House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Aviation and DG, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Hosts CARE to Address issues of Resistance by Aviation Stakeholders to Accessible Aviation Project.
Following the respective resistances by some Aviation stakeholders to the VOICE In Nigeria funded Accessible Aviation Project being implemented by an Influencing Grant Grantee.
The Center For Ability, Rehabilitation and Empowerment (CARE), The CARE team on 11th April, 2022 paid an advocacy visit to Chairman of The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji at his office in National Assembly, Abuja.
The visit was facilitated by The Chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on Disabilities and Vulnerable Persons, Honorable Princess Marian Onuora.
The team was warmly received by the Chairman himself amidst his very tight schedule.
Upon listening to the team and her complaints on resistances by Aviation Stakeholders during boarding and disembarking of PWD despite all the positive supports of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the continued discrimination of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) by domestic Airlines particularly in the areas of their policy of making it mandatory for a PWD to purchase an extra ticket for an aide to accompany them when flying.
This practice makes it expensive for PWDs to fly in Nigeria.
After the presentation, The Chairman immediately put a call across to the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu and requested that his management team hosts the CARE team. The meeting was slated on Tuesday 12th April 2022 by 10am.
The Chairman apologised on behalf of all Aviation Stakeholders and promised that his Committee will ensure more policy changes to accommodate the interests and care of the PWD community.
On Tuesday 12 April 2022, the DG NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu and his management team that included Three Directors, namely Legal; Air Transport and Human Resources alongside the Special Assistant to the DG received the CARE team in audience at their office within the premises of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.
The DG too, after listening to the complaints of the CARE team as relayed earlier to the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation Chairman, apologised again to the Disability Community and explained that as at when the acts setting up the regulations of the Aviation sector in Nigeria, the issues of disabilities were omitted by the drafters who forgot that disability can happen to anyone by birth, accident, health challenges or age.
He promised that the policies will change henceforth in two approaches namely by subtle appeals to the practitioners and directives backed up by the Disability Act of 2019.
He equally agreed to get NCAA to back the planned Aviation Stakeholders Training and Forum respectively.
The meeting ended on a very positive note of commitment to ensuring that the discriminatory policies against PWD end as quickly as possible.
