Chike Okogwu is a first class social entrepreneurship, leadership, media, entertainment, events and environment consultant/activist. Through hard work, tenacity and streetwise intelligence, he rose from very humble backgrounds at The Institute of Management and Technology (I.M.T.), Enugu to become the former (Nigerian Coordinator (Abuja)) of the CNN/Multichoice African Journalists of the Year Awards alongside providing both commercial and editorial contents for CNN International, BBC and Al Jazeera Networks‎.

Since becoming paraplegic (Spinal Cord Injury) from a freak accident on December 15, 2006. Chike has madly devoted with a great analytical mind too, to championing and improving the rights of Persons With Disabilities in Nigeria with his Non Profit Organization – The Centre for Ability, Rehabilitation and Empowerment in Nigeria (C.A.R.E. Nigeria), alongside providing business consultancy, advisory and activist services in the business, leadership, media, entertainment, events and environment sectors by working closely with The Federal and State Governments in Nigeria, BenTv UK, The Infrastructure Bank Plc, Private and Public Organisations and a host of other reputable International Organisations around the globe. He was Advisor on Africa Matters to the Dean, Prof Dean Williams, at the Harvard Kennedy School Centre for Public Leadership.

He has received several awards such as the Celebrity Special Marshall (CSM) by the Federal Road Safety Commission of Nigeria; Enugu Civil Society Disability Partnership Senior Advocate of the Handicapped (S.A.H); IREDE Foundation Inspirational Personality of the Year 2013; Coscharis Group Barrier Breaker in Entrepreneurship by the Opa Williams ‘The Evening’ Awards; The Richfield Of God Church International Award for Dynamic Support and Contributions to Humanity; West African Students Union Parliament (WASUP) Kwame Nkrumah Merit Awards for Excellence, amongst many others.

He currently works as Deputy National Chairman, Strategy, Innovation and Change at The African Democratic Congress (ADC, one of the three largest political parties in Nigeria); Principal Consultant at The Innovative Ideas Development Services Limited; EVC, Business Devt., Mecnovative Power Systems Ltd.; Director – Ability Farming, LivinGreen Int’l; Program Director and Lecturer with the Harvard L21 Alumni Group (Nigeria); Coaching Reserve at the Harvard Hauser Centre for Non Profit Organisations and was a Member of the defunct Federal Government of Nigeria SURE-P Program Committee, where he successfully led and completed over $500 Million Dollars rehabilitation of narrow gauge and construction of new standard gauge railway lines operational in Nigeria today, alongside procurement of modern rolling stocks and building a sustainable Multi Billion Naira revolving loan system of mass transit funds amongst many other appointments and busy engagements.

A Champion of Change with a DBA in International Management from the Academy of Business Management in Switzerland and PhD (h.c.) in Innovation for his extensive researches and works on paradigm shift on Disabilities issues in Developing Countries from The Cambridge MC Institute, U.S.A; Master of Arts Degree in Leading Innovation and Change (MALIC) from the York St. John University, Yorkshire, UK and Three time Alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. – Leadership in the 21st Century; Chaos, Conflicts and Courage (2010); Expanding Impact (2011) and Leadership, Organising and Action (2012) Programs. He works on Leadership Causes and Trainings around the world with emphasis on producing “Change Agents” in Africa and developing countries with his faculty members drawn from Harvard Centre For Public Leadership, Harvard L21 Alumni Group, The Thinking Heads Global Group in Australia and the Innovative Ideas Development Services Ltd. Chike is happily married with children.

In this interview with the publisher Agbo Chris Obiora, Chike proffered ways that the disability rights act can be effectively implemented and what Nigerian with disability must do to ensure the success of the disability right act in Nigeria.

Can you recall how your disability occurred?

December, 15^th, 2006 is the day I will call a day of my rebirth and being born again because without that day, I probably wouldn’t be here today. I will call it a blessed day because it made me to find a new family, a new brotherhood and a new constituency. On that very day, my friends, popular Actor Jim Iyke, Victor and I were on our way to Abuja. Along Airport Road at Lugbe, we suffered a car crash. I had a spinal cord injury, as result of that, I became paraplegic.

When it happened as a person who is already an adult, how did you cope with it?

Such experience doesn’t define me, it only helps to refine me. Having gone through the denial and trauma stages, I became strong and now use the experience to teach and encourage others. The situation affords me to become a disability advocate and now I advocate for the rights of the persons with disabilities (PWDs).

How do you advise other PWDs who may be having a difficult time to cope with it that they have relied on charity as a means to survive?

