TQM report,

The APC Zonal Special Leader Northeast Comr Mohammed Abba Isa has revalidated his APC Membership Card In His Polling Unit At Yunusari Local Government Yobe State.

TQM report,

The Anchor of AIT’s Will and Zeal, Mr. Liman Usman on Sunday in Abuja marked 2021 Valentine Day by organizing a program for special persons with disabilities.

Mr. Liman said that the essence of the program to bring hope and direction for the parents of these children with disabilities. These are some certain of persons with disabilities who need constant support of their parents or caregivers and that need all sort of guidance and encouragements to continue to provide support children who in most cases cannot survive on their own.

He also said that it is time to interact with parents who have deeper experience on how to take care of a child with intellectual disabilities and also show love and merry with these special people in the spirit of valentine.

The event witnessed experience sharing from parents who have successfully taken care of the children with intellectual disabilities for years, insights from those running school for children with disabilities on how their cost of education can be reduced so that their children can be enrolled in schools.

Some major points from the presentations were parents should not give up, they should be in a hurry to see changes in the children, they should be every thing to the child, there should be more advocacy for government and individuals to invent in the schooling because of its expensive nature, there should be more advocacy for the public to have deeper understanding of these children and know how to relate with them instead of discriminating against them.

They were dancer performances from some of the children to the thrilling of the audiences.

Watch the performances:

The Executive Director, The Qualitative Magazine (TQM) while rendering the closing remark advised that the public see their challenges of the parents of these children as a collective chy allenges that requires collective effort to tackle, people should find ways to assist, be it in their education or economic empowerment of their parents. He appreciated Mr. Liman for choosing to celebrate with special persons with disabilities and the good job he is doing in propagating disability issues through his program Will and Zeal on AIT.

He called on the parents of these children to reach out to the new Executive Secretary of National Commission for Persons with Disabilities so that their own challenges in relation with their children would be inculcated in the programmes of the Commission.

Some pictures of the event

TQM report,

Hope Alive for Possibilities Initiative in collaboration with Dr. Fanan Ujoh on Sunday celebrated Valentine with women and girls at IDP Camp in Kuchigoro Village, Abuja.

According Avershim Akighir, an amputee who is the founder and CEO of Hope Alive for Possibilities Initiative, it was amazing celebrating valentine with the children, women and girls at the IDP camp. In Possibilities, we believe strongly in developing the most vulnerable groups of persons in the society rather than pity, we build entrepreneurial skills of young women and girls to enhance independent living.

The event featured some activities skill acquisition such as soap making, presentation of gifts of clothes and shoes and also hair cutting of the children by members of the team.

The Children was excited celebrating with Dr. Fanan who marked his birthday on that day and he felt that there was no better place to celebrate than with the children at the IDP camp.

Chief Ayuba Burki Gufwan has revalidated his membership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) at his Depuri polling unit, Panyam Ward, in Mangu LGA today.

Chief Burki who was visibly elated by the mobilization drive of the local party officials as reflected in the numbers already registered. He also commended the leadership of the party for the well organized party membership revalidation exercise.

He raised observation over the non inclusion of the disability status of members in the registration form. According to him, having an inventory of the disability status of members will assist the party and government in policy formulation as it concerns persons with Disabilities.

Members of the APC in Depuri polling unit appreciated Chief Burki for his unrelenting support of the exercise especially his provison of free passports for would be registered members and other logistics to ensure the success of the exercise.

he Akpanke Foundation (TAF) through the benevolence of her philanthropic Founder, Mr Peter Akpanke on Sunday reached out to persons with physical disabilities and youths to celebrate this year’s Valentine. They donated wheelchairs and little stipends to persons with physical disabilities while some youths received motorcycles and cash gifts.

Delivering the items on behalf of the Founder, Comrade Usheshe Jerry tasked all beneficiaries to go spread love in the same way they received love from the Rock.

TQM report,

The Kaduna state government has announced plans to introduce a disability benefit programme, as part of its social protection policy implementation plan, to complement other initiatives currently implemented in the state.

Saude Amina Atoyebi, the state focal person on the social investment programme, disclosed during a media briefing held over the weekend in Kaduna.

Atoyebi, who explained that the state executive council had passed the social protection policy in August 2020, noted that the agency was awaiting the approval of the implementation policy.

According to her, the state steering committee on social investments worked with experts from Save the Children International and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to fine-tune the protection policy, despite the numerous challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main goal of the policy is to ensure that residents of Kaduna state, particularly vulnerable groups, are afforded a life of dignity through programmes which are implemented in a fair and transparent manner,” she said.

“This policy is not one of those policies that we sat down as government officials and designed on our own, finalised and disseminated. This policy went through a robust engagement process which took a while and people were wondering why.

“We wanted to ensure that whatever we came up with, had the voice of the people in it. We started by having key informant interviews with different relevant MDAs to see where we were, where we were starting from, and then moved on to consultations across the three senatorial zones.

