by Chris Agbo
The Executive Director, Disability Rights Advocacy Centre (DRAC) Dr. Irene Patrick-Ogbogu speaking as one of the panelists at EU and RoLAC organized programme as a part of the campaign in commemoration of 16 days of activism against gender based violence to mark the 2019 international Human Rights Day, said that human rights are for everyone regardless of your economic status or disability status. Your rights should be enforced like every other person, unfortunately disability rights in Nigeria is still unattainable. Yes, there is a disability act now but it took almost 30 years of struggle before it came into being, it is surprising why it has to take such long time because disability should be everybody’s business and it can happen to anybody at any time. Many of the foremost disability advocates were not born with disability, it happened along the line. Do we have to wait for something terrible to happen before we should take disability rights seriously?
The reason is that the society generally continue to view persons with disabilities as people who have less value, second class citizens, people who should not have right and this kind of mindset continue to persist, it cut across every sector of the society. The mindset stems from our religious beliefs, traditional beliefs for instance this belief that disability is a curse or punishment, persons with disabilities should be kept separate and treated separately. It affect the way persons with disabilities are able to access services, for instance if a woman with physical disability who have been raped, goes to report and there are stairs everywhere and she was to be carried by men, touching her inappropriately in her vital areas somebody who have just been raped, imagine also, a deaf girl who have been raped and she has gone to report but there is no sign language interpreter to help explain what happened to her. In most cases, the service providers are not well trained as such they are not sensitive, they will be making statement like “You should even be happy that a man is interested in you”.
There were practical examples of where some women with disabilities have been raped and they go to police. The police will be asking question like “Na your Boyfriend, Na your Husband? When you answer, they will make statement such as “Me wey dey here, I never see one wey come marry me, you wey get, wan put am for trouble because he raped you”. Persons with disabilities are still suffering despite the enactment of disability act. Since January, 23rd 2019 that the act came into being, there have been no forward movement on the implementation. The act stipulates that a commission will be established to oversee the implementation of the law but up till now, there is absolutely nothing no ground. Persons with disabilities have been advocating, making their voices heard but nothing much seems to be happening because disability issues are not fashionable, people are not interested. At this point, she challenged the celebrities present at the event because they have never spoken to disability rights, they seem not interested, a right doesn’t have to be fashionable before one can add his/ her voice to it.
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There are so many rights been violated around disability, disability rights are being violated daily, persons with disabilities cannot have access to public building, access to information, access to communication, jingles and information are put out, and nobody thinks or care on how the deaf and blind person can access the information, there are barriers everywhere, as a person with physical disability, you go to the airport, you can’t access the aircraft because of lack of airlift to take you in. when you ask question, they will ask how many persons with disabilities are flying, so because many persons with disabilities are not flying, you should not make provision for those who are flying.
She concluded by saying that all rights are human rights and it belongs to everybody, it is inappropriate to select the rights you will fight for. If you wish to be a human rights activist, you should have interest in all rights be it disability rights, women rights, child rights, all rights are crosscutting, all these groups are being discriminated upon and they are all suffering similar fate. It is improper to choose a particular right and make it all serious issue and leave out other rights.
Prof. Joy Ezeilo, the moderator of the panel in her response to Dr. Irene assertion, narrated how she helped to build a ramp in an entrance of a class room in the University of Nigeria after witnessing a young lady on wheelchair being carried by men into the class. A practice that has been taking place daily because she intervened.
The event which took place in EU office, Abuja brought together human rights activists, persons with disabilities who are rights advocates, celebrities and diplomats.
SOME PICTURES OF THE EVENT:
