BY LAJU ARENYEKA

Blue House, with 124 points, has won the 18th Annual Inter-House Sports competition of the Vocational Training Centre for the Nigerian Society for the Blind (VTC-NSB) held at the University of Lagos Sports Complex.

Chidozie Obianyo, the house captain of Blue House, who lost his sight just after secondary school in 2007, was overjoyed at the victory.

He said; “After I lost my sight, I had to learn how to do everything again, it was not easy, but since my enrolment here, I am back on my feet. I am familiar with typewriter, the Braille and the computer.” Some of the winners in their different categories include 50 metres race – Sunday Oladele; Rounders game – Godwin Israel; Long Jump female – Nike Oguntope; Walking race – Rasaq Adekoya; Shot put – Hamed Omolosho.

Guest schools also participated in the event. There were relay races by, Corona International Secondary School (boys and girls), Lagos City College (boys and girls) and University of Lagos Staff Primary School (boys). Corona girls won the female relay race and Lagos City College boys won the male relay race.

The principal of the centre, Mr. Sola Ogunsiji, speaking on the event said; “This is our first time of doing this outside our campus. We want to showcase what the blind people can do. They can run, jump and do all sorts of sporting activities that people with sight can, even better. You will recall that during the Olympics, it was the disabled that won a lot of medals for Nigeria. There is ability in disability, and we are out to prove that the so- called disabled people are well able.”

Mrs. Abiola Agbaje, the Chairperson, NSB, encouraged the government to pay more attention to empowering the physically challenged. “I do not believe that the government is paying enough attention to the physically challenged, we have found out that some of our students represent Lagos State in national competitions. Since they are good enough to join the Lagos State team, we feel they are good enough to be recognised here and trained to fit international standards,” she said.