*******Nigeria Leads the World’s Largest Autism Screening Event on April 2- Uyero
*******As Global SWAp Health Fellows Spokesperson Commends Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health On Nigeria’s Health Transformation Policy.
*********Says Free Autism Screening Events, Initiative to Birth “Spark a Spectrum of Possibilities 2026” Autism Screening Centres in Nigerian States
By Victor Bieni, Abuja Nigeria
Ambassador Uyero Erarawewho, The Global Spokesperson of Sector-Wide-Approach (SWAp) Health Fellows, has said that neurologists, state governments, schools, and parent groups will on April 2, 2026 unite, leads the largest Autism screening events across every Nigerian States to celebrate 2026 World Autism Day which will be marked by screening of hundreds of children in the biggest event of its kind in history.
Delta Uhuru Media (News Online) learnt this from Sector-Wide-Approach (SWAp) Spokesperson, Ambassador Uyero Erarawewho who doubles as the Special Assistant to Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori on Youths Mobilization in a telephone conversation with our reporter today being on Thursday, March 26, 2026 as he stated that the morning of April 2, 2026, World Autism Awareness Day, something unprecedented will take place across Nigeria.
Speaking to our reporter on the forthcoming health transformation event to be held in Nigeria, Ambassador Uyero Erarawewho noted that, the Autism screening events exercise across Nigerian States will take place in teaching hospitals and community centres, in university halls and government offices, in schools and parent group meeting rooms across almost every 36 State of the federation and FCT. He said: “Nigerian families will bring their children for free autism screening, and consultation, for many of them it will be the first time”.
In the words of the Global Spokesperson of SWAp Health Fellows, Ambassador Uyero Erarawewho: “First and Foremost, I must commend our amiable leader, Loukia Tsami, The Global Coordinator of Sector-Wide-Approach ( SWAp) Health Fellows, who doubles as a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst and Research Associate at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in the United States and other global officials for this laudable ‘Global Health Transformation initiatives’, precisely to be held in Nigeria. This forthcoming Autism Screening event to Celebrate the World Autism Day in Nigeria on April 2,, 2026 will connect 84 centres across 32 countries on a single live Zoom broadcast on April 2. But the story that matters most for Nigerians is not the global reach. It is what is happening right here at home”.
“What makes Spark a Spectrum 2026 different from any autism event Nigeria has seen before is the coalition behind it. This is not a foreign-led charity initiative. It is a mobilisation of Nigeria’s own health professionals, academics, government officials, and community leaders, working together under a shared conviction: that autistic Nigerians deserve to be seen, celebrated, and supported”.
“At the centre of that coalition are the health fellows of the Sector-Wide Approach Coordination Office, the SWAp, the Federal Government’s flagship framework for health sector renewal under the leadership of Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, CON, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare.
Prof. Pate, a Harvard-trained physician who was recognized on TIME magazine’s 100 Health 2025 list, has led Nigeria’s most ambitious health reform programme in a generation”.
“Prof Pate’s Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative has mobilize d over $1.57 billion in financing, revitalized primary healthcare centres across 36 states, and built a network of trained health programme officers who are now serving just like in the words of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum: ‘seeds of hope’ for the Nigerian health system”.
“It is that network, those seeds of hope, who are screening Nigerian children on April 2.
The practical bridge between Prof. Pate’s national reform vision and the families who will benefit on April 2 is Dr. Ashiru Adamu Abubakar, Governance Coordination and Subnational Engagement Lead at the SWAp Coordination Office, and Technical Assistant to the Minister”.
“It is through Dr. Ashiru’s office that SWAp Fellows across Nigeria’s states were connected to Spark a Spectrum, trained in the use of validated autism screening tools, and mobilised to lead their state events on April 2.
The SWAp Fellows who are participating on April 2 represent a remarkable cross-section of Nigeria’s health workforce: nurses, physicians, health educators, and community health workers from states as geographically and culturally diverse as Jigawa in the far north and Bayelsa in the Niger Delta”.
“They have completed the Pan-African Autism Screening Initiative training programme, a structured, evidence-based course developed by behaviour analysts and delivered through a digital learning platform that has now enrolled more than 1,000 learners across 22 countries since its launch in March 2026”.
“The training programme itself is grounded in peer-reviewed research. Its foundation is a landmark study published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis in 2026 by Nigerian researcher Mojolaoluwa Bamise, in collaboration with Dr. Dorothea Lerman, one of the most cited behaviour analysts in the world, and Loukia Tsami.
