I don’t know if I’m an albino – Joshua Alabi

Flagbearer hopeful of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Prof. Joshua Alabi says he cannot categorically say whether or not he’s a person living with albinism.

According to him, he only knows he has a fair skin colour, adding that no doctor has ever told him he’s an albino.

When asked by Host of Morning Starr on Starr FM, Francis Abban whether he’s a person living with albinism, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, (UPSA) replied “Albinism? I don’t know, but this is my colour, what name will you give to it? this is me, I don’t know but you tell me…because no doctor has told me that. You can tell me, maybe you have an idea. I read some of these things on social media but I’ve not been told by any doctor.”

Answering a question on what he makes of people who look down on persons with albinism, he replied “I don’t know if I’m one but no one has ever looked down on me. I’ve made it in my life in leadership throughout, so I don’t know if there’s one that people look down upon.”

He said what could be done to change the stigma around those in the minority, is to reorient the public to know that such persons are God’s creation and should not be discriminated upon.

Article 17(2) of the 1992 Constitution states that “a person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or economic status”.

However, there are so many erroneous myths and beliefs that put the lives of persons with albinism at constant risk, leaving them in endless fear.

According to Mr Adam Abdul-Wahab, the National Advocacy and Communication Officer of the Ghana Association of Person with Albinism (GAPA), an advocacy group made up of persons living with albinism, some communities around Atebubu and Abaase in the Brong Ahafo Region and Burukuwa, in the Kwahu North District and Akwamufie all in the Eastern Region, do not permit persons with albinism to live there.