Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has donated food items and money to the elderly and blind as part of measures to cushion effects of COVID-19.
Beneficiaries got rice, yam, garri and N10,000 each.
The governor, who made the donation through a philanthropist, Doubara Kumokou, appealed to the beneficiaries to remain calm and be patient with the government. He said the government was capable of taking care of their needs, and admonished them to pray for God’s blessings upon him to enable him do more.
The beneficiaries thanked the governor for the gesture and prayed God to be with him and fight his secret battles.
Leader Joe 1808 Foundation at the weekend donated food items, sanitisers and clothes to 1,000 persons with disability in Karamajiji, a suburb of Abuja.
It was aimed at reducing the suffering of the less-privileged in the society.
The foundation’s founder, Joseph Onus, who addressed reporters in Abuja, said for three years, the initiative had been running a programme, titled, “Feed a thousand”, noting that in forthcoming years, it would do more.
The Nigerian ace powerlifter completes two decades as a top-notch Paralympian this year
Nigeria’s superstar powerlifter Lucy Ejike is celebrating her 20th anniversary as a proud Paralympian this year but she is in no mood to rest on her laurels. The 42-year-old who will be participating in her sixth Paralympic Games in Tokyo, feels she has still enough power left in her for that perfect lift to finish on the podium.
“I was set to celebrate my 20-year journey as a Paralympian had the Tokyo 2020 Games gone as per plans. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed it to next year, I’m upbeat,” said the five-time Paralympic medallist, who has won three gold and two silver since her debut at Sydney 2000 at the age of 22.
Through the Paralympic Movement, Ejike has become a champion, role model and an ambassador in her country and in the sport of Para powerlifting. She has used her Paralympic journey and platform to inspire others and to demonstrate that one can achieve anything if they put their mind to it.
Ejike feels that her journey has helped changing perceptions towards disabilities and she wants to keep inspiring people by going as long as possible.
“Given a choice, I would choose Paralympics all over again as being a Paralympian has brought honour, respect and dignity to me and my country,” said Ejike, adding, “It has not been an easy journey for me, but because of determination, hard work and discipline, I have managed to come this far with pride.”
Ejike recalled her fighting spirit, drawing the attention towards the efforts she put in following her silver at the Sydney 2000 Games which she felt was ‘disappointing’.
“I asked myself ‘Does the person who won gold have two heads? Definitely not. She has one head’ and if she could get gold, I can also get the gold medal.”
The next four years were all about chasing the elusive gold and en route to the next Games in Athens, she broke the World Record thrice. She rates that journey to Athens gold as the most memorable, one along with her third gold at Rio 2016.
Ejike said, “Being Nigeria’s flag bearer [at Rio 2016] was the cherry on top as this is every athlete’s dream.”
PLENTY OF POWER: Lucy Ejike in action in the Women’s Lightweight final during the Para Powerlifting on day six of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Dealing with COVID-19
Like most athletes, Ejike too was utterly disappointed with the postponement of the Games but acknowledged that this decision was in the best interest of the athletes’ and the world’s health.
She revealed, she was at the peak of her training; stronger than ever before.
“The impact of COVID-19 and postponement of Games has not been totally negative for me. It has given me more time to train, to spend time with my family and to develop other non-sport related skills, but I was very much ready for Tokyo. I miss training with my teammates and competing together.”
Though the postponement has impacted her training schedule immensely, Ejike felt, it has not dampened her spirit and her quest for gold.
“I have resumed my training at home as training centres are still closed. It would take some time to regain top fitness and lack of competition is also a worry, but you can be assured, I will be ready for Tokyo,” said Ejike before signing off.
He is due to start in September but can only take his place if he has the funds
The friends and family of a Coventry man with disability have launched a fund to allow him to accept a place on a prestigious PhD course.
Nigerian born Dickson Tarnongo is a 40-year-old asylum seeker currently living in Coventry.
Mr Tarnongo is also wheelchair user after contracting polio at just nine years old.
