Give Us Attention, Persons with Disability Cry Out

Give us Attention, Persons with Disability  Cry Out

Zainab Tanimu

Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria

Persons living with dessability ( PWD) have called on government to give them their rightful place in governance.

They are seeking government’s attention, saying, beautiful as the Disability Act is,  it has not been  practicable.

This call was made in Kaduna while joining their counterparts across the globe to observe the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD).

The theme of this year’s celebration, “Transformative Solutions For Inclusive Development” which focuses on  how peace can be attained through aggressive inclusion of all they described as apt.

Speaking, Dr. Micah Sabi, (visually impaired) from Center for People with Disability said government belongs to all irrespective of whether abled or disabled.

Their numerical strength he said is enough to bring about change but the

worrisome part of it is that they are always estimated.

“We are ready to help government, we are all government but what we are saying is let them pay little attention to persons with disability.

Basile Vulnerable Persons Rights Initiative, (BVPRI) represented by Mrs. Jennifer Agbaji during her presentation titled, “The role of the media and persons with dessability in combating electoral Violence” had called on critical stakeholders like the media to help in deseminating peace messages.

“You know we are in the season of election and activities are stemming up. People getting ready to cast their votes but there are also activities that can undermine peace at this period. As an agent of change, the media has a big role to play, so we are calling on the media, to through their  powerful tools to help in bringing about sustainable peace.

She said people with disability are always at disadvantage on the issue of mobility, communication and other challenges. They find it difficult to flee and that a lot of them  are having disability as a result of conflicts that had happened in the past. They are

 teaching them how to shift from victims to agents of change, agents of peace.

By so, doing and the knowledge acquired, will be able to  prevent violence from happening as well as safe themselves from danger.

Everybody she added is potentially prone to disability since sometimes it happens through accident.

The media in collaboration with persons with dessability can engage them. Let them realize that this election is not meant for violence.” She stated.

On his part, an official from the Peace Commision, Alhaji Saleh Momale said the commission is up and doing in seeing that peace reign in the state.

“We as peace commision, our mandate is to promote peace and harmonious coexistence.

There is need to mainstream their needs and make sure that they are on the table, not just waiting on the sideways waiting for us to make decisions for them. We want them to be the part of the decision making processes at all levels

Explaining further on the commission’s activities,  he said.

“We monitor peace processes, we monitor and try to make sure that many of the institutions are sensitive to those issues that will trigger social discourse, social disharmony that may resort to violence, and confront action.

We do engage. That is why we are here with the ministry of human services, we engage with the Kaduna  internal security, we engage with ministry of justice.They are all members of the Kaduna state peace commision. And we also engage with the local governments.That is why the local government ministry is part of our major partners.

“We work with religious and traditional leaders. They are strong members of the commission. We have the mechanism of  listening widely, we have the Kaduna state early warning and early response mechanism where citizens report issues and complain regarding any action by any organization or institution that has the potentials of triggering social discourse and violence . Through this mechanism, we can quickly response through consultation with relevant authorities that are responsible for such actions. He stated.

According to him,

“The commission is making sure that the current social and economic transformation in the state being driven by Governor El – Rufai’s administration includes persons with dessability.

The commission is liasing with relevant ministries and stakeholders to ensure that their needs are well taken care of.

“We have appealed to the ministry, Disability Affairs Board, other stakeholders  to mainstream their needs.

“We are appealing to companies either public or private, we are appealing to employment bodies, appealing to all service providers, union of road transport workers, hospitals, managing services providers both in the public and private sectors to ensure that the facilities and infrastructure they are putting in place has spaces for persons with dessability.

For us in the  Kaduna state peace commision we have already mainstreamed persons with dessability they have their are representatives as members of the commission and have been making valuable contributions. The policies they pass to policy makers, they pass to the grassroot, to the young persons is making tremendous impact in promoting peaceful and harmonious coexistence.

 Head of Social Welfare and Disability Affairs, Kaduna state Disability Affairs Board Barrister Aisha Yinusa, explaining the importance of the disability law and its legal implications said, the disability law has stated in clear terms the rights of persons living with dessability.

 She called on Nigerians to respect this law in order to enhance a healthy coexistence amongst the citizenry.

The federal government she added has put in place such a beautiful law for persons living with dessability with penalties for any form of violation.

“This law attracts penalties for any form of violation because with this we will be able to maintain peace and stability within the disabled community and persons without disability.

The law stipulates that they should be given equal opportunities in the society. They should be given freedom. Freedom to live communal life. They should not be forced to live in isolation.

“The law which was passed last year she said clearly states a lot of things that has to do with public functions, public transportation services where there is supposed to be a reservation of seat out of every ten seats, so that they can  comfortably be transported to wherever they are going. It also talks of the reservation of parking lots as well as allowing them the access to legal aid without hindrance.

“They should be allowed to drive any type of car they want to drive as far as they have the license. For those in rented houses, the allows that they modify the house according to their specification but with written agreement with the will be written agreement with the owner of the house that if you are leaving the house for any location, you will return his building the way you saw it.

Aside that she explained, the law also talked about rights of children with disability, administration of schools, at work places and employment.”

Contributing, the Executive Director Women and Youth Empowerment Network. (WOYAEN)/State Chairperson, League of Women’s Voters,  Dr. Rakiya Shonekan described the marking of the special day for persons living with dessability worldwide as key saying, they are part of the society, therefore creating such awareness is necessary.

“Going by this year’s theme,  the awareness will further improve the relationship with other members of the society. These persons she stressed live amongst us. They are our own. They are  either our wives, husbands, our children or somehow related.

“Peace is what we need. We cannot do it alone and we know that we are all vulnerable in one way or the other when elections come. Except everybody gets involved before we can be talking of peaceful elections. Their role as peacemakers is important she said.

“Even within their families, they can start preaching peace and they themselves must be seen to be peacemakers. Usually, somebody with disability knows that by his nature they are more vulnerable than others so they would not under normal circumstances want to start anything that will bring about violence or hurt them or hurt other people.

Dr Rakiya based on her interactions with them is seeing a difference in the forthcoming elections because according to her,

“They are very much aware of their roles and rights. They have a  formidable group.  We have seen a number of them showing interest to contest,  though not many in Kaduna state.

“There was one woman who almost got to primaries the last election. That consciousness and willingness to be part of the electoral and political process is there.

At the last town hall meeting they said 80% of them already have their PVCs and they are still mobilizing more persons with disability.

Answering questions as to what ‘Mercy Corps’ hopes to achieve by sponsoring the program, the representative, Mr. Emmanuel Shall said, Community Initiative to Promote Peace (CIPP) is very passionate to work with persons with dessability. The more reason they brought them together in order to help them come up with action plans as to how they will contribute to peaceful and violence free elections in Kaduna state, come 2023 elections.

The foral he said was meant to offer them voice to speak on their areas of concerns.