From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
An International non-governmental organisation, The All-rights Foundation (TAF) on Monday called on President Bola Tinubu to consider Persons With Disabilities (PWD) for ministerial appointments.
The organisation also appealed to all the State governors to consider this group of Nigerians with about 35 million population for commissioners in their respective states.
TAF is currently working on a project developed to strengthen institutions on governance and rule of law for disability inclusion at the Grassroots with the expected support from relevant stakeholders at the state level.
Leading an inclusive advocacy to the Kaduna State Disability Affairs Board (KSDAB) on Monday, the Programme Manager, TAF Africa, Mr. Olayemi Samuel said his organisation was in Kaduna to seek partnership with the Board on the effective participation of PWDs in the electoral process especially at the grassroots.
He said, “we are here in Kaduna to seek partnership on one of our projects supported by the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives aimed at strengthening institutions governance and rule of law for disability people improvement from the grassroots.
“A number of policies have been put in place that promote the participation of persons with disabilities including the Electoral Act 2022.
“However we want to bring this down to the state level by ensuring that the PWDs participate fully in the electoral process and we are going to do this with the Disability Affairs Board to engage relevant stakeholders and ensure that relevant frameworks are being enhanced to promote participation of PWDs.
“As it is, the appointment of PWDs into the public offices in Nigeria is very low and it is worrisome. None of the about 50 ministers so far appointed is a representative of the PWDs community which shows that they are being neglected and discriminated against.
“So we want a situation where we have representatives of PWDs as ministers, commissioners, and heads of parastatals. If you want to initiate or implement a policy it will be good that you have the primary beneficiaries of such policy because of the crucial input and support you will get from them in the implementation of such policy.
“As it is now, the disability community which constitutes about 35 million of Nigeria’s population are not being carried along and we have made frantic effort to reach the President through an open letter, demanding and advocating for the appointment of PWDs as Ministers.
“Among PWDs, we have Ph.D. holders, lawyers that have the capacity and can contribute to governance and development of this country. Of course, if you have someone with a disability as a humanitarian minister, you should expect such a person to perform better being part of PWDs”, he said.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of KSDAB, Mrs. Rakiya Alhaji Umar said the Board assured TAF Africa of the Board’s support saying it will be willing to work with the NGO, especially in the area of awareness for Kaduna State Disability Law and prevention of diseases that can lead to some form of disabilities.
President, National Association of Persons With Physical Disabilities, Mr. Rilwan Mohammed remarked that legal frameworks were no longer the challenges of PWD, but the implementation of the existing laws.
He however called on the Kaduna State Government under Governor Uba Sani to ensure that the disability law is fully implemented to address all the challenges of PWDs in the State.
