FG to provide jobs for albinos

By Sola Oluwadare, Lagos Updated: Tuesday 17-02-2009

President Umaru Yar’AduaThe Federal Government has promised to in- tensifying efforts towards securing more job opportunities for albinos in Nigeria as well as address economic, health and social stigma they normally face.

The Special Adviser to the President on Relations with the Civil Society, Mr. Chineme Ume-Ezeoke, said this at the weekend when he recieved members during a courtesy visit of the Albino Foundation (TAF) to his office in Abuja.

Ume-Ezeoke sympathised with the seeming marginalisation of those living with Albinism and stigmatisation in the society assuring that he would mobilise support to end the discrimination.

He noted that because studies had shown that their intellectual development was very stable and also could be integrated into all the processes outlined for implementation the 7-point agenda of the present administration.

“They are human beings like us, they have the brain and ability to contribute to societal development so the only challenges they face as I have been told is impaired vision and skin problems, so we can tap from their experience and give them better opportunities to support our push to fully realise objectives of the 7-point agenda,' he said.

He further urged employers of labour especially private sector operators to give preference to Albinos during job placement exercises, adding that it was only when all these issues relating to gender discrimination and other discriminatory attitudes are expunged in our system that the country can stand better chances to develop fast.

Ume-Ezeoke advised the Foundation to systematically and consistently promote ideals of the Foundation so as to draw public attention to their plight and particularly urged them to press for concessions for educational advancement of its members and better healthcare attention through the ministries of Education and Health respectively.

Earlier, Jake Epelle, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation had commended government for the efforts made so far to integrate albinos and to ensure their health and social wellbeing are protected but, however, noted that much was needed to be done in terms of policy framework resources and effective collaboration to address the critical challenges of Albinos especially ignorance and skin cancer.

He regretted that efforts to address these challenges more holistically and to create rural based awareness programmes were being hampered by lack of funds.

He stated that Nigeria had the highest number of Albinos and thus should champion a global cause to bring the challenges of Albinos more on international discourse.

“The Foundation also realises that collaboration with this office will offer practical approaches of addressing these challenges on a larger scale. We view our partnership with this office as an opportunity to review governments efforts so far at integrating Albinos and also to work out more strategies of streamlining our programmes in line with governments determination to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of alleviating poverty and improving the lives of underserved groups like Albinos,” he remarked.