Centre for Citizens

David Obinnaya Anyaele, an amputee from Igbere, in Bende Local Government area of Abia State, validates the saying that when there is life, there is hope. The 38-year-old man survived the war of attrition that ravaged Liberia years back. He was among the lucky Nigerians that went to Liberia and came back alive. .

But he did not return exactly as he left: His hands were cut.

Since January 19, 1999, when the Liberia’s infamous barbarous kid soldiers, on the orders of disgraced warlord and former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, hacked off his two hands, things have not been the same for Anyaele. His journey to the club of amputees is as chilling as the story of how he has been carrying on with life without his hands.

Anyaele’s deformity not withstanding, he has since found love, and is even blessed with children. The joy of being a proud husband and father had fired the zeal in him to continue the search for justice and rehabilitation to live a life of dignity. He joined thousands of disabled persons who stormed the National Assembly for a one--day public hearing on a bill to create a commission for the disabled, among other steps to bring out the best of persons living with one form of disability or the other.

Anyaele took advantage of the public hearing to meet with the House Committee on Diaspora, led by Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to press further his search for justice, compensation and eventual rehabilitation. Addressing the committee, Anyaele narrated how he escaped death by the whiskers, but had to return to Nigeria a disabled person.

With a standing instruction from Charles Taylor that Nigerians must be thought a hard lesson on how not to dabbled into internal crisis of another nation, every Nigerian was, therefore, marked for murder or, at least, maiming to serve as an evidence that they were not welcomed like the soldiers of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), the military intervention force put together by West African leaders to restore peace to the war torn countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

One day, precisely January 19, Anyaele said that he and other residents received a gang of gun wielding youths as visitors and were duly informed that the visit was to carry out the instructions of Charles Taylor that Nigerians must either be killed or maimed.

"I wanted to run, but one of the boys called me back. He first gave an order that I should be shot, but another one said no, that I should be sent to Nigerian government to go and tell the government that ECOMOG should stop attacking them. "He gave a fresh order that my hands be cut, so that I will go and show it to my country. I was to be shot, so I had to stretch my left hand and it was chopped off. When the guy wanted to fire me, I put forward my right hand and it was cut off, that was how I lost my two hands.

"After the two hands were severed, it was like they were still not satisfied, There was argument whether to kill me or not. But one of them poured kerosene on me and set fire on me, until one of them said that they don’t want me to die, so that I could show my scare to my people as a testimony that they don’t want Nigeria’s intervention in their domestic affairs."

He said it still remains a mystery how he found himself at the United Nations Observation post where he got treatment before his evacuation to a safe point. By February 3, 1999, he was back in Nigeria and taken straight to a military hospital, where he was discharged on August 30 for rehabilitation.

Through the Red Cross Society, Anyaele told the committee that his plight was brought to the notice of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but he could not get an audience with the president because of the visit of Charles Taylor, who had been elected president of Liberia.

The nearest he got to seeing Obasanjo was an audience with the then Minister of Health, Dr. Tim Menakaya, who promised to rehabilitate him. That was in 2000. Eight years after the promise, Anyaele is still on the waiting list. The waiting game, to him, has been understandably painful. Yet, it is not as painful as the recognition and succor given by the Obasanjo government to Charles Taylor, a man who gave instructions that Nigerians be killed and maimed, simply because they ventured into Liberia in search of peace.

So bitter he was when Obasanjo gave Taylor asylum that he took the Federal Government to court. He had to discontinue with the case after Taylor’s repatriation to Sierra Leone where he was to face war crime charges.

Now that Charles Taylor has been moved to The Hague in continuation of his prosecution on charges against humanity, Anyaele said that he was ready to testify against him. But more important to him at present is how to piece together his life scattered by Charles Taylor boys.

"Nigerians that suffered like me are more than a thousand. In fact, I think I am the only Nigerians that lost both hands and still survived. Some Nigerians that suffered amputation preferred to remain in camp in Sierra Leone, instead of coming back home because of what people like me are suffering," he informed the committee.

Since life must go on, Anyaele has scaled the first hurdle of settling down. Apart from his involvement in advocacy for the disabled, he has found love, even in his state of physical challenges. The relationship is blessed with two children. He begged the committee to assist him in facing the challenges of life as an amputee who wants to live a decent and dignifying life, instead of resorting to street begging. "Living without hands or limbs is an expensive life. Somebody must help you to do everything. I am now in advocacy to protect the disabled from stigmatization.

The way I survived is basically from charity on my advocacy. My wife takes good care of me, and our little children. I want to add value to myself, that is why I want the committee to rise up to the demands of disabled persons in the country," he said. For him to get artificial limbs as promised by a German hospital, Anyaele said that he would need 35,000 euros, plus flight tickets, accommodation and sundry expenses. Chairperson of the Diaspora Committee, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, promised that the committee would rise to the occasion by taking up the issues of Nigerians that suffered accidents or humiliation in other countries with the appropriate quarters.

According to her, there was no reason why Nigerians should be singled out for punishments, more so in countries "where our resources are being deployed to assist in developing their land".

To any Nigerian that suffered injustices in any other country for no fault of his; she assured that justice would be pursued to a logical end by the parliament. "We will assist you to survive. Some were not lucky to survive. Agreed that it has taken you almost nine years to get justice, this committee will come to your aid," she re-assured.