PWDs should be creating value out of disability as a new way of negotiation which will put the PWDs in the path of empathy and not sympathy. For how long will a philanthropist be sympathetic to you? We should make them to be empathetic to us. It was from this sympathetic point of view that made previous successive governments not to sign our bill. Thank God and the Buhari administration for signing the bill into law.

Talking about the Discrimination against Persons with Disability Prohibition Act, Implementation is the next challenge facing PWDs, what do you think the PWDs should do to own the process of implementing the Act?

Yes, we have the Act now but the next stage is the implementation. In this aspect, I must thank and congratulate your magazine for our victory, the last time we spoke was pre-signing of the bill. I must say this to all of us in disability community, we need to mend fences, if we keep blocking the expressway, keep fighting, keep burning houses, we will not get there. At this point, we should put our best foot forward. Our best will be men and women with high public regards. Through them, we will achieve more, some say you have to go to school to create value but I say no, you must not go to school to create value. We have to use every value within us. We should not be nuisance to the society. We should be value creators for example, if you see a person on crutches filling potholes, he will get support easily and be celebrated than able bodied person doing the same. I have seen many PWDs doing societal work and social entrepreneurship, they get supported because they are adding value and people can see it. I have experienced it; I have traveled to different parts of the world and I have worked with the top echelon of the society. I have not been discriminated against because of the value that I carry. I read that some PWDs not being allowed to board flight, I wonder, I have never had such experience. It is ignorance that do make airline operators not make adequate arrangement for PWDs but approach matters. When you are buying your ticket, you didn’t inform them about your condition, when you acquired your boarding pass, you didn’t inform them as well then all of a sudden, you appeared with a boarding card and you are on a wheelchair. How will they arrange for it? If from the beginning, you informed them, they will ask you some questions such as how you can cope etc. They will know what to provide for you. If you fly with them once or twice, they will know you and know how to help and assist you always. So, I will not hold this against airlines because I personally have never had issues like this with them.

We need to use those values that elicit emotional intelligence. Empathy elicit emotional intelligence in all forms of leadership. The people in authority when they come and see you in your state and they look at the value you have. Imagine in a plane, an able-bodied man in an economy class and a wheelchair user in business class, the wheelchair user will be allowed to board first and given all his rights before able-bodied passenger. I am not saying that everybody should do that, I am just using it as an example to showcase what value can do. Value creation can make a governor or even the president, DGs, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries whose offices is inaccessible for wheelchair/crutches users, come down from their offices and hold meeting with you and give you assurances. Look for what you know how to do best, do it so well so that the world will take notice of you. They will come for you if you have something to offer, the Oga in an office will come out on hearing your name and attend to you. We should have something to offer at all time, we should not go to someone’s office and be forming resistance that they must settle us. Everybody have one form of disability just that ours is more pronounced. We must realise that nothing is free in Freetown, the man whom you are telling that he must settle you may have his own problems. His wife may be an albatross on him that he can’t even go home after work. If you have something to offer and he knows that it is important, he will surely attend to you. We need to work on the irony which is drawing strength from our weakness. It is that weakness that makes you withdraw money first in an ATM queue. In that perceived weakness, there is strength we must take advantage of. That strength which I liken to the human body, the strength of the human body comes from the core muscles of his stomach. That leads me to my CORE which stands for C-Courage, O-Opportunity, R-Responsibility, and E-Empowerment. These elements are the core for value creation for any PWD. First you need courage to embark on anything. If it is shoe making that you want to embark upon, do it in front of Wuse Market or you can go a step forward to do it inside the lobby of the Hilton where the high and mighty will see you. I tell you approach that management of Hilton, Sheraton or any of the five-star hotels that you are a shoe shiner and you need a stand. If they have a place, they will give you. The day you will shine the shoe of a governor or president, imagine what will happen. That’s where Opportunity comes in. it takes courage to create opportunity. When you have created opportunity or you have been given opportunity, it brings a sense of responsibility. You need to stand by the opportunity, defend the opportunity by taking responsibility in so doing, you have created empowerment for yourself and the society. So, you now see how we can tie Courage, Opportunity, Responsibility and Empowerment. All my life, this is what I have applied. Before I became a person with disability, I didn’t see life from this perceptive but today, I am living with disability and with my vast experience, this CORE is important for any person with disability.

United States got to where they are because of one man with disability, President Franklin Roosevelt. When he was the governor New York, by the virtue of being the governor, all the subways and transportation system were made disability friendly, by the time he became the president in the late 30s and early 40s, all the other states in US became disability friendly. It is the same thing that we need to do here. I am encouraging more of us to go into politics. We will make more changes for ourselves when we are in power. I am the Deputy National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress Party. Nobody has discriminated against me there on the basis of my disability. By the virtue of my creativity, an abandoned room used as a store and a refuse dump is where I transformed with little resources from the party to a befitting office with free wifi. It is where most party members want to be always now. I applied CORE principle to achieve that.

