It is estimated that there are over 2m Nigerians living with albinism and they suffer discrimination from their families, schoolmates and peers. For instance, it is not uncommon to find families practicing infanticide on babies born with albinism or refusing to educate children with albinism believing that their employment chances are limited and therefore their education is a waste of resources.
Alleging that the National Hospital Abuja breached a Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) which signed in 2012, the Albino is accusing it of severe negligence. This was after Sunday Haruna, a 21 year old albino died at the hospital yesterday after being abandoned by staff because he could not pay for treatment there and then.
Albino Foundation president Jake Epelle, said: “We have an MoU that we signed with the National Hospital and the history of it is that it was agreed that we are going to be treated and then the Federal Government will pick up the bills. It is not the foundation that owes the National Hospital it’s the federal government.
“So it’s a federal government’s project and we followed all the due process. We signed an MoU which is reflected in the national policy carrying the federal government logo and everything."
He added that in 2012 when this threat of discontinuing the treatment was made, his foundation went to the Federal Ministry of Finance and got N17.8m (£57,610) for the hospital. However, since then, Mr Epelle has accused the management of the hospital of forcefully discharging albinos, because of the foundation’s failure to settle its accumulated bills.
However, National Hospital spokesman Tayo Hasstrup, said that the foundation’s allegations were baseless. He added that at no time did the management of the hospital stop albinos from receiving healthcare and had always been magnanimous to albinos especially as it related to ameliorating their skin condition.
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