Sitting dejectedly under the blazing afternoon sun in Ikeja, Lagos State, Usman Ibrahim looked engrossed in thought.
The Kano State indigene asks for alms on the Ikeja-Along pedestrian bridge but carries a hideous wound on his right leg that refuses to heal.
20-year-old Ibrahim came to Lagos State in search of greener pastures but had developed the leg ulcer – an open wound on the leg that takes more than two weeks to heal despite treatment.
Ibrahim narrated his ordeal to The Point, “I came to Lagos in 2023 and began to work as an Okada rider for the people who brought me to this city.
“And then somewhere along the line, I think mid-2024, I developed a leg ulcer.
“At first, my benefactors were of great help to me. They took me to some native doctors who said that I stepped on a charm.
“But the so-called doctors couldn’t heal my leg and those who were assisting me abandoned me.
“Having no money or help from anyone, I took to begging just to make ends meet, hoping that passersby will be kind to me when they see my wound.”
There are many Nigerians that are afflicted with leg ulcers.
Like Ibrahim, they were also told that they had stepped on charms their enemies set for them as traps.
Many of these Nigerians don’t receive proper medical attention because they cannot afford it. They, sadly, mostly die from these chronic wounds.
Sharing her family’s experience with The Point, a businesswoman, Ada Chizuru, said it was the misinformation, or myth, about chronic leg ulcers that led to her mother’s death in Abia State.
Chizuru said three years ago, she travelled with her family to their village for Christmas celebrations, but her mother came down with leg ulcer a few weeks after they returned to Lagos.
She said, “My family travelled to the village in December 2023. We visited family and friends we hadn’t seen for quite a while and left the village for Lagos the following month.
“But one month after our arrival, my mother suddenly developed a leg ulcer.
“She took a lot of antibiotics, but to no avail. There was no improvement and some people said she must have eaten some poison in the village or unintentionally stepped on a charm.”
Chizuru said her family heeded people’s advice about her mother’s health and doing so proved fatal.
“These same people who were giving my family unsolicited advice then urged us to take my mother back to the village as that was the only place she could be healed. We listened to them.
“Unfortunately, my mother died in the village. She was in so much pain. Those who were treating her said the wound was a severe form of ‘achaere,’ or leg ulcer in Igbo language,” she explained.
“It can be caused by one’s blood pressure. If high blood pressure is not controlled, you may have chronic leg ulcers. If blood sugar, too, is not controlled, one can come down with leg ulcers. If anyone has leprosy, he or she can have leg ulcers that may not heal”
A Lagos-based current affairs analyst, Alex Nwadike, who barely escaped amputation during his fight with chronic leg ulcer, shared his own “nightmarish” experience with The Point.
According to him, what initially appeared as a “small, hard boil” on his right leg later developed into a chronic ulcer that turned his life upside down.
He said, “I was in the toilet many years ago after I gained admission into the polytechnic.
“And while I was there, I noticed a small, hard boil on my right leg. But I ignored it, thinking it would go away on its own. But it didn’t.
“The boil later began to let out some liquid that smelled so much. I couldn’t stay near people because the wound smelt bad.
“The herbal doctor who came to treat me said I should avoid sexual intercourse with women if I wanted to be healed.
“And so for nearly six months, I was drinking different concoctions but didn’t get any better.
“Finally, I went to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital where doctors prescribed Ciprotab 500mg and some other drugs.”
Nwadike said he soon noticed that the foul smell from the leg ulcer, which had been spreading prior to his taking the drugs, stopped oozing, although it wasn’t healing.
He said the next thing the doctors did was to order a skin biopsy. According to him, he was taken to a theatre where a small part of the diseased leg was cut off and sent to the lab for tests.
“The result took quite a bit of time before it was ready,” he continued. “And when doctors Sanni and Onikoyi – I can’t remember their first names – of the Surgical Out-Patient Department saw it, they said the ulcer was lupus vulgaris, or tuberculous ulcer.
“I was then placed on Rifampicin and other tuberculous drugs and slowly but gradually, the healing started. I also got discharged from the hospital after staying nearly three months there,” he added.
A medical practitioner, Sunday Shotiloye, advises Nigerians who have leg ulcers, especially chronic or long-lasting ulcers, to get to the hospital fast.
Shotiloye said there could be leg ulcers that are caused diabolically, but stressed that the ones that are medical in nature are so many.
Asked to state the causes of leg ulcers, he said, “It can be caused by one’s blood pressure. If high blood pressure is not controlled, you may have chronic leg ulcers. If blood sugar, too, is not controlled, one can come down with leg ulcers. If anyone has leprosy, he or she can have leg ulcers that may not heal.
“People who have sickle cell anemia, especially individuals with hemoglobin SC genotype, may not know about their condition and might come down with an ulcer when the body gets stressed and breaks down.
“Also, people with enlarged veins or varicosities, if the veins should rupture – because the blood supply to that part of the body will be compromised – it can also have dire consequences and lead to leg ulcers.
“So, there are many medical conditions that can cause chronic leg ulcers. Anyone that has an ulcer that is long-lasting needs to see the doctor”
Asked to share his beliefs about leg ulcers that are allegedly gotten when people step on charms, he said, “I don’t believe in the metaphysical leg ulcers people sometimes talk about, although it can happen because we are in Africa and anything can happen here.
“Whether such leg ulcers can be healed? I will say that even leg ulcers that are caused metaphysically still go through the physical to have its effects.
“For instance, such ulcers can also affect the blood supply, the nerve supply or the nutrient supply, but once those situations can be corrected medically, the leg will heal. That is my belief.”
Shotiloye also said it is only God that can answer the question of why people who go to the hospitals with leg ulcers don’t recover, making them turn to herbal homes.
He, however, added, “But it will be strange to have any ulcer that doesn’t have a medical solution. And the limitations of a particular hospital may be because of its level. One may, therefore, need to go to a more equipped hospital.
“But invariably, one needs to see the dermatologist or the diabetologist or the cardiologist.”
Meanwhile, World Health Day is marked on April 7 every year and Nigeria will be a part of this year’s celebrations.
Last year’s celebration, which had the theme, ‘My Health, My Right,’ is still fresh in the minds of Nigerians.
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Mohammed Ali Pate, told Nigerians then that the nation’s health sector was faced with numerous problems but that the government was on top of the situation.
He also said that stakeholders should join hands with the government in advancing the right to health for every Nigerian.
Pate said, “Challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, healthcare worker shortages, and persistent health disparities continue to impact the health and well-being of our citizens.
“As we commemorate World Health Day, we urge all stakeholders to join hands in addressing these challenges and advancing the right to health for every Nigerian.”
Some concerned Nigerians have, however, said that advancing “the right to health for every Nigerian” is proving a little too difficult to do, especially with the disinformation and myth that people believe about some medical conditions like chronic leg ulcer.
A healthcare professional, Mike Oriakhi, said, “We need plenty of health education in Nigeria so that we can address some of the issues that are being raised about diseases generally.
“When people have leg ulcers, going to the hospital should be the top priority for Nigerians.
“I understand that there are alternative medicine practitioners out there, but many of them are not registered and their practices are not regulated. How will Nigerians know the charlatans among them?”
Oriakhi added, “Let the disinformation stop. It is high time Nigerians knew the truth.
“Leg ulcers are not made worse by sex. They also don’t affect only the right leg. And charms won’t work on you unless you believe it would.”