Deaf Athletes Plan Fresh Protest October 26 Over NSF Exclusion
Nigeria’s deaf athletes have announced plans to stage another protest on Monday, October 26, over their exclusion from the National Sports Festival (NSF).
The athletes’ captain, Badmus Nurudeen, disclosed this at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, on Friday after the athletes waited for hours for Adeyinka Adeboye, Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Grassroots Sports Development, who they said had promised to meet with them.
Nurudeen expressed disappointment over Adeboye’s failure to honour the meeting arrangement, insisting that the athletes would continue their peaceful protests until deaf sports were included in the festival.
“This means they want us to be stealing to feed our families. Many of us are married with children, and our only means of livelihood is sports,” he said.
He maintained that deaf athletes should not be treated as second-class citizens or discriminated against in national sporting events, adding that many of them go from January to December without participating in a single tournament.
“I have told our members not to take laws into their hands nor resort to violence. That’s why we are embarking on peaceful protests,” he added.
The athletes staged their first protest on Monday, October 19, when they blocked the entrance to the National Stadium from about 7 a.m. Adeboye subsequently met with them after the police invited him.
During the meeting, he reportedly promised to discuss their concerns with the Director-General of the National Sports Commission, Bukola Olopade, and the President of the Paralympic Committee of Nigeria, Sunday Odebode. He also promised that a meeting with representatives of deaf sports would hold on Thursday, October 22.
The Assistant Technical Director of the Nigeria Deaf Sports Federation, Emmanuel Audu, said it was the fourth time deaf sports had been excluded from the festival since the federation was established in 1996.
Audu explained that deaf sports had previously been made compulsory at the festival under a former sports minister but were changed to an optional category by the current administration without an explanation.
“If para and deaf are both removed, fine. But para are there and only deaf are removed. That is discrimination against deaf people. Para events are very many, and no single deaf event is there,” he said.
He added that deaf table tennis had also been excluded, while the hearing and para categories remained on the programme, despite an earlier promise by Olopade to include deaf sports.
Lagos State deaf athletics coach, Lanre Agboola, said the athletes had been training daily since January in preparation for competitions.
“They should stop removing deaf sports from the festival. They should make it compulsory and no more optional,” Agboola said.
Meanwhile, deaf sports stakeholders also staged a protest in Benin City, Edo State, on Monday over the exclusion.
The 2026 National Sports Festival, tagged the Coal City Games, is scheduled to hold in Enugu State from November 27 to December 11.