It was a gathering of CSOs, Politicians (women in politics), persons with disabilities and general public as Lois Auta weds Innocent Patrick.
The event which took place on Sunday December 1 in Abuja
witnessed a colourful, unique and an innovation that will be in the mouth of
many in days, months and years to come. Lois Auta who is a woman with
disability had a bridal train all women with disabilities.
It is a beauty to behold as beautiful women on wheelchair lined
up on beautiful green and pink.
It is an event that got many thinking that after all a woman
with disability can be a beautiful bride because Lois Auta was looking astonishingly
gorgeous on her day.
Recalling that Lois Auta is the founder of Cedar Seeds
Foundation an NGO that has been working to promote the plights of persons with
disabilities. She is a Mandela fellowship awardee and also the Accord Party
House of Representative Candidate for AMAC/BWARI Federal Constituency 2019. She
found love with the Director General her Campaign Council Mr. Innocent Patrick
and it was so beautiful watching them walked down the isles in the company of
bridal train on wheels, danced to the reception hall on wheels and beautiful women
with disabilities dancing all the way.
We in The Qualitative Magazine congratulates the couples as we wish them happy married life with beautiful children.
Happy Sunday to you my people. My fellow citizens of heaven. Today is Church day for many Christians all over the world.
As a Christian, I am sure you have finished planning how you
will enjoy heaven when you finally get there. Perhaps you have already
envisioned yourself inside a heavenly mansion with hosts of angels attending to
your every need.
You haven’t imagined how your heaven will be yet? Hmmm.
Don’t dull o. Start now before all the plots of land in heaven will finish.
And while planning for heaven, let me intimate you on a few
things that can hinder your access to your pearly mansions.
So, on my way to church today, I went past a lot of church
buildings. Almost every building had a congregation. Some had about two
different churches in one building alone.
I understand that we like to be considered a Christian dominated country, even when we also know that the Church has been turned into a profits-based company. We all claim to love God.
Unfortunately, many of us including our Church leaders might
not make heaven even after living life more righteous than Christ’s.
You don’t understand? Answer these few questions and you
will.
Does your church building have a ramp?
Do you have sign language interpreters in your Church?
Are your alters accessible to wheelchairs?
Are your church hall walkways barriers free?
Are your bathrooms accessible?
How steep are your stairs?
Do you have reserved car parks with concrete or asphalt
flooring?
You don’t comprehend yet how these can stop you from making
heaven abi?
Did you know there is an estimation of 25 million persons
living with disabilities in Nigeria?
So, let’s assume about 13% of them are Christians or would
have preferred to be Christians. But your church building is not accessible to
wheelchairs. They come to church and do not understand a word that is said. The
interior of your church is parked with little or no space for a wheelchair.
Your steps are too steep that one gets exhausted before getting into the
church, etc.
Those who wish to become pastors, priests, deacons,
ministers, preachers, choristers, workers, evangelists, bishops, etc can’t do
so because the alter is barred to them.
Do you now realize you and your church are stopping millions
of persons from worshipping God? A church that is not inclusive is sinning
against God. You are discriminating against your fellow humans. Or do you think
people with these disabilities do not deserve to worship God in church?
Perhaps you think because you are in a rented building you
are exempted. While searching for that particular place, you had benchmarks
that guided your choice. Was accessibility for all persons including persons
with disabilities one of them? Did you make efforts to improve on it for
accessibility?
Or you say ‘But I don’t have anyone with disabilities in my
church!!!’ Have you thought that probably they’ve come and discovered your
church to be lacking and they left?
Have accessible buildings first and see what happens.
And today I heard something funny once again.
Pastor is asking Church members to stand up if they want to
make heaven. Sit down if they want to make hell. So those on wheelchairs that
are unable to stand want to go to hell okwaya?
Let us be guided in this our race for eternal life o. In all
we do, let us do the will of God. The will of God says go preach the gospel to
all humans. Do not exempt some persons because of your lack of perception.
