The challenges of living with disability Is enormous, it has been in perspective but little have been done in Nigeria to ameliorate the situation. 25million Nigerians are living with disability according to the world disability report which was released in 2011, in 2023 Nigerians with disability might now be 30million or more, this stands at 15% of the population. According to United Nations one in every ten persons in Nigeria is disabled.
Nigeria ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2007 and the optional protocol was also ratified in 2010. There was back and forth between the Nigeria legislature and the presidency on the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (prohibition) Bill of 2009 from 2011 to 2018 when it was finally passed into law, now known as The Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018.
This law goes a step further in attending to challenges of living with disability by addressing fundamental issues of infrastructure, administration, empowerment and sociology. Yet challenges still prevail for the PWD community. Signing the law is one step in the right direction but implementing the law is another thing entirely.
I have the conviction that building a progressive society also entails making the lives of people with disability easier. People living with disability are integral part of our society, they are people with same rights and privileges guaranteed by our constitution. The same consciousness and agility that we need to build a progressive nation is the same we need to ensure inclusiveness of every disadvantaged person in the mainstream of the society. Safeguarding the rights and welfare of people living with disability is a human right and its inalienable. While we are trying to make a stand politically, socially and economically, they are trying so hard to survive! This should not be so.
It all starts with our attitude towards People with Disability. The mindset that people living with disability are a burden must be eradicated, all traditional and spiritual stereotyping of people living with disability must be eradicated. People with disability are also net contributors to the society, economically, physically and spiritually. Persons like Prof. Steven Hawking, Steve wonders and Cobham Asuquo easily bears witness to this, we have millions of people with disability contributing their fair share to civilization and humanity. The society needs to accept people with disability without bias or any form of condescension. There is the need for a change in orientation within the community, the public sector, the private sector, the civil society, government, traditional society and the religious society.
We must begin to build an enabling community of inclusiveness around the PWDs in terms of infrastructure and strategic planning. When People with disability rises, we all rise, they dwindle by any form and we all dwindle, how we integrate the PWD community in our facilities and infrastructures measures the weight of light we carry in ourselves as human beings.
The government being the highest spender and the anchor of public trust has a critical role to play in this. Our facilities at all levels must work to make the lives of People with disability easier and better. We must build, design, plan and mange with absolute consciousness of people with disability in the country.
Empowerment comes to the fore front, we must meet up with people with disability in their trade, craft, capacity, services, creativity and endeavors, the PWD community needs training, funding, marketing opportunities, ideas incubation, startup grants, angel funds, seed support and any empowerment details you can think off and they will thrive. We must consciously mandate all public and private infrastructures including physical buildings to be accessible for persons living with motion disabilities. Movement aids should no longer be a thing a luxury. It is fundamental to their existence. The human rights of PWD is very real, it is the basis of our democracy and our civilization, as a matter of fact it is the truest test of our commitment to progress, humanity and our stance against the stigmatization and discrimination against the PWD. Not only that it must stop we must ensure that our laws and institutions protect them, all laws that stands as a barrier to the progress of PWD are to be repealed or removed outrightly.
Health, Education and Research is at the core of PWD progress, these country needs a state-of-the-art data base Centre for People living with any kind of disability, sickle cells aneamia inclusive. We do not only have to offer a good education to prepare them for the future but we also have a lot to learn from them. We need research centers and institutions absolutely dedicated to the PWD. We need to adapt our health structures to accommodate the PWD and we need to build need new health structures dedicated to the PWD. There is so much to do but a lot depends on our political will, personal conviction, the community resolve and commitment. If really, we want a new Nigeria, then the PWD must be at the forefront of our struggles and objectives. Individuals, families, leaders, private sector, public sector, civil societies and the government must focus on changing the narrative of the PWD in 2023 and beyond.
Hon. Adeyemi Abidemi Adebola
Founder: Institute of Disabled Persons LTD /GTE