He initially came to the UK to study an International Development Law and Human Rights Master’s degree at Warwick University.
Upon completing his post-graduate degree, Mr Tarnongo, a disability activist, returned to his home country of Nigeria.
But there came a point that his life became exposed to danger following his activism over disability rights, and he was forced to return to Coventry and claim asylum.
Government policy means that asylum seekers are not allowed to work in the UK, and like so many in that position, Mr Tarnongo’s asylum claim is ongoing.
He has spent his free time volunteering for the British Red Cross, Migrant Voice and Coventry Refugee and Migrant centre.
Speaking to CoventryLive, Mr Tarnongo said: “I want to help other people who need it, I enjoy doing this and I have the fulfilment of helping.”
On the impact of not being able to work, he added: “Everything about you is on hold indefinitely, your career, your struggles, your hopes, and you can’t do anything about it. But instead of that I choose to work on my life’s dream, and get into education.”
As reported in the CoventryLive newsletter, there are growing calls to allow people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim to work.
The Lift the Ban coalition – which includes Coventry City Council and Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group – said in a report this month that allowing people to work if their claims take longer than six months would create huge savings for the government.
The initiative is known as ‘Tomorrow Rising Fund’ and is being implemented in partnership with LEAP Africa.
Energy management giant, Schneider Electric, has begun distribution of 13,000 meals to underprivileged children and widows across the country.
Distribution of the food items and relief materials kicked off in Amuwo-Odofin community in Lagos State.
Along with the meals, Schneider Electric also distributed sanitary materials and medical supplies to pregnant women, nursing mothers, senior citizens and people living with disabilities (PWD).
The initiative is known as Tomorrow Rising Fund and is being implemented in partnership with LEAP Africa – a notable non-governmental organisation.
The initiative, which is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, provided Schneider Electric staff and Schneider Electric Foundation the opportunity to donate and help alleviate the hardship occasioned by the pandemic in the community.
It also afforded the staff of Schneider Electric the opportunity to be part of the distribution of the meals.
In July, Schneider Electric Foundation created a fund to combat the economic hardship in rural and disadvantaged communities in Nigeria.
The fund will focus on the basic needs, specifically meals and relief items for underprivileged children and communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The donations which amounted to €11,760.00 have been entrusted with LEAP Africa for disbursement.
Implementation of the project is in two phases.
The first phase will focus on basic needs like meals and other medical relief items for underprivileged children, women and PWDs in communities across the country.
The second phase, which will be implemented from June to December 2020, will focus on enlightenment, with Schneider Electric facilitating knowledge transfer to its partners via extension of its support to existing education projects in Anglophone Africa.
The company also plans to promote its campaign on reducing students’ drop out from schools in the region.
Results of an analysis of cross-sectional data from the 2010 to 2017 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS) suggest that individuals with a pre-existing disability may be at increased risk for certain cancers. These findings were reported in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.1
It has been estimated that over 25% of the US population has some type of disability. Furthermore, the incidence of a number of cancer risk factors, including tobacco use, obesity, and poverty have been reported to be higher in this group compared with those without a disability. Nevertheless, many questions related to the prevalence and diagnosis of cancer in those with a pre-existing disability have not been well explored.
Researchers investigated the association between 4 common cancers — colorectal, prostate, ovarian, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma — and a chronic disability related to movement difficulties (MD) or complex activity limitations (CAL) that predated and were unrelated to the patient’s cancer diagnosis.
A key finding of this study was significantly higher rates of all 4 cancers in patients with a pre-existing disability characterized by MD or CAL compared with those without this type of disability. For example, the rates of prostate cancer were 3.38% and 3.13% in men with a pre-existing MD or CAL, respectively, compared with 1.26% in those without MD or CAL ( P <.0001).
In addition, compared with those without pre-existing MD or CAL, the mean age of individuals with pre-existing MD or CAL was significantly higher for those diagnosed with colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and NHL. For instance, the mean age at colorectal cancer diagnosis was 62.6 years for those with a pre-existing MD compared with 55.9 years (P <.0001) for those without pre-existing MD or CAL.