And if you are a Muslim, As-Salam-u-Alaikum. Just know that
you are not exempted. The other half of about 13% of persons with disabilities in
Nigeria can be Muslims and your mosques are probably not accessible to them
too.
Why not take that decision today and make your religious house inclusion? God is not one that turns people away. Be like God.
The coalition of four Disabled People Organizations (DPOs) Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), Faecare Foundation, Haly Hope Foundation and Advocacy for Women with Disabilities Initiative (AWWDI) organized a press conference on PRIORITIZING INCLUSIVE BUDGETING FOR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS (SRHR) OF WOMEN AND GIRL WITH DISABILITIES IN NIGERIA otherwise known as PRIORITIZE IT. The activities of the coalition on this project is funded by Disability Right Fund (DRF).
Patience Ogolo-Dickson, founder of AWWDI speaking on behalf
on the coalition said that Prioritizing Inclusive Budgeting for Sexual and
Reproductive Health Rights is an initiative of four women with disabilities led
organizations consisting of Inclusive Friends Association(IFA), Faecare
Foundation, Haly Hope Foundation and Advocacy for Women with Disabilities
Initiative(AWWDI) who are working together to improve the life and access to
services of all PWDs and their aim is to facilitate social inclusion, access health
services and increase awareness about the health status of women and girls with
disabilities basic in Nigeria and the project is supported by the Disability
Right Fund (DRF).
She also said
that the long desire for inclusion, access, equality and equity by PWDs in
Nigeria is gradually making a head way ever since the government ratified the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
On September 24, 2010. Articles 9 and 25 of the convention emphasize on
accessibility and access to health respectively, on 23 January, 2019, President
Mohammed Buhari signed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with
Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2019 and on 23 April, the National Policy on Sexual
Reproductive Health Rights of PWDs with emphasis to women and girls with
disabilities was launched. These giant strides by the government have been
immensely appreciated and they commend the government of the day for these
efforts.
However, so
much needs to be done. PWDs equally have health needs. Women and girls with
disabilities deserve to have unfettered access to sexual and reproductive
health rights as enshrined in the national policy on sexual and reproductive health
rights of the PWDs. Communication barriers, unskilled and inadequate service
providers deny PWDs the rights to enjoy good health which is a threat to the
fundamental human right to life of PWDs. Women and girls happen to be the most
affected. According to World Health Organization (WHO) Women and girls with
disabilities comprise 75% of the total number of PWDs in the world whom
generally are uneducated, underprivileged and lack access to opportunities that
could enhance their living standards. These categories of women and girls in
most cases fall victims of sexual violence and abuse and have high tendencies
to contract sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
While the government
has taken the initiative to enact the National Policy on Sexual Reproductive
Health of PWDs, policies on their own are as good as not having one, without a
budget which is required to facilitate the implementation of policy. Only
recently, did president pass annual budget to the national assembly for
approval, we want to use this medium to call the attention of the government to
consider the needs of millions of women and girls with disabilities that are
also Nigerian citizens and that are high risk of sexual and reproductive health
challenges. We would also like to use this medium to call on the minister of
budget and national panning, finance, women affairs, international development
partners, civil society organizations and growth seeking individuals to support
us in getting the government of Nigeria to make budgeting inclusive to
accommodate the needs of PWDs especially women and girls with disabilities for
the sustainable growth and development of our beloved country Nigeria.
She said
finally as we commemorate the 16 days of activism for the elimination of
violence against women and which includes gender-based violence, a
non-inclusive budgeting for PWDs especially women and girls with disabilities
which also means leaving a minority and vulnerable community behind during implementation.
The country
representative of Disability Right Fund (DRF) Mr. Theophilus Odaudu in a goodwill
message commended the effort of IFA-Led Coalition in their struggle to better
life of the Nigerian women and girls with disabilities and urged the government
to do the needful by establishing National Disability Commission quickly which
will fundamentally capture all the policies and rights of PWDs and its full
implementation.
