The Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind (FNSB) says persons with disabilities must be allowed to participate in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

The society, which was formed in 1955 to provide vocational training for visually impaired Nigerians, made this call in a statement made available to SaharaReporters on its annual Inter-House Sports Competition, which is set to take place on Thursday, March 14, 2019, at Yaba College of Technology Sports Centre, Yaba, Lagos.

This will be the 24th Inter-House Sports celebration since the society’s formation in 1955.

The sports celebration has been instrumental to the growth of ex-trainees like Taiwo Suleiman, who currently represents Rivers State; Abiodun Omisola, who represents Delta State, and its resident sports instructor Funmi Olasunkanmi, who just represented Lagos State at the National Sports Festival in Abuja.

The statement read: “We believe very much in the message that we as a country and community must support the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. One of our ways of supporting integration is by providing opportunities for inclusion through sports. Everyone deserves a chance to participate in the same or similar sporting activities regardless whether they are special needs or not.

“That is why we at FNSB are proud to be a part of the narrative having trained many gold medallists who have gone on to represent Nigeria in the Paralympics and many other international and local sports events.”

FNSB, since its inception, has trained and rehabilitated more than 3,000 visually impaired men and women.

The vision and mission of the society is to become to become a world class model for breaking down barriers affecting the blind and to produce sustainable and collaborative support for the blind by advocating for, rehabilitating, empowering the blind and working to prevent blindness. 

The society says it won’t stop until it achieves “total and complete inclusion for the blind”.