) by the villagers and she recalls that kids often ran after him chanting “Kwuo m ugwo” (pay me my money) in that unkind way village kids had, whilst pouring sand on him and actually spitting at him every single time he walked by.
The constant mockery she was forced to watch her father and her family endure left a mark on her and as a very young child she began to work her fingers to the bone trying to make some money to make life easier for her family. She confides that sometimes she would go into the forest and gather up cassava peels that people had discarded. She would painstakingly scrape the little skin stuck to the peels, gather it up, soak it and make a meal for her family. The hardship and poverty knew no bounds forcing Justina even into carrying concrete at construction sites and selling palm-wine for her grandfather at Boundary market. She even began to farm for other people for a fee and her family depended heavily on her.
Finally, poverty and hardship drove her to Bauchi to plead with her brother to send her back to school as she wanted to be a lawyer. Her brother laughed in her face and suggested marriage as a solution. She resisted the idea but finally she was pushed into getting married at the ripe old age of sixteen and she began to reside in Bauchi with her new husband. However, marriage was far from a bed of roses.
She recounts that when she was in labor during her third pregnancy, insurgents started fighting in Bauchi and everyone ran away abandoning her naked and in labor. Her husband ran and jumped over the fence and so did the doctors and nurses. She recalls that she kept screaming and shouting for help but there was no one; rather the insurgents were killing people who were lying on sick beds. Justina was already crowning, meaning the child’s head was already almost fully out of her vagina. Somehow, Justina summoned the strength and jerked off her bed, completely naked and began to run after the doctors and her husband all the while praying fervently to God for the child’s head to go back inside. She placed one hand between her legs, holding her baby’s head as she ran, shouting and crying to God for the baby’s head to go back inside. The insurgents were everywhere burning the cars in the hospital premises and breaking glass windows but somehow, they skipped the little Volkswagen owned by her and her husband. She recalls that when she reached the fence, she heard her husband on the other side screaming that his wife and baby were dead; she called out to him. With the assistance of the people on the other side of the fence, they were able to break the fence and help her through the opening still naked but her labor had ceased and somehow, the baby’s head had gone back inside. It was another three days before labor resumed and she could finally birth the child. The doctors in this new hospital abandoned her in her room because she had refused surgery but suddenly, the baby’s head appeared again and as she began to scream and push, the doctors ran in and caught the baby just in the nick of time as it slipped out and almost fell on the floor.
The Bauchi crisis forced Justina and her family to flee with nothing but the shirts on their backs and they ran to Jos and then finally Port-Harcourt. They had to start all over again and her husband suffered a bout of depression as a result.
Justina confides that she started up a hugely successful tailoring outfit in Port-Harcourt and had received her entire inspiration in her sleep, never having to learn from any tailor how to sew. After they relocated to Lagos, she got another inspiration in the dream for a new business: cooking.
Challenges continued to line up including a fire outbreak from adulterated kerosene which had been mixed with fuel. It almost claimed the life of her daughter leaving first degree burns and keeping them in the hospital for two years; but somehow Justina found the strength to soldier on, determinedly keeping her family together, bound in love. She has now successfully raised her children to adulthood and runs a big restaurant called Lino Restaurant in Lagos specializing in African dishes.
Justina’s problems seemed to have only just begun. Her health took a turn for the worse. She developed some problems in her leg from a domestic accident when she fell in the bathroom. Inexplicable complications arose and they had to visit several different hospitals to no avail until it was discovered that her spinal cord had shifted and a new bone was growing in-between. Finally some Indian doctors visited Nigeria but her illness had already bankrupted her and her family. Justina borrowed some money and went for the treatment. So many shattered pieces of bone were picked out of her leg in the course of the procedure. The surgery had to be repeated and kept her away from her business for a long period. Justina admits that it has not been easy but with the help of her family and divine help she remains confident and able to laugh at life’s challenges.
Her parting words? “Prayer has always been my secret weapon and I hope women out there learn to take up the habit.”
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