The Board of Federal Civil Service Staff with Disabilities Co-operative Society have suspended their chairman Alhaji Abdulrauf Iliasu to allow him sort out his case with ICPC. This suspension takes effect from 29th November,2019.
The details of the resolution from the meeting where he was suspended will be published on Monday 2nd of December, 2019.
On Thursday 28th November, 2019, Deaf Women Aloud
Initiative (DWAI) in Abuja organized a one-day consultative meeting for the
development of health-related sign language glossary. A project sponsored by
Voice for increasing access to health services and
information for Deaf women and girls.
The Director, Deaf Women Aloud Initiative Mrs. Hellen Beyioku-Alase
speaking at the event explained that the meeting was to minimize the
communication gap between the deaf women and the health practitioners and equip
the health providers to meet the needs of deaf women and girls who visit their
health facilities seeking healthcare services. Speaking further, she emphasized
that Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) is the leading cause of death among women
in reproductive age worldwide but it is more prevalent in the developing countries.
She recognized that government is doing something to reduce the consequences of
poor SRH among individuals and families but Deaf women are unlikely to benefit
from these policies and programmes on SRH because of negative perception and
the neglect of deaf women which resulted from difficulties in understanding
them and again these policies and programmes are not also communicated to them.
It is a fact that deaf people are unlikely to access available information like others in the society. The health care providers can not understand deaf people, they are often underestimating the difficulties of speech reading, and overestimating the deaf ability to understand written notes.
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The cost of hiring sign language interpreters by deaf women
to access SRH services in Health facilities has limited the chances and ability
of deaf women to access information and services on SRH as such it has increased
maternal mortality among deaf women and their families in the FCT. This communication
gap has led to so many deaf women staying away from the hospital and those who
visit health facilities usually feel neglect due to the attitude of healthcare
providers towards them.
This situation has been aggravated because there are still
no sign language interpreters at the health facilities, no disability friendly
health/specific sign language information, low awareness creation of the Sexual
Reproductive Health Rights(SRHR) information of deaf women and their children
among health practitioners in Nigeria.
The Disability Act and UNCRPD which Nigeria is a signatory stipulated
that to ensure access to information, sign interpreters should be in the health
facilities to enable the deaf communicate effectively whenever they seek health
services(Article 9 of CRPD), Reproductive Health Rights( Article 23 of CRPD),
right to access sexual and reproductive Health Rights information and
services(Article 25 of CRPD) and Specific need for the empowerment of women
with disabilities(Article 6 of CRPD).
The essence of this project which was sponsored by Voice is
that within 12months, we are to increase the access to SRH information and
services among deaf women through the development of health specific sign
language. It will provide opportunity for deaf women to make informed decision about
their healthcare and also put them in the same level with other women when it
comes to Sexual Reproductive Health Rights.
She concluded by urging the health practitioners to make use
of the rare opportunity to contribute to the development of sign language
glossary and she expects the participants to brainstorm,
develop and draft the SRH related sign-language glossary format for health consultant to gather information, idea,
data that will aid her work toward ensuring access to health services and
information for Deaf women and girls in Nigeria.
The glossary when produced will serve as a guide to minimize
communication barriers between the Health workers and Deaf community who visit
their hospitals for treatments.
Health consultant, Dr. Ijeoma Nnodim, a facilitator at the meeting who is the first Deaf female Doctor in Nigeria who based in Delta state present her findings around deaf women and their access to healthcare services with emphasis on Sexual Reproductive Health, the challenges faced by deaf women in accessing SRH services due to lack of communication and a background of sign language glossary which she promised to provide an app that will assist health practitioners in development of sign language glossary and understanding of the signs.
Dr. Ijeoma Nnodim
The participants who were divided into 5 groups suggested 5 different titles for the Sign Language Glossary Document. Group 1: Sexual Reproductive Health Sign Language for Hospital use, Group2:Glossary for Sexual Reproductive Health for the Deaf and their families in the hospital setting, Group 3:Signs for health,Group 4:Signs for Reproductive Health, Group 5(Deaf Group):Sexual Reproductive Health in Signs.