What do you think can be done to ensure effective implementation of the Act?

First, we must thank with deepest gratitude President Buhari for assenting to the bill. Now we have an Act that protect the rights of PWDs. Looking into the law, there are issues that has to do with implementation and through the implementation, there are opportunities inherent in it. I will start with the implementation, at this point, my NGO (Centre for Ability Rehabilitation and Empowerment CARE-Nigeria) is working with some state governments to start having implementation seminars/workshops. What we will be doing is to talk about the Act in all its form and we look at the areas that particularize access, education, Health, Finance because A Chinese proverb says that if you want to create wealth, build a road. If you want to enhance the lives of PWDs, give them accessibility to transportation, buildings etc. through sensitization, we will encourage the state governments to begin to bring in vehicles with disability friendly facilities. In airlines, facilities that will enhance hitch free boarding for PWDs should be made available. All government building should be equipped with disability friendly facilities. We will do more in letting Nigerians know that there is a new law, disability rights law. Yes, there is three years window for people to make mistakes but after three years, they must correct those mistakes. Some people are not aware of the law and may not know about these mistakes. For example, some people don’t know that it is an offence to prevent a PWDs to withdraw money before them in an ATM queue. Some taxi drivers don’t know that it is an offence to deny a PWD a ride in their taxi. Airline operators still don’t know that it is an offence to deny a PWD his or her right while boarding a flight. Banks don’t know that it is an offence to place ATM machine where there are stairs thereby denying wheelchair and crutches users access to it. Even the doors to the bank halls that denies wheelchairs and crutches users access to the banking halls and so many other forms of discrimination against PWDs which has been criminalized by the Act. Now, it is time for aggressive sensitization. How do we do it? We should put our best foots forward. We don’t have to wait for the government to bring a commission. In the meantime, we should be doing something but if government set up the commission now, that’s beautiful, we will support them but as civil society organizations, we need to also help government to do the work because government has the power to arrest and prosecute those who infringe on the rights of the PWDs but ours is to create an enabling environment, create the awareness to make the public be aware of what the law says. Let me apply the earlier CORE message from the reverse here. Implementation means empowerment because if there is a public building, a PWD can go to the administrators of the agency, design a surface elevator and create ramps and give them a bill and negotiate. If they refuse to put that idea in place, you can sue them. You saw a problem, created a solution even though they don’t give you the contract, ensure that they provide the facilities but why will they give the contract to someone else, if a PWD is capable of doing it, it will be given to him because nothing about us without us. It is also a way of empowering PWDs. That’s why I started from Empowerment. Implementation is empowerment. As you achieve empowerment, we will begin to take Responsibility for creating accessibility. If you go to a hospital and you see a deaf patient having challenges communicating with the medical staff, take it upon yourself to go to the office of the chief medical director and demand that a sign language interpreter be provided because it is the right of the deaf patient. Insist that no other patient will be attended to until the deaf patient case is resolved. Try to ensure that it is enforced and if causing mayhem is your own form of taking responsibility do it but be careful so that you don’t infringe on other people’s right. Take responsibility with the notion that as you are doing that, you are looking for way to create opportunity. You can talk to the Chief Medical Director politely that you know a sign language interpreter who can be there for them or you have a software that can do the job for them to buy (a software in a phone that a deaf patient can sign to in a camera and it will interpret what the deaf said). If he agrees, you will sell and make money. The deaf can communicate with the interpreter through camera on whatsapp. There are many opportunities we can create. PWDs when we are creating opportunities, we don’t think outside the box, we should think as there is no box at all. That’s how we can survive because disability has already put us inside the box. That box we were put in are the boundaries and barriers we are breaking so; we are operating like there is no box. In creating opportunities, empowerment and taking responsibility, what matters most is Courage. It is Courage that we need at the beginning and its all we need to enable us achieve all these.

Another way of Implementation is to create or form Pressure Group. I wouldn’t call it Pressure Group any more but Pleasure Group. This group will write and meet with the governor. It will be an interactive forum. While writing, tell the governor that a comedian with disability, a magician with disability and so on will be among the group to entertain him. So, at the visit, in the course of pleasuring, the message will be passed. By the virtue of the Act, state governments should not waste their resources to use the state assemblies to pass bill for similar law because  a commission is already enshrined in the law. So, the state governments should rely on the Act to set up their own state commissions for PWDs. For example, we have NEMA and we have SEMA. While NEMA is National, SEMA is for state. They always liaise when there is an emergency. If SEMA is overwhelmed, NEMA will step in. The same will be applied in Commission for PWDs. Let it be a commission to create opportunity, taking responsibility and empowerment of PWDs). We the leaders of the community should make it work.

