With a monthly income hovering around N300,000 to N400,000, 29-year-old Song Villian has every reason to feel on top of the world, at least, at his present age. But for the past two years, his ill-health resulting from kidney failure has not afforded him the slightest chance to enjoy the fruit of his labour.
Rather, the need to undergo dialysis on a regular basis in order to live another moment has been stripping his monthly earnings to the last.
After graduating from a private higher institution in Lagos where he studied Mass Communication, the Akwa Ibom indigene, in September 2014, joined a network marketing company that deals in supplements and empowerment in the Gbagada area of the state.
Within a year and few months, the once energetic marketer, rose through many ranks to become a leader, remaining just three rungs for him to reach the zenith of his career in the firm.
Villian was cocksure he had everything to arrive at the apex in due course given his fast-growing networking base and his startling customer-relation prowess. But in 2016, the whole dream appeared to be dying fast after he was diagnosed with kidney failure, which is now at stage five – the deadliest stage. He currently needs between N10m and N12m for a kidney transplant to live his dreams again.
“I have been living a borrowed life; a life that you have to pay to live. I need to pay before I could urinate. It is not a life, but that is how I have been living,” Villian said, with pains written all over his face.
Looking pale and jaded after months of failed strenuous efforts to battle out the illness, the 29-year-old spread helplessly on a stretcher at a dialysis centre in Ikeja, where he spoke to Saturday PUNCH during the week. “I fell ill in 2016 and started having some strange symptoms. I went for tests and I was told that I had kidney problem. I have been on dialysis since then. I cannot urinate. I do the dialysis two to three times in a week. Each session costs about N50,000 together with drugs,” he added amidst a stream of tears trickling down his cheeks.
Except for the little help he got from the company to augment the bills for the dialysis which his salaries could not afford, the 29-year-old could not get assistance from his poor family members, whose sustenance he was responsible for until the sickness brought him down.
He lamented, “My mother died when I was very young and my dad is an old man. I have three siblings. All of them are in school and I was the one taking care of them before this problem started. The company I work with has been of little help, but I really need more help. I feel so depressed each time I realise that all my income is spent on my health. I don’t have anything. I can’t do anything; I am not living normal.
“I earn about N400,000 every month. In 2016, I spent over N6m on dialysis. Last year, I spent about N12m. I can’t assemble the money for the transplant because I cannot survive without dialysis.
“My condition is now at its worst stage. I urgently have to run a kidney transplant. I don’t want to die with my dreams. I need help from people. From the enquiries I have made, it will cost about N10m and N12m if I don’t have a donor. It will be less if there is a donor.
“I want Nigerians to be of help to me so that I can come back to life and be fit again. I have a lot of people that are connected to me. I have about 1,000 people that are under my influence. As their leader, they really need me.”