After voting in which one out of the five suggested titles was chosen, Group1 got 5 votes, Group 2 got 5 votes, Group 3 got 3votes, Group 4 got 4votes, and Group 5(Deaf group) scored 10 votes. Group 5 suggested title (SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN SIGNS) was adopted.
The five groups also were assigned with alphabets to develop glossary
format in which each group made a presentation putting in consideration the language
prevalent at the hospital setting in line with the alphabets assigned to each
group.
The groups unanimously agreed to set a WhatsApp group to continue
the deliberation on the development of the sign language glossary until a well
drafted work is achieved.
The meeting witnessed as participants more than 20 doctors, nurses and midwives from FCT Health and Human services selected from 6 area councils of the FCT for the first time make a strong case for sign- language inclusion and are participating in the development of sign language glossary.
On 27th November, 2019, Disability Rights
Advocacy Centre (DRAC) organized a breakfast meeting with the media on sexual
and gender-based violence/ disability-based violence.
It is part of DRAC’s “RESPECT NOT ABUSE(RNA) PROJECT” an
initiative for prevention and reduction of violence against women and girls
with disabilities in Nigeria.
Executive Director Dr. Irene Patrick-Ogbogu in her opening
speech explained that the essence of the breakfast meeting is to interface with
the media to see how DRAC can work with the media to change the pubic
perception about persons with disabilities and eliminate violence against women
and girls with disabilities. Speaking further, she acknowledged the media as
the voice of the voiceless and their role in changing the society is significant
as such, the media is very important in the advocacy especially on sexual and
gender-based violence (SGBV) / disability-based violence (DBV). She noted
that while SGBV Response has increased over the last few years, DBV has not
been noticed by the public and expressed hope that through the media, the public will know about
it. She urged the media practitioners to identify ways that they can better
collaborate with DRAC to drive home this message.
A short movie was screened to showcase the disability-based violence, it was based on a true-life story and produced by DRAC. The movie brought out the clear picture of what disability-based violence is all about. The participants were shocked that women and girls with disabilities face severe gender-based violence. They made some suggestions and comments on how the advocacy can be channeled through media. Some notable suggestions are showing the movie in our mainstream media to reach more people, working with some notable online media platform because it is cheaper, produce the movie in different local languages and screening the movie at religious houses.
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DRAC’s Executive Director challenged the media on the
following points: (a) how to discuss and report disability issues as mainstream
issues, (b)how to change the negative perceptions/stereotypes using the media,
how can the media report disability issues using empowering language and
depictios rather than the disempowering way they have been reporting, (C) one
of the greatest challenge person with disabilities are facing is access to
media, the media practitioners don’t
make out time to stay in disability related programs and they still
using offensive words when writing news or articles on disability despite being
educated on the right way to do it.
She proposed a training for media practitioners but still
wondered how possible it is for them to commit to staying and learning important
information to enhance their reportage of disability issues. She went further
to charge the media to use their different platforms to create awareness about
the Discrimination against Persons with disabilities (Prohibition) Act, to hold
government accountable, ensure that the commission is set up and the law is
fully implemented. The same is applicable to the National Policy on Sexual
Reproductive Health and Rights of Persons with Disabilities with emphasis on
Women and Girls with disabilities which launched in April this year. The media
should serve as watchdog to ensure government commitment towards the
implementation of these documents to ensure that they are not just meant for
the shelves.
She concluded by urging the media to see the propagation of
disability issues as their corporate social responsibility because people with
disabilities are not so rich to pay media to promote their issues. Disability
issues are everybody’s business. It can happen to anybody at any time. There
are some examples of those who have disability today as result of accident.
Therefore, the media should see disability issues as their own issues.
