Nigerian Professor Turns Polio Pain Into Policy Advocacy

A university professor who spent decades hiding his polio story is now speaking up to change how Nigeria treats its disabled citizens.

Shittu Olusoga contracted polio as a young child in the late 1970s, when misinformation about the disease was rampant across Nigeria. His mother, like many parents at the time, didn't understand that a virus had damaged his motor neurons. She took him to a local healer who applied scalding herbal mixtures to his limbs while he cried in agony.

The physical pain was just the beginning. When Olusoga was in fifth grade, a neighbor told him in Yoruba that God had created him as a "cripple" because he knew what kind of person he would become. The words devastated him for days.

A year later, on Children's Day 1992, his teacher selected him as one of the best students to represent their Lagos school in a march-past celebration. Olusoga ironed his uniform with pride and washed his socks carefully. But as the group walked toward the parade grounds, the headmaster stopped them on his motorbike and asked why they'd brought "a child with a leg problem."

The headmaster ordered young Olusoga to go home immediately. He didn't offer transport money, leaving the boy to walk back alone, sobbing the entire way. That rejection transformed a confident student into a timid one.

Today, Olusoga teaches sociology and criminology at the Nigeria Police Academy in Kano. He recently traveled to Lagos hoping to discuss disability policy with the General Manager of the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs. Despite introducing himself as a university lecturer with important concerns, the official refused to meet with him, citing exhaustion.

Why This Inspires

Rather than let rejection silence him, Olusoga is using his platform to educate Nigerians about polio's real cause and challenge deep-rooted stigma. He's calling for disability agency leadership based on expertise in Critical Disability Studies, not just shared experience.

His message is clear: people with disabilities aren't "hated by God." Many are intellectually strong and deserve true inclusion, not just pity. That means priority access in schools, hospitals, banks, and parks, plus proper resource allocation and dignity.

Olusoga represents millions of Nigerians living with polio's effects who faced decades of misunderstanding. By sharing his painful memories publicly, he's helping replace superstition with science and shame with empathy.

His transformation from a rejected schoolboy to an advocate for policy change proves that the stones others reject can become cornerstones of progress.