Wheelchair Tennis Player Laments, Says We’ll Soon Be Creeping All Over The Place Like Snakes – Tosin Dawodu

Ikpo IGBINOBA 

Foremost female wheelchair tennis player, Tosin Dawodu was all tears  while complaining about the current challenges being faced by Persons Living With Disabilities.

Speaking with P.M.EXPRESS, Miss Dawodu accused governments at all levels of being insensitive to the plight of persons living with disabilities.

“Government has never considered our condition while preparing their policies, so we are always victims”, the one time wheelchair tennis champion lamented.

Though she was not specific about the government policy she considered hostile, she complained about the current prices of wheelchairs.

According to her “Just recently, we could get wheelchairs for between N25,000 and N35,000. But today, the cheapest wheelchair is N65,000”.

In an emotion-laden voice, Miss Dawodu continued with her heart rendering lamentations “When the cost of wheelchair was between N25,000 and N35,000, not many persons living with disabilities could even afford them. And now, the price of the same wheelchair has skyrocketed to N65,000. How do we now get the money to buy wheelchair which is very essential in our every day life?”

When reminded of the current exchange rate of the naira against major currencies as possible reason for the current cost since wheelchairs are imported, Dawodu countered “Even at that, it should be government’s responsibility to come up with policies to make wheelchairs affordable.

She suggested that wheelchairs should be exempt from all duties and if possible subsidised by government so that it would be affordable.

Dawodu maintained that in other climes, the interest of people living with disabilities is of paramount importance.

She said the situation unfortunately was not the same in the country.

The wheelchair tennis player appealed to the government to do the needful to ensure a drastic reduction in the price of wheelchairs immediately.

She warned “If government does not act urgently, they would be confronted with the very gory sight of people living with disabilities creeping all over the place like snakes. That would be a national disgrace”.