HISTORY OF DEAF SPORTS IN NIGERIA
There is no formal record of any
sporting competition of the deaf prior to 1980. However, oral report shows that
deaf people mostly in schools engage in sporting activities especially football
prior to 1983. Between 1983 and 1985, the Federal Ministry of Sports and Youths
in conjunction with JAYCEE organized competition for persons with disability
including the deaf.
The government of Nigeria
recognized the right of every individual to develop his/her sports talent to
the fullest and henceforth bring about sports development in the country. With
this opportunity, sports for persons with disabilities were sanctioned. The
physical disabled (wheel chair), the hearing imipaired, the mentally challenged
and the spinal cord injury. These persons with special needs sports were
coordinated as a single sport- special sports with Special Sports Federation of
Nigeria (SSFN) taking charge of its organization and administration. Thus,
competitions were organized for special persons at the National and States
level since 1983 after the formation of National Sports Association for the
Disabled (NSAD) in 1981. NSAD is the old name for Special Sports Federation of
Nigeria (SSFN).
Following non-representation on
the executive committee and marginalization, coupled with the status conferred
on National Sports Association of the deaf, the International Committee of
Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) to go independent of other disabled sports. The deaf
athletes and officials began to dissociate themselves from NSAD’s organized
sports programmes. Similarly, the NSAD itself refused to include deaf event in
the sport programme organized for the disabled. The first of such move was the
meeting of some group of deaf sports lovers in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria on
the 29th of July 1995, in that meeting, many problems confronting
deaf sports were addressed. They resorted to form a separate deaf sports
association. Nigeria National Association for the Deaf Sports Commission
(NNADSC) was formed with few officers appointed to manage the affairs of deaf
sports. Mr. Amuda S. Ibrahim and late Kayode Daramola were appointed chairman
and secretary general respectively.
The NNADSC was however not
functioning as NSAD continued to hold sway and get government sanction/approval
to organize sports programmes for persons with disability. However, before it
disappeared, the NNADSC succeeded in ensuring the inclusion of deaf athletes to
participate in Paralympics version of the 6th All African Games held
in Cairo, Egypt from November 2nd to December 5th 1995.
On January 12th and 13th 1996, a meeting was converged at
the conference room of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), the name of the
association was changed from NNADSC to Nigeria Deaf Sports Federation (NDSF),
40 deaf athletes, few officials and lovers of deaf sports from Various states
of Nigeria were in attendance. Mr John S. Yusuf and Mr. Kamaldeen Alabi were
elected first president and general secretary respectively. They were charged
with the responsibility of getting recognition and registration with the
Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports and the International Committee of Sports
for the Deaf (ICSD).
The Nigeria Deaf Sports
Federation (NDSF) has succeeded in acquiring certificate of full membership of
International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) in 2001. They also got
recognition from the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
How to Reference this article
Ademola, V. D (2019). HISTORY OF DEAF SPORTS IN NIGERIA. Retrieved from https://www.youdread.com/2019/05/history-of-deaf-sports-in-nigeria.html
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