A 17-year-old cripple, Zakiyya Ibrahim, says her desire in life is to become a pediatrician, to assist sick children in her community.
Zakiyya who resides at Aminu Street, Rigasa, Kaduna, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday that she would never allow her condition to derail her from achieving her goal.
The girl who has concluded Junior Secondary School, said she has been receiving tremendous support from her family and school mates.
She said: “With the help of my hands and tricycle, I can go to school and come back by myself.
“I thank God for the friends I have in school because non of them had ever mocked or bullied me, and with that, I have been able to concentrate well on my studies.”
Her mother, Sadiya Ibrahim, said the Zakiyya was crippled when she was two years old after she was diagnosed with pneumonia and since then she could not walk.
Ibrahim said: “My daughter started walking when she was a year old, but since that illness, she had never walked again.”
The mother said they did not go back to the hospital after the girl became crippled, but resorted to herbal treatment for her condition.
She said: “We had thought that her problem was a spiritual attack and we continued with herbal treatments to no avail; all efforts did not yield any positive result.”
When asked if she had taken Zakiyya for immunization after her birth, the mother said she did not, but had only allowed her to be administered with polio drops at home.
Meanwhile, Zakiyya’s father, Ibrahim Sani, has pledged to support his daughter attain her life’s dream of becoming a pediatrician.
Sani asserted: “I will do my best to ensure all my children are educated, I will never allow my daughter to be a subject of pity.”
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