About the Founder

Adekunle Ademola Elijah is a stammerer and a graduate of Accounting. Inspired by children and adults who were bullied and mal-treated through teasing and other forms of bullying. Adekunle Ademola sought to establish an organization named The Nigerian Stuttering Association that would herald and simultaneously help all children, teens and adults deal with stigmatization, public ridicule, rejection, dejection and mockery and improve attitudes towards people with differences, particularly people who stutter and clutter.

The establishment was engineered by him, friends and family members. And later re-inforced by professional in the field of Speech and Audiology both home and abroad. According to report of his parent, he started stammering at an early stage after a brief illness. His class teacher was the first person to discover it and she notified his parents. Since there was little or no education about stammering and other communication disorders at that time, the stuttering continued to grow stronger and stronger till today.

He did not admit stammering as a major communication problem and even a threat to live until when he was posted to eastern part of Nigeria, Enugu State for his mandatory one year service to his fatherland that is (National Youth Service Corps). Unfortunately for Ademola and to further put him unto stronger challenges, he was posted to one secondary school in Agwu Local Government Area to teacher! That was the beginning of his stuttering problem and that led to the establishment of this organization. In short, he was idle for about four months of his service year because no employer wanted him as a stammerer.

During this turbulent period, he felt not-wanted, abandoned, discouraged and despaired since nobody understood his problem and nobody gave him a single courage. It was a hell!

When he traveled to United Kingdom, he came across a woman who gave him a link to the International Stuttering Association. From there, he started seeing light. He contacted National Stuttering Association, USA and the Stuttering Foundation, USA. They all supported him with materials.

Many thanks to Marilyn Langevin of Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research(ISTAR). He also at a time received speech therapy via telephone conversation from Beck Kara, Speech Clinic, Ottawa Hospital, Canada. He also enjoyed support from Mrs. Jane Fraser of the Stuttering Foundation. Elaine Saita, the former Executive Director of NSA, USA also helped him greatly. Mr. David O’Brien of California (NSA) was also helpful.

He also had an opportunity of undergoing a Speech Therapy for few hours at the just concluded Second International Conference on Stuttering at Burkina Faso with Prof. David Shapiro (USA), Marie (France) and Dr. Vilmos (Lithuania)

The International Cluttering Association which was formed 2007 has also showed a lot of concern for the Stuttering Community in Nigeria in which Ademola is the Nigeria’s member representative. The Organization is saying a very big thank you to all the above named individuals and organizations locally and internationally.

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