Athletes with hearing impairment under the auspices of the Deaf Athletics Association have urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(retd), and the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, to allow them to compete in the 21st National Sports Festival later this year in Asaba, Delta State.
The athletes, who made the appeal during a protest on Monday in Benin City, said excluding them from the upcoming sports festival is prejudiced and implored President Buhari to weigh in on the issue in order to give them an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.
According to BusinessDay, Sunny Aimufua, head coach of deaf sports in Edo, spoke on behalf of the protesters, saying that excluding deaf sports from the national sports festival is directly analogous to isolating and denuding the deaf from their rights.
Aimufau said, “We are protesting because the deaf have been excluded from the forthcoming National Sports Festival.
“On behalf of the stakeholders, we appeal for the redemption of the Nigerian deaf sports as well as its inclusion in the National Sports Festival tagged “Asaba 2022” and the National Youth Games as a gift from this government to the Nigerian deaf persons.
“If you have a place for the Para-Athletics Federation of Nigeria (PAFN), why can’t you have a place for deaf athletics? They should stop playing politics with deaf sports athletes who are different kinds of persons and need to be encouraged.”
