The Nigerian Albino community must be seen as humans with dignified rights which are fundamental to their existence as humans. The challenges of Albinos are becoming pronounced and after several calls to governments there seem to be no respite in view. The albino community across the nations are going through hard times which are occasioned by their skin texture and low vision.
The above and some others are some of the conclusions drawn from the centre for disability and inclusion Africa’s policy dialogue sessions held across south west geo-political zone in Nigeria which has an estimated population of 49 million that makes up of about 22% population of Nigeria.
Tokunbo, Advocate for albinism
Albinism?
A common knowledge about albinism is that “Albinism is a very complex inherited genetic disorder in which a child is born with sub-optimal pigment in the skin, hair and eyes resulting in poor vision and skin that is unprotected from the carcinogenic effect of sunlight.” A noted feature is that parents of a child with albinism are often normally- pigmented, a sign that they are carrier of the gene.
Statistics
There has been confusion about actual numbers of Persons with Albinism in Nigeria, this is peculiar to this cluster alone, accurate data about Persons with Disabilities are not available. But unofficial figures claimed they are not less than 2 million people. Should this be left behind?
At the Ekiti state Persons with disability stakeholders Policy dialogue, Falusi Tokunbo, a person with albinism and an advocate for persons with disability said “education is a fundamental right of everyone and getting quality education should be a goal for all”. Because often, many people with albinism have low vision, given the same numbers of hours to write same subject exams with sighted persons is a denial of fundamental human rights and this must be re assessed.
Also talking about further challenges and denial faced by Albino community, Tokunbo said “Many banks also contribute to financial exclusion of Persons with albino because of low lights the banks put in their ATMs’’. Knowing that many Albinos have low vision, the low lights in an average ATMs do not help matter and in most cases, especially in the evenings, many people with Albinism are not able to withdraw money from the machines. In addition to these is ATMS sound which echo instructions to follow are very poor, hence it makes following instruction difficult for hearing impaired as well as albinos.
Aside from the above, another advocate of persons with albinism cried against injustice in the health rights of the Albinism community. He maintained, a major challenge of the Albinism community is their health, which is related to their skin textures. He said “Many persons with Albinism had died prematurely because of skin cancer.
This is preventable if there is adequate care and protection against the sun which is very hot in Africa. There is a safe solution in body lotions and bathing soaps that may help, but unfortunately, nobody seems to care” He lamented
One other major woe of albino community members, related to their skin is denial of the right to vote. Another advocate claimed that in Ondo state as well as in other states across the nation, BVAs machines used to capture voters’ thumb fingerprints before a person can vote often do not recognise the thumbs of an average Albino and in many cases, they had been denied rights to vote. He said he had taken these conversations to several independent Electoral Commissions’(INEC) offices with no redress and he is ready to take INEC to court over all this.
Marriage and religion
The Women leaders, Osun and Ondo states’ JONAPWD, Ishola Elizabeth and Busayo Ademeko also frown at about how religion portrays Persons with disabilities and more importantly challenges of Women with albinism in getting married no matter their level of intelligence
Fundamental human rights
The United Nations Chartered rights of Persons with disabilities, African Chartered rights of persons with disabilities and discrimination against persons with disabilities among many others are explicit about rights of persons with disabilities. Some of these include the right to quality health, education, electoral and financial inclusion.
Discrimination against Persons with disabilities Acts (DAPDA) 2018, and many related bills had been domiciled in many states while some are still being considered at the state Assemblies for enactment.
Should persons with disabilities be denied their rights?
The chairperson of Ekiti state Disability board, Princess Arise affirmed “No one should be denied their rights irrespective of status/physical look”. A former Chairman of Oyo State Joint Association of Persons with disabilities (JONAPWD) affirmed “I often felt compelled to say this over and over again, Persons with disabilities are humans with rights like any other persons. So there is no justification under the law for such denial”
A director at the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion in Oyo state, Mr Ibiyale, when asked was very emphatic “no one, with sound mind, should be denied their rights irrespective of status or body shape or size. When this is done, we encouraged the affected person to record the incidence with their phones or other available gadgets, and bring this to the notice of the right authority. In Oyo state, the security Agencies as well as our Ministry are always against such and we legally seek redress”.
A lawmaker, Hon. Adewumi Adeyemi, who is a member of House of Assembly, Osun state who also sponsored the about to be enacted Disability Bill in the state affirmed “Anyone who can vote and is allowed to vote should enjoy the benefits of democracy and there is no reason a person who is mentally sound should be denied right to vote”.
Hon Adeyemi Adewumi, member Osun State House of Assembly
A lawyer, who works with INEC and who prefers to be anonymous because of victimisation shared with Nigeria Grassroot News “Where there is an infringement of fundamental rights, a person can approach the court but the fact remains that the office do listen, some of the challenges are noted and are being addressed” The office continually looks for improvement on feedbacks gotten from the public he added.
A banker, who works with one of the banks shared with NGNews also said , “The issue of complaints against most banks’ ATMs may be valid but people should know no bank wants to deliberately exclude anyone. Banks need everyone’s money. That is their business. Infrastructure to solve all problems sometimes can be limiting and some of these issues are being addressed internally with a notion to bring changes”. he affirmed
