by Chris Agbo,
Sign Language is the language the Deaf understands and there are close to 10million Deaf persons in Nigeria so sign language interpretation no doubt have become an official language to many as well as mother tongue to many.
Therefore, sign language is as important as any other language. It is at this premise that the National President of Nigerian National Association of the Deaf NNAD, Dr. Chidi Topaz Olujie in a press conference organized by the group on Wednesday commended the Ministry of Information and Culture for a directive that all media outlets should ensure that sign language interpretation form part of their broadcasting.
However, the group urged the ministry to take it to a step forward to ensure full implementation of the directive. The group advocated for Inclusion of sign language interpretation and captions on government and private television stations and government functions/events. The group decried that the ongoing sign language interpretation and captions in some stations are very small which have been posing a lot of difficulty to Deaf Persons. They suggested that television stations should make the portion for sign language interpretation more visible.
In a similar vein, Dr. Chidi lamented about the recent news of the two(2) million dollars grant awarded to the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities by the United States of America Embassy, Nigeria Office through a team of delegations headed by the Chairman, Commission Board, whose duty is on part time basis. The grant is for the purpose of recognizing, legislation and nationalizing sign language through education but no single Deaf person was invited to the meeting. He said that sign language is the language of the Deaf, so nobody should take a decision on anything concerning sign language and excludes the Deaf. He said that the group can not allow others deciding things for them. Nothing for us without us being fully involved.
Reacting to a question about their next line of action concerning the matter, he commended American Embassy for yielding to the call made by the group to enhance the training of sign language interpreters, but urge the embassy to discontinue their dealings with the group that they had meeting with because NNAD were not represent.
He said that they will reach out to the embassy and they believe the embassy would incorporate them to ensure seamless execution of the project. NNAD should be fully involved in the whole process.
