The Nigerian Albino community must be seen as humans with dignified rights which are fundamental to their existence as humans. The challenges of Albinos are becoming pronounced and after several calls to governments there seem to be no respite in view. The albino community across the nations are going through hard times which are occasioned by their skin texture and low vision.

The above and some others are some of the conclusions drawn from the centre for disability and inclusion Africa’s policy dialogue sessions held across south west geo political zone in Nigeria which has an estimated population of 49 million that makes up of about 22% population of Nigeria

 Albinism?

A common knowledge about albinism is that “Albinism is a very complex inherited genetic disorder in which a child is born with sub-optimal pigment in the skin, hair and eyes resulting in poor vision and skin that is unprotected from the carcinogenic effect of sunlight.” A noted feature is that parents of a child with Albinism are often normally- pigmented, a sign that they are carrier of the gene.

 Statistics

There has been confusion about actual numbers of Persons with Albinism in Nigeria, this is peculiar to this cluster alone, accurate data about persons with Disabilities are not available. But unofficial figures claimed they are not less than 2 million people. Should this be left behind?

At the Ekiti state Persons with disability stakeholders Policy dialogue, Falusi Tokunbo, a person with Albinism and an advocate for persons with disability said “education is a fundamental right of everyone and getting quality education should be a goal for all”. Because often, many people with albinism have low vision, given the same numbers of hours to write same subject exams with sighted persons is a denial of fundamental human rights and this must be re assessed.

Also talking about further challenges and denial faced by Albino community, Tokunbo said “Many banks also contribute to financial exclusion of Persons with albino because of low lights the banks put in their ATMs’’. Knowing that many Albinos have low vision, the low lights in an average ATMs do not help matter and in most cases, especially in the evenings, many people with Albinism are not able to withdraw money from the machines. In addition to these is ATMS sound which echo instructions to follow are very poor, hence it makes following instruction difficult for hearing impaired as well as Albinos.

Aside from the above, another advocate of persons with albinism cried against injustice in the health rights of the Albinism community. He maintained, a major challenge of the Albinism community is their health, which is related to their skin textures. He said “Many persons with Albinism had died prematurely because of skin cancer.

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