In this piece, our Kaduna Chief Correspondent, FEMI OLANREWAJU, X-rays the sojourn of Abdul Yekeen Kabiru into the profession of shoe making and repairs .
Anyone who sights Abdulyekeen Kabiru in his shoe factory doing what he knows best without being closer to him will not believe he is physically challenged.
His paralysis is however, revealed when he jump on his three wheel motorcycle.
Abdulyakken is a household name in Kabala west, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis, because he lives and works there and his residence is not far from his workshop.
His popularity among the residents of Kabala west and beyond is not unconnected with his ability to produce cover shoes, sandals and slippers of various designs for both males and females irrespective of their sizes and needed colours.
There is no dull moment in his workshop because he is always busy working with his apprentices while customers would be trooping in and out at all times. His case is like the popular saying: “Ability in Disability”
When Pilot Magazine asked about his sojourn into shoe work and why he did not go to school being a young man of about 30 years of age, he has this to say, “I was not born like this, it was when I was sick and injected that I became paralysed.
“I am from Iwo in Osun State where I did my primary school and my education was terminated in JSS1. Lack of help made me to stop my education because I am from a polygamous home as every wife was running after the progress of her own child or children. And, I thanked my mother and her sisters who assisted me a lot”.
Abdulyekken started learning shoemaking in Kabala West, Kaduna, in 2005, and was freed in 2008. Due to lack of fund and other logistics, he has to work as a join man with a man named Shedrack on Enugu Road, Kaduna, for a year before he started on his own about three years ago.
On his advice to co-disables and government, he averred that they should sit tight and not beg but learn work and earn a living. Also, government at all levels as well as NGOs should come to the aid of the disables by giving them employment opportunities as well as financial assistance in order to be on their own.