She made a passionate appeal to the media to support and promote the Rights of people with disabilities by popularizing the disability act which took the disability community over 20 years of struggle to secure, ask questions, hold the government accountable about the establishment of the commission which would oversee the implementation of the act. She felt that the media are not doing enough in their primary role of holding the government accountable because the media suppose to ask questions about several laws made by government that have not been implemented.
On Tuesday, 26 November, 2019, Disability
Rights Advocacy Centre (DRAC) organized a SENSITIZATION MEETING FOR THE
DISABILITY COMMUNITY ON THE NATIONAL POLICY ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
AND RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, WITH EMPHASIS ON WOMEN AND GIRLS.
It is in line with DRAC’s “Making it Work” Project, aimed at improving access to Sexual &
Reproductive Health Rights Services and information
for Women and Girls with disabilities in the FCT.
Executive Director, DRAC, Dr Irene Patrick-Ogbogu speaking at the event explained that one of the component of the project is to popularize the SRH so the meeting was geared towards introducing to the participant National Policy on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Persons with Disabilities with Emphasis on Women and Girls with Disabilities and also to build the knowledge of the participants on SRH issues that persons with disabilities face and how the policy speaks to those issues. Speaking further, she informed that at the end of the meeting, the different cluster group would understand their roles in the implementation of the policy. The policy is as good as nothing if it is not implemented so all clusters have a role to play to ensure the implementation of the policy.
The
meeting witnessed a very engaging presentation by Dr. Irene when she took the participants through the concept of SRHR. Participants were made
to understand that it is a right for everybody whether old or young, man, woman or transgender, straight, bisexual, gay or
lesbian, HIV positive or negative, all have right to make choices regarding
their own sexuality and reproduction. It was an interactive session; the
participant spoke on what they understood about SRHR. In the course of the
presentation she informed that SRHR must be accessed by all including Persons
with disabilities. Therefore, all health services, guidelines and information
must made available to persons with disabilities in a way that they can access
them without stress.
Then, she related the articles in the CRPD and how they speak to the access to SRHR by persons with disabilities. For example, Article 9 calls for accessibility to medical facilities and information, Article 16 speaks on taking measures to protect persons with disabilities from violence and abuse, including gender-based violence and abuse, Article 22 promoting equal rights of PWDs to privacy that includes privacy to personal health information, Article 23 seeks to eliminate discrimination against PWDs in all matters relating to marriage, family, parenthood, and relationships, including in the areas of family planning, fertility and family life.
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Another
important aspect of the presentation was the Society’s Attitude towards SRHR of
Women with Disabilities. She explained that society’s attitude to the
reproductive health issues of WWD is negative, biased, uninformed, coercive and
based on ignorance of the reproductive health needs of WWD. There is always a
popular notion that WWD don’t have any business with sex, let alone becoming
pregnant and have a child or adopt a child. So, they are discriminated upon
when they seek SRH services, they cannot even access the premises of health
facilities, they are denied information and communication materials, the
healthcare providers always have negative approach or attitude to them when
they seek these services, lack of disability-related clinical services, lack of
funding including health insurance and
conflict and humanitarian disasters.
The
Summary of the National Policy of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights of
Persons with disabilities with emphasis on women and girls with disabilities
were presented and thereafter, the participants were grouped in clusters to draw up
short term actions using the Thematic
areas in the policy document and to identify the organizations to shoulder the responsibilities of each plan in
line with the peculiarities of the challenges to the cluster group, taking FCT as pilot state.
Clusters
represented at the meeting were Deaf, Blind, Physical Disability, and Persons with Albinism. DRAC Executive Director
expressed concern that certain Disability clusters continue to be excluded
and/or underrepresented within the Disability movement, she explained that she
is also working with other stakeholders to identify these missing clusters and
ensure their participation.
