For the Nigerian society to experience the desired transformation, ample opportunity should be given to its citizenry, whether able-bodied, physically or intellectually-challenged should be allowed to contribute their quota to national development. This reality came to the fore few days ago, when a university don and nurse of several years of experience took the centre-stage to present her research findings to the public.

Acoording to the Professor of Intellectual Disability, Prof. Julia Tolulope Eni-Olorunda, the Federal Government should, as a matter of urgency, ensure that the the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, which has been passed into law, is fully implemented in order for children with intellectual disability to have an enabling environment to live independently and enjoy their rights to education. She made the call while delivering her lecture titled: ‘They are humans too: Give them a chance’. The Professor tasked the government to invest in the education of persons with intellectual disability, to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goal 4.

She added that people with intellectual disability “currently constitute a sizeable number of the population and they cannot be continuously ignored”. Prof. Eni-Olorunda explained that training individuals with intellectual disability “is quite cumbersome and will require a lot of human and material resources, hence the need for adequate budgetary allocation be made a priority for special education, which also serves persons with intellectual disability”. According to her, “Inclusive education is what is practised in majority of the developed countries, and Nigeria should not be an exception in this global move. Thus, to achieve this, public enlightenment would go a long way in dispelling the myths and conceptions, which have remained major barriers in recognising children associated with intellectual disability”.

She charged parents and society at large to love, understand, and accept these children with intellectual disability as human beings that have no control over their disability, stressing that acceptance by parents and society would help them adjust emotionally, psychologically and socially, thereby helping them have independent lives, saying without love, our society would continue to take undue advantage of them. “Presently, Child Development and Family Studies Unit of the Department of Home Science and Management offers courses on developmental disabilities at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and this had helped our students have a good knowledge of developmental disabilities and changed their perception and orientation towards these individuals”, she stated.

The Professor called on the National Universities Commission (NUC), to consider introducing elements of special education into its general studies programme, to afford the student population in general the opportunity to have adequate knowledge on disabilities, its causes, and preventive measures as being done in most universities in the country.

Prof. Eni-Olorunda, who is a trained nurse, also stated that the people do not seem to recognise children living with intellectual disabilities in society, especially in Africa, stating that “there is the need to create awareness about them as people did not regard them as human beings”. She appealed to Nigerians to give these special children a chance, to explore opportunities and live well while, noting with dismay that often times, people hide them. The don explained that people with disabilities are human too; they deserve to live well and occupy their own space in society. “Putting smiles on the faces of children with intellectual disabilities and their parents is fulfilling to me and I want to change the believe of people about children with intellectual disabilities”.

Similarly, the Chairman, Ogun State Chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwifery, Comrade Roseline Solarin, has charged governments at all levels to do everything within their capacities to invest in the nursing profession and the nation’s health sector, to curb mass exodus of nurses from the country. Solarin attributed some of the factors responsible for mass exodus of nurses from the country to long neglect of the health sector, poor remuneration, insecurity and the current cash crunch ravaging the country. “Government should invest more into nursing and the health sector, as whole, for us to have a healthy nation. They need to do more by subsidising the amount of money nursing students are paying during their training and also employ more health personnel”, she added.

Solarin explained further that the situation in the country was really critical, saying there is no sector of the nation that is not affected by brain drain, adding that the state of health sector in Nigeria was not encouraging. She, however, urged the government to do the needful by looking into each hospital and numbers of nurses or health personnel, saying they should find a way of replacing those that are gone, either by retirement or migration, and provide them with necessary equipment, to work optimally. “Governments need to improve on their policies and implementation. There should be proper supervision after implementation is done. The government should look into the hospitals and check the number of personnel and equip them from time to time”, she added. I think we can get really it right by starting from here.