By Joshua Olomu

Child right advocates, educators and caregivers have called for inclusive opportunities for children living with autism and other special needs to enable them  achieve their full potential and contribute to society.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the stakeholders made the call at a “Meet and Greet’ event on Friday night in Abuja.

It was an occasion to celebrate Kanyeyachukwu Tagbo-Okeke, a 15-year-old Nigerian  autistic artist who recently broke the Guinness World Record (GWR) for the Largest Painting, as the latest world’s largest art canvas by an individual.

Tagbo-Okeke had on April 2, unveiled the awe-inspiring canvas titled: “Impossibility is a Myth,” measuring 12,303 square meters, surpassing a previous 9,652 square meter record held by Emad Salehi.

The event, tagged “The Back-Story”, brought together representatives of  civil society groups, artistes, stakeholders in the arts and culture sector, and friends and family of the ace artist.

According to the stakeholders, while Tagbo-Okeke is being celebrated for his ingenuity and exceptional feat in arts, there is a need to reflect on the challenges children with special needs face in Nigeria.

Mohammad Sulaiman, President, Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), said the association was offering equal opportunities for talented young artistes to thrive irrespective of their background.

He, however, lamented that both government and relevant institutions have not realised the place of the artists in nation building. Hence, they provide little or no support for them.

“I would want to say that this actually marks the beginning of a very eventful period in Nigeria’s art life.

However, what Nigeria has not done, unfortunately, is that it has not been deliberate about looking at arts.

“The government must be very deliberate especially in these unique areas that are beginning to make impact, like autistic ones, and put funds into those areas,” he said.

Helen Neete, an art instructor, said many Nigerians still have little or no knowledge of the Autism spectrum, and therefore have a polarised   view of autistic children.

“I believe that these individuals are specially  touched by God, and  I don’t think they have special needs.

“I think they have special abilities, and  each of them has his own form of expression; for some, it’s music, for others , it’s writing, and then those in visual art.

“One of the reasons why individuals on the spectrum are pushed aside is the lack of sensitisation and awareness in our society.

“Nobody goes into motherhood or parenthood thinking that they will have a child on the spectrum, and  many people don’t even ask if this happens to me. What do I do?

“So when you are just faced with this individual, and you don’t know what to do, so the first thing to do is that we as a society we have to educate ourselves,” she said.

Also, the mother of the young artist, Dr Sylvia Tagbo-Okeke, said children with special needs require individualised care, attention, and accommodations for them to feel included and motivated to manifest their God-given talents.

According to her, the journey of her son to stardom was that of resilience, determination, and sacrifices  by the family.

She therefore called on parents with autistic children not to give up ,adding that society, especially in the Nigerian setting, needs to be more empathetic and understanding with children who have special needs.

“For parents that have special needs children, I always tell them never to give up on their child or  lose hope.

“No matter how bad, if you keep at it, if you are patient, if you show love, at least they will be able to move from a point A point B  and to a point C.

“You will deal with stigmatisation, discrimination, and with people that do not have empathy because in this society, you have the good, the bad, and the ugly.

“For us as a family, we have met some good people as well that have encouraged us, and then we have met some very bad ones that have made us feel very bad.

“But what we decided is that, we are not going to dwell on those bad, because we have a motto  that autism is not a tragedy, Ignorance is”, she said.(NAN)

Edited by Ekemini Ladejobi