Recalling
that in 2018, DRAC and Federal Ministry of Health developed the National
Policy on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Persons with
Disabilities with Emphasis on Women and Girls with Disabilities. The
policy aims at ensuring that all sexual and reproductive health programs reach
and serve persons with disabilities particularly women and girls with
disabilities. It was launched by the Honourable Minister of Health in April
2019, and the 5 years costed strategic plan of implementation recently developed.
Sexual and Reproductive Health is an essential component of health and a pillar for sustainable development; therefore, it would be looked into and all hands should be on deck to address it.
National Association of the Blind, FCT Chapter on Monday
presented their accessibility audit carried out in the FCT to ascertain the
level of access to public infrastructures by persons with disabilities in the
FCT to the media.
The project which was funded by Disability Rights Fund was
carried out in the facilities such as Schools, MDAs, and Transportation.
The Chairman, NAB FCT, Mr. Obinna Ekujereonye in his opening speech describe the media as the most integral part of the advocacy and as such, the media should be a partner to ensure that advocacy is successful. He urged the media to do more in carrying this advocacy message to the nooks and crannies until the duty bearers do the needful. Speaking further, he said that for the implementation of the Disability Act to be successful, the media must create more programmes around the Act and educate the public on the content of the act.
Barrister Theophilus Odaudu, The Program Coordinator Disability Rights Fund
The Program Coordinator of the Disability Rights Fund (DRF) Barrister
Theophilus Odaudu took the media to the understanding of the disability
inclusion. He explained different approaches adopted towards solving the
problem of the persons with disabilities ranging from Medical approach, where disability
problem were viewed as a health problem, but majority of the cases are beyond
medical solution so this approach cannot be the solution, then charity approach
like the name implies, NGOs were tackling the problem from the lens of
providing food, materials for the persons with disabilities but it was not sustainable
because at a time the funders became fatigue because if you gave somebody food,
of course the food will finish and the person will come back to you. Social model
or approach, it is what we regarded as right based approach, which simply means
removing those barriers that hinders persons with disabilities to function
effectively within the society. If the disabling barriers are removed, a person
with disability will not feel disabled again. He explained that inclusion
simply means removing the disabling barriers that the society created which
hinders the full participation of against persons with disabilities in the
society.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of
ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT OF PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE FCT by Mr. Obinna
Ekujereonye. He gave a background of the project which among other points
raised, most importantly is that Nigerians with disabilities face a lot of discrimination
and exclusion but the most challenging one is the inaccessible public infrastructure.
It is the major contributors to the World bank and WHO report on disability
describing persons with disabilities as the poorest of the poor. It also hinged
on article 9 of the CRPD which states that in order “to enable persons
with disabilities live independently and participate fully in all aspects of
life, state parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that persons with
disabilities access on an equal basis with others, the physical environment, to
transportation, to information and communications technologies and systems, and
other facilities and services open or provided to the public both in urban and
in rural areas” and the implementation of the Discrimination against persons
with disabilities Prohibition Act 2018 section 2-7 that dwells on accessibility
of persons with disabilities.
A total of 11 public infrastructure were
audited ranging from School of Nursing Gwagwalada, University of Abuja
Gwagwalada, National Open University, Head of Service, Ministry of Labour and
Employment, Civil Service Commission, FCT Metro Station, Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport, God is Good Motors, ABC transport and Peace Mass
transit.
The Findings from
the Audit are:
None of the public infrastructure audited has a disability friendly
policy, access team or a disability desk.
Staff of the audited facilities have not received training on
disability inclusion.
Physical environment of all the schools audited are not accessible to
persons with disabilities. This portrays the extent to which persons with disabilities
are excluded from education opportunities.
Out of 4 transport facilities audited, only the metro train station to
a large extent is physically accessible to persons with disabilities.
Compared to other public infrastructure the ministries, department and
agencies audited returned as the most inaccessible to persons with
disabilities.
None of the communication needs (braille, signages, sign language) of
persons with disabilities were addressed in all the audited facilities.