You propagated the formation of a Pleasure group as you called it, how do you think PWDs can use this group to achieve the sensitization of the government officials, the public and other relevant stakeholders?

 Government as a matter of priority and urgency should compose the commission, populate  it and get them to work immediately. Government should look for funding for the commission. It is not just enough to have two Special Advisers (SAs) to Mr. President on disability matters and state government also have theirs. I was equivalent to SA in the past but then the law was not there. I was there from the sympathetic perceptive. The offices are not funded, the salaries are paid so it is totally charity. With a commission, the commission will ensure empathy. Government at all levels should set up their commission for PWDs. Take for example, if we have a commission at Federal level, 36 states including FCT that’s 37, 774 local government areas and there are over 8,000 wards. In totality, we have been able to over 10, 000 job s if it is just one person each. Then multiple it with 7, we will have 70,000 jobs created. Remember, disability and poverty are seen as twin. So, by creating 70,000 direct jobs through the commission, you have taken a good number PWDs out of poverty. The money to pay them is there, you can’t be looking for it. Nigerians can fund the commission by making optional donation of minimum of fifty naira (#50) through their phones (SMS). It will be a corporate social responsibility of the Telecommunication Companies; they should not charge for these SMS. These monies as it is donated should go straight to the account of the commission. As long as there are jingles on Tv stations, radio stations and SMS reminders from the Telecoms to remind Nigerians. Nigerians are good people; the commission will be earning over a million naira daily. It is possible, it takes creativity. Agencies like National Lottery Commission makes a lot of money in a similar way.

PWDs each and every one of us must have a copy of the Act, study it, those who cannot read or write, the Act should be explained to them. We have not celebrated the Act. Yes, the Act came prior to the election, it was an election gift, we accept it like that but we need to celebrate it. By the time, we are celebrating the Act and begin to teach our people the opportunities inherent in the Act. The Act have created opportunities, people can set up factories to produce wheelchairs, other mobility aids and other materials like braille machine, hearing aids locally. A new industry has been created. Banks can fund such industries and these will create more employment. There will be employment also for sign language interpreters. Association of Sign Language Interpreters of Nigeria (ASLIN) should compile a list of all sign language interpreters in every state, Local government and wards. Every hospital should have a directory of sign language interpreters so that any time they have a deaf patient, they can contact the nearest interpreter. Again, technology has made it easier through the phone (whatsapp or facebook) video calling. Someone can sign and interpret through this video calls and get paid for his or her time.

We that are directly affected should come out to make our voices heard. Even though, whenever you constitute a group to do this, some will say that you want to use it to make money from the public but I say it is a crime for a PWD to make money? Is disability a right to poverty? That you are living with disability doesn’t mean that you should be poor. There is ability in disability. Creating ability out of disability is creating opportunity. We need to take the bull by the horns, gather ourselves in at least 3 or 4 in number of persons with different forms of disability, form a group. A blind, a deaf and a paraplegic. You give the group any name that suits you and start the advocacy. Apply the CORE principle in your approach. Courage your first step, that’s why you are coming together, identify a problem, what are the opportunities arising from the solution to the problem. Then take responsibility and create empowerment. If you approach the agency concerned, have a meeting with them and they ignore your request, go and arrange other PWDs and block their entrance. For example, if PWDs block Abuja Airport and stop planes from flying demand for the provision of ramps and other disability friendly facilities at the airport. By stopping people from boarding, the roads leading to the airport are all blocked, police will try arrest but when they hear that it is PWDs that blocked everywhere, even if it is for one hour and flights are delayed, somebody must surely come and speak to you and the issue most definitely will be addressed to avoid such embarrassment in future. This should not be your first step. You first explore the opportunity of holding meetings with them putting these demands on the table. More importantly, we should engage more relevant stakeholders. One of our greatest stakeholders is the media but we are not engaging them enough. Courage, we need to come out and talk to the media, let the media be the leading voice in advocacy to ensure effective implementation. What you (The Qualitative Magazine) are doing now is just like a lone voice in the wilderness. I want to see a situation whereby your message will be simultaneously aired on AIT, NTA, all Radio station for the benefit of those who can’t read the messages in the booklet, online and social media. As a matter of fact, you are the only publisher with disability that I know. The magazine as matter of necessity should partner with AIT or other TV stations for a TV version of the magazine to complement what is already on ground.

PWDs should group themselves in the different states, go as a group to advocate on the implementation of the Act because it is easier to shut one person up but it is not easy to do same to three or more people.  So also number will make them take you serious and you will be listened to.