By Lanre Oloyede

Experts in the fight and control of Tuberculosis, TB, in Nigeria have advocated for increased funding to the sector so as to enable the country upturn its heavy TB burden.

According to the experts, Tuberculosis remains a major health challenge globally claiming about 1.6 million lives yearly, while between 8-10 million new cases, amounting to one-third  of world’s population are diagnosed annually.

Nigeria has the highest TB burden in Africa and ranks 6th in the world with more children under the age of 15 coming down with the disease as a result of persistent vulnerability occasioned by malnutrition.

The TB champions made the call at a pre-conference media briefing organized to sensitize  Nigerians on the major thrusts  of the upcoming National TB Conference slated for between 17th and 18th of July and the TB Dinner forum fixed for 14th of July, 2019 both in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, the Board Chairman, ‘Stop TB Partnership in Nigeria’, Prof. Lovett Lawson, disclosed that the upcoming conference will focus, among other things, on additional avenues available to shore up funding so as to fill the 76 percent funding gap required to successfully tackle tuberculosis.

While fielding questions from journalists, Lawson revealed that a breakdown of TB funding in Nigeria shows that government provides only 7 percent while external sources account for 17 percent of total funding leaving a wide funding gap of 76 percent amounting to over 310 million dollars.

The Lagos conference is expected to bring together on a round table key actors in TB control in Nigeria and across the globe to stimulate generation of new collaborations for home grown TB research, innovations, solutions,  to create awareness and promote best practices in TB programming in Nigeria.

Similarly, the TB Dinner forum is meant to bring together top executives of corporate organizations in both financial and oil and gas sectors to apprise them of the TB situation in the country and solicit their support in terms of funding so as to enable Nigeria meet the global target of ending the scourge by 2030.

A Melbourne taxi driver who transported deaf children to and from school has been accused of repeatedly molesting one of them as she rode in his car.

Ioannis Amourgianos, known as John, was about 60 years old when contracted to drive the “profoundly deaf” girl – aged 10 or 11 – to school from 1996 to 1998.

She would lip read when he spoke to her.

Amourgianos’ job was to pick up hearing-impaired children from their homes and take them to school before collecting them at the end of the day.

Once, when alone in his taxi with the girl, he allegedly said: “I’m a doctor, it’s OK for me to see if your breasts are okay”, a County Court jury heard on Wednesday.

The child then allegedly lifted her top with Amourgianos stating: “your left breast is bigger than your right one”.

On another occasion, the child was sitting in the back seat and asked to move into the front.

Amourgianos allegedly told her she couldn’t unless she showed him her breasts. He thereafter touched her breasts several times a week as he drove her.

Another time, Amourgianos allegedly planted a “forceful passionate kiss on her mouth lasting a few seconds”.

The same year, he placed the child’s hand on his groin and when she pulled away, slapped her on the arm.

In a separate incident, the child did something that angered Amourgianos and he responded by saying: “stop or I’ll f— you”, looking at her eyes and between her legs.

Amourgianos was arrested in February 2016 and charged with three counts of an indecent act with a child under 16.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say the now 80-year-old had a sexual interest in the child and was willing to act on it.

Several years later, she confided in her student welfare officer about the alleged abuse.

The defence team said the allegations were “repulsive” and although it was true Amourgianos was a taxi driver for children during the 1990s, “none of that proves the charges”. (Aap News)

A former special adviser to the President on Social Investments, Mrs Maryam Uwais, has said the Discrimination Against Persons living with Disability Act, 2019 has made it difficult for people to discriminate against persons living with disabilities because it is now a punishable offence.

Uwais, at the 2019 Disability summit and career fair organised by Theseabilities Foundation in Lagos on Tuesday, said the new law signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in February prohibits all forms of discrimination against persons living with disabilities.

She said the law was aimed at achieving full integration of the PWDs into the society and would establish the National Commission for Persons with Disability to cater for the socio-economic rights of the PWDs.

“Salient provisions of the Act are worthy of mention. First, it criminalises discrimination against any person on grounds of disability and imposes a fine of N1m on corporate offenders and N100,000 or six months imprisonment or both on individual offenders.

“This is without prejudice to the rights of the aggrieved person to institute a civil cause of action against the offender regardless of whether the criminal prosecution resulted in a conviction or acquittal,” Uwais said.

The Chairman of the Foundation, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, said the roles of the public and private sectors must be harmonised in giving equal opportunities to persons living with disabilities.

He said the Foundation would continuously work with all relevant stakeholders to provide platforms and services to improve the quality of lives of people living with disabilities.

He added that the Act provides that all public physical structures must be fitted with lifts, ramps, road sidewalks and other accessibility aids to enable access on an equal basis.

The Chairman of PUNCH Nigeria Limited, Mrs Angela Emuwa, encouraged parents of children with special needs never to give up on them. (PUNCH)

A stripling of 23-years-old has been spending the last 20 years in isolation in the Nkwanta south of the Oti region, because of a medical condition.

Basty Abass passes urine, defecates, eats and sleeps in a room locked and heavily secured with a padlock so that he would not get the opportunity to walk out.

Food and water are passed through the window to him. His only source of seeing light is through his window.

According to some neighbours, food and water are not consistent so he often cries out for help when he feels hungry and thirsty.

Basty depends on some caring strangers and passers-by to get him water. He appears like a 13-year-old boy even though he is 23 years of age.

According to Basty’s father, Mallam Abass Abdulai, the family decided to isolate him because of his condition.

Basty has survived life being naked without clothing, panties, bedding or even a mat and electricity. He sleeps in unhygienic and horrifying conditions in a room that has no cement floor.

The experience

When I chanced on Basty, he drew my attention through a sign language indicating that he needed water and food.

So when I eventually got him the water, he pulled out a very dirty old sponge dish which would not even be accepted on a dumping site as his drinking cup.

I understood Basty’s situation better after I entered his room with his father.

Basty’s story

Mallam Abdulai told me that his son is epileptic and is unable to independently think for himself, understand what he is told or take care of himself.

According to him, his son defecates anywhere so he thought confining him in a room is the best option to prevent him from being attacked by his epilepsy in the open.

He added that it was to avoid the embarrassment from outsiders coming to tell him to get Basty if he suffers an attack while in public.

When I enquired why he is absolutely naked all day and night without a mat or beddings while his father is gainfully employed as a tailor and the step-mother a cloth dealer, Mallam Abdulai answered that Basty defecates and urinates in his clothes and everything around him.

Basty’s mother abandoned him when he was just 18 months old and has since not returned. He was raised by his grandmother who has passed on.

“Basty spent six years before walking, he was unable to talk or do something for himself and it has not easy for me as a father,” he narrated.

The young man is unable to communicate his needs due to the rejection he suffered in the past 23 years

He appears to be a free-hearted fellow and would say ‘nodae’ in Kotokoli language which literally means welcome or “two thousand ‘mahw’,” which he means give me 20 pesewas to buy rice. Those are the only expressions Basty uttered each time I visited him.

Basty’s health keeps deteriorating.

Mallam Abdulai said he had been trying without any success to reach out to the appropriate authorities and philanthropist to come to their aid.

The situation of children with such conditions in the Nkwanta South municipality is a dire one that needs urgent attention.

These children lack access to education; they are not enrolled in formal education or vocational training.

There is a need for a rehabilitation centre, a special need school or a vocational centre to aid such persons in the municipality. (Myjoyonline)