Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
The Centre for Infrastructural and Technological Advancement for the
Blind (CITAB) has hailed the Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA)
over its recent employment of 20 disabled persons.
This was contained in a press release issued by the group’s Executive
Chairman of Mr. Jolomi Fenemigho.
The CITAB boss showered more encomiums on LAWMA for taking a step in
the right direction by adding 20 physically challenged individuals to
their pay-roll thereby reducing the number of disabled unemployed
persons in Lagos while transforming their way of lives.
Fenemigho further stated that: “Inclusivity is key to the development
of any growing nation and what LAWMA has portrayed, indicates the
agency’s readiness to aid and support the welfare of disabled persons
in the society.”
The CITAB boss lamented the high number of abandoned disabled persons
in Lagos State adding that many of them had resorted to begging along
the streets while little or nothing was done to alleviate their plight
until LAWMA intervened.
He further stated that before this set of physically challenged
persons were gainfully employed; most of them were already sweeping
and cleaning their surroundings, adding that this showed how dedicated
they were to a task. The CITAB boss urged other Lagos state
parastatals to follow in the foot-steps of LAWMA.
The CITAB boss further recommended the need for each of the newly
employed physically challenged persons to under-go psychological
evaluation and motivational enlightenment programmes in order to
expose them to part-time academic opportunities.
According to him: “The act of begging is an addiction; the deeper you
are into it, the harder it is to let go. Without motivational,
enlightenment and academic programmes to make them believe in
themselves many disabled persons will revert to their old ways.”
Fenemigho also lauded the Kwara State Government’s recent donation of
audio books to the visually impaired students of the state’s Special
Needs School, describing the move as commendable.