“Alongside the SWAp Fellows, Nigeria’s foremost teaching hospitals are represented. Dr. Chimaeze Torty of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Cross River State, is co-leading the research dimension of the initiative, working with Tsami and Faby Diallo, a Guinean-American Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, for peer-reviewed publication. The Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Lagos, the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital in Sokoto, the Federal Medical Centre in Katsina, and the Bauchi State Teaching Hospital are among the institutions whose staff and networks are participating on April 2”.
“The breadth of institutional involvement signals something that has rarely been achieved in Nigerian autism advocacy: genuine buy-in from the medical establishment.
State governments are also engaged in a meaningful way. The Special Adviser to the Ekiti State Governor on Special Education and Social Inclusion, Mrs. Adetoun Funmilayo Agboola, has confirmed the Ekiti State Government’s participating and is using Spark a Spectrum as a vehicle to advance disability inclusion legislation at state level”.
“The Abia State coordinator has received an official Letter of Recommendation from the SWAp Coordination Office, the first time the Federal Government has formally recognised individual autism advocates in this way.
Perhaps the most significant political development around Spark a Spectrum 2026 is the invitation from the National Assembly Library Trust Fund, NALTF, to host a policy roundtable with Nigerian Senators and Honourable Members in Abuja on April 2 itself”.
“The roundtable, being coordinated by Aliyu Ibrahim Usman of Al-Muhibbah Open University Abuja, represents the first time autism has been placed on the legislative agenda at this level in Nigeria’s history.
If even one Senator leaves that room with a commitment to introduce or support disability inclusion legislation, it will mark a turning point for the 2.5 million Nigerians estimated to have autism, the vast majority of whom have never received a diagnosis, accessed therapy, or been supported by any formal government programme”.
“Beyond the institutions, Spark a Spectrum 2026 is also a story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Across Nigeria, special education teachers affiliated with the Nigeria Association of Special Education Teachers, led by National President and Vice President Sakinatu Abdulkarim Agabi, who runs the Peace of Mind Academy in Nasarawa State providing free education and counselling to children with special needs, are bringing their students, their families, and their communities to screening centres on April 2”.
“Parent groups, NGOs, and community organisations in states including Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Ogun, Imo, Adamawa, and more have opened their own venues, trained their own volunteers, and are ready to welcome families who have been waiting, in some cases for years, for someone to simply look at their child and tell them what they are seeing.
The Kaduna Polytechnic Autism Centre, the College of Education Dutsan Ma in Katsina, the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Bayero University Kano, and dozens of other academic and clinical institutions have joined the effort”.
“A total of more than 30 Nigerian states will have an active Spark a Spectrum centre or online screening point on April 2, a coverage that no single autism initiative has ever achieved in this country.
No account of Spark a Spectrum 2026 would be complete without the story of Kanyeyachukwu Tagbo-Okeke. Kanye is 16 years old, autistic, and already a Guinness World Record holder for the largest art canvas. He is currently cycling from Enugu to Lagos, a journey of more than 500 kilometres, and will arrive in Lagos on April 2, completing his ‘Journey of Possibility’ as the global broadcast goes live”.
“His journey, sponsored by Indomie Nigeria and documented by the Guardian Nigeria, Vanguard, and the Associated Press, has become the symbolic heartbeat of everything Spark a Spectrum stands for. He is not a symbol of what autism looks like when things go wrong. He is a demonstration of what is possible when a young autistic person is given support, belief, and the freedom to move.
What April 2 Means
Across 32 countries, from South Africa to Morocco, from Guinea to the Philippines, from Saudi Arabia to Greece, 84 centres will open their doors simultaneously on April 2. Hundreds of children will be screened using validated tools”.
“Thousands of parents will receive a clear, compassionate response for the first time. Thousands of community members who have never encountered autism awareness will sit beside a trained screener and learn something that could change a child’s life.
Nigeria leads this movement. Not because it was given this role. But because its health fellows, its neurologists, its teachers, its parents, and its government officials chose to show up”.
“Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate has spent his career arguing that health transformation in Nigeria must be built from within, by Nigerians, for Nigerians, accountable to Nigerians. On April 2, the SWAp fellows who carry his reform vision into Nigeria’s communities will also carry something else: a screening form, a trained eye, and the knowledge that a child identified early has a fundamentally different future from one identified late.
Spark a Spectrum of Possibilities 2026 is only the beginning”.