August 2010 was a tragic month and year in my life. I was still in secondary school at the time. It was our holiday period and I was attending summer lessons.
I was a member of the Nigeria Girl Guides Association NGGA and I was the president in my school. We were about to go for summer camp so we were asked to come for a meeting. I told my mum about the meeting but said I wasn’t going to attend, so she told her driver to go home.
That day, the weather was very bad because it was raining. At about 3:30 or 4 pm a friend of mine called to tell me the meeting had started and all my friends were around. I got excited and decided to go for the meeting. My mum came back home and told me not to go for the meeting that no one would drop me, but I insisted. She warned me not to leave the house but as stubborn as I was, I snuck out of the house when she was upstairs.
I saw a bike (okada) and boarded it. The bike man was speeding but I did not tell him to stop because I wanted to meet my friends. The rain was falling heavily. The bike man did not see a moving trailer coming towards us. We ran into the trailer and there I was half dead.
I woke up eventually and was told I had been in a coma for close to three days but God saved me. He kept me and sent me back to this world. He made sure I lived even though I went through a lot. I was blind for months. Finally, one eye opened after 3 months. I lost my upper gum and 14 of my teeth. My nose was damaged. In fact, my face was disfigured but God held me close so I wouldn’t let go. His mercies kept me alive.
I did a lot of face surgeries. I still feel the pain and wear artificial teeth, but that can’t be compared to life. I am alive and beautiful and the secondary school girl back then is now a Mass Communication graduate from University of Lagos and the founder of Soft-touch Charity initiative which is up and running.