The effect of lack of access to public infrastructure to
Persons with disabilities which was discovered through focus group discussion are:
Most of the participants highlighted discrimination as one of the major
challenges they face in accessing economic opportunities.
Others stated that inaccessible public infrastructure is the major
challenge in accessing opportunities that will improve their economic status.
Some of the persons with hearing impairment explained that they have
difficulties access job opportunities due to lack of sign language interpreters
in government MDAs.
When asked how many of them have accessed government economic
interventions, the participants explained that due to lack of inclusive
information about these programs, they are not able to know when these programs
are advertised.
One of the participants who is a woman with visual impairment narrated
the difficulty she encountered in tertiary institution and she was asked
severally to withdraw because “the university is not special school”
The recommendation from the accessibility audit are:
There is need to increase public awareness and sensitization on disability inclusion to ensure that during program planning and interventions, persons with disabilities are not left behind.
Training and re-training of staff of public and private institutions on accessibility is key to achieving disability inclusion.
To ensure “Nothing About us Without us, persons with disabilities should be made focal persons in public and private institutions.
There is need to improve media engagement on disability inclusion.
This is to create awareness about the Discrimination against persons with disabilities( Prohibition) Act 2018. We will be publishing it in episodes as it was summarized by Disability Rights Advocacy Centre.
DO YOU KNOW THAT PART I : DISCRIMINATION IS BANNED AND AWARENESS SHOULD BE RAISED .
by Kenneth Alabaraonye
On no account should any person or organisation treat a person unfairly because of his/her disability. if an organisation does this, they have committed an offence and will pay a fine of N1,000,000. If a person does this , he/she committed an offence and will pay a fine of N100,000 or six months imprisonment or both. Even if the offender has been taken to court and sentenced under this law, the person with disability still has the right to start fresh legal action on the matter.
The Federal Ministry of Information will make sure that the following are well known to the public : (A) Persons with disabilities have the rights and should be respected by all. (B) Persons with disabilities have all it takes to contribute to the growth of the society. RESPONSIBLE BODIES: Federal Ministry of Justice, Federal Ministry of Information , National Orientation Agency, Nigeria Bar Association , Organisations of Persons with disabilities, Civil Society Organisations, The Media and others.
Ugwu Goodluck Emeka, The New Chairman of Association of Federal Civil Servants With Disabilities
On Wednesday 20th November, 2019, The Association of Federal Civil servants with disabilities in Abuja organized a general election to elect their new executive.
The event started with screening and accreditation of the contestants and thereafter there was opportunity for the candidates to share their manifestos.
The contest was among the two candidates Ugwu Goodluck Emeka and Adebisi
Olaniyi jostling for the chairmanship position because all positions were unopposed.
The election was conducted in peaceful manner, the 25 members who were
present at the election all voted.
After the collation and counting of the result, Ugwu Goodluck Emeka was declared winner of the election with 16 votes against Adebisi Olaniyi’s 9 votes.
The result sheet
Ugwu Goodluck Emeka in his speech, promised to work with all members to
move the association, he extended hands of fellowship to Adebisi asking him to
bring forward his own ideas so that collectively, the association will be taken
to enviable height. He thanked the Executive Director of The Qualitative Magazine,
Chris Agbo for finding time to cover the proceedings of the election which
means that what transpired will be seen all over the globe.
Chris Agbo, The Executive Director in his speech advised the new executive
to jettison their interest and imbibe the interest of the entire members in
discharge of their duties. He commended the process and urge the association to
always follow the same process in their subsequent elections.
The handover ceremony will be at their next meeting
We in The Qualitative Magazine is congratulating Ugwu Goodluck Emeka and his team and wish them in the next two years of their tenure.
SEE SOME PICTURES OF THE EVENT:
Adebisi Olaniyi, the chairmanship candidate who lost out at the election ED, The Qualitative Magazine Chris Agbo addressing the new executive immediately after the electionThe new executive and the ED, The Qualitative MagazineThe New Executive and The Electoral Committee memberscollation of ballot papers
