A 2018 study by the World Bank estimated that one out of six Nigerians lives with a disability. People with disabilities (PWDs) constitute an active minority and face severe marginalisation in governance and politics in Nigeria.
Senator Athan Achonu is a Nigerian politician who has owned his disability and made a brand out of it. His political sobriquet — the one-armed lion — is linked to the loss of one of his arms, a reality that he has lived with since 1970.
BIRTH, BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
Achonu was born to T.E.O Achonu, MFR, and Nneoma Martha, on May 31, 1959, in Okigwe, Imo State. He got his primary education at Madonna High School, Etiti, in Imo State. He proceeded to the Government College Umuahia, Abia State.
After his secondary education, Achonu proceeded to John Cabot University in Rome, Italy, where he got a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy. Achonu delved into business very early. In a 2016 interview, he claimed that he got his first million dollar when he was 19 years old.
“I sold counterfeit detecting machines to African Continental Bank. I made about eight hundred and something naira, I changed it to dollars, so that I would become a millionaire,” he said.
Achonu owns several businesses in Imo State including Neejach Engineering and Okebaram Limited.
ATHAN’S POLITICAL CAREER
In 2015, Achonu contested and won the election to represent Imo North senatorial district, under the aegis of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
However, his victory was overturned by an appeal court in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on the account that Accord Party was at a disadvantage due to a ballot paper error. The party’s logo did not appear on the ballot papers used for the election. In the rerun of the election, Benjamin Uwajumogu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, was declared winner.
In his interviews, Achonu, claimed that he sponsored four bills during his short time at the National Assembly. Some of the bills he sponsored are the Mineral and Mining Act Amendment Bill in 2015; the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Bill, also in 2015, and a bill for altering the Nigerian constitution.
Towards the Imo State gubernatorial election, Achonu defected to the Labour Party (LP) from the PDP. On April 15, he emerged as the governorship candidate of the party with 134 votes, defeating Jack Ogunewe who had 121 votes, in the LP primary election.
HOW ACHONU LOST HIS ARM
In an interview with Joke Lijadu in 2016, Achonu narrated a seldom discussed personal story about how he lost his arm towards the end of the civil war.
Achonu recalled, in his story, that his journey into the army began when he was about 10 years old. He fought on the Biafran side against Nigerian troops in the 1967-1970 civil war. Achonu said the he lost his arm while trying to rescue a colleague who accidentally triggered a grenade after a bridge battle.
“It was a grenade explosion, three days to the end of the civil war. We had just blown up the IMO bridge to stop Nigerian soldiers from advancing,” Achonu said in the interview.
“We had come back to camp. Somehow, till date I still don’t understand, my friend Michael made a mistake with pin. I had to get it away from me and it exploded in my hand.”
The Imo state gubernatorial election is scheduled to hold on November 11, 2023. Should he win the election, he would be the first Nigerian amputee governor. (FIJ)
