Lagosians with Disabilities demand better welfare, suggest ways for Gov. Sanwo-Olu as he marks his one year in office

Lagosians with disabilities have felicitated with State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy Dr. Amzat as they mark their one year of successfully piloting the affairs of the State.

Chairman of JONAPWD in Lagos, Dr. Adebukola Adebayo in a statement sent to The Qualitative Magazine, he appreciated the governor for his personal commitment to promoting disability-inclusion and empowerment of lagosians with disability in the last one year.

While we acknowledge and appreciate His Excellency’s personal commitment to promoting disability-inclusion and empowerment, Lagosians with disabilities, he lamented that there is no evidence of strategic, institutional, policy/program-driven approaches to implementing governor’s passionate love for PWDs, he said.

Speaking further, he said that Governor Sanwo-Olu THEMES Agenda offered Lagosians with disabilities some hope of enhancement of their inclusion in all sectors of life in the state emerging smart mega city. However, the Administration has failed after one year to strengthen the Disability Agency (LASODA) with which it would have achieved this important goal. LASODA up till now has no Board and General Manager to pilot its affairs.

He proposed that Lagosians with disabilities would be much happier if the governor do the following in his second year:

1. The urgent set-up and institutional strengthening of LASODA
2. Restoration of the Disability Empowerment Fund.
3. Executive Order mandating all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to set-up a Disability-Inclusion Desk to be supervised by a Director in charge of Planning
4. Executive Order mandating all Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to set up Disability Support and Resource Office.
5. Full implementation of the Lagos State Policy on inclusive education.

“Lagosians with disabilities trust that these requests would have been granted by the end of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s second year in office. God bless our dear Governor, his Deputy and all those who work with them. God bless Lagos state,” he concluded.