Furthermore, on multivariable analyses adjusting for potential confounding factors, such as known cancer risk factors and sociodemographic characteristics, the respective adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for those with pre-existing MD or CAL were 1.5 (P <.001) and 1.9 (P <.001) for colorectal cancer, 1.2 (P =.14) and 1.5 (P <.01) for NHL, 1.4 (P =.15) and 1.5 (P =.10) for ovarian cancer, and 1.2 (P =.03) and 1.1 (P =.11) for prostate cancer compared to those without such as disability.
Although noting that this analysis was limited to identifying associations between disability and cancer and not causality, the study authors stated that “our population-based analyses suggest that persons with disability should perhaps be considered a high-risk population, with higher cancer incidence.”
Furthermore, in commenting on this analysis, authors of an accompanying commentary emphasized that “making disability-disaggregated data available is one step toward bridging cancer disparities for people with disabilities.”2
Haruna Tsafe, a hearing impaired person who hails from Zamfara state has been appointed as a member of APC National Campaign Council for Ondo governorship election.
It was disclosed to us via a letter issued to him that he shared with us. See the letter below:
TQM congratulate Haruna Tsafe for his appointment and urge him to use the office to advance the welfare of persons with disabilities.
TQM reported earlier that APC appointed Joseph Dakop a person with physical disability as a member of the same campaign council.
Disability-Inclusion-Nigeria
on Friday 14th August 2020 organized a webinar to mentor persons
with disabilities towards enhancement of their political fortune. The project
known as ElectAbility Project-PWDs’ mentorship forum for political inclusion in
Nigeria was put together by the convener of Disability Inclusion Nigeria, Mr. Jake
Epelle who is also the founder of The Albino Foundation.
Speaking at the meeting, Jake Epelle informed that the event would be taking place every month and experienced panelists would be invited to speak to the persons with disabilities in order to equip them to contest in the next elections.
The panelists present at the webinar were Clement Nwankwo, Oyim Josephine Anineh, Hamza Fassi-Fihri and Jake Epelle and the meeting was facilitated by Wilson Manji.
Clement Nwankwo speaking at the meeting said that it is important that physical access is enhanced in a way that persons with disabilities can move freely within the society, and again in as much as the law didn’t exclude anyone from aspiring into elective positions. The political parties in Nigeria need to change the mindset of the people. The political parties are still marginalizing disadvantaged groups like women, youths and persons with disabilities. They need to create a level playing field to encourage these disadvantage groups to participate fully in the electioneering. He went further to state that in other clans, persons with disabilities have allowed to hold important positions in the government. Some countries have persons with disabilities in their legislative and appointments are given to them. He informed that in a diverse society, appointments ought to be made putting in consideration different group of persons in the society. In Nigeria, it is not the case, people are being appointed because they are from the same place with the person in power or that they are relatives of the person in power. He advised that efforts have to made towards the political parties creating opportunity for persons with disabilities.
Hamza Fassi-Fihri in his submission, told a story how the minorities were marginalized in Belgium politics but legislation opened up the space for the marginalized groups to be represented in Belgium politics today and that was how he made it in politics in Belgium even though his origin is Algeria. He advised Nigerians with disabilities to adopt the use of legislation to enhance their political participation.
Oyim Josephine Anineh encouraged persons with disabilities to join political parties and make themselves relevant because power is not given, it is acquired. She advised the persons with disabilities to join political parties and contribute meaningfully to the progress of the parties because if you have nothing to offer, the politicians are interested in those that have something to offer. She urged the young people to make effort to take over power from the older people because the older people would not give up power so easily. She informed that politics is not an occupation, she advised that as PWDs are indulging in politics, they should also have other things doing because politics requires a lot of resources so if you must succeed in it, you must be comfortable.
