NAN-S-7
Visas
By Kemi Ajayi
Lagos, July 31, 2017 (NAN) Some hearing impaired football players, on Monday, advised the Ministry of Youth and Sports to collaborate with the embassies in Nigeria, to ease the difficulty of securing visas for athletes, ahead of international competitions.
The players spoke against the backdrop of the Turkish Embassy’s refusal of visas to the national deaf team, to feature in the just concluded 2017 Deaflympic Games.
They gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) conducted through a sign interpreter in Lagos.
Chukwu Nonye, the Captain of the team, said he was yet to get over the country’s absence at the games, having looked forward to it.
He said the ministry should do everything possible to guard against a recurrence of missing out on such games.
“It is a very sorry and terrible thing for me and other players in the team; the ministry should put measures in place to address a situation like this,’’ he said.
Olufemi Solomon, a left winger, described the situation as a shattered dream, adding that his aspiration to represent the country on a big platform as the Deaflympics did not come to pass.
“I almost passed out when our coach broke the news to us and the most painful aspect of it was that the team secured a sponsor for the games,’’ he said.
Adamu Suleman said that countries, which denied athletes visas to participate in international competitions, should be heavily fined.
The Deaflympics, which began on July 23, ended on July 30 in Samsun, Turkey.
NAN reports that the national deaf team had its first outing at the 2013 Deaflympics in Sofia, Bulgaria, and crashed out in the group stage.
Team Nigeria delegate to the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas also suffered the same fate. (NAN)
KOA/FLP/YEMI
Edited by Folorunso Poroye/Yemi Idris-Aduloju