Members of the Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB) Lagos Chapter are torn between community and accountability amid accusations of fund and resource mismanagement.
Abdullahi Dolapo (not real name), a member of NAB who contacted FIJ, claimed that the organisation had existed for a long while without properly accounting for its revenue and expenses. Dolapo added that NAB’s executives had been caught handling two other bank accounts in the organisation’s name without the members’ knowledge.
Other members also reported that executives within the organisation had formed cliques to hold power, resources and opportunities for personal gain, while neglecting others.
Origin
The Nigeria Association of the Blind was established in 1986 as a member of the National Advisory Council for the Blind, with a mission to actualise a Nigerian society in which all citizens of various abilities can live and achieve their full potential without discrimination and other environmental barriers.
They operate as a charity organisation, mostly receiving grants and donations (in form of funds or equipment) and renting out facilities to generate revenue. They also organise programmes, such as White Cane Day, and give support to the blind within their communities.
The association has state chapters throughout Nigeria. Each state chapter has an executive committee with a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer and Public Relations Officer, Youth leader, Women leader and three district coordinators headed by the chairperson.
Elections within the association are held every four years.
On December 6, in a reportedly free and fair election conducted at the general assembly of the NAB Lagos Chapter after a three-day empowerment conference, Engineer Taiwo Amao, who won against opponent Babatunde Safiu by twenty points, was elected chairperson of the association alongside a new treasurer and secretary.
On January 9, they were sworn in.
Fund and Resource Mismanagement Allegations
Dolapo, an executive member of NAB, reached out to FIJ to report the prolonged unaccountability of association’s funds and suspected fraud by some executive members.
He lamented the non-transparency of fund management and stated that for the 57 years NAB Lagos Chapter had operated, there had been no appropriate statement of account delivered to its members to prove how much money had come in and was spent.
Dolapo mentioned that during the handover ceremony in 2016, Kudirat Amuda, the treasurer at the time, claimed that her laptop had crashed. She did not give account of any of the funds spent for that year.
“N13 million was what they said we realised last year (2024) at the general conference. Only 1.2 or N1.5 million was remaining in the account, and they could not tell us what was done with the N11 million,” Dolapo told FIJ.
“We didn’t paint the office, we didn’t buy tap or roofing sheets to replace anywhere. N11 million, gone.”
He also mentioned that the association’s account had never been audited, and when the elected chairman made attempts to involve a qualified external body to audit the account, other executive members rejected the idea.
Furthermore, members of the association only found out in 2025 that the association owned two additional bank accounts in its name, after only being aware of its FirstBank account.
In addition to this, Dolapo claimed the money that came into the association in form of donations had been pocketed by some people with access to those accounts.
Another claim he made was that the resources donated to the organisation over the years were being tampered with and had possibly been stolen.
“In 2016, the then chairman handed over three Perkins Braillers, what we use to produce the braille text that blind people read. Each of them cost about N1 million now. None of them are to be found in the office,” Dolapo told FIJ.
The documentation of this handover is contained in the 2016 NAB Chairman report.
The executive committee member mentioned that the laptops and other equipment donated to the organisation were being sold and replaced with secondhand replicas.
“We are all blind, so we need external people who can see to regulate us,” Dolapo told FIJ.
“The chairman’s office, which stores all the equipment, has no lock. It’s just open, free access.”
According to Dolapo, it wasn’t until 2025 that the new chairman called a carpenter to change the lock on the door.
He also accused some members of reselling donated items, such as walking canes, which were meant to be shared freely.
Dolapo told FIJ that this had been happening for years, and Taofik Owoiya, the current treasurer, began to surrender monthly statements of account from January because the new chairman instructed him.
The organisation is also torn between two chairmen: Amao, who was sworn in in January, and Babatunde Kazeem Safiu, the runner-up, due to an oversight in the election process and subsequent foul play claims in the resolution of electoral oversight.
After the election, it was found that two of the elected executives, the treasurer and secretary, came from the same district. This goes against Article 13 of the NAB constitution which states that the three main executives should not emerge from the same district.
In an attempt to solve this issue, the national headquarters instructed Kemi, the elected secretary, to step down. Isaiah, the runner-up, who is from Lagos East, was to take the secretary post.
However, Isaiah and Amao (the elected chairman) were both from Lagos East, and this further complicated issues and caused a divide within the organisation.
The organisation eventually decided to resolve these issues in court.
Testimonials From Members of NAB Lagos Chapter
FIJ spoke to Babatunde Kazeem Safiu, Owoiya Taofik, current treasurer of NAB Lagos chapter, Elufisan Aanu, Adenike Bolarinwa and Babalola David (not real name), another executive committee member who chose to remain anonymous.
“As far as I’m concerned, there is no mismanagement. Not one kobo of the association has been mismanaged. That is hearsay,” Safiu, who identified himself as the chairman of NAB Lagos Chapter, told FIJ.
Safiu said that the association had only two functioning accounts, a FirstBank account and a Zenith Bank account.
“I was the treasurer between 2016 and 2021. Towards the end of our tenure, in 2020, we opened a Zenith Bank account because Zenith Bank usually funds our White Cane Day. So we thought it was appropriate to have an account with them,” he explained.
Safiu told FIJ that when he handed the Zenith account over to the next executives, they did not utilise it for a single day. So, the bank account became dormant.
He said they had activated the account again a week before 31 July, when they assumed office, and credited it with N10,000.
“That’s the only money you can find in that Zenith Bank account from inception,” Safiu said.
He also mentioned that before any money was spent from the association’s account, it had to be approved by all the executives and there was documentation for all the expenses.
“We’re not a lawless society, and it’s not the kobo of the association that will feed the executives,” Safiu told FIJ.