Jake Epelle in his presentation commended other panelists and said that he is no longer interested in politics because he is over 60 years but his desire now is to see younger persons with disabilities succeed in politics. He read out three things that someone should acquire to become an extraordinary politician. First, you must learn the act of political leadership; people follow you because of the amount of knowledge that you have. You should be so informed about what is happening politically around you and how you carry yourself matters a lot. Build your capacity, be so knowledgeable and ready to share your knowledge with others. Don’t be an ignorant politician. He specially appreciated the contribution of Oyim Josephine Anineh and asked her to always be a panelist at this forum because the experiences she shared would go a long way towards building the capacity of persons with disabilities in political participation. Secondly, be a grassroot person, you can not be a successful politician when you are not known in your place, forget about the cities, go back to your base and from there, you will storm Abuja or Lagos, you can’t represent people you don’t know. You have to start from the local government chairman, councilor and finally learn how to start small and also learn to be honest and build your integrity.
Mr. Joseph Dakop, a person with physical disability from
Plateau State has been appointed as a member of National Campaign Council for
Ondo State Governorship Election.
In a letter signed by Sen. John J. Akpan Udoedehe Phd,
National Secretary, Caretaker/Extra-ordinary Convention Committee, Joseph Dakop’s
membership of National Campaign Council was approved by Executive Governor of
Yobe State and National Chairman, Caretaker/ Extra-ordinary Convention
Committee, His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni.
His selection to serve as a member of the council is in consideration
of his strength of character, experience and dedication in ensuring the success
of the party.
The terms of reference of the council are to organize a
formidable campaign structure cutting all strata of the party in the state,
mobilize members of the party and other non-partisan members of the public in
the state to build confidence on the party and our candidate, raise funds
across the country to be used in the effective management of the campaign process,
liase with the state Party structure and the candidate with a view to
harmonizing strategies for success and any other action which in the opinion of
the council will ensure success of the party during the election.
TQM congratulates Mr. Joseph Dakop and entire APC members
with disabilities in Plateau State and Nigeria and most importantly APC for
running an inclusive process. It is a pattern that should be emulated by other
political parties.
TQM recalled that the APC also appointed James Lalu, a person with disability as a member of National Caretaker/ Extra-ordinary Convention Committee.
Sometimes ago, TQM brought to the public domain the assault meted on Emmanuel Onwubariri, a person with spinal cord injury who was pushed down by rampaging youths.
The matter raised a lot of concerns and Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo PWDs took it up and raised funds within themselves and lawyers among them stood for Emmanuel. The police that refused earlier to effect arrest on those who assaulted him woke up to their responsibility and the perpetrators were made to answer for what they did.
Two demands were made by Emmanuel which were to return his generator set they took forcely from him for a debt owned by his elder brother and secondly for them to take responsibility for the medical bills he incurred after he was pushed down and he had to seek medical care because as a person with spinal cord injury, it would be dangerous for him not to receive medical care after such a huge fall.
It was beautiful the way Igbos with disabilities spoke with one voice and seek justice for Emmanuel. They formed a committee made up of lawyers and they have diligently followed up the case in police and graciously, Emmanuel was excited to communicate TQM on 15th August, 2020 informing us that the last meeting between him and the perpetrators in Police station, they paid him the sum of One hundred thousand naira(N100,000) for his medical expenses but the generator set was nowhere to be found. The IPO handling the case has given them till the end of this month of August to return the generator set.
The Lawyer who followed Emmanuel to police station on this last meeting I.A Anyanwu( a person with albinism) got them to agree that the generator set must be handed over to Emmanuel by the end of the month.
This is justice for Emmanuel and justice for persons with disabilities in Nigeria.
TQM learnt that the perpetrators are not resting on their oasis as there are plans to excommunicate Emmanuel and his family because he pushed for justice which they thought he will not get and he finally got it. So they are using other means to get him and his family punished.
The letter communicating this position from The village will soon be issued to his father. TQM would keep you posted on the development as they unfold.