The final document is guided by certain principles: there is the principle of equity and resource relocation; the principle of universal basic needs — that is everybody is entitled to eat, to have a roof over their heads, and clothing to wear, that is the basic necessities of life. It is also guided by the principle of citizenship, and thankfully everyone who is a resident in Kaduna is a citizen of the state.

“It is also guided by the principle of human rights. Social protection is not a favour done by government to citizens, it is their right. It is gotten from a public pool of funds. We need people to know that this policy is hinged on that.”

Fielding questions from journalists, Muhammad Adam, a member of the steering committee, said realistic ways of financially sustaining the policy have been included in the implementation plan.

Similarly, Jessica Barthlomew, chairperson of the Kaduna social protection accountability coalition (KADSPAC), said the state is doing its best to bridge the gap between civil service organisations, the media and government in terms of information sharing.

By TQM report,

Plateau state government have appointed Kyennan Mizim as the Chairman of Plateau State Disability Commission.

The Commission was last chaired by Mr. James Lalu, the current Executive Secretary of National Commission for Persons with Disabilities ( NCPWD).

Kyennan Mizim is a woman with physical disability who is one of the renowned female disability advocate in Nigeria and in Plateau State, she have played important role in advocating for the rights of Persons with Disabilities. She was a pioneer board member of the Plateau State Disability Commission.

TQM congratulates Kyennan Mizim for this new responsibility to serve persons with disabilities in Plateau State with a conviction that she will deliver.

The Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) and National Commission of Persons with Disabilities, (NCPWD) have advocated for the prioritization of Persons with Disabilities, PWDs in Social Protection programmes in Nigeria.

This was the submission of both groups during the strategy retreat with NCPWD organized by IFA under its ‘Social Protection: Include Me’ Project, with support from Save the Children International.

While giving her opening remarks, Grace Jerry, Executive Director, IFA, said the retreat was conveyed with the aim of ensuring that disability issues are mainstreamed in Social Protection Programmes, Policies and Interventions in Nigeria.

Jerry highlighted that, “we are here to develop realistic achievements on Social Protection in Nigeria, taking into cognizance the needs of PWDs as they needed to be targeted by Social Protection.”

“If we understand what SP is, it will go a long way to address the issues being faced by a community of over 30 million people in the country,” she added.

Saheed Mustapha, Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor, SCI explained that the retreat is to support the NCPWD “to discharge its mandate”.

He added that, “this commission is as a result of long advocacy, and it is important that it is able to discharge its mandate.”

Speaking on the importance of Social Protection, Mustapha stressed that, “Social Protection helps populations in nations of the world to exit poverty line and it should be an integral part of every development component of every nation.”

James Lalu, the Executive Secretary, NCPWD appreciated the conveners of the retreat, stressing that he has further enlightened on Social Protection.

“SP must be mainstreamed into issues of PWDs, to achieve this, we will work closely with relevant agencies of government.”

He also added that the commission will make adequate provision for SP for PWDs in its budget for 2022.

On his part, Dr. Adebukola Adebayo, disability-inclusive while making a presentation titled, ‘Disability Act – Finding Opportunities to Strengthen Social Protection’, said, “whatever Social Protection programmes that are being rolled out, it must take into cognizance the diversity of PWDs as regards to age, gender and class.”

Comr. Yusuf Kumo is excited to be one of the five (5) youth from Gombe state sponsored by the gombe state government to represent the state in this youth capacity building programme organized by the Federal Ministry of youth and sports development at Jos, plateau state.

In a press statement that he sent to us dated 11th Feb, 2021, he said that as a young person and disability right activist and advocate, he thought it necessary to drop his take about the programme.

He said that the programme which was organized by the Federal government through the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports development requested that states should forward 5 youths to represent their respective states.

“However, it is unfortunately that among the 19 Northern states that send delegates only Gombe state included at least one Person with Disability. I do not know about the south because Southern programme is holding at Osun state” he lamented.

He feels that what other states did is exclusion of PWDs because inclusion require one to include both women and PWDs and this was exactly what Gombe state government does by selecting two women, three youth men whom he is part of, and as a Deaf, he represented PWDs and all the participants were selected from various local government of the 3 geo-political zones of the north.

He applauded his state government for practicing inclusion and If all government would adopt it, there would be equal representation in policies, programmes, appointment etc and discrimination/segregation of PWDs will be a thing of past.

While he commended the Federal Government/Federal Ministry of Youth and sport for the laudable initiative, He specially thanked the Gombe state government, the Hon.Commissioner Ministry of Youth and the Chairman of NYCN(The mother body of our youth unions) Alamin Gabarin for their rational decisions to ensure the selection is inclusive covering all interest group including PWDs.

He promised to justify his inclusion in the programme.

National Youth Empowerment Program (YEP2021) is a programme of Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to engage selected Nigerian Youths in Skill Acquisition in agriculture related businesses and tailoring/fashion. The idea behind it is build the capacity of these young people to find a means of livelihood through these line of businesses. It is covering youths from all the states of the Federation including FCT.