Dr Adebukola Adebayo, the Chairman of Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), has urged the Lagos State Government to make its disabilities office more functional.
Adebayo gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday.
He expressed concern with inadequacies in the disability office which he said had made it difficult for Persons with Disabilities (PWD) to get the required attention.
“Speaking for Persons with Disabilities in Lagos state, I must confess that we are living with challenges, although we have disabilities law and office, it is not strong enough to involve us in policy making.
“We want to be at the table and forefront when policies are made, designed and implemented, because that is what we don’t have at the moment and it’s a big problem.
“In reviving the office of disabilities in Lagos state, proper funding and more staffing will go a long way in attending to the needs of nearly two million PWDs across the state,” he said.
He advocated capacity building across board as well as a disability desk in every Local Government Council to create an enabling environment for members.
He said: “The situation now is, if you want to register a child with disability, you must come to Alausa to do that but we are saying no to that, we want disability desk in each Local Government Area”.
The chairman also urged proper documentation of PWDs across the state to ensure that they were meaningfully engaged.
He appealed to the government to always seek the opinion of PWDs in carrying out empowerment programmes, rather than choosing for them.
“Opportunities should be thrown open for PWDs to make a choice on what they want to learn and they must be empowered and patronised after graduation as a way of sustaining them in the business.’’(NAN)
