Abel Leonard, Lafia Correspondent
The federal government has said that it is working out modalities for the establishment of a College of Education for the physically challenged persons at Gudi Station in Nasarawa State.
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari on Disabilities, Dr. Sam Ankeli, disclosed this Tuesday in Lafia during the presentation of Disability Advocacy Team’s sensitization tour of tertiary institutions report to Governor Abdullahi Sule.
The SSA said: “We are thinking of establishing Colleges of Education in all the six geopolitical zones of the country. We have one already established in Uyo, Federal College of Education (Special).”
“We don’t have any of the Colleges of Education (Special) in the north. Therefore, Gudi town is selected as a site for the proposed Federal College of Education (Special) in Nasarawa State.”
He stated that President Buhari has proven that all Nigerians are important to him hence his establishment of the Colleges of Education (Special) in the country.
In a remark about the Disability Advocacy Team’s report presented to the Nasarawa State governor, Ankeli assured the governor that all the thematic areas captured in the report would be achieved with the support of his office to the state.
“My office, by the authority of the president, will ensure that all the thematic areas that are captured in the report will assist the state governor to achieve the needed desires of the physically challenged in the state,” he said.
In a remark after receiving the report, Governor Sule thanked his predecessor, Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, for showing special interest in the physically challenged persons which has culminated in the desire of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to have in the state a similar special school earlier established by the former governor in the state.
“Those supports coming to the state from the federal government for persons with special needs will make Nasarawa State the home of persons with special needs,” the governor said.
Sule concluded that the report presented to him by the Disability Advocacy Team of the Directorate of Strategy Communication and Press Affairs will help the state improve on its programmes and policies aimed at salvaging the plights of the physically challenged in the state.
The governor’s Personal Assistant on Disabilities and leader of the Disability Advocacy Team, Hamza Mamman Awe, thanked Governor Sule for supporting the team during the course of its sensitization tour of tertiary institutions in the state.
This was even as he informed the governor that the Disability Advocacy Team has completed plans to embark on a tour of the 13 local government areas of the state in order to identify the difficulties faced by the physically challenged in their quest for Western education towards proffering solutions by the state government.
