5% Employment Slot: PWDs, Vulnerable Group Need To Apply And Ask For Their Rights

The Albino Foundation Public Notice

By Ruby Leo and Oliver Nweke

Persons with Disabilities and those that fall in the category of vulnerable group need to apply to various Ministries, Department and Agency (MDAs) for an opportunity to be gainfully employed if such vacancies becomes available, the National Human Rights Commission has said.

The Executive Secretary, Mr Anthony Ojukwu esq made the call when he received the management of the INCLUSION Magazine, led by its Chief Executive Office Mr Husseini Abdulrahman during a working visit.

The Human Rights Commission who was ably represented by the Special Assistant to Executive Secretary, and head of the monitoring department, Mr. Okay Benedict Agu said that persons with disabilities need to take the bold step to seek employment and if rejected because of their disabilities would have the backing of the commission to seek justice.

His words, “it is not the duty of MDAs to seek for persons to employ, it is the duty of the PWDs to apply for work where they know they have the requisite ability and capacity and qualification, and if anybody refuses them work based on their physical fitness, the constitution should protect them, because it says no Nigerian should be discriminated against, on the bases of sex, religion, ethnicity or others.

” We are not the enforcing agencies to know what is happening in other MDAs, it is the police that needs to do the needful, however if any physical challenged person, brings up the issue that an organization is employing and they were able to go there and were refused employment despite the fact that, they are physically able to do this work. Then if the complains come to us the commission we can handle it”.

Assuring Nigerians and PWDs that their complains will be treated within three months, Ojukwu said if complaints are reported, the commission has a complaint treatment mechanism, describing it as one of the best in Africa.

“the Local network of human rights institutions have judged our mechanism as the best in Africa especially since my principle came on board and we resolved that no complains will be left untreated, and all complaints must be handled within 3 months.

”Most often we beat that three months deadline, we handle the complains before the expiration of the 3 months. It is the public that will make complains to us, and we have standard operating procedures, standard order and regulation of the commission, an internal document for enforcing and promoting human rights in Nigeria”. 

According to him the commission has a full flesh department and headed by a director handling this group, which was established by this new dispensation to bring succor to the plight of the vulnerable groups.

Earlier Mr Abdulrahman Husseini the Publisher of INCLUSION Magazine pointed out the issues concerning PWDs are under reported and if they are to enjoy their rights as Nigerians such issues need to widely disseminated to the right stakeholders for necessary action.

He commended the National Human Rights Commission and its Executive Secretary, Mr Anthony Ojukwu for his exemplary leadership in fighting for the plight and rights of the vulnerable in Nigeria.

“The human rights commission is one of the first MDA that established a disability desk, and employed some persons from the vulnerable group, you even have a sign language interpreter as an employee”.

“We want to change the lives and narrative of persons with disabilities, so we want to partner with Human rights commission to achieve this mandate”

He lamented that most parents if they give birth to a child with disability, they abandon the child, saying, “we believe that this is not the right thing to be done, you give birth to a child, and you see that the child has a deformity and you open one room and lock the child there with a nanny”.

“This is quite unfortunate, so we want to do an event for the parents, to create awareness for them, and help give them the necessary support to help in the upbringing of the child, most PWDs are more intelligent than those that are abled”.

“The human rights commission has already set up the pace, and being a government agency we want to partner to achieve the objective and mission of INCLUSION Magazine by coming up with programs and events on different platform that will improve the lives of these vulnerable”.

The director vulnerable group department, Mr Dahiru Sajo Bobbo said that the commission is doing a lot of work to bring succor to the plight of persons with disabilities and vulnerable group.

He commended the magazine for dedicating a page to showcase their various activities adding that a lot needs to be done to the Bwari rehabilitation centre, where most of these persons are picked and dumped

“we are working to get the minister of the FCT to do something about it, either he reforms the place or close the place to bring some kind of succor to the plight of these persons”.