Chief Executive Officer of Divine Christian Creativity has recounted how she fell into depression after she went blind at the peak of her career and at the age of 45.
In a recent interview, Akinrinmade said her life took a downward spiral after she left the banking sector in 2010 after a successful career that saw her work in UBA, Broad Bank as well as Omega Bank and didn’t know that she had glaucoma which eventually degenerated to blindness.
According to her, her career was successful as she also worked in a microfinance bank, Apex Golden Gate Microfinance Bank and rose from senior marketing manager to the position of Acting Managing Director until her ordeal started.
“At a point when I was driving, I discovered that I bumped into things and had accidents frequently, though I called myself a professional driver, having been driving since 1998.
“One day, I bumped into a motorcycle and someone told me to get a driver. At that point, I thought something must have been wrong with my sight but I didn’t know I had glaucoma. I told my optician and he kept on increasing the capacity of my lenses because I used glasses.
“But I later decided to visit a general hospital. That was in 2011. I drove down to the hospital and was told that I had lost my left eye. I was advised to stop. I still forced myself to drive but when I discovered that I kept having minor accidents, I stopped,” she recounted.
To make matters worse, a surgery on her eyes that may have saved her sight was aborted by a strike action embarked upon by doctors at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital on the same day she was scheduled for the surgery.
Unfortunately for Akinrinmade, after securing another appointment for her surgery and when the doctors resumed, she had already lost her sight.
“I thought that was the end of my life. I thought that was the end of the world. I felt like dying. I never thought anything could come out of me. I was ashamed of myself. When visitors came, I ran away and when I heard their voices, I was ashamed.
“That stigmatisation came upon me until I took it off and moved forward. I felt there was nothing a blind person could do until I heard about the Nigerian Society for the Blind at Oshodi, Lagos. That was where I was rehabilitated and regained my consciousness. When I lost my sight, I suffered from depression. But I don’t have that now,” she said.
She said there were insinuations that she lost her sight as a result of a spiritual attack, a notion that set her searching for solutions, taking her to four African countries.
“When people told me I was attacked, I travelled to four African countries looking for solutions. I even visited a herbalist, looking for a solution by all means. But in the end, nothing came out of it. So, I took up my cross and that was how my life changed. I faced my challenges head-on and I became vocal.
“Ever since I lost my sight, I got more education than when I was sighted. I got a diploma in radio production from the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria. I got a certificate from the Lagos Business School and another one from the Nigerian Society for the Blind. I also took diploma courses online,” she said.
She said like a lot of people, her children, two boys, felt bad about her predicament noting that one of them couldn’t talk about her because the stigmatisation affected him, but he soon got over it after he graduated.
“Now, my children are proud of me. The youngest one is a student of Political Science at the University of Ibadan while the eldest studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ilorin.”
She said as much as she lost a few friends due to her predicament, she made new ones, noting that while some were ashamed to associate with her, her new friends accepted her the way she was and even celebrated her.
“I want people who will take me for what I am. Thank God I have them around. But my colleagues from the LBS never looked at my disability; they took me the way I am and celebrated me. Those are the kind of people I want around me, not the kind that will look down on me or undermine me because I am visually-impaired,” she said.
Being blind, Akinrinmade said, has made her restrategize how to earn a living, saying that afterwards, she became convinced that she could impact people’s lives.
“When you lose your sight, it affects you mentally. When I lost mine, I couldn’t think well because I had depression all over me. But I tried to keep myself busy. I am always busy. I don’t want to be idle. Idleness should not be a part of your profile. When you are idle, you derail mentally.
“Five years after graduating from the Nigerian Society for the Blind, I started impacting on people more than when I was sighted,” she said.
For Akinrinmade, her ordeal has taught her that life is all about challenges and one must not be distracted by them but strategise to overcome them.
“No matter the challenges on your way, above all, you should be prayerful. If you do all of these, you will achieve your goals,” she said.
Speaking on the plight of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), she expressed worry that some skillful ones have taken to begging rather than using their talents to pave their way, urging them to use their skills to improve their well being.
She said her interest in making bags, shoes and tyre tables came when she went to the school for the blind five years ago, noting that one of the things they were taught was how to make many things with hands.
Akinrinmade did not shy away from disclosing that her husband, abandoned her and her children for almost 18 years after they had a minor quarrel, prior before she lost her sight and had not called to speak to her since then.
“He was a banker too. I discovered that he had not been returning home frequently. After some time, he said he had been transferred out of a particular station. That was how he left.
“There was a minor quarrel. There were efforts to settle it but he refused. Even if he comes today, I will accept him because I had my children for him. Ever since, I have not remarried. I just took up my cross like that,” she said.
To make matters worse, her husband’s family abandoned her to her fate, lamenting that till date she is yet to receive any form of support from his family.
“His family members tried to call me. The younger brother is now the king in Odigbo, the Orunja of Odigbo land. He calls me once in a while. But nobody has been supportive to me financially or to the children. I’m saying it; let the whole world know. None of his family members has been supportive to me financially or to the children. Initially, it affected me. But now, I have taken up the cross and my children are okay,” she said.