President of Speech Pathologists and Audiologists Association in Nigeria (SPAAN), Professor Julius Ademokoya, on Thursday said that over 8.3 million Nigerian suffer from hearing or speech impairment.
Prof Ademokoya raised the alarm in Ibadan while addressing a press conference on activities marking this year’s SPAAN week held at the Oyo NUJ Press centre, Iyaganku Ibadan.
The SPAAN President pointed out that despite the alarming rate, Nigeria government is not doing enough to take care of those people with hearing and speech problems.
He said that the present situation in the country calls for Nigeria government to initiate programs and make legislation that will protect the interest of those affected.
“Government is not doing enough to attend and take care of people with hearing and speech problems. The government is not giving them support. When you look at the care given to them, it is quite discouraging.
That is why we need to initiate programs that will take care of people with hearing and speech problems. So you look at it, the care is not enough as expected,” he said.
“This is why we need to initiate and encourage government to put in place, better legislation. When someone has speech or hearing problem, that person may not be able to perform as expected. That person will become a burden to the society, to the community.”
“You and I know that in advance and developed countries, they have better programs that take care of people in this category. That is why we said that government need to put better legislation to address this. When someone has speech or hearing problem, they have low productivity and they will not be able to perform effectively. These are the people you see on the roads as beggars,” he said.