Safiu told FIJ that the association’s accounts might not have been audited because they’d never employed auditors. He claimed there were plans to involve external auditors soon.
He mentioned that the reason they had not involved auditors yet was because of the cost.
“What we have at most is N1.5 million. It’s only when we have White Cane Day and we raise money that we may have up to N35 million or thereabout,” Safiu told FIJ.
Safiu said that he could confirm that during his tenure as treasurer in 2016, they had been releasing statements of account, but he could not vouch for the previous tenures.
He denied that any of the association’s equipment was being tampered with, adding that the braille embossers were still functioning and in the office, and the braille centre was a source of revenue for the association.
When FIJ spoke to Taofik, who is in his second tenure as treasurer, he said that the statement of account had not been given every year. Taofik admitted that there was controversy but said he had submitted financial reports annually without fail since he began his first tenure in 2021.
“It’s always open and posted on our platform. During our meetings we give room for question and clarification, and that has been done for the past four years,” Taofik said.
He confirmed that the account had never been audited but denied that any equipment had been tampered with, claiming that they never got any new equipment in their tenure.
Taofik sent FIJ the most recent annual statement of account he released.
Aanu, a female member of NAB Lagos Chapter, complained that the members were oblivious to a lot of things happening within the association.
“Right now I can’t even tell you who the chairman of NAB Lagos is. We have two chairmen,” she said.
She told FIJ that when Amao, the elected chairman, was sworn in, he sent the constitution to the association’s social media platform and it began to reveal a lot of things that the members were unaware of.
Aanu said that when Amao sent the constitution to the platform, the other executive members opposed him, asking who instructed him to send the document.
According to the constitution, the annual dues for each member of the organisation were supposed to be N1,200, but the members were paying N4,000. Bolarinwa, David and Dolapo confirmed this.
“During that process, we started hearing that the association has three different accounts, but we knew just one — the First Bank account. It started causing misunderstanding between the excos,” Aanu said.
Bolarinwa, another female member, also mentioned the revelation of the three accounts owned by the association and tagged it as suspicious.
“We members believed we had one bank account, and later discovered we had three accounts. We also discovered that any money that comes in would be put into an account that no one knows. That is not supposed to be the case,” Bolarinwa told FIJ.
“Everything they (the executives) do, they do it their own way, not the way everyone wants it.”
She also cited the N13 million that had been received the previous year, of which she said only 2 million was surrendered. Bolarinwa said the remaining N11 million could not be accounted for.
“What I’ve noticed is that the former chairman and former exco members are just using our money in a way we don’t want. They don’t do things openly, they have the people involved with what they do, and they don’t carry along all the members. They share what we receive among themselves,” Bolarinwa claimed.
She said that the past four tenures of the organisation had been nothing impressive and many members were tired of the association.
“There’s no benefit. We’re just seeing that money is coming in, but they cannot account for it,” Bolarinwa complained.
She noted that the money from the association’s braille machines that were being rented out was not being remitted.
Bolarinwa also claimed that the annual dues were being pocketed by individuals.
She stated that Amao had a different way of operating compared to the other executives because he openly documented every action he took for all the members to see since he had been sworn in. She claimed that the executives did not want him to remain in office, and that was why they tried to unseat him.
David, a coordinator and executive member, affirmed that for a long time in the association, they had not submitted any financial reports.
“All what they’ve been giving us, all those gifts, all the laptops and printing materials, we can’t see them,” David told FIJ.
“I thought it was only in Nigerian politics that there is a cabal, not knowing that there is a cabal in NAB.”
He claimed that when items were bought, some executives would inflate the amount.
“They’ve been doing this for long. They misuse the funds,” David told FIJ.
“Our people are suffering.
“Executives are there to serve us.”
He stated that the association only started seeing reports since February because Amao had instructed the treasurer to release financial reports monthly so that everyone would see it.
Response From the National President of NAB
FIJ spoke with Stanley Nnamdi Onyebuchi, the national president of Nigeria Association for the Blind.
He noted that no allegations of fund diversion or equipment mismanagement had been reported to him. Onyebuchi also said that he had recently visited NAB Lagos Chapter and got no complaints. He added that the braille embosser given to them by the government was still intact.
Onyebuchi told FIJ that the White Cane celebration was held every year at the chapter and that guide canes were given to every member freely.
He said that he was aware of two bank accounts that the association had in Lagos, and he confirmed that the Zenith bank account was dormant.
Onyebuchi explained that the association as a whole rarely received funds, most of the money received were from the White Cane Day celebrations. He said that many of the members were living in poverty due to their disability, so the accusations and grievances were expected.
“This is what happens when you’re in leadership. People think you are just collecting money here and there,” Onyebuchi said.
“That’s why I tell them to always show statement of account for whatever that you have, for them (the members) to know that nothing or something is coming in.”
Onyebuchi however told FIJ that the allegations of the missing Perkins Braillers and other equipment would be investigated. The national president said that he would ensure the items were returned, citing a situation where about three phones were kept by some executive members in the Plateau Chapter, and they were made to repurchase and surrender the phones.
He also affirmed that Safiu was the recognised chairman in Lagos.
According to Onyebuchi, the members were willing to overlook the treasurer and secretary coming from the same district because Kemi, the elected treasurer, is a woman, and the leadership roles were mostly held by male members, but Amao insisted on due process. When due process was followed and Isaiah was instated, being from Lagos East, Amao was asked to step down.
Current Status
The association has not had a meeting in Lagos since January, and members such as Dolapo and Aanu said there was tension within the group and among the executives.
FIJ learnt that the tussle for the chairmanship had been taken to court.
At press time, an external auditor had not been brought to examine the association’s finances.
Dolapo claimed that the elected chairman had invited auditors to handle the account but the initiative was repelled by other executives.
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