The Albino Foundation Public Notice
The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities recently marked its one year in office since it was established. What is at the foremost of most stakeholder’s agenda, is pushing for the implementation of the Discrimination against Persons with Disability Prohibition Act to provide the most desired succor to PWDs.
Already the commission is partnering with various mortgage organization to amend building plans to make them accessible for persons with disabilities, while advocating for 200 houses to be allocated for members with disabilities in the FCT and 50 houses each across states.
This feat is quite commendable as having shelter over ones head takes away the burden of being homeless and living on the streets.
With an inclusive education policy in place, the responsibility of the commission is to ensure that most states begin to include this policy in their strategic plans that will enforce the enrollment of children with disabilities into schools.
So far 3 million children with disabilities are out of school, with more being pulled out of schools due to security challenges, accessible and availability of the facility.
The inclusive education will remove the ideology of separate institutions for children with special needs, but rather what the government need to concern itself with is making the already established schools disability friendly while providing special needs teachers to bridge the gap.
This reduces the cost of building new schools and equipping them.
Massive awareness are underway to change negative perception about persons with disabilities, the Albinism Foundation in collaboration with the European Union is sponsoring a radio programmes on the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) to discuss and educate Nigerians about the rights of persons with disability.
This programme has been on air for three years, while some media houses all have specialized columns, spaces or programmes to discuss issues pertaining to persons with disabilities.
We are indeed making progress, we are not yet on the forefront of the agenda of the government but with continuous hammering of the issues through editorials, columns, news stories, features and programmes, we can begin to make the difference we crave to see.
Political participation of persons with disabilities saw some improvement with them being given priority when it comes to voting and provision of suitable means of communication, such as Braille ballot guides, Tactile voting system, magnifying glasses, Election Day written instructions, Large embossed print or electronic devices or sign language interpretation, or off-site voting in appropriate cases”.
We commend the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for addressing the issues as it relates to voting and election matters for persons with disabilities.
Now what is required is for political parties to actively involve persons with disabilities in their political slots, “as the saying goes, there is no we without us”.
The reign of using PWDs to make up the numbers is over, what we desire is to see more persons with disability occupying and contesting for seats in governance where they can make a difference.
Another grey area worth mentioning is the prosecution of offenders of the act to serve as a deterrent to others.
With the advocacy for the introduction of disability desk in all police formation across the states, what persons with disabilities want to see is change from the norm.
As a medium, we will continue to report on all issues on persons with disabilities, progress made and challenges.
We would not relent.
Let us join hands to make Nigeria better and greater.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
