Ibeleme, Amaechi’s aide
"Many people think living in Port Harcourt is like living in Paradise because the city flows with oil money? From 2003 and 2008, I lived in Port Harcourt without help. I became a photographer because that was the only way I could get food. I slept in the street in Rumuomoi opposite the transformer because I had been driven out of the house where I lived with a relative. There was a young man that sold electrical parts that always gave me cartons to sleep on whenever he closed from his shop. I would bath between12 midnight and 1am because I had to do it almost in the middle of the road and that was the best time to do it as traffic would have eased. One particular day I told God I was not looking for mattress, pillow or even coverlet to sleep, but just a roof over my head. The first wardrobe I had to keep my things was inside the transformer beside the open space where I always slept in the street. I had only one pair of shoes, one pair of trousers and a T-shirt. Everyone around the community knew me with the clothes. Sometimes I fed on N20 per day. People called me all kinds of names just because I always slept in the street. Life was miserable; people didn’t want me around them. Though I had a village I could go back to, I made up my mind I wasn’t returning there. I started street photography and I was making between N20 and N40 per day. To cut the long story short, there was never a time back then when I found something to eat when I needed it, but, in all of these, I was very close to God. I chose to stay in Port Harcourt Because I believed I could make it there. I didn’t tell my family what I was going through until my troubles were over. It was a difficult moment in my life. I was known as Eze the photographer. People called me a mad man, a demon because I kept wearing one shirt every day sometimes for six months. I always trekked to my destination in town, no matter how far, until God used somebody one day to change my story."
