Michael Ogunkanmi and his wife, Akintomide, are both blind, but they have built a home run on memory, touch, and teamwork raising three sighted children while battling an unemployment crisis that has left their family struggling for basic needs.
Michael, 39, has been without sight since he was about two years old, after a bout of measles while he lived with his parents in Badagry. Akintomide, 34, lost her sight later, in primary school, also as a result of measles. The two met in school, and their shared disability became just one part of a marriage that has now produced three children — two girls and a boy, aged eight, five, and three.
Inside their home, the couple say, everything runs on order and communication. Items are kept in fixed places, and any change in position must be reported so the other isn’t caught unaware. Their eldest daughter, though sighted, has some difficulty seeing objects at a distance, but is already helping around the house — washing plates, sweeping, and occasionally cooking rice or beans.
Both Michael and Akintomide are trained teachers. Michael holds a Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) in Music and Special Education; Akintomide holds an NCE in Social Studies and Special Education. Yet neither has a steady job. Michael survives mainly on an irregular income from playing drums in a church, sometimes receiving as little as N1,000 to N3,000 after a service.
That income is not enough to reliably feed three children. Michael says there have been days his children came home from school to an empty pot, forcing him to buy food on credit from a neighbour until he could repay it. With the new school term approaching, the family faces fresh costs for textbooks, sandals, and uniforms — expenses they currently have no way to cover.
The couple applied for teaching positions through the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in July of last year. They say they were told to wait for a call, followed up when nothing happened, and were asked to submit a recommendation letter — which they did. Months later, they are still waiting.
Michael has also received vocational training in soap-making, and Akintomide in perfume production, but both say the limited start-up materials provided were not enough to build sustainable businesses.
Despite the hardship, Michael insists their bond has held. “I still love her. If I didn’t love her, and if she didn’t love me, she couldn’t have stayed with me till now,” he said, describing her as “very enduring.” Akintomide, in turn, says she values that “he does things for God.”
Asked whether he would choose to regain his sight if given the chance, Michael said he would be happy, but added that sight is not the only path to a meaningful life — citing other blind people he knows who are thriving. For now, both he and Akintomide say they are placing their hope in God, and in the possibility that a job offer will finally come through — one that would let them use the education they worked hard to earn, support their children’s ambitions of becoming a doctor and a lecturer, and stop depending on the goodwill of neighbours to get by.
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