According to him, a lot of opportunities have eluded him in life because of people’s disparaging and discouraging comments.
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“I cried a lot” - Oti Regional Minister said he was asked to “go and learn tailoring” (video)
Oti Regional Minister, Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu has recounted the trouble he had to grapple with before becoming who is today, just because of his disability.
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He told Lexis Bill, host of Joy FM’s Personality Profile his leg got amputated at age eight after a surgery to remove a tumor from his leg didn’t go well.
Although he became disabled through no fault of his, people always judged and underrated him just because he has only one leg.
“People do not see me crying but I cried a lot. A social welfare officer told me when I was moving from JHS to SHS that I should go and learn tailoring. I was like ‘why? Why should that be so?’ Because I have a disability you can’t even look at my results and encourage me to do something?”
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He went further to disclose that he had wanted to work in the medical field but people’s lack of confidence in him and their disheartening comments affected him negatively.
“When I applied for laboratory technician at Korle Bu after SHS, the day of the interview came and I went there with a senior. A guy was asked to come and take our original certificates, so when it was my turn he stopped and asked; are you sure you can do the course?”
“So he went in before coming back to take my particulars. His concern was because of my disability. I was completely demoralised, that I can’t remember what I said when I got inside for the interview.”
Mr. Makubu also recounted how he had to give up on standing for SRC President while at Ho Polytechnic due to a comment from a colleague that made him think he was unfit for the position.
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Again, when he was posted to Nkwanta South as a District Employment Coordinator years later, he was seen as not being capable of handling the task.
“Those were genuine feelings because they didn’t know I was going to do it. I like such people in that particular instance. The same people after three months gave a recommendation for me to be made a government appointee,” he said.
However, what would become his turning point was when the DCE facilitated his election as a presiding member.
“Sometimes those things are there, you want to aspire and people feel like a person with a disability you have gotten a degree, what do you need a Masters degree for? I keep saying, let me do what I want, so long as the breath of the Lord is in me, let me fight until I cannot do it anymore.
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“It got to a point anything you say about disability will not move me because I had accepted the situation, I had gotten an antidote to any deficiency that the absence of a second leg would cost me. I had made amendments, alternatives were there,” the Oti Regional Minister said.
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