•The disabled
• Nigeria must do more to integrate Persons With Disabilities into society
The recent appointment of a visually-challenged citizen, Dr. Samuel Inalegwu Ode-Ankeli, as President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Persons Living With Disabilities is both a testimony to the social inclusiveness of the present administration and a challenge to fully integrate Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) into national life.
By his appointment, Dr. Ode-Ankeli becomes one of the very few PWDs occupying a high-profile position in Nigeria. As SSA, he is expected to work in coordination with the relevant ministries, parastatals and agencies to develop and implement policies aimed at improving the lot of the estimated 24 million Nigerians who suffer under the burden of physical or other forms of disability.
Given the generally compassionate disposition of the average Nigerian, it is strange that society is virtually indifferent when it comes to the needs and requirements of PWDs. As children, they are often abandoned or hidden away from public view. There are not enough institutions capable of providing for their special needs and helping them to become productive members of society.
At the federal, state and local government levels, little provision is made to take PWDs into consideration. Schools and other public buildings with disability access are a rarity, not to talk of social infrastructure purpose-built for them.
Even the most enlightened employers balk at giving jobs to PWDs because they choose to regard them as an unnecessary cost rather than as an untapped opportunity. The consequence is that many PWDs are often compelled to become beggars dependent on the sympathy of their able-bodied fellow-citizens.
The appointment of Dr. Ode-Ankeli is an opportunity to change this deplorable situation for the better. Perhaps the most urgent task in this regard is the signing of the long-delayed Disabilities Bill into law. Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan declined to sign the bill when it was sent to them in 2006 and 2011, respectively. When it was again sent to Jonathan in January 2015, he did not sign it before he left office in May 2015.
The Disabilities Bill is a crucial plank in the integration of PWDs into Nigerian society. It prohibits discrimination and ill-treatment, and enshrines the provision of disability access in public buildings. Just as important, the bill provides for the establishment of a National Commission for People With Disabilities. The commission is to be the main instrument through which PWD advocacy, enlightenment, policy implementation and monitoring would be conducted.
Another strategy for fast-tracking the integration of PWDs into society would be their inclusion in the country’s quota-system process. Currently, the main criteria are ethnicity, state of origin and religion. There is no reason why disability cannot be added to the list; it is certainly more inclusive than the more conventional measures, since it is not restricted to a particular region or religion.
In the immediate short-term, government should begin to retrofit all public buildings with disability-access facilities, and press for similar measures in schools, banks, hospitals and similar institutions. Private business concerns should also look at how they can integrate disability issues more comprehensively into their corporate social responsibility agenda, especially in the provision of equipment, training and employment opportunities.
As increased attention turns towards meeting the needs of Nigerian PWDs, the country would do well not to forget its senior citizens. Like their disabled compatriots, this is a group that has been adversely affected by the combination of unhelpful attitudes and lack of legal protection that has come to characterise the provision of social welfare in Nigeria.
No country can truly call itself a great nation if it is unable to adequately cater for the needs of its most vulnerable citizens.
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