Nigeria News
Your “Deaf And Dumb” Story And Editorial
By Gbenga Bunmi Aina
I am writing in response to your story in the P.M.NEWS on-line issue of Monday May 28, 2013 entitled Deaf, Dumb Bus Driver Arrested, and the follow-up Editorial published on Thursday May 30 entitled The Deaf And Dumb Danfo Driver And Us.
GROUP TERMINOLOGY
I am only an occasional reader of P.M.NEWS and other on-line news sources; however this particular story caught my eye because of my own deafness.
Media practitioners, especially journalists, control powerful vehicles for molding public opinion. When a group of journalists and editors – by virtue of whose professional calling are or should be considerably better informed and vastly more enlightened on contemporary issues than the generality of their own society – particularly ones who write for as progressive a media institution with a reputation as admirable as P.M.NEWS, commits the cardinal error of describing a Deaf person as “deaf and dumb”, I am angry and disgusted, as I am sure millions of Deaf people on the planet and their families, friends and allies who read the story and the editorial were as well.
Again, I am Deaf myself. The trajectory of my life in Nigeria was characterized by constant overcoming of obstacles occasioned by attitudes created not by evidence, but by an ill-informed and rather backward orthodoxy regarding Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people. Aspects of this prevailing orthodoxy are apparent in the choice of descriptive label; in the comments section of the story; and in the tone of your editorial: Deaf people “can’t” because they can’t hear.
I have been an administrator in American higher education for the past 15 years. But as a Deaf person, I am not unique in that sense. I was employed as a lawyer and Senior Deputy Editor at Gani Fawehinmi Chambers/Nigerian Law Publications for 3 years up to my departure for the United States in 1994. But as a Deaf lawyer, I am not unique. I graduated from OAU, Ile-Ife in 1990 and was called to the Bar in 1991. But as a Deaf university graduate, I am not unique. I spent 5 successful years at Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, graduating in 1983. But as a Deaf alumnus of a prestigious Nigerian high school, I am not unique. Millions of Deaf people all over this world can point to superior records of accomplishment in their own CV’s than I am able to in mine.
And yet, the orthodoxy holds that “deaf and dumb” people cannot do things any other human being should take for granted.
This is neither the time nor the place to discuss the tangential issue of why Deaf people consider “deaf and dumb” pejorative, but these are powerful examples. During 2001, I saw the likes of Comrade Adams Oshiomole –as he then was—dismiss the federal government as being one “of the deaf”; a columnist with another newspaper congratulating the Broadcasting Service of Oyo State (BCOS) for incorporating “hand sign translations on the news for the deaf and dumb at last”; the hitherto unimpeachable Wole Soyinka treading the dishonorable path of applying deafness to describe reactionaries in opprobrious terms; and the then irresistible Reuben Abati refer to “the deaf and the dumb” in his article of Friday June 22, 2001. These individuals are among the educated elite of Nigerian society, and if elementary enlightenment eludes them, then perhaps for us Deaf people generally to theorize that nothing better can be expected from the generality of society which is constituted by these otherwise distinguished gentlemen’s putative intellectual inferiors, is forgivable.
Deep ignorance about deafness and issues related thereto lies at the heart of this disparaging labeling of Deaf people. This is an unfortunate reality in a country approaching its centenary that has prided itself for many years as the “Giant of Africa”.
Hopefully, cognizant of its ability to influence the formulation of public opinion and shape the corpus of public knowledge, P.M.NEWS and its entire journalistic corps will find common cause with Deaf Nigerians and take the lead in enlightening both the general public and leading individuals on sensitivity and correct usage.
The correct term for a person whose auditory faculties are not functioning is “Deaf” simpliciter. The additional factor that this person is unable to express orally, is incidental, but not in all cases true, being entirely a function of whether deafness is congenital or adventitious. All Deaf people, whether they are capable of speech or not, prefer to be termed properly and correctly as Deaf.
It will be appreciated if P.M.NEWS will lead the way in educating the general public and referring to Deaf people simply as Deaf henceforth.
DEAF DRIVERS
While auditory information is important in the driving process, there is insufficient data to indicate that deafness affects driving ability. In 1994, McCloskey, Koepsell, Wolf and Buchner conducted a population-based case control study to determine whether hearing loss puts older drivers at greater risk of collision injuries. Their findings (Motor Vehicle Collision Injuries and Sensory Impairment of Older Drivers) were reported in the magazine Age & Ageing, 23 at pages 267-273.
The cases were drivers who sought medical care, within 7 days, for injuries sustained in a police recorded motor vehicle crash. Controls were selected from a pool of eligible subjects who had not been injured in a police recorded motor vehicle crash. Driving exposure, based on self-report, was similar for both groups. Sensory impairment data were extracted from medical records. Results of their investigation revealed no significant increase in risk of injury from motor vehicle collisions as a function of deafness. Clearly, there is no association between deafness and increased risk for motor vehicle accidents. Consequently, there is no empirical evidence to warrant restrictions on Deaf individuals from operating a vehicle.
I doubt any law in Nigeria explicitly or by implication prohibits Deaf persons from operating a vehicle. I also doubt regulations exist governing the operation of motor vehicles by Deaf persons. Accordingly, I would suggest the adoption of fitness-to-drive guidelines to clarify the position. Australia and Canada have workable, reasonable and logical guidelines:
| Condition/Illness | Canada | Australia |
| Totally Deaf | No restriction | Not addressed |
| Hearing Aids | No restriction | Not addressed |
| Some Hearing Loss | No restriction | No restriction. As greater reliance on vision is needed, external mirrors are required |
| Vestibular disorders | Acute labyrinthitis: Patients with acute labyrinthitis or positional vertigo with horizontal head movement should be advised not to drive at all until their condition has subsided or responded to treatment. Recurrent attacks of vertigo: Patients who are subject to recurrent attacks of vertigo that occur without warning also should not drive until it is certain that their spells of dizziness have been controlled or abated. | Acute labyrinthitis, Benign paroxysmal vertigo, Meniere’s Disease, Recurrent Vertigo: Should not drive while symptoms persist. |
At worst, the Deaf driver, Mr. Sunday Ogunmola, was arrested for driving without a license and driving in a BRT lane. Driving without a license seems to be a common enough offense in Nigeria; and driving in the BRT lane illegally appears to be similarly common, going by the Lagos state governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s widely-reported apprehension of an army colonel for doing just that. Sunday Ogunmola’s real offenses are prosaic, and, in reality they are indicative of the systemic need in Nigeria for all qualified persons to enroll in formal, structured driver education classes and pass written and practical driver-education exams as a prerequisite for the issuance of a driver’s license, be it private or commercial.
Thank you.
‘Gbenga Aina, Savage, Maryland, USA
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Source: PM News
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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune
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Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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