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After Winning 6 Gold Medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Team Nigeria Athletes tell Mr. President “What we want from you”

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Folasade Oluwafemiayo

Team Nigeria‘s athletes at the London 2012 Paralympic Games have won an unprecedented 6 gold medals making Nigerians very proud. Their heroic efforts and courage has brought glory to Nigeria. Even when their Olympian counterparts didn’t win a single medal, the Paralympians have picked up a clutch of medals.

As at Wednesday September 5th, 2012 Nigeria’s Paralympics team had already won 12 medals, including six golds. The athletes have trained hard and have competed favourably with athletes from across the world.

Yesterday, the athletes made a list of demands which they expect President Goodluck Jonathan to meet as they await compensation for their heroic efforts at the Games.

At their camp in London, some members of the team told Vanguard their expectations from the President when they return back to Nigeria.

Grace Anozie, a gold medallist in the women’s powerlifting +82kg category.

“I want the President to first of all give us a resounding reception when we get back home. And after that he should begin to address the issues hindering the development of Paralympics sports in Nigeria.

“We know what we go through during our training. Imagine our situation in Nigeria when as disabled people we have to struggle to get transportation back home, because we cannot get into the regular buses, we have to take taxis and we spend more money than our other colleagues.

Folasade Oluwafemiayo, a silver medalist in the women’s powerlifting -75kg category.

“There are a lot of people like me who would want to go into sport but they don’t have money. The President must take interest in our sports. We need to go on coaching courses, we need to train our officials so that we don’t get cheated at international events just like was done to me.”

Victoria Nneji, a bronze medalist in the women’s powerlifting -67.5kg category.

“When we were coming here they begged us to spare Nigeria the embarrassment of not winning a medal. They said we must deliver and now we have delivered, so they must give us the honour that befits our achievements.”

Team Nigeria has dominated in Powerlifting at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

I think the athletes deserve more than what they have asked for. I especially desire that better conditions for transportation and welfare of people living with disabilities in Nigeria is enforced. They have brought glory to Nigeria and deserve to be honoured and rewarded accordingly.

Well done Team Nigeria!

Adeola Adeyemo is a graduate of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from University of Lagos. However, her passion is writing and she worked as a reporter with NEXT Newspaper. She believes that anything can be written about; anything can be a story depending on the angle it is seen from and the writer's imagination. When she is not writing news or feature articles, she slips into her fantasies and creates interesting fiction pieces. She blogs at www.deolascope.blogspot.com

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