by Chris Agbo,
Applicants and Workers with Disabilities under auspices of Association of Applicants/ Workers with Disability in Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja blocked the entrance to Federal Character Commission in a protest to get the attention of the Chairman of the Commission which they said that she has ignored their several request to have audience with her.
The protest later got the attention of some directors of the commission who later came and pleaded with the group to delegate their leadership to meet with the representative of the commission.
The President of the group, Dr. Godstime Onyegbunam speaking at the meeting said that their grievances arise from several written request seeking to have audience with the Chairman of the commission which they received no replies and their members continue to suffer in their quest to secure employment.
He said that the organization have been in place before the enactment of Discrimination against Persons with disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018. He informed that they were using the 2 percent employment opportunity for persons with disabilities (PWDs) approved by General Babangida and graciously when the National Disability Act came on board in 2019 which stipulated 5percent employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), the group started using it as their basis for advocating for the employment opportunities of their members.
Speaking further, he said that their reason for making effort to engage Federal Character Commission is because the commission regulates equitable distribution of employment opportunities across states in Federal government Ministries and Agencies. He plea that the commission send circulars to all MDAs to ensure that whenever they are recruiting, they must ensure that they implement at least the 5 percent employment opportunity for persons with disabilities.
He said that MDAs have been approaching PWDs in the issue of employment as if they are doing PWDs a favour by employing them. He stated that MDAs have been employing and they are not meeting the 5percent employment opportunities.
“Most times, MDAs would be negotiating with us on the number of us that they can employ as senior staff and how many as junior staff instead of applying the 5percent employment opportunity for PWDs as it is stated by law, if an agencies is employing 300 persons, 2, 3 or 4 PWDs as they normally negotiate with us is not the five percent of the 300”.
The Executive Chairman of the Commission, Dr Farida Dankaka who was represented by the Secretary, Alhaji Mohammed Tukur in his response said that the commission has been friendly to persons with disabilities because before the enactment of disability act, the commission has long created a disability desk, engaging persons with disabilities to ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities. He acknowledged that it is within their mandate to ensure the equitable distribution of employment opportunities among states and because of that, they have 37 commissioners representing each state of the 36 states including FCT. It is also within their mandate to ensure that 5 percent employment opportunity as it is enshrined in disability act is reflected in all recruitment exercise of the MDAs. He also said that they are already made effort to write a circular to all MDAs to ensure that they became aware and enforce the 5 percent employment opportunity for PWDs in all their recruitment.
He urged the group to always bring it to their notice any agency recruiting without compliance to the 5 percent employment opportunity for PWDs.
The commission promised to form a forum in collaboration with National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and representatives of organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) to engage MDAs regularly in order to ensure that they continually implement this very important section of National Disability Law.
TQM learnt that some agencies carry out recruitment without informing the Commission and again, they will not make it public and by so doing denying PWDs the 5 percent employment opportunities reserved for them.
Association of Applicants/ Workers with Disability in Nigeria have been at the forefront of advocating for 5 percent employment opportunity for PWDs, they have recorded some success stories by helping a good number of their members secure employment in MDAs but whether they have gotten any MDA to implement the 5 percent employment opportunity is yet to be seen. They are intensifying their effort, that’s why they are engaging Federal Character Commission to help enforce the law so that a greater number of their members will gain employment.
