NAN-H-49
Employment
By Olayinka Owolewa
Ilorin, Sept. 19, 2016 (NAN) Mr Sunday Adeshina, former Deputy National President, Nigeria Association of the Blind, has appealed to governments at all levels to offer automatic employment to qualified physically challenged Nigerians.
Adeshina, who made the appeal on Friday in Ilorin while briefing newsmen, urged the federal and state governments to employ disabled people with sufficient skills, to enable them contribute to national development.
He stressed the need for the government and the society to sympathise with physically challenged people by providing them with necessary assistance.
He said that the association had sponsored a bill for the establishment of the National Commission for Disabled to facilitate the welfare of physically challenged persons.
He appealed to the National Assembly to hasten work on the bill.
Adeshina, who is the pioneer Principal, Kwara State School for Special Needs, called on the 36 states to establish special commission to cater for the disabled.
He expressed dismay at the level of discrimination against disabled people in the society.
He said that ability in disability had enabled many physically challenged persons to excel in their different fields of specialisations.
Adeshina, who had been blind for the past 50 years, said that his misfortune was caused by chemical poison.
He said that despite the challenge, he had contributed to humanitarian services by rehabilitating people with psychological problems, through his write-ups.
He called for separation of blind people from the School of Handicapped, saying that blind and deaf people could not stay under the same environment.
He called on Kwara government to establish separate schools for the blind and the deaf to avoid commotion.
He said that the present school for the handicapped in the state was specially designed for the deaf and not the blind, hence the need to separate them.
Adeshina also advocated the establishment of an agency to cater for the well being of the disabled in the society and the appointment of Special Adviser on Disabled Affairs.
“Disabled need people of their own to handle their affairs,’’ he said. (NAN)
OOH/AIB/AEA
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(Edited by Abdulfatah Babatunde and Controlled by Archibong Asuquo)